Agin, Assaf
Personal Papers Archives
Authority Biography/Administrative HistoryThe collection contains colour slides and 8mm movies by Assaf Agin relating to his Shlichut in Sydney between 1960 - 1963 AND the permanent significance of the material. The website
www.assafagin.weebly.com contains the majority of Assaf’s digitized colour slides and some extracts from his movies. As the website is also a personal view of Assaf’s shlichut and the history of Habonim I have added commentary in English and Ivrit. The texts complement each other and are not translations.
Assaf Agin was sent to Australia by Ichud Habonim to fulfill a shlichut in the Sydney bra nch of the movement. It began on December 2, 1960, and lasted until March 31, 1963. Assaf found a movement that was in a slump as its most senior leaders had already made aliyah to Israel. Others had retired from the movement, having decided that they were not interested in aliyah. The oldest remaining members at that time were 15 to 16 years old, but with Assaf's active support, they took on the leadership of the movement.
To revitalise the movement, Assaf collaborated with the parents' committee, set up a leaders’ training course for 14–15-year-olds, found successful sites for summer and winter camps, produced a song book, distributed hats emblazoned with the movement's logo and produced unique pennants for each age group. The crowning achievement of his shlichut was the move from the old meeting place that was housed in a structure that had been a stable to a building that was once a synagogue. Together with the parents' committee, Assaf managed to obtain a five-year lease on the disused Central Synagogue which stood on the corner of Grosvener & Grafton Sts, Bondi Junction. With financial assistance from the Christadelphians, he refurbished the hall and made the whole place fit for the movement's routine activities. Assaf was always present at all the movements’ functions, where he usually organised dancing and provided the music on his piano accordion.
In addition to his work in Sydney, Assaf travelled to Victoria on three occasions to contribute his talents at summer camps held there. Similarly, Assaf travelled to New Zealand and spent the last three months of his shlichut there. He assisted the New Zealand movement in the same ways as he assisted the Sydney movement.
Assaf documented all the above on colour slides or on 8mm colour film. Assaf's youngest son, Guy, turned the slides into digital files. Guy gave the files to the undersigned, who identified the scenes in the movies and recorded them in separate files. In addition, the files of the slides were also identified.
[1] Habonim A Zionist youth movement with a socialist ideology. איחוד הבונים
[1] shlichut A period of overseas service in support of a Zionist cause. שליחות
[1] aliyah Emigration, in this context, from Australia to Israel. עליה
ProvenanceGIN, Assaf (ASSAFA)
Dates(s)1960 to 1963
Scope & ContentThe collection contains colour slides, black & white stills, as well as 8mm movies by Assaf Agin from the 1960s. These relate to his Shlichut in Sydney between 1960 - 1963. It documents the permanent significance of the material.
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