Goulburn Historic Cemeteries – Goulburn Jewish Cemetery
Those buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery
There were at least 30 burials in the cemetery, many in unmarked graves. Most extant headstones have both Hebrew and English inscriptions on them. The known burials are listed below in chronological order of their death dates.
Biographical information extracted from the Statement of Heritage Assessment by Chris Betteridge
Chronology of burials
A timeline of the recorded burials in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery, indicating the concentration of burials between the1840s and early 1880s, reflecting the period when the Goulburn Jewish community was at is peak. (Source: Gary Luke)
Sarah and Hannah Moses d. 19 November 1844
On 19 November 1844, 12-year old Sarah Moses and her 14-year old sister Hannah Moses, two daughters of John and Rebecca Moses (see 2.2.4) were tragically drowned in a vehicle in a flooded river crossing at Yass. The girls were buried in unmarked graves in a site that was soon to become the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery
Isaac Davis d. 9 February 1845
The earliest marked grave would appear to be that of free settler Isaac Davis aged 33 years. On 9 February 1845, eight armed and mounted bushrangers attacked the public house of Isaac Davis and the store of Isaac Levy at Boorowa, thirty miles (53 kilometres) northwest of Yass. Davis died of gunshot wounds defending his wife and two little children and his funeral was the third at the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery. This burial was also before the consecration of the cemetery. Davis’ widow, Esther, later married Moss Marks, who is also buried in the cemetery.
Unnamed male Emanuel child, d. 12 January 1848
An unnamed male Emanuel child died on 12 January 1848, aged 10 days but there is no record of the date of burial.
Rebecca Moses d. 8 January 1854
London-born English convict John (Jacob) Moses (1800-1883), a fruit dealer, arrived in NSW on the Asia Lon 28 December 1820 and on 9 November 1821 was sent as ‘Cook and Confectioner’ to Government House’. In Hobart Town on 5 December 1826 Moses married Mary, the daughter of Mr Charles Connolly. Mary was aged sixteen when she married, having arrived as a convict on the Lord Sidmouth in 1823. Moses had moved to Van Diemen’s Land in late 1828 and tried to establish a grocery and confectionery business. When this did not succeed, he moved back to Sydney and opened a shop in George Street, boasting to potential customers that he had supplied His Excellency the Governor with confectionery. In 1829 he became the owner of the licence of the King’s Head Inn at Penrith and on 1 April 1830 the Sydney Gazette reported that ‘Mr Moses, the late pastry cook, has been busy in town the last few days – the only person in the colony who knows…the art’ of making Matzot.
In 1830, Aaron Levy, a Dayan (Rabbinic emissary) from the London Beth Din (religious court) visited Sydney to arrange a divorce for Samuel Levy. While in Sydney he wrote a Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) for the Jewish marriage of John Moses and Mary Connolly aka Rivka bat Avraham Avinu (Rebecca daughter of Abraham our Father), his converted wife, which was performed on 10 July 1831 in Sydney. A Ketuba is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. The Ketubah, for the Moses marriage, which still exists in private hands, is the first enscribed in Australia, for the first Jewish marriage, for the first convertee. It follows the same format in the Aramaic language as Ketubot from two millennia ago.
After his marriage, John returned to England and then came back to Australia, with his family ‘accompanied by an entire Colony of the same [Jewish] nation the money lending tribe’. After further business ventures in Sydney and Hobart, Moses was insolvent by February 1842. In 1844 he was described as a publican in the new township of Yass, with his brother Isaac Moses. In November 1844 two of his daughters, Sarah and Hannah, drowned in an accident at Yass and their burials were among the first Jewish burials in Goulburn. Moses also initiated a successful petition for the establishment of a Jewish Burial ground in Yass.
In 1848 John Moses and his son Harry were sentenced to seven years transportation for perjury following a fire that burned down the stables of his inn near Yass. The Governor commuted the sentence to five years.
Rebecca Moses died on 8 January 1854 aged 46 years and was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery with the couple’s two daughters who had drowned at Yass ten years earlier.
Six years after Rebecca’s death, on 23 October 1860, at the age of 60 (although the marriage certificate gives his age as 50), John Moses remarried, his new wife being a 23-year old Irish woman Mary Ann Shea. Together the couple had three sons and a daughter. One son, Jacob (Jack) Moses was a friend of Henry Lawson and became a popular colonial poet himself.
