From Australia’s Jewish Past
David Meyer Abzac – a Yiddish journalist and tireless community worker with a passion for caring
David Abzac
David was born on 4 September 1901 in Warsaw. He was the youngest of four siblings and the only son of Moshe Aron and Ruchle.
Unfortunately, when his father died at the age of thirty-nine, his mother was forced to support the family by selling clothing as an itinerant saleswoman. Although the family were financially impoverished, they were rich in their Yiddishkeit and David received a traditional Jewish education. His family’s values left an indelible mark on David’s life. In his youth, David was involved with Maccabi in Warsaw and, it was during this time, he became involved in and supported the right-wing Revisionist Zionist movement, which continued throughout his life. In 1919 he was drafted into the Polish army. From then onwards, he served with distinction and wore their insignia on his coat lapel.
In 1928, David married Eugenia, and the couple had two children, one of who died in infancy and their second child, a daughter, was born in 1935. As conditions in Poland deteriorated and with the impending threat of war, David and Eugenia decided to immigrate to Australia. David’s mother and three sisters had been sponsored earlier by David’s brother-in-law Jack Lederman in Melbourne. David and his family arrived in Australia on 11 March 1939 on board the Orion and lived with the Lederman family for the first few weeks before finding their own home in Carlton. David became a market stallholder, selling women’s clothing at South Melbourne markets on Wednesdays and Fridays and at Dandenong markets on Tuesdays. He never worked on Saturdays.
His skill as a Yiddish writer and his love of the Yiddish language and culture was reflected in a weekly column in Yiddishe Nayes where he wrote about local and international politics, Yiddish theatre, culture, local affairs, and the situation in Europe. His articles reflected the mood of the times and captured the community’s concerns. David also loved Yiddish music and acquired a great knowledge of liturgical music. He wrote well-informed critiques of the Chazans in the synagogues on Yomtovs and he would walk to hear them all, from Hascola Talmud Torah in Rathdowne Street North Carlton and on to Stone’s shtiebl (small room) followed by Carlton, East Melbourne, and Toorak synagogues. David was gifted with a beautiful tenor voice, wrote music, sang Yiddish songs, and often gave recitals to several hundred people at the Samuel Myers Hall.
David’s commitment to the Jewish community and his belief in the importance of helping others saw him become deeply involved with, and an integral part of, the United Jewish Overseas Relief Fund from 1943 to 1945 as a board member, as well as honorary secretary and president of the Welfare Relief Society from 1946 to 1950 and Chairman of the Migration Assistance Committee from mid-1948. He took personal responsibility for meeting new immigrants at their port of arrival. He travelled to Sydney in 1947 to meet the French passenger and cargo ship – Ville d’Amiens, and in 1948, he travelled to Fremantle to meet the SS Dern (sailing under the flag of Libya), which carried some 60 Jewish orphans for resettlement in Melbourne. David and his friend Charles Slonim travelled on board the ships to Melbourne, offering guidance, reassurance, and assistance. On many occasions, David and another friend, Hans Fischer, would meet those arriving in Melbourne at Port Phillip Heads by going out in the pilot boat.
David spent endless hours counselling the migrants on jobs, filling in applications, and finding schools and accommodation for them. On many occasions, he and his friend Hans Fischer would meet those arriving in Melbourne at Port Phillip Heads by going out in the pilot boat. David, together with, a wonderful couple Mina and Leo Fink, created a program of entertainment and a formal reception for the new arrivals and, when appropriate, attendance at Shabbat services. In recognition of his untiring and selfless work, a migrant hostel was posthumously named in his honour in May 1951 – The David Abzac House for Refugees at 912 Drummond Street Carlton.
His commitment to the establishment of an independent Jewish homeland saw him continue his support of the Zionist Revisionist party in Melbourne together with others (Yehuda Honig, Sigmund Stock, Kalman Parasol and Jonas Pushett), he co-founded in 1942, the Zionist school known as Bialik College at that time in Drummond Street Carlton. A plaque bearing his name still hangs in the corridors of the College, now located in East Hawthorn.
David died on 18 March 1951, at the young age of forty-nine, after a short illness. His daughter Mary Fisher wrote in 2010: ‘Everyone in Carlton knew my father, his warm handshake and welcoming smile were his signature. His voluntary work with the Jewish Welfare and Relief Society was most important to him. People still remember the tall, friendly gentleman, whose warmth and Yiddish words embraced them and made them feel welcome. His passion was for caring and doing whatever was needed to be done, but he was devoted to his work with the newcomers. He seldom had an uninterrupted dinner, because people used to ring the bell asking for help and he never turned them away, morning or night. I often helped him to fill in immigration and other papers which used to pile up, there were always so many of them. He was an icon of Yiddishe Carlton and life in Melbourne between 1939 and 1951.’
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation – Monash University, Australian National University -Trove, Mary Fisher daughter – Autobiographical writing, 2010, commissioned by Julie A Serious Influx of Jews – Rodney Benjamin, A History of Jewish Welfare in Victoria, 1998; Australian Book Review – A Second Chance: The Making of Yiddish Melbourne by Margaret Taft and Andrew Markus
