In memory of Moishe Ajzenbud

(1920 — 2020)

Alex Dafner

 Moishe Ajzenbud (foreground) taking minutes for the Jewish Holocaust Centre Board’s fifth anniversary. Photo: Sam Cylich

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Moishe Ajzenbud at the age of 99 plus years. Moishe Ajzenbud was, amongst many other achievements, the first Honorary Secretary of the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) and a long-time editor of the Yiddish section of Centre News; former President and Honorary Secretary of the Kadimah and founder and editor of the Kadimah’s Melburner Bletter Yiddish journal. He presented a long-running Yiddish program on Radio 3ZZZ, was an active, leading member of the Bund, chronicled its first 60 years in Melbourne and was a long-time Yiddish teacher and principal at the Sholem Aleichem Sunday School. He was also the last of a small band of published Australian Yiddish immigrant writers and wrote and published several books in Yiddish and in English translation.

Moishe Ajzenbud was born in Niesvizsh, a small town in eastern Poland, in 1920. He attended a secular Yiddish primary school and, as a secondary school student, he attended a Yiddish technical college in Pinsk until the Soviet occupation in 1939. During his time in Pinsk, he met Leah, his future wife. During the summer of 1941, when the German Army invaded the Soviet Union, Moishe escaped to Central Asia, together with his father and brother, and later worked in a labour camp in Siberia. Ever concerned with the plight of the worker, Moishe was sentenced to five years imprisonment for organising a strike in the iron ore quarry. He was freed in 1945.

In 1945, he was also reunited with Leah, whom he married and travelled with to Poland. In 1946, after the Kielce Pogrom, they chose to leave Poland. With the assistance of ‘Brichah’ they escaped to Germany, where they lived in a DP camp in Germany for four years. Here, Moishe began writing Yiddish stories. Moishe was able to gain passage for him and Leah to Australia thanks to his experience as a fitter and turner, which earned him participation in a government DP initiative that provided skilled immigrants with contracted work for two years. Moishe and Leah arrived in Australia

on 24 September 1950. Their first month was spent at the Bonegilla Commonwealth Immigration Centre in Albury, before they were able to ensure steady employment and a residence in Melbourne.

Moishe immediately turned his efforts to the Melbourne Jewish community. He approached the Jewish Post in April 1951 to offer his services as a Yiddish writer. This marked the beginning of many years of regular contributions to the Yiddish press. Moishe also wrote several Yiddish books, some of them, while written as fiction, depicted his own wartime experiences. They include Gelebt Hinter Kratn (Lived Behind Bars) (1956), Niesvizsh Yidn (Jews of Niesvizsh) (1965), a study of Yeshoshua Rapaport’s works entitled Yeshoshua Rapaport’s Style (1967), Alein in Gezeml (Lonely in a Crowd) (1970), Yugneleche Blondzenishn (Dilemmas of Youth) (1973) and The Commissar Took Charge (1986). His last published work was Pnina Un Andere Dertseylungen (Pnina And Other Stories) (2006). He was the founding and continuing editor of the Yiddish part of the Kadimah’s journal Melburne Bleter (Melbourne Chronicle) founded in 1975.

Moishe became involved in the Jewish Holocaust Centre as a representative of the Kadimah, before the Centre’s foundation in 1984, and was Honorary Secretary on the first Executive committee. When the Centre was established, Yiddish was the lingua franca of the founders. When they built the Holocaust Centre, they felt that they should not only remember the tragic deaths of the victims, but also felt they had a duty to preserve and memorialise their language – a proud, living language that had inspired so many.

The first meetings at the Centre were in Yiddish, and the minutes were written in Yiddish. Exhibition captions were in Yiddish and English, and Yiddish was always heard around the Centre. However, as newer, younger volunteers and staff became involved, English began to take over as the main language. One thing that has not changed, however, is the Yiddish section of Centre News, which Moishe edited for many years. Until his retirement in 2017, he collected material about the Holocaust from all over the world, wrote it up by hand, typed it on his Yiddish typewriter, then passed it on to his friend, Romek Mokotov, who transferred it to his computer.

Moishe Ajzenbud was an active contributor to the cultural Yiddish life in Melbourne, giving many talks on a variety of topics; Yiddish writers and Yiddish literature, history, his Bund experiences and the Holocaust. His talks were always rich with detail and facts that displayed an analytic mind. Moishe was also active within the community in a variety of roles. He became a Yiddish teacher at the Sholem Aleichem Sunday School in 1958 and taught there for roughly 20 years. He became principal of the Sunday school in 1984. He also became the inaugural Honorary Secretary of the JHC in 1984. He was the President of the Kadimah from 1988-1992, Honorary Secretary of the Kadimah from 1979-80 and again in 1999-2002, and Chairman of the Kadimah Cultural Committee from 1993-98. He presented the Yiddish program on 3ZZZ ethnic radio for 15 years.

Moishe was active in the Bund for many years, even serving as its Honorary Secretary at one stage. Moishe wrote a history of the Bund in Melbourne, entitled 60 Yor Bund in Melburn (60 Years of the Bund in Melbourne 1928-1988) (1996). It was translated into English by Chana and Morris Mrocki. Hinde Burstin translated the archival material.

We honour his life and contribution to the JHC and the Yiddish world. We send our condolences to his daughters, Rose and Jenny, the entire family and friends.

Koved zayn ondenk (honour to his memory).

Alex Dafner is a former Vice President of the JHC and former President of the Kadimah.

 Moishe Ajzenbud. Photo: Abhijit Chatteraj