Hello everybody. It is absolutely spectacular to see so many familiar and new faces here to

support the launch of this book ‘They Found Paradise.’

Before I begin my speech, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are

gathering here today, the Turrbal and Yuggera, one of hundreds of groups who are the original storytellers of this country. I acknowledge that I am the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants to this land that has been cared for by First Nations peoples for thousands of years and recognise that we all have a responsibility to honour and learn from First Nations peoples.

As Jews, we still exist because we remember. For thousands of years, Jewish identity has

not only been inherited, but it has been recorded and carried forward through oral and

written history, through the stories we choose to remember, and the history we choose to

share. Each story is kept alive every time a story is told or written down. And in this book,

‘They Found Paradise,’ those stories are found on every single page.

I didn’t expect to feel emotional writing about people I had never met. But I discovered that

history has a soul, a heartbeat and a depth to it that moves something inside of you. History

matters, and I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me here today to be a

part of preserving this history together.

My involvement with this project began with a single phone conversation with someone

who had ambitions to record this history for many, many years – many of will certainly

know him, a man by the name of Gerald Moses, a Gold Coast Jewish community stalwart.

I had just graduated with a double degree in Journalism and Arts, was recovering from a

broken ankle injury and Brisbane was still grappling with the perils of COVID-19. The perfect

trifecta to sit behind a computer and begin writing some history.

When I first began this project, I had a very simple expectation: I thought I was writing a

short community history booklet. Six months, maybe one year, I said. Perhaps a few

interviews, and we’d have a neat little book to show for it. Well — that is not quite what

happened. Instead, this journey turned into a 290-page historical record with more than

300 images and clippings and over 80 years of untold stories. Stories that were hidden,

forgotten, or never asked about. Stories of courage, controversy, humour, heartbreak, and

astonishing persistence.

But I want to take you back even further in time than that phone call with Gerald, to the

1920s, to the decade when I found the first evidence of Jewish life on the Gold Coast—

before the Gold Coast even had a name beyond the names of the suburbs we know today.

In 1921, Australia’s second official Census took place. It recorded one person under the

category of ‘Hebrew’ living in Southport. I wish I could tell you the name behind this record,

but unfortunately, I could not trace it down. The mid-1920s would then see the first known

Jewish family with an identified name, living in Burleigh Heads – Harry Kresner and his

family. Harry was a proud Jewish man who left Liverpool for Australia during the First World

War. He enlisted soon after arriving, but like many on the Western Front, he inhaled

chlorine gas in the trenches of France and fell ill. Doctors advised him to move to a warmer

climate to recover. And where else than the place blessed with endless sunshine and sea

air, the Gold Coast.

This was the case for many people over the decades. Whether they were chasing warmer

weather, a chance to begin again after persecution or discrimination, or job opportunities,

the Gold Coast became a coastal sanctuary, a paradise, far removed from the hardship they

once knew.

This book was commissioned because this story matters and was a story worth being told.

But this book isn’t just for those who know the traditions of Jewish life. It’s for every

Australian who believes our shared history is richer when every story is told. I wrote this for

anyone who believes that every community, no matter how small, deserves to be

remembered.

I also wrote this book to unveil the story of a community that has been largely overlooked.

When people think about Jewish life in Australia, the conversation almost immediately goes

to Melbourne or Sydney, rarely to Queensland, let alone the Gold Coast. But there has been

Jewish life on the Gold Coast – rich, complex, and full of character. A community built not

just from tradition, but from boldness, reinvention, and survival.

I also wanted Jewish people, especially young Queensland Jews, to feel proud. Proud of the

Jewish community’s resilience. Proud of our contribution to this country. Proud that we, as

a diaspora people, adapt to every place we land while still carrying our heritage with us.

This book also fits within a larger Australian story, the post-war growth of the Gold Coast,

shaped not just by Jewish migrants, but by Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Eastern Europeans and

so many others who came here after World War II. This city was built by multicultural hands

and the Jewish story deserves to be told among them.

This book, is built on over 50 oral history interviews. Some interviews lasted 20 minutes,

many lasted one hour, others stretched over weeks, and in a few cases, over years. Some

were done in living rooms over cups of tea. Others over Zoom with people who had since

moved to Melbourne, Sydney and even Israel, including Rabbi Uri Themal who I am so

honoured is actually in the room with us tonight.

Many people opened their hearts and their photo albums to me. Those became priceless. I

quickly discovered something important: memory lives in objects. Show someone a

photograph, and stories begin flowing. Show them a newspaper clipping — suddenly

names, events, and long-forgotten moments return. These prompts built trust. They

unlocked truth.

But it wasn’t straightforward. I’m not from the Gold Coast, and being an outsider made

some people hesitant. And like every community, this one has its tensions. Some worried

about old divisions being reopened. Some said, "I’ll do it if others do it first." Some people

warned me it might spark controversy, but I chose to press on. In doing so, I was met not

with division, but with overwhelming love and gratitude from those who understood the

importance of preserving these untold stories.

Interviewing and researching about local Holocaust survivors was of course especially

delicate. Most are now child survivors. Their memories are fragments woven from things

they saw, heard, or were later told. It was overwhelming to carry their stories with a sense

of weight and responsibility.

