President's Corner

Major Addresses by The President, David Lewis

Law Service for Commencement of 2023 Law Term
The Great Synagogue
Wednesday, 8th February

•    Welcome to Country
Thank you Darren. I too pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and acknowledge their elders, past, present and emerging.

Welcome To Individuals By Name or Title

On behalf of The Board, ministers and members of our wonderful Great Synagogue, I am delighted to welcome our honoured guests ……
The Chief Justice, the Hon Andrew Bell

The President of the Court of Appeal, The Hon. Justice Julie Ward and other judges of the Court of Appeal

The Hon Justice John Robson of the Land & Environment Court of NSW and other judges and members of that court

The Hon Justice Gerard Phillips inaugural President of the Personal Injury Commission of NSW

The Hon Sophie Given, Judge of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and former judges of that court

The Hon. Justice Derek Price AO, the Chief Judge of the New South Wales District Court, and other judges of the District Court

Deputy Chief Magistrates Judges Theo Tsavdaridis and Sharon Freund as well as other magistrates

The Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP

Our immediate past President, the Hon Mr Justice Stephen Rothman AM to whom I am greatly indebted for his ongoing support and advice.

The Hon Mr Ronald Sackville, former judge of the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of NSW

The Hon. Justice François Kunc, Judge in the Equity Division of the Supreme Court of NSW.

The Hon Mr Steven Rares, judge of the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island!

Darren Bark CEO of the NSW JBOD and leaders of the Jewish community.

Archmandrite Christophorus Krikelis and Archdeacon Athenagoras Karakonstantakis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.

The Hon. Mr Justice Michael Hartmann, Chairman of the Market Misconduct Tribunal and the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal in Hong Kong.

Members of the NSW Parliament the Hon Michael Daley, Ron Hoenig, Natalie Ward, & former Attorney General Gabrielle Upton; all of whom have been good friends of ours for many years.

The Hon. Ben Franklin MP, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for the Arts, and Minister for Regional Youth.

GABRIELLE BASHIR SC, President of the NSW Bar Association.

Ms Cassandra Banks, President of the Law Society of NSW.

Councillors Ms Shauna Jarret & Mr William Chan, Council City of Sydney.

Rev Peter Kurti, Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program.

And finally another of our good friends who we are honoured to host every year, Rev Geoffrey Usher, minister of Spirit of Life Unitarian Church

We are also honoured to have many other members of parliament, federal and state; local government councillors; ministers and representatives of many religious and ethnic groups; my friends and colleagues of the legal profession together with many Rabbis and leaders of the Jewish community.

To be a Jewish Lawyer
Under British Law, the opportunity to be a lawyer for Jews has not always been straightforward.

Prior to the mid 1850s, Jews were not allowed to have degrees from Oxford or Cambridge, almost totally ensuring that a law qualification from these universities, and the standard route to the Bar, was unavailable. Judges of course were appointed almost exclusively from members of the Bar.

The so called “Oxbridge barrier” was removed by the Oxford University Act 1854 followed by the Cambridge University Act in 1856. Prior to those Acts, both Universities adopted a religious "test" that was specifically designed to preclude non-Christians from having certain degrees conferred on them.
The University College London was an alternate route to a legal degree prior to these Oxbridge University Acts.

However, then there was the further complication of The Oath.

In order to be a Barrister, a Judge or a Member of the House of Commons, there was a requirement on taking up any of these positions that the person swear an Oath which included the words:

"upon the true belief of a Christian”.

Unsurprisingly, many Jews found that in all conscience they could not take such an Oath and they were thereby effectively barred from such appointments.

The Jewish Relief Act 1858 removed the words "upon the true belief of a Christian” from the Oath to be taken by persons elected to the House of Commons. That Act did NOT however extend to judicial appointments until subsequent legislation in 1868.

The Jewish Relief Act 1858 was the result of over 20 years of significant debate in the Commons commencing in 1833. Hansard has recorded the highly antisemitic nature of argument – I will not repeat those debates in this paper.

