Shortlisted for the Victorian Community History Awards 2019

They came from an old worldto a new land. The Yiddish speakers from Eastern Europe brought few materialpossessions but clung to a language and a culture that defined who they were, away of life that had endured pogroms, persecution and a genocide that pushedthem to the brink of extinction. Melbourne gave them a second chance at life,an opportunity to rebuild a secular Yiddish world that sat at the core of theirexistence.

Hardship had taught theseJews to be resilient, fiercely independent and great institution builders. Acommunity centre quickly became the beating heart of Yiddish Melbourne. Thearts flourished, newspapers were launched and schools were established. Butthese immigrants also brought their competing political ideals, hotly contestednotions of what it meant to be a Jew and how to live life in this furthestcorner of the world.

Their arrival in Melbournewas not always welcomed. The Australian authorities only grudgingly acceptedthem as immigrants, in restricted numbers and under the sponsorship of Jewsalready living here. Yiddish speakers, with their boisterous demeanour and highvisibility challenged the authority of the established Jewish community, whichtraced its origins to the first settlement and which believed that 'blending in'was the antidote to antisemitism.

Using the voices of theimmigrants themselves and archival sources, the authors give a compellingaccount of how these Yiddish speakers came to shape, change and define anentire community.