Jonathan Kaplan is a PhD candidate at the University of Technology Sydney. His research focuses on the interlinked sartorial, social and aesthetic role of Jewish men in Viennese society during the early twentieth century. Prior to commencing his doctoral research Jonathan completed a Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Textiles at the University of Technology Sydney, graduating with first-class honours.

Raised in Sydney’s Jewish community, and the grandchild of post-WWII European immigrants who worked in Sydney’s rag trade, Jonathan is interested in the interplay between Jewish people and the fashion/dress industry, migration, and general European Jewish history.

“Viennese Jews in Sydney and the Rebuilding of Community” (Mon-107), 12:30-1:15 P.M.

Several thousand Viennese Jews migrated to Australia both before and after WWII. The Viennese Jews who came to Australia set about rebuilding their lives and communities, as they had known in the Austrian capital.

With them they brought the culture they had known back home as a means of fashioning a small part of Europe in the harsh, predominantly Anglo-Saxon society from which they were often rejected. Such rejection came not only from the wider, non-Jewish Australian society, but also from the already established Jewish community, who feared the unacculturated newcomers would threaten Australian Jewry’s precarious situation and influence the spread of anti-Semitism.

This presentation will examine the experiences of a number of Viennese Jewish individuals/families in Sydney, their contribution to the development of post-war Australian culture (in fields such as the arts and fashion), and adjustment to their new home through both the creation of and disintegration of communities.

Topic: Immigration and migration over the ages; Jewish history and culture; Vienna, Austria and Australia