Mr Norman Rothman
Searching back over 65 years ago, dredging through the years of accumulated silt, I remember two outstanding institutions in Carlton - the Kadimah and the Australian Jewish News - The Yiddishe Nais . And, on a personal level, I remember the enormous number of Jewish names, the families living around, and known, not only as neighbours, but as artisans, shop-keepers, painters, carpenters and writers.
During the twenties, some 2,000 Jews arrived in Melbourne, most coming to Carlton, where housing was cheap, where there was already a small Jewish community, and where, despite the depression, some jobs were available and there were business opportunities.
Most of the new arrivals came from Poland and Russia, fleeing the persecution and pogroms taking place. Here, they felt safety and security. They met people from the towns or villages they had left behind. And, importantly, everyone spoke Yiddish.
Yiddish was the second language of Carlton, and the cement that bound the Jews into a community.
These Jews were highly politicized, and they brought with them not only their skills, but their politics.
Some important dates, milestones in the growth of the community, were:
1927 Australian Zionist Federation founded, with Sir John Monash as
President
1928 A Cricket Team was formed in Sydney and sent to Melbourne, and the Jewish Amateur Sports Association was founded, This would later Become Ajax
1933 The Ostralier Leben started, to be followed by the Jewish News
1933 The Kadimah moved to Lygon Street
And in 1935, the Rothmans arrived in Melbourne!
We had lived in Brisbane, my parents immigrants from the Ukraine, coming to Australia via China.
My father was a printer, He was also an actor, having studied this craft in Odessa, In Brisbane, in 1927, he had put on a Yiddish play at the Deshan Street Synagogue Hall
'God, Man and the Devil' by Gordon. My mother, pregnant with me, participated.
The depression caused him to lose his job, as the newspaper he had worked for was taken over. When he obtained a printer's job at the Australian Jewish News in Melbourne, we came to live here. My father stayed at the Jewish News for over thirty years.
We lived in Wilson street, known to its residents as 'Princes Hill' which sounded much more upmarket than North Carlton. Wilson Street had a grass verge down its centre, and was just one street from Princes Hill School, and from Princes Park, home of the all-important Carlton Football Club. In 1938 Carlton won the premiership.
In our street, and in the streets around us there were many Jewish families: the
Komessaroffs, the Factors. Yosel Burstein, who was an artist and who became secretary
of the Kadimah. The Kausmans had the milk bar, and nearby were the Davises (the son,
Myer, became my closest friend). There were the Kloogers, Finkeisteins, Bluthal, the
Meerkins, and so on.
My primary school had many Jewish children, about a third of my class were Jewish kids. But there were also the Jew-haters. We suffered from bullying at school and spoke in whispers of the dreaded 'Canning Street Mob', notorious for beating up Jews.
Of course, as children do, I soon made many friends with the boys in my class. Many of these friendships continued all my life. As kids, we used to meet at Myer Davis' place. We started a Yard Tennis Association (based on deck tennis). Entry was by subscription (twopence). Our annual meeting was a party held in my backyard.
Each family was part of an intimate circle. I used to go home to Arnold Milgrom's place in Rathdown Street to have my lunch there, throwing away the perfectly good lunch my mother had made for me.
We built a Laboratory, too, inside a space ship. We used up all the old medicine bottles we could find, with as many colours as possible and a cardboard and cellophane television set, inspired by the Buck Rogers Space Adventures.
There were no organisations for the younger kids (apart from Chaida Amess and Yiddish School with Giligitch) so we played in the streets and went to the local picture theatre for 3d.
All the trades people my mother dealt with were Jewish. There was Mr Polonsky, the
butcher.
I remember meeting just a few years ago Mr Polonsky who was then approaching 100, at a Beth Weizman function. His granddaughter with him said, 'Zaida, it's Norman Rothman - you remember Mrs Rothman'. His answer was 'Mrs Rothman, 51 Wilson Street.' Meat must be good for the memory.
There was a shochet at Polonskys, too.
There were the bakers - Glickman, Ernest, Dudekov. The Cholent was cooked at Ernest's.
There were the grocers: Harber and Gottleib. Mr Gottleib delivered with a horse and cart back then. My mother used them both, as my mother liked them both as people.
There were the hairdressers (known as barbers back then), Boris Meerkin and Mr Tobias. There was Halperin, the chemist, and the doctor was Dr Sternfield, who used to walk to visit his patients.
There were hawkers, too, who came regularly to our house, selling live fowls and fruit and Veg.
These families became our friends, and we got to know their other customers. You met them in the shops, gossiped with them about the price of food, about the children, about a play to be put on, or a function at the Kadimah.
Every face seemed to be familiar, and a very strong infrastructure was being developed.
The community revolved around the Kadimah and National Jewish Library, and the Jewish News .
The Kadimah started in 1911 in Bourke Street, with a foundation membership of about 80 people. In 1916, the Kadimah moved to Drummond Street in Carlton. Because of a political split, the majority transferred the Kadimah to its Lygon Street site. The minority became the GEZERT, or House of Culture.
The Kadimah, with its library, became the Centre of Carlton Jewish social and cultural life, and a haven for many new immigrants. There were lectures and readings. Yiddish plays were put on by the David Herman Theatre Group. The community's love of culture was catered for and there was a place where the people could renew their contact with a life that they had left behind.
I had early contact with the Kadimah, as my father was very active in the Theatre Group. My brother was a member of the Younger Set. My other brother played tennis at the North Judean Tennis Club in Brunswick.
In 1933, an immigrant, David Altshul and his two sons, brought with them Yiddish type and started a newspaper, the Ostralier Leben(Australian Life ). Pinchas Goldhar was the writer, editor and printer of the paper. This paper lasted only ten issues. It was bought by Leslie Rubinstein, and became the Yiddishe Nayes , with Joachim, Leslie's father, as its editor. Many writers such as Hertz Bergner and Pinchas Goldar contributed to the Yiddish , enlivening it with stories and articles.
The weekly paper was very popular, establishing a bond with the wider world. Soon the English language Jewish News was launched, with Manny Oderberg as editor. The two papers were soon amalgamated, and of course became essential, not only for the articles in Yiddish and in English but for news of the community's functions, and for the announcement of weddings, births and deaths.
The time between the two world wars saw the growth of the Jewish community through migration, and a strong foundation was laid, ready to receive the huge influx of refugees and survivors from the horrors of the war.