The Australian Jewish Historical Society was founded in 1938 in Sydney. The first president was Percy J. Marks. At the first business meeting of the Society, the then-president of the

Royal Australian Historical Society The Royal Australian Historical Society, formerly Australian Historical Society, is a voluntary organisation founded in Sydney, Australia in 1901Helen Doyle, "Royal Australian Historical Society" in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Maci ...

K. R. Cramp expressed the view that the chief object of the Society should be the encouragement of individual research. In 1939, the Society published the first issue of the ''Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal'' (initially known as the ''Australian Jewish Historical Society, Journal and Proceedings''). In 1949, a Melbourne branch was established, which was informally known as AJHS (Vic). This branch grew and eventually incorporated. There is no national executive, with the Sydney and Melbourne Societies being financially independent. Since 1988, the two Societies have shared the production of the Journal, with the June issues being produced by the NSW Society and the November issues being produced by the Vic Society. Currently, there are two issues of the Journal each year, with occasional Special Publications. AJHS (NSW) has been charged by the NSW Jewish community to advise, collate and store the archives of the Sydney Jewish community. Professional archiving staff manage the extensive collection of documents and audio-visual records of the Jewish communal organisations and of communal leaders. Researchers may search th
Archives
or arrange to visit the offices at the

Sydney Jewish Museum The Sydney Jewish Museum is a history museum located in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. It showcases exhibits relating to the Holocaust and the history and achievements of Jewish people in Australia. The Museum displays personal objects of H ...

in Darlinghurst NSW. The Society'
website
contains unique content chronicling the story of Jews in Australia since 1788. Included are databases of births, deaths and marriages with custom databases including
Australian Jewish members of Parliament
and names of al
Jews who served
in the Australian armed forces in the Boer (or South African) War, World War I and World War II which are invaluable tools for researchers and genealogists. All issues of the Society'
Journal
are online.
Membership
is ($AUD60 p.a.) AJHS (Vic) has also collected extensive archives, which were placed on indefinite loan to the

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

in 2004. Since 2012 the AJHS (Vic) has shared with the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society of Victoria a library including both books and archival records within the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia. In addition to the Sydney and Melbourne chapters, there is also a small Canberra-based affiliate and there are members in all states and overseas. From 1977 to 2006, AJHS (Vic) members under the leadership of Beverley Davis transcribed the headstones of over 40,000 Jewish graves in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Jewish War Graves overseas. This collection of burial data, called The Beverley Davis Burial Database (BD-BD), was placed online in June 2008. It has since been updated with more than 84,000 records based on information from Chevrei Kadisha around Australia and is now incorporated into the Australian Jewish Historical Society websit
burial database
In 2007, the Society under the leadership of AJHS (Vic) president Dr Howard Freeman made a notable but unsuccessful attempt to retain intact within Australia the so-called Gurewicz Archives. The Gurewicz Archives was collected by Rabbi Joseph Lipman Gurewicz, born in Vilna in 1885. Rabbi Gurewicz arrived in Australia in 1932, becoming the spiritual head of the United Congregations of Carlton. He was an authority in

Halachic ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mitz ...

(legal) matters. The Archives consists of files of documents covering all matters related to Judaism and reflecting the variety of issues confronting Melbourne Jewry in the 1930s to 1950s. The New York purchaser removed much of the Holocaust material, rabbinic communications to

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, and material on the

Dunera HMT (Hired Military Transport) ''Dunera'' was a British passenger ship which, in 1940, became involved in a controversial transportation of thousands of "enemy aliens" to Australia. The British India Steam Navigation Company had operated a prev ...

, and sold the remainder at auction to the

Jewish Museum of Australia The Jewish Museum of Australia, not to be confused with the Sydney Jewish Museum, aims to "explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia". It is located in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. History The Jewish Museum of Australia was estab ...

in June 2008.AJN: Jewish Museum buys Gurewicz Archive
/ref>

References

External links

Australian Jewish Historical Society web site
(New South Wales)
Australian Jewish Historical Society web site
(Victoria) {{Authority control Historical societies of Australia Jewish Australian history Jews and Judaism in Melbourne Jews and Judaism in Sydney 1938 establishments in Australia

See also

References

External links