Join Elizabeth Offer for an evening recounting the fascinating lives of Jewish women on the goldfields and what these stories reveal about a forgotten part of Ballarat history.
Stories abound of men, gold, and rebellion on the Ballarat goldfields, yet amongst such tales lie the hidden histories of Jewish women, who laboured to make a life for themselves and their families on the booming goldfields. For Jewish women in Ballarat, British middle‐class notions concerning femininity merged with contemporary understandings of Jewish faith and culture, at times liberating or constraining their roles as wives, mothers, and businesswomen.
Elizabeth Offer is the Collections Officer at the Jewish Museum of Australia. She recently completed a Doctor of Philosophy in history at La Trobe University, Victoria. Her research was part of a larger community‐based project that aimed to uncover the religious diversity of the Central Victorian Goldfields. Elizabeth’s thesis examined the connection between an emerging British identity and the shifting religious practices of Hebrew congregations which formed in Bendigo and Ballarat between 1851‐1900. Her research aims to uncover the fascinating and changing religious lives of Jewish settlers on the goldfields. She has published in Jewish Culture and History, the Journal of Australian Studies, and in the Australian Association of Jewish Studies Journal.
Attend Talking History in person at the Eureka Centre (no booking required). Past lectures can be viewed on YouTube by clicking this link.
Image: Image: Solomon and Bardwell (photographers), ‘Synagogue Ballarat’ 1861. Collection of the State Library of Victoria, H2051.