There were very early exceptions – some Jews received special treatment that permitted them to take office. David Salomons was one of these.

Salomons was made Sheriff of London and the Sheriff’s Declaration Act of 1835 was enacted to allow him to take office without taking the Oath. Further, he was made an Alderman in 1847 and again special legislation in the form of the Jewish Municipal Relief Act of 1847 allowed him to take office omitting the words "upon the true belief of a Christian” from his Oath.

Baron Lionel de Rothschild was the first Jew to take his seat in the House of Commons on 26 July 1858 as he was then permitted to take his Oath without the constraining words. He was first elected in 1849 and again in 1857 but was denied his seat prior to the 1858 legislation.

Judicial appointments of Jews in Britain remained another matter. There was a specific exemption in the Jewish Relief Act 1858 relating to oaths to be taken upon appointment to the judiciary. It was not until the passing of the Promissory Oaths Act in 1868, which repealed that exemption, and permitted Jews to be appointed to the Judiciary and other senior positions.

“It is interesting to note that although Jews were, by this change, placed on a level footing with Christians, there was still one restriction which remained. That was that they could not exercise ecclesiastical patronage attached to any public office they might hold.”

What Happened in Australia
During my research on this matter, I was delighted to find that there appears to be a complete absence of any similar requirement in Australia and there certainly was no similar Oath.

I suggest that our convict/emancipist background, resulted in a more pragmatic approach that was more fluid and open in relation to the acceptance of Jews in colonial Australia. This was reflected in several high profile and early appointments. Access to the best local resources was most likely the criteria applied.

On the 3rd of July 1849 - Lionel Samson was Elected to Western Australia’s Legislative Chamber, becoming the First Jew to be elected to an Australian Parliament.
In Australian Genesis by the late Dr George Bergman and Rabbi Dr John Levi, they suggest that Samson’s appointment to the Legislative Council in WA did not set a legal precedent since a Jew was appointed as a Sheriff of London in 1835 and there were Jewish alderman in the same period.

Prior to that, in 1846 – Saul Samuel, later Sir Saul (the second President of The Great Synagogue 1878-1880), became the first Jew in the Colony to be appointed a Magistrate thereby effectively the first Jewish Judicial appointment in Australia. Further, on the 1st of Oct 1854 Saul became the first Jew to be elected to NSW’s Legislative Council. He was the first Jew to be a Minister of the Crown, 6 October 1859, and served as Colonial Treasurer. He subsequently had a distinguished career in politics and business.

Sir Saul laid the foundation stone for The Great Synagogue in 1875 and given his very significant role in the Sydney Jewish community, we can be certain that he did not swear an oath in the pre 1858 UK form.

Jewish lawyers were largely unrestricted in Australia.

However, there are examples of early antisemitism. On 13 Nov 1886 Julian Salamons (later Salomons) was appointed Chief Justice Of New South Wales.
Sadly, he declined to be sworn in “because of the hostility of the then current members of the bench”. There were other explanations given at the time.

DPL

I have some personal reflections on this matter of Oaths.

In December 1981, just over 40 years ago, when I attended the Supreme Court with my Chumach, that is the Torah printed in book form, in my hand ready to take my Oath as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW, the following exchange of words took place between me and the Clerk:
Clerk: “Will you swear or affirm?”
David: “I’ll swear thanks”
Clerk: “Here you are then he said” (handing me the New Testament)
David: No thanks I have my Chumach – my own
Clerk: “Oh, so you are going to Affirm then?”
David: “No, I am going to swear on the Jewish Torah in my hand!”

He was terribly confused and thankfully just gave up on me.

I know many of my friends from other faiths had similar issues albeit many years ago.

Conclusion
The Jewish community has made significant contributions to the Law in Australia. In turn, Australia and the legal profession, has been very good to us.

The Constitution in Section 116 states:

“The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth”.

It is a basic tenet of Jewish Law that we must observe the laws of the land in which we live and there can be no doubt that Australia, and our profession, has made that a very easy thing for us to do.

I Thank you all.

AGM REPORTS

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