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August 30, 2013
Sydney all dressed up
City’s Jewish museum offers inspiration, soul.
KAREN GINSBERG
My father was a “shmatte” salesman. In the years that I lived at home, he sold mostly ladies wear, modest in quality, the kind of housedresses that stay-at-home women on tight household budgets wore 30-plus years ago. From time to time, he accepted a new product line: lingerie, purses, leather jackets, whatever he could add to his load that might enable him to earn a little more. Over his 45 years in sales, he worked as a manufacturer’s agent or traveling salesman for most of Winnipeg’s garment manufacturers, almost all of whom were Jewish. We were so much a part of the rag trade that, even after I left home, I called my dog Rags.
In the 24 years since my father died, I have observed his yahrzeit in several countries. The first was right after his death, when my husband and I were in Barbados. I remember thinking about the universality of Judaism as I rose to say Kaddish in the then newly reopened Barbados synagogue – its return to synagogue from sugar factory was financed by a philanthropist – but I don’t think I felt my father’s presence with me in that space.
Years later, when my younger daughter and I found ourselves in Venice on my father’s yahrzeit, I went to services at one of the few remaining Venetian synagogues but, again, I had trouble feeling a connection between my father and who he was with that Jewish space.
In the spring, however, when my husband and I were again traveling, this time in Australia, I had little trouble feeling my father’s neshama when I said Kaddish, even though I was farther away from home than ever before.
While we were in Australia, the Sydney Jewish Museum was hosting, among other impressive exhibits, a temporary exhibit called Dressing Sydney, about the shmatte industry in Sydney from the late 1700s, when the first Jewish convicts arrived there with some of the skills necessary to begin to develop the industry. Flash forward 150 years and, according to the exhibit, the industry in the city had been very much influenced by the Jewish community.
Many of those who started and helped grow the industry were Holocaust survivors who came to Australia to rebuild their lives, bringing with them tailoring and other fashion-related skills. From lingerie, to casual wear, to formal wear for both men and women, and on to fashion accessories and furs, the exhibit informs that the industry contributed enormously to the financial health of Sydney and anchored a very large part of the well being of the newly arrived Jews.
This temporary exhibit is only one of the thoughtful displays at the museum. Given Australia’s record for receiving more survivors of the Second World War than any other country but Israel, it should come as no surprise that the museum is built around the physical presence of survivors. Their stories and experiences and the family treasures that survived with them form the backbone of the museum.
Halfway through the guided tour my husband and I took, we met Lotte Weiss, an 89-year-old survivor who regularly devotes hours of her time each week to talk with museum visitors about her experiences at Auschwitz, where she spent several years. Lotte began by saying that she “had had a wonderful childhood.” After talking about how she lost two sisters to typhus in the camps soon after their arrival, and then how she lost her parents and younger siblings, I wondered about what emotional equipment she had been given in her childhood to have lived through what she had and to be able to “bookend” the description of her life by saying that it was wonderful and that she still had optimism. Lotte was engaging, vibrant, good-humored, charming and totally inspirational.
Although the stakes were far from comical, Lotte captivated us with the story of how her limited knowledge of bookkeeping gave her the opportunity to gain a position in the camp’s administration, which meant more food, access to safe drinking water and a place to bathe. She helped us realize that, to survive, everything and everyone you knew could be a kind of currency to trade for better conditions. As an example, she showed us that her number tattoo was rather large. Years after she had been freed from the camps, she accidentally ran into the Jew who had tattooed her. He, too, was living in Australia. He apologized profusely for making her tattoo large but explained that he did so because he wanted to spend more time with her to warn her about how to behave in order to have a chance of surviving the camps.
Another very powerful display demonstrated the many ways, both spiritual and physical, in which Jews resisted the Nazi onslaught. Through pictures and exhibits of objects that had survived the Nazi occupations, this part of the museum details ghetto revolts, the work of partisans, resistance in the camps and shows the full meaning of the Hebrew word amidah, “standing up against.”
Architecturally, the museum building is very engaging. Prior to its redesign, it had been the social headquarters of the Jewish community. As the community expanded and synagogues were built with their own social halls, this meeting hall became less of a centre for Jewish activity and was the natural choice for a museum. For the refurbishment, the architect started his design by working up and outwardly from a large-tiled Magen David on the floor at ground level. He created a series of escalating levels of exhibit space melded into the points of the star. The design creates a sense of physical discomfort at the most narrow parts and relief at the openness of other areas. On the lower levels of the building, there is room for community events, such as the celebration of Jewish veterans that was to take place soon after our visit.
The Sydney Jewish Museum, Holocaust and Australian Jewish History, is located at 148 Darlinghurst Rd. Guided tours are available several times a day, and thanks go to volunteer guide Rosemary Block for our introduction to the museum. The Dressing Sydney exhibit is on display until December of this year. More information about it and the museum can be found at sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au.
Karen Ginsberg is a travel writer based in Ottawa.
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