John Moses died on 29 November 1883, leaving an estate of £425, and was buried in the Jewish section of Rookwood Cemetery.
Elizabeth Esther Collins d. 5 October 1858
Baby Elizabeth Esther Collins, the daughter of Joseph and Lydia Collins, was only 7 weeks old when she died on 5 October 1858 and was buried that same day in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery.
Nathan Whiteman, d. 21 May 1859
The infant son of Samuel Whiteman and his wife Frances (née Levy), Nathan Whiteman died at Queanbeyan on 21 May 1859, aged 3 months, and was buried the following day in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery. Joseph Collins was a witness to the burial.
Samuel Whiteman was born in Germany in 1831 and by 1854 was living in Woolwich, England, when he married Frances Levy in the Great Synagogue of London on 22 February 1854. By 1859 he was a shoemaker in Goulburn, NSW but was declared insolvent in August that year. He is listed as a shopkeeper in Goulburn in 1861 but then moved to Sydney where he was a boot manufacturer but again was declared insolvent in November 1875. He was living in Paddington in 1878 and died at his residence at 155 Goulburn Street, Sydney on 23 April 1880. Samuel was buried on 25 April 1880 in the Old Jewish Ground at Rookwood.
Solomon Moses d. 20 October 1860
Another known but unmarked grave, is that of Solomon Moses who arrived in the colony of NSW as a free settler and had one of the first stores in Queanbeyan where he remained until 1851, when he moved to Bungendore to open the Victoria Stores. Shortly after they were opened, his premises were flooded. In 1853 he founded the Beehive Stores in Bungendore but this business was barely profitable until he opened the Beehive Hotel next to his original store in that town.
Solomon Moses was drowned in Deep Creek, Queanbeyan, on 20 October 1860, aged 32 years, and was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 25 October 1860. He left an insolvent estate.
Mark Elgin Davis d. 21 June 1860
Another memorial is that of Mark Elgin Davis, the youngest son of David and Rachel Davis. He died on 21 June 1860 aged one year and was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery the following day..
Solomon Moses d. 21 November 1860
Infant Solomon Moses, the son of Simeon and Phoebe Moses of Bungendore, died on 21 November 1860, aged 6 months, and was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 23 November 1860.
Un-named infant male Davis child d. 11 March 1861
An infant male child, the son of Isaac and Sarah Davis, died on 11 March 1861, aged only 13 days, and was buried the following day in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery. He was most likely not named because he had not been circumcised and formally named.
Jasper Tunn, d. 2 September 1861
Jasper Tunn, died on 2 September 1861, aged 68 years, and was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 3 September 1861. This man was not known to be Jewish prior to discovery by researchers of colonial Jews via Trove of a news report of his burial.
Jasper Tunn arrived in New South Wales as a convict on 11 October 1816 aged 22. He had been found guilty, as Gasper Tann at the Middlesex Gaol Delivery Old Bailey on 25 October 1815 for stealing four yards of woollen cloth. In 1821 he had petitioned the government for the mitigation of his sentence and to be issued with a conditional pardon. It was recommended that he receive a pardon but as he was a on 7-year sentence he would have been free the next year so it is doubtful if he received his certificate of freedom.
Not much is known of him during the first years of his time in the colony until on 6 July 1825 he married a widow, Elizabeth Montague at St Phillips, Sydney. Elizabeth, had arrived as a convict, aged 36 years, in 1822, sentenced to 14 years transportation, and was assigned to George Trace of Brickfield on 2 April 1823. Her daughter from a previous marriage, 20-year old Mary Jackson, who had been convicted of stealing and sentenced to 7 years was on the same ship “Mary Ann”.
Jasper and Elizabeth settled around Millers Point in Sydney and Jasper had the
licence for the Whale Fishery Hotel in Cambridge Street from about 1829 to 1831 as well as an interest in his land at Jacqua. It would appear that Jasper may have taken over the licence of the hotel from James Jackson who possibly had
connections to Elizabeth Montague’s family. Mary Jackson received a certificate of
freedom in 1827 and was a servant to Mrs Laws at Homebush. Elizabeth gained a Ticket of Leave in 1829.
