Yiddishkeit on the Western Australian Goldfields in the 1890's:
Coolgardie was a tough place. The city’s population was young, transient, and disproportionately male, with many people competing over very little money. Camels were the primary method of transportation in the vast arid desert. Sanitary conditions were terrible, and disease was rife. In 1898, Joseph Hyam Myslis lost his own newborn daughter, Freidl (Phoebe), to typhus.
The 55 Jews living in Coolgardie (40 of them males) organized themselves into a community, and the High Holoday prayers conducted by Joseph Myslis attracted a crowd of 100 people, including Jews working on remote goldfields in the area!
Read more about the fascinating life and times of this unusual outback travelling Jew in the comments below.
