"Return to the Old Paths, and We Shall yet be Happy Again": Jewish Women on the Central Victorian Goldfields, Australia, 1870-1900

On the Central Victorian Goldfields, new expressions of faith and religiosity were created for Jewish women. As British Colonial Evangelical ideas of feminine domesticity were incorporated into traditional Judaism, the practices, worship, and religiosity of Jewish women were altered, turning them from silent synagogue observers to vocal contributors and religious familial leaders. This transformation has remained unexplored in the Australian Jewish historical literature. This article is one of the first studies into the shifting religious practices, synagogue role, and identity of Jewish women on the Central Victorian Goldfields, giving greater voice and scope to the religious and cultural change of an often- forgotten section of the goldfields Jewish community.