Elizabeth Tunn (Montague) died at Millers Point age 45 on 28 August 1832 and was buried in Sydney. Jasper transferred the hotel licence to Michael Farrel in 1831 and went to live at Jacqua where he met Sophia Western. Four months later he married Sophie, a convict age 28 at Sutton Forest. Sophie had been found guilty at the Old Bailey on 1 December 1831 of stealing a pocket book and gold sovereigns and
received a 7 year sentence. She arrived on the ship Burrell on 22 May 1832.
Jasper and Sophie went to live on their property at Jacqua. Jasper had an assigned
convict, Edward McGarvin working on the property in 1837. On 13 October 1841 Jasper Tunn was granted ownership of his land at Jacqua, about 35 miles from Goulburn, it having been promised in 1826. Sophie Tunn died at Jacqua on 21 February 1860 and was buried at Bungonia C of E Cemetery. After Sophie died, Jasper sold his property and set about finalising his affairs so he could return to England. He placed an advertisement in the Goulburn Herald on 21 March 1860 asking anyone who owed him money to pay it and anyone who had a claim against him to furnish such claim to him or to Mr L Cowen who was possibly his solicitor. It appears that Jasper and Sophie had anadopted daughter, Lucy Tunn also known as Ann Hallett. He advised, in an advertisement in the Goulburn Herald of 31 May 1860 that she had left his service before her apprenticeship had expired and cautioned anyone of employing her. Ann Hallett married John Fox in 1861 in Goulburn.
Jasper Tunn did not return to England as on 9 January 1861 at the age of 68 he died at ‘Mullengullenga’ (Bronte), 22 miles from Goulburn, where he had been living with the James family. Jasper Tunn, age 68, of the Jewish faith was buried in Goulburn. At an inquest in September 1861 it was found that he had died of natural causes after being ill for some time.
Lydia Collins and still born male Collins child d. 15 March 1862
Another memorial is to Lydia Collins, wife of Joseph Collins, who had arrived in the colony as a free settler in 1841. Lydia departed this life, Holy Sabbath Day, 15 March 1862, aged 37 years The fact that her stillborn child died the same day suggests that Lydia died in childbirth or very soon afterwards. She and her unnamed son were buried the next day in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery. The inscription on her headstone includes the words: “Many daughters have acted virtuously, but thou excelled them all. Grace is deceitful and beauty vain, but the woman who feareth the Lord, she alone shall be ever exalted”. This is a reference to Proverbs 31:29 and 30.
Twenty-two year old Lydia (Leah) Marks married Commission Agent ‘Joseph Collins of Holborn’ (New South Wales) at the Great Synagogue in Sydney on 6 October 1847 and between 1848 and 1859 the couple had eight children, one of whom was stillborn. In 1849 Collins became a licensed publican in Holborn on the goldfields and was elected an alderman. Lydia died on 15 March 1862, aged thirty-seven, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Goulburn. Her headstone bears the words ‘died on the Holy Sabbath Day’.
Joseph Collins brought a Torah scroll to Holborn and built an ark for a synagogue. On 3 August 1862, when the Lachlan Forbes Synagogue on the goldfields asked the York Street Synagogue in Sydney for the use of a Torah scroll, they had been told to borrow one from Joseph Collins. Brisbane Jewish historian Morris Ochert suspects the Sefer Torah of Joseph Collins in Goulburn that was lent to the congregation at Forbes ended up with the Brisbane Jewish congregation.
After Lydia’s death, Joseph remarried, this time to his first cousin Priscilla Israel, at the Great Synagogue, Sydney, on 5 August 1866, and the couple went on to have seven children. Joseph’s son by Lydia, Charles Collins, born 12 May 1850, became a member of the Legislative Assembly of NSW for the electorate of Namoi in 1885, 1890 and 1891, then member for Narrabri in 1894, and then from 1895 until his death. Collins Park in Narrabri is named for Charles Collins, the inaugural mayor of Narrabri. One of Joseph’s sons by his second wife, Albert Ernest Collins, was the member for Narrabri in 1901, 1904 and 1907.
Joseph Collins died on 7 September 1902.
Louis Mandelson d. 12 December 1863
Louis (Lewis) Mandelson, the infant second son of Emanuel and Caroline. Mandelson, departed this life 12 December 1863, aged 18 months and was buried the following day in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery.
