A good deal of comment has been started in several places here over the fact that Sir Isaac Isaacs, while his representatives attended church services according to the custom after his swearing-in as Governor-General, he himself did not attend a synagogue service.
“Smith’s Weekly” here publishes an interview to-day with Sir Isaac, in which reference is made to his Jewishness, in the course of which paper states that when he was shown an American paper by its representative containing an article “Tailor’s Son Instead of Prince”, written by Meyer Levin and distributed through the J.T.A., in which Sir Isaac is spoken of as “an orthodox Jew, Sir Isaac merely smiled. It is pointed out also in the same connection that Sir Isaac has never associated himself with Jewish communal or charitable affairs.
Mr. Levin, in his article, was quoting Mr. D. M. Dow, described as official Australian Secretary in the United States and as personally acquainted with Sir Isaac. “Sir Isaac’s father was a little Jewish tailor in the town of Beechwood, Victoria”, Mr. Dow said. “I’ve seen the shop, a tiny queer place. He was a lovable character”. “Sir Isaac, you know, is an orthodox Jew”, Mr. Dow said further on in the course of his conversation, adding that “Sir Isaac and his wife are very active in Jewish charities in Melbourne”.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
