Caplan, Sophie & Leslie
Personal Papers Archives
Year Event References in Collection
20/03/1933 Born Eschweiler, Germany See PP/CAPLANS/1/8/001/001.68 for Sophie Caplan CV
1939 Family Fled to Belgium
Primary school /junior in France before immigration to Australia
Rescued by OSE in wartime France
1947 Migrated to Australia
3 years high school in Australia at Crown Street Girls; Sydney Girls High School
1950 - Leaving Certificate
1947 - 1953 Active in Habonim Labour Zionist Youth Movement
1951- 1953 Sydney University
1953 Elected honorary Secretary of Australian Zionist Youth Movement
1954 Bachelor of Arts
1955 Married Leslie Caplan President of Australian Zionist Youth Council
1955 Sydney Teachers' College, Diploma in Education
1957 - 1958 Graduate Assistant teacher in NSW High Schools, teaching English, French, History and Social Studies
1958 Retired from teaching to start a family
1958 - 1960 Sydney University, Honours degree of MA in Education
1966 - 1975 Founded Masada College - first post World war II progressive Jewish School in NSW
1966 - 1969 Member of Education Committee; founded primary school library and chaired Library Committee
1972 - 1974 Thesis The Jewish Day School in NSW 1940 - 1974
1975 Founded and edited parent's bulletin "Masada College Newsletter"
Founded Dr Hans Kimmel Memorial essay Competition in Contemporary Jewish History for 5-16 year old students of Moriah College
Committee Member of the AJHS
1975 Awarded Master of Education (Hons)
1980 First interviewer in Australia of Holocaust survivors as research assistant to Associate Professor Konrad Kwiet in the Oral History Project of the German Studies Department of the UNSW
1980 -1989 Oral Historian of Jewish Refugees and Holocaust survivors in Australia
1982-1983; 1988 -1990 Sole organiser for Australia and NZ of census for the Department of Education Statistics of the Department of Demography in the School of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University
1984 - 1992 Named foundation chairman of the Edgar Seitel Newman Award in Contemporary Jewish History, biennial award for Jewish youth aged 15 - 25 of Australia and NZ
1991 Founded the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (AJGS)
1991 - 1993 President of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (AJGS)
1993 Founded Newsletter The Kosher Koala for AJGS
1986 Editor to AVOTAYNU, the international Review of Jewish Genealogy, succeeding the Australian foundation contributing editor Rabbi Dr Israel Porush
1983 - 1989 Visiting Lecturer to Professor Kwiet's course on "The Persecution and the Destruction of the European Jews 1933 - 1945"
1990 - 1992 Teaching follow and lecturer in charge of course "The Persecution and the Destruction of the European Jews 1933 - 1945"
1992 Article "The Legacy of Childhood Exile" in German translated in German "Exil Der Kleine Leute" See PP/CAPLANS/1/8/001/001.69 & PP/CAPLANS/1/8/001/001.71 (in German)
Articles on Genealogy in Avotaynu " The Quest for the Topf Family, The origins of Australian Jewry, Jewish Life in Ethiopia and Kenya, Student essays and the Barbie Trial
Articles on Education in Masada College Newsletter
Articles on Holocaust and on Jewish History in Australia, unpublished lectures "A unique case of Survival During the Holocaust, The Story of Salam Bully Schott See PP/CAPLANS/1/21/001/001.227 & PP/CAPLANS/1/21/001/001.228
Leslie Caplan Year Event References in Collection
1932 Born in Sydney See PP/CAPLANS/1/25/002/002.1 for Leslie Caplan CV
North Sydney Boy's High school
Sydney University Law School
1951 Joined Zionist Youth League
1952 President, Zionist Youth Council NSW
1953 President, Australian Zionist Youth Council
1955 LLB
1955 Married Sophie Caplan
1965 Member of Parents Planning Committee of North Shore Kindergarten, participating in the foundation of Masada College in 1966
1966 - 1971 District Chairman, Cremorne Jewish National Fund
1966 - 1969 Chairman of Education Sub-Committee of Masada
1967 - 1971 Founding VP, Masada College
1970 - 1978 Elected to Board of Management , North Shore Synagogue
1971-1974 President, Masada College
1974 - 1975 President, North Shore Synagogue
1974 Deputy to the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, representing North Shore Synagogue
1976 Sabbatical for one year in Israel
1970 - 1978 Together with Sophie ran Cultural Committee at North Shore Synagogue
1978 Elected General Francise Member of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
1979 Elected to Executive of NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, then appointed as Education Chairman
1980 Elected VP of NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
1982 - 1985 President, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
1984 Awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the Australia Day Honours
1985 Visited the USSR to contact a group of Refuseniks
1985 - 1987 President, ECAJ
1988 - 1997 Elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Communal Appeal of NSW
1988 Visited Ethiopia
1989 - 1992 President, ECAJ
1989 Trustee of Rookwood Jewish Cemetery Trust
1990 Attended World Jewish Congress Executive in Berlin and visited Auschwitz
1990 - 1991 Attended various international conferences
1992 Appointed Honorary Life Membership of NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
1993 Appointed Honorary Life Membership of ECAJ
1996 Elected president Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood
Leslie and Sophie Caplan were Drawing Room Hosts for the UIA for a number of years and were involved with the JCA since its inception
These series were collected and created by Sophie Caplan as part of her personal papers and as they related to the Caplan's involvement, participation, activities and contributions in the community. The series are a way of "evidencing and memorialising" their lives, activities, interests, contributions, involvement, experiences, relationships with others and to portray their identity, significance and place in the Jewish community. The primary concern in the analysis is to ascertain why the records were created rather than what they contain, how they were created and utilised by the original user, in this instance, rather than how they might be used in the future, and what formal functions and mandates of the creator they supported rather than what internal structure or physical characteristics they may or may not have.
The personal papers were part of a donation by the family and might not contain papers relating to all the activities, roles and positions occupied as outlined above. They are incorporated into the "collective archives" of AJHS so that this "evidence" is made an accessible part of the society's memory and cultural identity.
There was no delineation between Sophie Caplan Series 1 and 2, hence, material relating to Sophie Caplan might inadvertently be in this series, especially in relation to the invitations from various organisations in the capacity in their roles, Masada College and North Shore Synagogue. T. However, best effort was made to distinguish Sophie Caplan's series to Leslie Caplan's papers and vice versa. It was decided to incorporate the papers relating to Masada, North Shore Synagogue into Caplan Series 1 as these papers were acquired in her name.
Please note that the overall date range of series /001 includes items specifically, personal ephemera such as passports, identity cards, birth and marriage certificates and photographs from Holocaust survivors. The dates often predate her birth, involvement/role in the community.
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