Vale Professor Bill Rubinstein 1946-2024
The prominent Jewish historian, researcher and intellectual Professor William (Bill) Rubinstein passed away suddenly on Monday 1 July 2024.
Professor Bill Rubinstein
He was born in Brooklyn on 12 August 1946, to a Warsaw-born father and an American mother whose maiden name was Rubenstein (spelled that way). His father’s parents came from Lodz, and his father’s grandfather was related to the great pianist Arthur. Rubinstein. Rubinstein had a younger brother who became a professor of anthropology. He was educated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and did his postgraduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He then worked as the London-based researcher on a Lancaster University history project.
Rubinstein leaves behind a significant gap in Australian Jewish intellectual life. From the time he settled in Melbourne with his wife Hilary, he sought to improve Jewish academic research. An American social and economic historian, he immigrated to Australia together with his librarian-historian wife Dr Hilary Rubinstein, whom he met at college in the United State where she was an exchange student. They arrived in Australia in 1976.
After Rubinstein worked for two years at the Australian National University, the family moved to Melbourne where took up a lectureship position at Deakin University in 1978, where he became a full professor.
He became involved in Jewish life in Melbourne, where he became close to such legendary figures as Frank Knopfelmacher and Isi Leibler. His communal involvement ranged from Australia-Israel Publications, where he met Sam Lipski and Michael Danby to the Australian Jewish Historical Society. He was a lifelong political conservative, but cherished his friendship with the prominent left-wing intellectual Philip Mendes.
After working on two research projects, with Hilary’s involvement, he suggested that Australian Jewry needed a think tank to allow for more strategic forward planning. Isi Leibler encouraged him to develop a proposal for an Australian Jewish think tank. Rubinstein made his initial pitch in October 1980.
After he and Hilary returned from a visit to Britain, he presented a follow-up report recommending that the proposed Australian Jewish think tank be modelled after the London-based Institute of Jewish Affairs, then directed by Dr Stephen Roth. Meanwhile, Isi Leibler pulled together funding to start Rubinstein on his research and writing. From then, until he took up as a position as professor of history at Aberystwyth University in 1995 there was a close collaboration between Leibler and Rubinstein. Leibler created the Australian Institute for Jewish Affairs (AIJA), and Rubinstein conducted several important studies on Australian Jewry which were published by the AIJA. He also wrote the British Commonwealth entries (except Britain) for the updated Encyclopaedia Judaica.
He became deeply involved with the Australian Jewish Historical Society in the late 1980s, and was the foundation editor (1989-95) of its Journal until he moved to Wales. He was also one of the key founders of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (AAJS), served on its committee, and was deeply involved with the affairs of the AAJS while in Australia.
He was president of the Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) between 2003 and 2004. It was of particular pleasure for him that he, a boy from Brooklyn, served as president of the JHSE, whose previous presidents had includes patrician notables of Anglo-Jewry, and the great historian Cecil Roth. Bill was a polymath, whose interests included baseball and chess, to which he contributed articles to relevant journals and websites.
He has left a monumental body of published works, including the first history of Australian Jewry published in 1985 as part of a series on ethnic groups in Australia, as well as the second volume, with Hilary writing the first, of the monumental Jews in Australia: a thematic history published in 1991.
He retired from his position in Wales in 2012 as Professor Emeritus, and returned to Melbourne in 2013.
In addition to his academic publishing, Rubinstein was a regular contributor to the Jewish press and the general press, and was a powerful, if at times controversial, voice for the Jewish community.
Rubinstein was a personality who was larger than life, and will be greatly missed. He leaves behind his wife of 56 years, Hilary, their son, and two grandchildren.
With input from Dr Hilary L Rubinstein and Dr Suzanne Rutland
Sad to learn of Bill’s death. An always interesting writer who contributed always pertinent essays on Australian history and it’s historians. He will be much missed.
Why is it our left wing media refer to Right wing Views as Controversial as it happens most Right wing views have come to fruition since 7/10 Bill was a Lone wolf Conservative Academic quite Unique amongst Mostly left wing Jewish Academics !