The Weintraub Syncopators: the Jewish question and the Musicians' Union of Australia, 1937-1953

Journal article

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In Journal Issue

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 20, 1 (2010)

Author(s) Kay Dreyfus AbstractThis article explores the link between aspects of Australia's treatment of Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s and of Jewish refugee music professionals in particular. It examines three aspects of the situation: the relationship of the Musicians Union of Australia (MUA) to government, the extent to which Union policy was underpinned by the racist ideologies of the White Australia Policy and the availability of legal remedy to musicians who were excluded from membership. The crucial issue of how much it mattered to the formation and implementation of MUA policy in the 1930s that foreign refugee musicians were Jewish is also examined and the article also tries to address the question of whether the MUA can be taken as representative of the profession at large at the time.
Year2010
Pages81-109