Through my interviews, one of the biggest lessons I learned along the way was this: history

is not absolute. Memory is personal. Two people can recall the same moment in completely

different ways. In the beginning, I fought this. I spent hours trying to find the single

“correct” version. But history doesn’t work like that. These are people’s lived experiences.

Their memories are their truth. My role wasn’t to erase the differences, but to honour

them. As long as each story is attributed and honoured, it deserves to stand as part of the

collective memory of this community.

When you read this book, you will quickly notice how this community built, lost, rebuilt and

kept going. So, if I had to choose one word to define the Jewish story on the Gold Coast, it

would be this: resilience.

Jewish day schools rose and fell. Organisations merged and split. Synagogues were on their

knees trying to keep the doors open when money ran dry. And yet the community spirit

endured. Jewish life on the Gold Coast, continues.

Sadly, however, history also repeats itself. We like to think prejudice lives in the past, but it

follows us. When Jewish developer Stanley Korman connected Chevron Island to the

mainland with a bridge in 1960, it was vandalised with swastikas. When Eddie Kornhauser,

another great pioneer of Gold Coast development, the man behind landmark projects like

Paradise Centre in Cavil Avenue, became successful, he faced waves of antisemitic attacks in

the media. It reached the point where Prime Minister Bob Hawke publicly defended him in

1982.

And now, decades later, antisemitism is rising again. Not just against high-profile Jewish

Australians but against everyday families and community members. Little did I know when

starting this book, that it’d be an act of defiance in a world raging with division and

antisemitism.

Thie book has shown me that history warns us: if we do not record our stories, if we do not

speak, others will rewrite them for us.

So, what inspired the title They Found Paradise? As I kept thinking about what the title

needed to express, I found myself coming back to Surfers Paradise, because you simply

cannot talk about the early days of Jewish life on the Gold Coast without starting there. And

then it clicked. Paradise. I realised I could play with the word in a way that carried both

history and emotion.

The name holds a double meaning. On one hand, the early Jewish settlers who came here,

pre-war refugees, Holocaust survivors, and later the waves of holidaymakers from Sydney

and Melbourne, many of whom were also survivors, were choosing something profound.

After everything they had been through, they chose to live, or at least to holiday, in a place

defined by joy, sunshine, and a sense of adventure. The Gold Coast represented freedom. A

place where life could be carefree and forward-looking. In every sense, they truly found

paradise.

And the second meaning is about what the Jewish community gave back in return. So much

of the Gold Coast’s modern identity began in Surfers Paradise, shaped by Jewish pioneers

whose fingerprints are still everywhere. From Stanley Korman developing Kinkabool, the

first high-rise, to the explosion of Jewish-owned businesses along Cavill Avenue in the 1960s

and beyond. Geulah Korman bringing high-end fashion to the Coast, Harry Samuel with his

chemist, the Travers family with The Little Hut café, and of course the Goldsteins, whose

humble bakery offering kosher goods grew into a true local empire.

The community didn’t just find paradise, they helped build it.

And then there’s another question that everyone asks: What were the interviews like?

The truth is, at the start, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. It all started with Gerald,

who handed me a list of names. From there, it spread like wildfire—word of mouth, phone

calls, introductions, people reaching out to say, “You should speak to so-and-so.” I am still

overwhelmed with gratitude for how willing people were to open their doors, their

memories, and their hearts.

A handful of locals—people with encyclopaedic knowledge of Jewish life on the Coast—

carried this project on their shoulders: Gerald Moses, Irving Korman, Barbara-Stewart Kann,

Linda Rothstein, Rabbi Gurevitch, John and Frank Goldstein, Louise Ward, David and

Anthony Spray. I owe them so much.

I travelled back and forth to the Gold Coast with my photo scanner and recorder, collecting

old photos, letters, and stories. I even made the journey to Melbourne to follow the threads

of this history wherever they led and connected with several people from Sydney via phone

calls and emails. And each time I turned an interview into a written chapter, I sent it back to

the person I had spoken to, to ensure accuracy, and more importantly, to ensure they felt

comfortable with how their story was being told. This project took trust. And I am genuinely

humbled by every person who shared a piece of their life with me.

Before I leave the microphone, there are some thank yous I must make. I first and foremost

need to thank the team who got this book over the line. My editor and childhood friend,

Yolande Schuurs. The book’s designer, Mika Ambhramson, who has done a beautiful and

meticulous job bringing the words on the page to life. A big thank you to Jennine Farrugia

for so generously proof-reading the book and to Jewish social anthropologist Jennifer

Creese who providing guidance and mentorship.

Thank you to the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, for supporting this project both

morally and financially, in particular Libby Burke and Jason Steinberg. Thank you for

creating a space to celebrate and showcase the community’s achievements and

contributions to Queensland and Australian Jewry. Thank you to the Reuben Pelerman

Foundation for sponsoring the project and to Gerald Moses for putting his utmost trust in

me.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who opened their homes, their archives, and their hearts.

Thank you to those who trusted me with their memories, photos, and truths. Thank you for

joining me today. It means more than I can say to stand in here surrounded by people who

understand the value of history, memory, and community.

Thank you for preserving history together because this book belongs to all of us. It’s our

shared story. It’s a Jewish story. It’s a Gold Coast story; it’s a Queensland Story. It’s an

Australian story. And I hope you find yourselves in it.