From Australia’s Jewish Past

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Sally Morris MBE – Never-ending enthusiasm, amazing energy and ideas and exceptional power of leadership

Sally Morris

Sally Isaac was born in Rangoon on 2 December 1908 and spent much of her life in Calcutta.  Her father was in business and her mother managed the household with their family of four children, two girls, and two sons.  Sally attended the Jewish Girls’ School (classified as an English school) and later taught there.  She also liked to help children from poor families.

Many people thought Sally was exotic because of her rich culture of having grown up in India.  The Jewish community in Calcutta mostly originated from Iraq and could trace their origins back to the slaves of Babylon.  They were a religious community, business people and many were very poor.  Those who could help did so just as Sally and her family did.  The community in Calcutta had established synagogues and set up schools and a hostel for the daughters of poor families and orphans who attended the Jewish Girls’ School.  The community provided university scholarships and cared for each other’s welfare ensuring that no one was left destitute.  There was no antisemitism in India, the Sephardi Jews enjoyed respect from their fellow citizens and shared with them cultural activities including the symphony orchestra and regular films

Sally, her husband Ivan, and their son decided to emigrate with World War II and the bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.  They arrived in post-war Sydney, where there were housing shortages, minor rationing and no available domestic help, Sally having left a household in Calcutta with nine servants found life just a little tough!   Her washing skills were not the best and she even blew up the copper!  Her neighbours ran to her aid and from this, Sally’s enormous network of friends began.    She had an outgoing personality, and sincerity as well as her commitment to hard work, in all the many organisations she was part of.  Wherever she went she made friends. It was not long before Sally joined the Sydney headquarters auxiliary of the Australian Red Cross.

Ivan and Sally worked in business, plus Sally’s volunteering, entertaining and managing her household and family.  She was persuaded to become a Justice of the Peace which she achieved, and for more than twenty years she was a welfare officer for the New Sout Wales Justices’ Association and was awarded an honorary life membership.   As a result, she was in great demand and, no matter how busy she was, she always made time for them.

From 1954 to 1978 Sally was vice-president of the Red Cross Headquarters Ladies’ Auxiliary, refusing the presidency, although serving many terms as president of several organisations.  When the Sephardi Synagogue in Woollahra was consecrated in 1962, Sally established the ladies’ auxiliary and served as its president until she passed away.  She was honoured by the New South Wales Sephardi Association in 1966 with life membership, becoming the first woman to be so honoured.  For eight years she was president of the Anti-TB Association’s volunteer group, vice-president of the United Nations Women’s Auxiliary from 1952, assistant treasurer and an executive member from 1950 of the India League, a social group of all denominations which fostered friendship between India and Australia.  Her membership in other organisations included the Royal Commonwealth Society, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Bondi Beach Progress Association.

Her forte was fundraising in unusual and imaginative ways, such as mannequin parades including male models – all specialising in hats; hosting international luncheons at her Bondi home, writing for the daily papers, and for close on twenty years reported on Indian, Pakistani, Spanish, Hungarian Egyptian, Israeli general international affairs, and held parties in the homes of members of the diplomatic corps.  She arranged children’s parties – with a children’s band of musicians; organised a series of balls on visiting overseas ships.  With all her amazing energy and ideas, she received great press and social coverage.  When speaking to a newspaper reporter in 1965 she said: ‘’There are women who like the glamour of fashion parades, Others will only come to a cultural function with well-known guest speakers.  The ark of successful fundraising is to give each segment what they want.’’  She explained on another occasion: ‘The key is a good working committee.  If you have that, there is no need to fear.  It is also important that the president should have full confidence in herself and her committee.  You know the saying – ‘’If you never venture you never win’’.

Sally’s enthusiasm was never-ending.  At functions, she tried to recruit new members for whatever organisation she was supporting at that time.  She was an inveterate raffle ticket seller, too.  In a Daily Mirror article it said: ‘When friends of Sally’s saw her approaching, they instinctively reached for their pockets.  They knew through long experience, that her handbag is sure to contain a motley collection of tickets – for balls, guessing competitions or fashion parades – in aid of one or other of the charities she supports.’

People remembered her when she volunteered at the Sydney Town Hall in the early days of Meals-on-Wheels – but not by delivering meals as did most of the NCJW volunteers.  Instead, this very smartly dressed woman, always with a hat, was at the sink with rolled-up sleeves, wearing an apron and rubber gloves busy with the washing up of the utensils brought back by the deliverers.

In 1974 she made a trip to London and was able to have a reunion with some of her pupils from Calcutta school days, who all remembered her generous nature.  One newspaper correspondent identified only as GFC wrote: ‘She is kindness itself in word and deed.’  I well remember when I first arrived in Sydney what a comfort she was when I found myself in a room full of strange faces.  Sally introduced herself, chatted with me for a while, and then introduced me to other people.  On the first Yom Tov I spent in Sydney after our initial meeting she sent me an enormous arrangement of flowers so I would not feel homesick.

Gwen Walker-Smith, honorary treasurer of the Red Cross Headquarters Ladies’ Auxiliary, said ‘She spurred everyone into activity, she was so enthusiastic about everything she did.’  Sally was awarded a Red Cross Distinguished Service Award in 1965 for her services over thirty years.   The citation read ‘For long and distinguished service, with evidence of exceptional powers of leadership’.  She was also honoured with an MBE in 1979 as Vice-President of the United Nations Association for services to the community and international relations.’

Sally passed away on 24 March 1978.  The Red Cross Headquarters Ladies’ Auxiliary established the Sally Morris Memorial Fund which erected two flagpoles at the first-floor level of the Red Cross Headquarters in Sydney and provided six Australian and six Red Cross flags to fly from the flagpoles.  In the first Newsletter of 1982, the President of the Auxiliary wrote: ‘Our memorial to Sally Morris…has now been finalised so please look up when you visit Red Cross House next… and think of her.  The flags will flutter in Sally’s memory for some time to come.’

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

Beginning with Esther – Lysbeth Cohen; The Australian Red Cross, Sephardi Synagogue Woollahra

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