From a small collection of settler families in 1865, the Queensland Jewish community has grown over the past 150 years to more than 8000 people, stretching from Far North Queensland down to the New South Wales border and out to the remotest outback communities. Yet the history of Queensland’s Jewish community has until now been largely silent in the discourse on Australian Jewish history.
Now a new work, Jewish Life in Queensland written by Jennifer Creese of PHA (Qld), has been commissioned and published by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies following the community’s 150th anniversary in 2015. The coffee-table book takes readers on a journey through the rich history of Queensland’s Jewish community. With over 300 pages of text and photographs, the book illustrates the community’s story from humble beginnings in 1865 to the modern day, and showcases the roles Jewish citizens have played throughout the years in making Queensland great. Blending archival research with family and life histories, this rich and complex work makes a major contribution to Australian multicultural history.
Barry Levy (author of Shades of Exodus and The Terrorist) recommended the book ‘for anyone in Australia, Jew and non-Jew alike, who has the vaguest interest in Australian Jewry and Australian cultural diversity.’ For more information on this book, see the Jewish Queensland website.