From Australia’s Jewish Past: Shlomo Weintraub – Samuel Wynn – Wine Merchant and active Zionist
Shlomo (Samuel), the son of Michael and Rivkah Weintraub, was born on 4 April 1891 in Ushimow near Lodz, Russia (Poland).
His father died when Shlomo was a child, and his mother and two sisters brought him up. He received a religious education in his home village and at a yeshiva at Nova Minsk, to which he had run away at the age of eleven. His elder brother, a militant socialist, was imprisoned during the abortive 1905 revolution. At the age of fourteen, Shlomo committed his own act of revolt against his orthodox religion by smoking a cigarette on the Sabbath and began to read liberal and radical writers, including Tolstoy. He joined the family raisin wine business at Łódź and worked with them until 1912 when he married Chava (later Eva) Silman. To escape military service, he migrated with his wife from the German port of Bremen to Melbourne, arriving on 12 November 1913.
Samuel Wynn aged 28
Shlomo anglicised his name – now to be known as Samuel Wynn – and obtained work on a farm near Stawell in the Wimmera region of Victoria and at All Saints Vineyard, Wahgunyah in north-eastern Victoria. He returned to Melbourne, where he worked in a cork factory and as a cellarman. Having recently obtained his Australian Citizenship, he purchased in 1918, on time payment, a shop in Bourke Street licensed to sell ‘colonial wine’. Businesses nearby provided a steady flow of customers, ranging from the derelicts who lived in the guest house known as Gordon House, to public servants, politicians and the patrons of the Café Denat restaurant in Exhibition Street. In 1920 Samuel bought the restaurant and formed a partnership with the head waiter George Hildebrandt, who in 1924 became manager of one of Samuel’s three new retail wine stores in Melbourne city. In 1925, Samuel transferred the restaurant to above his Bourke Street store which had previously been his family home. In 1928 Rinaldo Massoni took over the restaurant and changed its name to Florentino, which still stands today.
Samuel became a wine wholesaler and opened premises in Little Bourke Street and made regular buying trips to the vineyards in South Australia. In 1925 he began to sell his own vermouth under the ‘Boronia’ trademark and also invested in a winery at Magill Adelaide, which unfortunately collapsed in 1927. Samuel, the majority shareholder and other creditors moved from the ruins of the winery at Magill to establish Australian Wines Ltd.
In 1933 he travelled to London and, in 1939, exported two thousand hogsheads (casks) to Britain. By 1944 the company was producing ten thousand bottles of sparkling wine. Following the Second World War, Samuel remained in charge, but passed the managerial control of his amazing expanding company to his eldest son David who in 1950 purchased Chateau Comaum known as Coonawarra.
In1970, Wynn Estate became a public company and Wynn Winegrowers was sold to Allied Breweries and then to Tooheys in 1972.
Throughout his life, he was always involved with the Jewish community. In 1919 he was elected President of the Jewish National Library in Melbourne – known as Kadimah – a position he held twelve times. In 1922 he helped establish the Victorian Jewish Welcome Society charged with assisting new immigrants – meeting them at the boats, finding accommodation and employment and teaching them English. In 1944-45 he was elected to the Board of the United Jewish Overseas Relief Fund, and from 1951 to 1953 he was a Board member of the Australian Jewish Welfare and Relief Society. During the Second World War, he was President of the State Zionist Council and twice elected President of the Zionist Federation of Australia. He made ten visits to Palestine at considerable personal risk, carrying small arms into the country until 1948. He very much opposed British restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine. It is most sad to note that sixty-seven members of his extended family had been annihilated in Europe.
Although only 5 ft 1 in. (155 cm) tall with a large head, he dressed well, had a keen sense of humour and enjoyed talented company. He was himself reserved and at times, quite anxious but always a driven man. David Dunstan, Samuel’s biographer, described him as “tenacious” and “courageous” in both his community involvement and in his business dealings.
Samuel was married three times. His first wife, Eva died in 1939. On 25 May 1940, in Auckland, New Zealand, he married a Canadian-born widow Ida Bension, a leader of international Zionism and a source of inspiration to many people. She visited Australia in 1937 and 1939 on behalf of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO) to raise funds for Jewish children in Europe. She was a writer and philosopher, a friend of Martin Buber (Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher) and of the poet Richard Beer-Hofmann whose work she translated. As President of WIZO Australia, she was described by the State Zionist Council of Victoria as ‘the most outstanding woman in the history of Australian Zionism.’ A children’s centre at Mount Carmel, Israel, was named in her honour. She, unfortunately, died of heart disease on 1 August 1948 in East Melbourne. On 21 September 1950 at Caulfield, Melbourne Samuel married Marguerite Herzfeld. Survived by three sons of his first marriage, he died on 17 June 1982 and was buried in Melbourne general cemetery.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:-NC
The Australian Dictionary of Biography – David Dunstan; Wikipedia; A Serious Influx of Jews by Rodney Benjamin; Monash University Education &Arts.
The Australian Jewish Historical Society is the keeper of archives from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 right up to today. Whether you are searching for an academic resource, an event, a picture or an article, AJHS can help you find that piece of historical material. The AJHS welcomes your contributions to the archives. If you are a descendent of someone of interest with a story to tell, or you have memorabilia which might be of significance for the archives, please make contact via www.ajhs.com.au or its Facebook page.
