Arts & Culture

Jewish people have always valued creativity and culture and many Australian Jews have contributed greatly to Australia's rich cultural life. The arts have benefitted at every level from the contributions of Jews – as performers and artists, as sponsors and financial supporters and as audiences.

Barnett Levey was the first free Jewish male settler to arrive in New South Wales. He became known as the father of Australian theatre following his founding of the Theatre Royal in Sydney. The Australian entertainment industry can trace its roots to the pioneering endeavours of early theatrical entrepreneurs like Barnett Levey.

> Find out more about Levey's exploits in setting up the original Theatre Royal

The music world has benefited from the diverse talents of countless Jewish musicians and performers. Isaac Nathan (1790-1864), performer, composer, teacher, critic, theorist and musical publisher, assisted the careers of many colonial musicians during his twenty year residence in Sydney. Known as the father of Australian Music, his Don John of Austria, the first opera to be written, composed and produced in Australia, was first performed in Sydney in 1847. Nathan was also the first professional musician to transcribe Aboriginal music.  

> Read more about the life and work of Isaac Nathan

It was yet another entrepreneurial Jewish settler, George Baron Goodman, who brought the art of photography to Australia. Having taken lessons from Louis Daguerre in Paris, on his return to London, Goodman purchased a licence from Richard Beard (holder of the English patent for the process) to take photographs within specific British colonies. Arriving in Australia in 1842, 
Goodman quickly set up his 'Daguerreotype Gallery' at the Royal Hotel, in George Street, and immediately set about capturing 'faithful miniature likenesses' of Sydney's leading citizens.  

> See Australia's first photographic portraits taken by George Goodman