Schalit, Ruby Rich

Personal Papers Archives

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Authority Biography/Administrative History

Ruby RICH-SCHALIT

Housing: 6 boxes Period: 1879-1986

The collection covers personal material on Ruby Rich Schalit. Ruby Rich Schalit was one of Australia's earliest feminists, a gifted pianist and an active figure in Australian Jewish life. The daughter of Louis Rich, an Australian millionaire, and Ada Bebarfald, Ruby Rich was born on the 23rd of June 1888 at Walgett, New South Wales. Rich had a happy childhood and her mother encouraged her interest in music. Although she was educated by governesses in French and German, her father refused to give her an academic education. In her early years Rich was a talented pianist and studied under Josef Kretschmann. She performed with great success at Sydney Tour Hall and for royalty abroad. Rich had aspirations to be a concert pianist but her father strongly disapproved. She travelled abroad in 1905 with her father and sister to study under Artur Schnabel in Berlin and Raoul Pugno in Paris.

When the First World War broke out Rich joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment to St Johns Ambulance Corps in London. Her brother was wounded in 1917 and later died which led Rich to adopt her nephew, Charles Rich.

In 1923 Rich met with Millicent Preston-Stanley, president of the Feminist Club of New South Wales, and became involved in the feminist political movement. She founded the Racial Hygiene Association of New South Wales with Lillie Goodisson in 1925, which was later renamed the Family Planning Association, and in 1931 represented the Australian Federation of Women Voters at the Women's Nationality Conference at The Hague.

In 1935 Rich visited Palestine for the first time to meet the Arab members of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance which led her to embrace the Zionist cause. She founded the Australian Friends of the Hebrew University in 1936 and later married Mose Aaron Schalit in 1937, the son of the pioneers of the Rishon LeZion.  

In 1937, now Rich Schalit, she was the first president of the Australian Federation of the Women's International Zionist Organisation, serving from 1937 to 1940 and was one of the founders of the N.S.W. Council of Action for Equal Pay. During Second World War Rich Schalit helped to found the Council for Women in War Work.  

She served as president of the Australian Federation of Women Voters from 1945 to 1948, and was re-elected in 1963, and opened the eighth triennial conference of the Australian Federation of Women Voters in Melbourne in 1948.

She also founded the League of Women Voters in 1949 and served as its president in the 1950s.

In the 1960s Rich Schalit served as chairman of the Interstate Committee of the Australian Division of the International Bible Contest and was a key figure in arranging Australian's first participation in the 1964 contest. She also reformed the Australian Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1961 and severed as its chairman for many years. She was instrumental in the orchestra's successful tour of Australia in 1966.

In 1967 Rich Schalit was awarded a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for community welfare services, particularly as a leader of movements for the advancement of women.

In 1971 Rich Schalit was the first recipient of the Torch of Learning Award of the Hebrew University by the N.S.W Friends of the Hebrew University. During International Women’s Year in 1975 Rich Schalit spoke in Canberra at the Women and Politics Conference.

In 1976 Rich Schalit was awarded the United Nation Peace Medal by Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations. Later in life Rich Schalit continued to be actively involved in the community. She founded the Ruby Rich House for women ex-prisoners in 1980 and was involved in the John Antill Scholarship committee in 1983 at age 95.

She was awarded the Anzac Memorial Peace Prize in 1982 for promoting international understanding. She was a long-time friend of Hephzibah Menuhin Hauser and became involved in the Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Scholarship Fund after her death. She was also interested promoting awareness of the Jewish doctor Waldemar Haffkine, a bacteriologist who discovered vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague, and corresponded with historian Edythe Lutzker from 1978 to 1984 on her biography of him.

By the end of her life in 1988, Rich Schalit had been a board member of the International Alliance of Women, Vice-President of the Commonwealth Countries League, Honorary Life President of the Australian Federation of Women Voters, President of Honour of the League of Women Voters (N.S.W), Honorary Life Member of the Australian Federation of Women's International Zionist Organisation, Vice-President of the Family Planning Association of Australia, Vice-President of the Judge Rainbow Appeal Fund, Chairman of the Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and President of the Josef Kretschmann Music Club.

Rich Schalit died in the nursing home, Durham Lodge in Bondi on the 19th of May 1988, a month from her 100th birthday. 

ProvenanceSCHALIT, Ruby Rich (SCHALITRR)
Dates(s)1878 to 1998
Scope & ContentThe collection covers personal material of Ruby RICH-SCHALIT Hardcopy correspondence; ephemeral material and photographs 6 boxes Period: 1878-1998 Ruby Rich-Schalit, a gifted pianist in her youth, was one of Australia's earliest feminists, being one of the founders of the N.S.W. Council of Action for Equal Pay, established in 1937. In the 1930s she became the first Australian President of the Women's International Zionist Organisation and the founder of the Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1960s. • Papers: Material relating to the Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (1961-1981) including scrapbook, minutes, correspondence, annual reports and Newsclippings. • Papers on the International Bible Contest (1964-5; 1969); Australia/Israel Society for Cultural Exchange (1973, 1982). • Typescripts and articles by Ruby Rich, and A Part of Tomorrow (play). • Personal correspondence with Jewish musicians (including Hephzibah and Yehudi Menuhin). • Photos: family, from about 1879 - 1984, Torch of Learning Award, United Nations Peace Prize, 1976.
Series

• Personal Papers of Ruby Rich Schalit