Saul Yates d. 6 May 1867
Saul Yates, the son of Benjamin Yates was born in London in 1788 and the 1851 census records show: Saul and Sarah Yates living at 38 Camomile St, All Hallows London Wall, Middlesex. The first emigration: of Saul and Sarah Yates and their children, Emily and Theodore, was on the “Dinapore”, departing Gravesend on 13 April 1857, arriving in Auckland on 5 August 1857. Saul died on 6 May 1867 at the home of his son-in-law, Mr. Jacob Alexander, Emily Cottage, Mundy Street, Goulburn
The inscription on his headstone reads: ‘Saul Yates, Esq. Solicitor late of London, who departed this life on 6 July, A.M. 5627, aged 79 years’. In the Gregorian Calendar the date is 6 July 1867. He was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery the following day. His epitaph reads, ‘My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him’. The death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald noted that his passing was ‘deeply regretted by a large circle of relatives and friends.’ It was a common practice to inscribe headstones with the Gregorian day and month and the Hebrew year, ‘A. M.’ stands for Anno Mundi – in the year of the world i. e. since creation.
Aaron Herman Charles Hendricks d. 11 October 1867
Three-year old Aaron Herman Charles Hendricks died on 11 October 1867 and was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 13 October 1867. The surname Hendricks is an Anglicised version of the Sephardi(c) name de Henriques. The child’s uncle John Hendricks was in partnership as Hendricks and Jacobs who had a mill at the north end of Braidwood. The bridge nearby is known as ‘Jews Bridge’.
Samuel Jacobs d. 11 November 1867
Samuel Jacobs arrived on the Heroine in 1833 and died on 11 November 1867, aged 70 years. He was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 24 November 1867.
Rosina Levy, d. 11 March 1869
Rosina Levy, the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Levy, died at Wollogorang, about 14 miles (22 km) southwest of Goulburn, on 11 March 1869, aged 9 months and was buried two days later in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery.
Moss Marks d. 5 August 1869
Moss Marks arrived in the colony as a free settler in 1834 and was resident in Goulburn for over 30 years. He initially worked for Messrs Moses and Benjamin in their Argyle Stores and when they moved from Goulburn, he took over management of the business, eventually purchasing the lease. When the lease expired and he was unable to come to agreeable terms with the property owner, he established his own business in new premises styled the New Argyle Store. A long-time member of the local Masonic lodge and a Justice of the Peace, Moss Marks was known as a studious man, fond of music and reading. In his later years, diabetes and failing eyesight led to depression and a failed attempt at suicide. However, a Magisterial Inquiry into his death found it was due to pre-existing illness and not a self-inflicted wound.
Moss Marks was the Hon. Secretary of the Committee set up in 1848 to organise the building of the caretaker’s cottage at the Jewish burial ground. On 8 June 1854 he married Esther Davis, widow of Isaac Davis who had been murdered by bushrangers at his Boorowa store in 1845. The marriage took place at Marks’ Argyle Store, with Mr Strelitz, Reader of the Goulburn Hebrew Congregation.
The memorial to Moss Marks carries the inscription, “This for a testimony that beneath reposes the earthly remains of Moss Marks, who departed this life on Thursday, 5 August 5629, 1869. Aged 49 years”.
Records show that his age at death was actually 54 years. He was buried in the Goulburn Jewish cemetery on 6 August 1869.
Reginald Meyer Emanuel d. 3 November 1871
The infant Reginald Meyer Emanuel died on 3 November 1871, aged 3 months and was buried on 5 November in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery. Joseph Collins was a witness to the burial. Young Reginald was the son of Solomon and Sarah Emanuel, the owners of ‘Lansdowne’ on the Bungonia Road on the outskirts of Goulburn. This is Goulburn’s oldest homestead and earliest farming complex. The house setting includes a summerhouse which has often been referred to as a Synagogue.
Henry Isaacs Caro d. 11 September 1877
A substantial memorial is that of Henry Isaacs Caro, who on died 11 September. 1877. 4 Tishri, A.M. 5688, aged 45 years. He was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 14 September 1877.
The Caro name is very significant in Jewish history. Rabbi Yosef (Joseph) Caro, 5248-5335 (1488-1575 CE), is most famous as the author of the Shulchan Aruch (literally Set Table) sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law. Written in what is now Israel and published in Venice in 1565, it is still the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism.
