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allarat
BALLARAT, country town in Central Victoria, Australia.
After the gold rush in 1851 a number of Jews went to Ballarat
and in 1853 there was a minyan on the gold fields on the High
Holidays and in 1859 there were 347 male Jews in the town. A
Jew, Charles Dyte, took a leading part in the diggers’ revolt in
1854 (known as the Eureka Stockade) against unjust government
licensing. Later he became mayor of Ballarat. In 1855 a
small synagogue was dedicated, the congregational president
being Henry Harris. D. Isaacs was first minister, shoḥet, and
teacher, followed in 1864 by S. Herman, I.M. Goldreich (1868),
B. Lenzer (1905), M. Rosenthal (1922), L. Goren (1926), and
Z. Mandelbaum (the last resident rabbi of Ballarat who ministered
until 1942). A more commodious building, including
rooms for a minister’s residence and a Hebrew day school, was
erected on land granted by the government in 1861. A mikveh
was built and a burial plot consecrated. A Philanthropic Society,
founded in 1857, was affiliated with the *Anglo-Jewish
Association. In 1908 the congregation separated into two factions
and the Central Hebrew Congregation was formed, with
M. Levy as minister, but lasted only four years. In these early
days Ballarat was regarded as the center of Orthodox Judaism
in Australia.
Two Ballarat Jews achieved distinction in the arts: Nathan
Spielvogel, a well-known short-story writer, and Abbey
Alston, an artist whose works are found in most Australian
national galleries. With the drift to Melbourne, the Ballarat
community declined. In 1969 the Jewish population had dwindled
to about 10–15 families. By the early 21st century a few
families remained, as well as a historic Orthodox synagogue,
open on High Holidays. Sovereign Hill, a popular local tourist
attraction featuring a village from the Gold Rush era, includes
Emanuel Steinfeld’s Furniture Factory, an authentic recreation
of the business of a prominent Jewish pioneer.
Bibliography: N.F. Spielvogel, in: Australian Jewish Historical
Society, 1, pt. 3 (1940), 92–94; 1, pt. 6 (1941), 206–7; 2, pt. 6 (1946),
350–8; L.E. Fredman, ibid., 4, pt. 5 (1956), 279–80; L.M. Goldman,
ibid., 4 pts. 7 and 8 (1958), 440–1, 452–3, 459–60, 465–6, 477–8; D.J.
Benjamin, ibid., 4, pt. 3 (1960), 134. Add. Bibliography: H.L. Rubinstein,
The Jews in Victoria, 1835–1985 (1986), index.
[Shmuel Gorr]
BALLAS, SHIMON (1930– ), Israeli writer. Born in Baghdad,
Iraq, Ballas immigrated to Israel in 1951 without any
knowledge of Hebrew. Like his colleague Sami *Michael, Ballas
had been close to the Iraqi Communist Party and was not particularly
interested in Zionist ideology. He began his literary
career in Israel with the local Arab press and later spent four
years in Paris, where he earned his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne.
He is the author of a comprehensive study called “Arab Literature
under the Shadow of War” (1978; French translation
1980) and taught Arab Literature at the University of Haifa.
His first Hebrew novel, Ha-Ma’abarah (“The Transit Camp,”
1964), is one of the first Hebrew novels to shed light on the
harsh realities, tensions, and struggle for power in an immigrant
settlement in Israel of the 1950s. This realistically nar-
rated story was followed by novels and collections of stories.
Among these are Ḥoref Aḥaron (“Last Winter,” 1984), relating
the experiences of a founding member of the Egyptian Communist
Party who lives as an exile in Paris; Ve-Hu Aḥer (“And
He is Different,” 1991), depicting the fate of three protagonists
in Iraq under a ruthless tyrant: the dictator’s historian, a Jew
who converted to Islam; a Communist; and an Arab-Jewish
poet who later emigrates to Israel. The novel Solo (1998), set
in Paris during the notorious *Dreyfus affair, is the story of an
Egyptian-Jewish dramatist who fights for the independence of
his homeland. Among his other prose works are the novels Lo
bi-Mekomah (“Not in Her Place,” 1994) and Tel Aviv Mizraḥ
(“Tel Aviv East,” 2003). The collections of stories include
among others Mul ha-Ḥomah (“Facing the Wall,” 1969) and
Otot Setav (“Signs of Autumn,” 1992). The stories in the latter
collection are set – typically for Ballas – in Baghdad, Paris,
and Tel Aviv: “Aya” tells of a Moslem nanny bidding farewell
to the Jewish family for which she had worked; “Otot Setav”
focuses on the complex identity of an old Egyptian intellectual
torn between cultures. Ballas consciously abstains from
Oriental exoticism and nostalgia. An English translation of
“The Shoes of Tanboury” appeared in 1970.
Bibliography: G. Shaked, Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 4 (1993),
166–87); N. Zach, in: Haaretz (May 17, 1991). Y. Orian, in: Yedioth
Ahronoth (Jan. 16, 1981); E. Ben Ezer, “Through the Keyhole: S. Ballas’
A Locked Room,” in: Modern Hebrew Literature 7:1–2 (1981/1982),
28–30; I. Taha, “Otot Setav be-Aviv Sifruti Na’eh,” in: Alei Si’aḥ, 34
(1994), 85–94; M. Yahil-Waks, “Ha-Emdah ha-Shelishit,” in: Itton,
77, 92 (1987), 18–21; R. Snir, “‘We Were like Those Who Dream’”:
Iraqi-Jewish Writers in Israel in the 1950s,” in: Prooftexts, 11:2 (1991),
153–73; I. Taha, “Duality and Acceptance: The Image of the Outsider
in the Literary Work of Shimon Ballas,” in: Hebrew Studies, 38
(1997), 63–87; R. Snir, “Boded be-Mo’ado – S. Ballas ve-Kanon ha-Sifrut
ha-Ivrit,” In: Itton 77, 218 (1998), 16–21; H. Hever, “Kinun Zehut
bein Sippur le-Mapah: S. Ballas ba-Sipporet ha-Yisra’elit bi-Shenot
ha-Shishim,” in: Ẓiyyon ve-Ẓiyyonut be-kerev Yehudei Sefarad ve-ha-
Mizraḥ (2002), 561–73.
[Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]
BALLIN, ALBERT (1857–1918), German shipping magnate.
He was the 13th child of a Danish Jew who settled about 1830
in Hamburg, where he opened a wool-dyeing shop. Later his
father established an agency for shipping immigrants, which
young Ballin expanded after his father’s death. During the
large-scale emigration of the 1880s, Ballin, as chief passenger
agent for the English Carr Line, adapted the company’s vessels
for the transportation of steerage passengers. After keen competition
with Hapag (the Hamburg–America Line), Germany’s
leading shipping line, the two companies merged in 1886;
Ballin became head of the passenger department and in 1899
he started to lead the company. Hapag rapidly grew into one
of the world’s foremost shipping lines. This success was due
mainly to Ballin’s foresight and his setting of new standards
of speed and comfort. His capacity for negotiation and compromise
enabled him to form the first trans-Atlantic shipping
conference, called the North-Atlantic Steamship Lines Asso-
92 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3