The National Council of Jewish Women Australia ACT
Ashli Fryer, Intern Bachelor of Archaeology Degree at Macquarie University
The National Council of Jewish Women Australia ACT is a community across Australia and is the oldest Jewish feminist civil rights organisation in Australia, which provides Jewish women with a community and safe place.[1] The collection held within the Australian Jewish Historical Society holds the correspondence from this society, photographs, meeting notes and minutes, reports, various media, membership information and foundation documents from the NCJW.
While NCJW ACT was founded as a whole in the 1800s, [2] the files held within the archives are from the Canberra section and date back to the sections’ founding in the 1950s.
The archives hold extensive information regarding to these events and volunteering held by the NCJW, each of which tell the story of the society. Much of this collection is open to the public and shows the story of the society and what they undertook between 1958 to 2022, which was done through the photographs, memorabilia, newsletters, conferences, correspondence and media reports.
For years the NCJWA Canberra had donated annual prizes to the public as well as running a wide range of activities with some focusing on just the women, with other open to the whole community. These would include working with Meals on Wheels, hospital visits, charity stalls, luncheons, film nights, Council Shabbat and occasional gala dinners for events. The NCJW ACT has also been involved in various multicultural and interfaith activities, with several of which were involved in the fundraising and events they had held.
Outside of the various events which the NCJW ACT hosted, this collection also holds various reports from meetings of importance. These include the treasurer’s, president’s, financial and conference reports. Each of these reports show how the society has grown since its foundation to what it is known about as today.
This collection holds a large number of correspondences regarding to events, fundraising, meetings, donations, networking and memberships. These correspondences mention members of importance to the NCJW ACT and organisations who worked alongside them as well as members of government, including, although not limited to, Sylvia Deutsch; president of the Canberra section of NCJW, Margaret Beadman, Mrs Mimi Avner; at Embassy of Israel, Lynne Davies; national president and E. Horton; president of ACT Jewish Community.
While not all of the series within this collection are available to be open to the public, the ones that are open hold detailed information regarding the National Council of Jewish Women ACT, showing many events they hosted, their fundraising efforts and conferences members would attend.
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