Inside AJHS: The Sydney Jewish War Memorial

The Sydney Jewish War Memorial, currently a part of the Sydney Jewish Museum, is an important aspect of the history of the Jewish peoples within Australia, especially those who were part of the military. The war memorial was originally built in the Maccabean Hall in 1922 and 1923 and was a way to memorialise the Australian Jewish soldiers and sailors who had served in the Great War (World War One) between the years 1914 and 1918.^[1]

This building as a whole was originally designed by a Sydney Jewish architect by the name of Gordon Kessing in the 1920s and at the time held more of an inter-war classical style of architecture.^[2] The building was later expanded on in 1965 by a different architect Henry Epstein in a brutalist style.^[3] For quite some time the two sections seemed to be separate before in the 1990s joining together to create what the Sydney Jewish Museum is today.^[4]

The archives at the Australian Jewish Historical Society hold extensive files on the history of the war memorial, with the collection being a combination of opened and closed to the public. This collection holds ten separate series ranging from the years 1876 to 2017 with each demonstrating the history of the memorial with differing amounts of description. The few series that are open to the public, demonstrate the continuous effort that was put into the redevelopment and renovations of the war memorial throughout the past as well as the effort which was put into place for each of the exhibitions, both permanent and not.

The open series within this collection holds numerous copies of reports from the directors, annual meetings and financial statements, each of which demonstrates the different aspects of how the memorial was first built and the upkeep required, as well as how the museum today has become an important aspect of the original memorial. This section of the collection is quite important as not only does it allow those who wish to gain an understanding of the history of the memorial to do so, it also allows for those who work within the premises to look back into the past years as a way to gain understanding on what has occurred during the history of the building.

This open collection also holds numerous copies of correspondence, which cover various topics including renovations of the memorial, thank yous for donations from the public, upcoming events to be held within the memorial and artifacts for exhibition displays. The copies of each of the correspondence that were kept by the staff at the war memorial has allowed for researchers and staff on later dates to be able to view the discussions regarding both the memorial and the museum as a whole.

While there are ten separate series within this collection, a number of them are in fact closed and are unable to be viewed by the public due to safety concerns. Although this is the case the six open series provide quite detailed insight into the history of the Sydney Jewish War Memorial from its date of creation to today.