Sydney Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst, New South Wales | Non-profit organisation

Sydney Jewish Museum

Locality: Darlinghurst, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 9360 7999

Address: 148 Darlinghurst Rd 2010 Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au

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• Non-profit organisation
• History Museum

25.01.2022 Learn about history through the stories of those who survived it. Read the life stories and inspiring lessons of more than 30 Holocaust survivors online!

23.01.2022 Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman loved being able to pass on her story to students again! Our new interactive online excursions let students connect with Holocaust survivors in their classrooms. For more information and to book a session for your class, follow this link: sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/on/holocaust-survivor-zoom-talks/

22.01.2022 On this day 82 years ago, the Nazis unleashed Kristallnacht the Night of Broken Glass. The news of Kristallnacht spread across the world, triggering many protests. Today on our blog we explore the Australian responses to Kristallnacht and how those who escaped from Europe to Australia immediately afterwards restarted their lives here.

21.01.2022 In this month’s Educator’s Pick Dr Rebecca Kummerfeld explains how one letter on display in the Holocaust exhibition tells the story of a relationship shattered by racial policy: "This letter to Lothar Prager from Grete Brix, written on December 13 1935, shows the individual consequences of the Nuremberg laws anti-Jewish legislation that stated Jewish Germans were no longer permitted to be in relationships with non-Jewish Germans. Greta and Lothar had been together for 10 y...ears, but these laws forced Grete to break up with her Jewish partner. When studying the Holocaust, it is too easy to become overwhelmed with dates and statistics all horrifying, but not so easily relatable. This letter shows the way one relationship was torn apart by increasingly anti-Semitic policy. I am moved by the tender way Grete addresses Lothar. She clearly cares for him. It is difficult to believe that the state could impose on such a loving relationship."

20.01.2022 This lithograph in our collection is one of 12 by Jewish artist Leo Haas. He created these prints in Prague in 1947, all of which depict confronting images of life and death in concentrations camps and ghettos. Haas' works were denounced as 'degenerate' by the Nazis. As a Jew and also a Communist, he was arrested in 1939 first to Nisko labour camp an then to forced labour in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, where he became involved in the underground. Through the war, Haas used his underground connections to bring in art supplies and smuggle his works out. Haas hid some 400 artworks in the walls of the Theresienstadt ghetto, which he returned to recover after the war.

20.01.2022 Have you heard, we are now offering interactive Zoom talks with Holocaust survivors as part of our Online Excursions? An incredible chance for teachers and students to meet a Holocaust survivor in real-time and ask them questions. Follow the link below for more information and to enquire about a booking.

19.01.2022 On display in our exhibition ‘Jews from Islamic Lands’ are a tambourine and percussion instruments from Egypt. Music played a large role in the vibrant cultural life that sustained the communities of Jewish people in Islamic lands. Many personal stories in this exhibition tell of music’s importance: Helene Cadry talks about the melodious sounds of the santur in Tehran, while Katie Grand’s uncle in Baghdad played the oud superbly.

18.01.2022 We last had a chat with Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku some months ago, at the height of COVID-19, just after the launch of his memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth. On Sunday 6 December, we give you the chance to catch up with Eddie and learn about his thoughts on the impact of the global pandemic on his own life and on society at large, as well as the impact of his record-selling book. Register now to receive the Zoom link.

15.01.2022 Come and see | Our exhibition, 'Jews from Islamic Lands' tells the stories of the lives of Jews from more than 20 Islamic lands who have brought their vibrant traditions to the shores of Australia.

13.01.2022 Chanukah, the festival of lights, begins in three weeks. Are you ready with your chanukiah and candles? Browse our elegant, playful and edgy Chanukah range: sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/product-catego/products/chanukah/

13.01.2022 Remember every one of us is responsible to make the world a joyful place. Debasish Mridha

11.01.2022 This year, resolve to do even small actions to make this world a kinder, more inclusive and caring place.

10.01.2022 This month we introduce Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman. Yvonne was born in 1927 in Dovhe, Czechoslovakia; a beautiful place where her family lived for many generations. When the war started, Yvonne’s schoolmates, who had sat next to her a week before, would not acknowledge who she was. Her father, taken to the police station, came back with his two front teeth knocked out. Yvonne’s family was taken to a ghetto, and later marched onto cattle wagons and taken to Auschwitz-...Birkenau. It was at the platform in Auschwitz that Yvonne last saw her parents. Yvonne was liberated in May 1945 and immigrated to Australia in 1948, penniless but happy to walk the street as a free person. Read more about Yvonne’s story of survival and rebuilding her life in Australia on our blog.

09.01.2022 On this day 75 years ago, the Nuremberg Trials began, where a handful of top Nazi leaders were held accountable for their heinous crimes. In the same city that the Nazi party came into being, so too did it meet its end. Learn more about the city of Nuremberg, the Nuremberg Laws and the Nuremberg Trials in this blog piece by our resident historian, Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet.

09.01.2022 Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku spent the war years in many concentration camps. In Auschwitz, as a slave labourer, he worked as a machine technician in the I.G. Farben factory. Sometimes, other prisoners gave him raw potatoes for helping them. With access to a cooker at the factory, he boiled the potatoes during the day to bring back to his friend Kurt in the barracks at night. One evening, a guard kicked Eddie, unknowingly smashing the potatoes. When he met up with Kurt he exclaimed, Sorry, today it’s mashed potatoes!

07.01.2022 Today is Remembrance Day, which marks the ceasefire that ended World War I in 1918. Today we reflect on the beginnings of the building in which the Sydney Jewish Museum is housed the NSW Jewish War Memorial. The building was opened in November 1923 by Sir John Monash, who was then considered one of the most outstanding commanders in WWI. The building was constructed in honour of the ‘fighting Maccabees’ from Jewish history, to serve as a memorial for those Australia Jewish soldiers and sailors who lost their lives in the Great War.

05.01.2022 What are your summer holiday plans? Each Wednesday in January there will be a Holocaust survivor in the museum to give personal and historical context to your visit. A perfect opportunity to reflect on humanity in the new year.

04.01.2022 George Grojnowski was in Buchenwald concentration camp when the American and British forces were drawing near. The Germans began evacuating some of the prisoners, George among them, in cattle cars. The Allies began bombing the railway station and the trains. Chaos ensued; thousands of prisoners began running in all directions. George began to run but saw that a large pile of sugar had spilled onto the railway tracks from one of the bombed-out trains. He hadn’t seen sugar for five years and dove head-first into it. George recalls, I had sugar in my ears, in my nose. Boy, did I have sugar!

03.01.2022 Open now: Jews from Islamic Lands | The myriad practices, rituals and experiences of these Jews make up an integral part of Jewish culture as a whole. Explore the different ways that the identities of Jews from Islamic lands have been shaped by their neighbours and how they define themselves within global and local Jewish communities.