Rose Una Alexander d. 13 December 1878
Rose Una Alexander, died 13 December, A.M. 5639, 1878 and was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery the following day. Rose was the daughter of Louis Moss Alexander and Kate Moss.
Clara Bushman d. 23 January 1880
Baby Clara Bushman was born in Goulburn on 23 January 1880 and was only one month old when she died on 22 February 1880. She was buried the following day in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery but the location of her grave is not known.
The undertaker on the death certificate for Clara Bushman was her father, Alexander Bushman and the question must be asked – did he dig the grave and bury with his own hands his one month old daughter who died from a form of tuberculosis?. No minister is recorded on the death certificate. An authorised minister or rabbi is not essential in Judaism for any of the life rituals. Did the father chant prayers alone or with supportive companionship? Witnesses were A S Nathan and John Bourke. Like a number of Jews in regional districts in colonial times, Albert Nathan seems to have arrived in Goulburn as a hawker and settled in for only a few short years, setting up a fancy goods shop and a stall at agricultural shows and on market days.
Louis Lang, d. 13 January 1882
Twenty-one year old Louis Lang died on 13 January 1882 and was buried the same day in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery.
Louis Mandelson Snr d. 17 March 1909
A very badly damaged memorial is that of Louis Mandelson Snr, which bears the inscription “in loving memory of my dear husband and our father, who departed this life, 17 March 1909, aged 70 years”. He was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 18 March 1909.
Louis Mandelson was perhaps the longest Jewish resident of Goulburn. In announcing his death, the Goulburn Evening Post of 1 March 1909, stated that he had been a resident of the city for 50 years. He had carried on a business in Auburn Street as a tailor and outfitter. Besides his widow, he left a family of two sons and seven daughters. lt was his wish to be buried in Goulburn. Other members of the Mandelson family were the original owners of the town’s Mulwaree Hotel.
Samuel Goldberg d. 20 August 1911
Samuel Goldberg died on 20 August 1911 and was buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery the following day.
Mary Hinds d. 6 January 1918
Mary Jewell was born in England in 1864 and married Alexander Hutchinson Hinds there in 1881. Mary Hinds (née Jewell) died at Kenmore, Mulwaree Shire, about 6 kilometres north of Goulburn, on 6 January 1918, aged 54 years and was buried in Goulburn Jewish Cemetery on 16 January 1918. A letter to AJHS requesting genealogical assistance was the first hint that Mary Hinds was Jewish.
Dr. Hugo Goldberger, d. 17 July 1943
Dr Hugo Goldberger was a Jewish refugee who settled in Goulburn after escaping the Nazi regime in Europe. He died on 17 July 1943, aged 65 years and was buried on 19 July 1943, with no Hebrew inscription on his memorial. He left his widow Frieda, three married daughters, sons-in-law and a grandchild Gaby Bernhard.
Siegfried Vogel, d. 9 October 1943
Siegfried Vogel, another wartime refugee, purchased a small general store at Yarra, six miles (10 kilometres) south of Goulburn from the aged Miskelly family who had run the store for many years. Vogel died 9 October 1943, aged 56 years and was buried on 12 October 1943, with no Hebrew inscription on his memorial.
“Mr. Vogel was one of the pioneers amongst the Refugees who decided to take up [poultry] farming. During his start in the country he had to overcome many difficulties, especially as he was the first Jewish settler in his district and the general attitude at the beginning of the war had to be taken into consideration. At the funeral many marks of esteem from the Jewish and non-Jewish population of Goulburn and the district were shown. Mr. Vogel leaves a widow and a brother In Chicago, USA.”
Before and after World War II the Jewish welfare agency attempted to settle European refugee immigrants in regional districts of Australia to avoid potential objections to the appearance of a wave of Jewish migrants clustering in suburbs of the city. Very few settled outside of Sydney and Melbourne but the two German refugees buried in the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery are a notable exception. Unfortunately, Vogel and his friend did not survive long after their European experience.
The fact that these two Jewish refugees died in rural NSW, so far from their homeland, and separated from surviving relatives, is testament to the enormous dislocation and dispersal of European Jews after the Holocaust.
Their memorials in the cemetery were erected as part of the 1980s works.