The Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (AJGS) convened Australia’s first National Conference on Jewish Genealogy in the nation’s capital city, Canberra, in October 2008. Organized by the local Jewish genealogical societies of Melbourne and Sydney with the active support of the small local Jewish community, the 86 participants came from all over Australia, with one each from New Zealand and Israel.
Organizers chose picturesque, modern Canberra because it is the home of major resources for Australian research—National Archives of Australia, National Library, Australian War Memorial and other major national institutions. The National Jewish Memorial Centre that serves the small Jewish community was an ideal venue for lectures, small group discussions and the conference banquet.
Kim Phillips of Sydney was both the initiator and outstanding convener; Rieke and Peter Nash, Sunny Gold (Sydney), and Lionel Sharpe (Melbourne) played key roles in administration and program planning. All the resource materials of AJGS were transported from Sydney to the conference site. The conference was made feasible through the efforts of AJGS representative Vernon Kronenberg, who attended to all the local arrangements.
Martha Lev-Zion, who took the long flight from Israel, gave the keynote speech on the theme of the conference, “Jewish Genealogy in the 21st Century.” Lev-Zion is founding president of the Israel Genealogical Society’s Negev branch and a former board director of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS).
Lectures and panel discussions, spread over two days, covered such topics as the International Tracing Service in Germany, resources of the National Archives of Australia, Australian War Memorial, National Library and Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra. Lev-Zion also presented a lecture on genealogical research in Israel.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) focussed on Holocaust research; Sephardic research; and research in Poland, Austria, Czech, Hungary, USA, Lithuania, UK, South Africa, Ukraine, Germany and France, and early- and post-World War II Australian research. A beginner’s workshop was well attended on the first day. A resource room was equipped with computers and resource folders, genealogical books and old maps were provided by the AJGS from Sydney. A group of specialist advisors from among the participants were available for individual consultation.
Following the two days of the conference, participants were bussed to key research institutions for further talks and archival research. These institutions were welcoming and offered to follow up on research requests after the conference.
On the final day, a small group set out in a self-drive hired bus, driven by Sydney genealogist Gary Luke, to the early-19th-century Goulburn Jewish cemetery, one hour drive from Canberra. Local historians met the group at the cemetery to talk about this vanished rural community.
A kosher banquet, held at the Jewish Centre and catered by Canberra’s only kosher caterer, was a highlight of the conference, as was a reception held at the Israeli Embassy hosted by the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem. Addressing the conference participants, Ambassador Rotem, whose family name was formerly Frenkel, recounted his emotional discovery of surviving family members from Poland in Melbourne.
One appreciative participant summed up the spirit of the event in an e-mail to the organizers:
What a wonderful conference! It differed from anything I’ve been to because most conferences concentrate on stroking the egos of the presenters whereas this one focused entirely on the audience needs. Congratulations.
Plans now are on the way to host the next conference in Melbourne in 2010. This vibrant Jewish community dates back to the 1840s and grew rapidly after the gold rush in the 1850s.
Lionel Sharpe, secretary of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria) was one of the organizers of the conference.
