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Lionel Sharpe on Victoria's Jewish communities at Federation in 1900

Lionel Sharpe.

Genealogist Lionel Sharpe summarises Victoria's Jewish communities at Federation in 1900

Created:

unknown

Date Added:

05 February 2009

Source:

source not available

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

3.5 MB

Length:

01min23sec

Transcript

Sharpe:

00:09

The 1880s was an absolutely boom period and we can see this reflected in the buildings in Melbourne, Sir Benjamin Benjamin, the first lord – Jewish lord mayor of Melbourne – Jews in politics, there were I think 17, I forget the exact number, Jews in the lower and upper house of the colonial government at that stage. And things were going absolutely – I mean – on a wave.

00:39

I think it was 1893, the great crash, the banks closed, people like Sir Benjamin Benjamin I think went bankrupt, along with a lot of other people. Enormous strains on the charitable organisations. Gold was discovered in 1893 in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and there were Jews who actually left and settled – and moved across to the west where they felt there was more opportunity. I believe some actually left and went to America and some of them went off to Sydney or to Van Diemens – or I think it was Tasmania by then.

01:17

By the end of the century, the Jewish population in Victoria had declined.

01:23

End transcript