The Maccabean Hall: Memories of Jack Meister’s second home For Jack Meister and many of the Holocaust survivor refugees who made new lives in Sydney, the building where the Sydney Jewish Museum now stands is a very important space. Many years before it held our Museum, it was the Maccabean Hall: a Jewish community centre, crucial to rehabilitating and integrating Holocaust survivor refugees in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Arriving without friends and families, Jack and many other survivors built their communities in “the Macc”, which saw many dances, family events, and meet-cutes. “We ..read more

An Egyptian Rosh Hashana Seder The festival of Rosh Hashana is both a joyous celebration and the start of a period of ten days during which observant Jewish people engage in profound introspection and pray to inscribe their names in the Book of Life for the coming year. Museum volunteer Racheline Barda recalls what the Jewish new year traditions were in her household in Egypt growing up: In Egypt where I grew up with my three siblings, I remember it to be my favourite festival. One week before Rosh Hashana, it was customary for us children to grow some wheat in a shallow plate lined with damp ..read more

A year in the life of our Youth Committee The Sydney Jewish Museum Youth Committee is made up of a diverse group of young people from all across NSW, from various public and private high schools and universities. They’re united by shared passions for social justice, learning about history and Jewish culture, and contributing to the Museum’s work in fighting hate and discrimination in Australia.  Want to know what it’s like being part of our Youth Committee, a vibrant community of young people who are eager to make a difference? In this blog, members Kalanie, Aoife, Charlotte and Lauren ex ..read more

The people behind the technology Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the process of synthesising, perceiving and inferring information through computer software, as opposed to via an organic brain. Chances are that you’re probably already interacting with it, if you use digital assistant tools like Siri, Google, Alexa, or ChatGPT. For the last few years, the Museum has been engaged in a groundbreaking project in collaboration with USC Shoah Foundation: using AI and sophisticated language processing technologies to preserve the humanity and life experiences of Holocaust survivors. Photograph by Ka ..read more

A survivor, an artist and a mystic This untitled and undated artwork in our collection, likely from the 1970s, is marked by its swirling Hebrew letters and primary colours.  It contains deeply religious elements, using letters form the words of the Jewish morning and evening prayer, “Shema Yisrael” or “the Shema” – the central affirmation of Judaism, expressing the belief in monotheism: that there is only one God. This is the first prayer taught to a Jewish pre-school child and the last words uttered by observant Jews before departing this world. The letters are animated with an illusion ..read more

Unpacking the past: The unique experience of learning with objects  The late Holocaust survivor George Grojnowski often said: “I was born on 23 January, but I regard the day I came to Australia as my true birthday.” George’s sentiment is not a rare one among our community of Holocaust survivors. For many of them, stepping off a boat or plane into a new life in Australia – half a world away from the traumas of war-torn Europe – was one of the most significant moments of their lives. Among survivors’ migration experiences are stories of immense strength and resilience, of rebuilding lives s ..read more

From the hospital to the Underground: the story of Gusta Snyde Born in 1915 in Tarnopol, Gusta Snyde had dreams of becoming a surgeon, but anti-Jewish laws prevented her from studying medicine. Instead, she studied nursing at a private Jewish Hospital in Krakow. When Jews were forced into the Krakow Ghetto in 1941, she continued her work as a nurse at the ghetto hospital.   In 1943, Gusta was forced to march to Plaszow concentration camp, leaving her sick patients behind. At Plaszow, Gusta used her skills as a nurse to save as many lives as possible. She regularly treated inmates who had ..read more

Dressing for change: Jews, clothing and modernisation By Education Officer, Dr Jonathan Kaplan Prior to the nineteenth century, most of Europe’s Jewish population lived in “shtetls” – small Jewish villages outside of cities. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this started to shift, as many Jews moved closer to cities and became more engaged in dominant European society. By the 1930s, most European Jews resided in cities, especially the capitals. By then, Jewish people had become a fixture of European society, with many of them identifying wholeheartedly with the dominant cult ..read more

“Until we all belong” By Roslyn Sugarman, Head Curator  As World Pride 2023 approaches, we share the story of the “acceptance” rings of Oscar Shub and Ilan Buchman, from our collection. By 2017, Australia had become the last Western country that didn’t recognise same-sex marriage. During this time, companies, Airbnb and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, teamed up to protest the ongoing lack of marriage equality with a wearable symbol of solidarity. Mirroring that of a wedding band, the Acceptance Ring is broken (with a 2.2mm gap), leaving a void in something that is meant to represent eternity an ..read more

History beyond the university classroom By Dr Breann Fallon, Manager of Student Learning and Research  Since 2018 the Sydney Jewish Museum has collaborated with Professor Michael McDonnell from the University of Sydney in delivering his groundbreaking unit of study, History Beyond the Classroom.  During this unit, students visit numerous public historical and cultural institutions before committing to volunteering at an organisation of their choice. As a partner organisation for a number of years, we have seen many remarkable student volunteers working with various departments on pr ..read more