The Jewish Refugee Family and Concerns Over Intermarriage in Australia After 1945

Abstract Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews was conceptualized as a ‘problem’ by the Australian Jewish establishment after the Second World War. From the Displaced Persons camps in Europe to resettlement in Australia, norms and expectations imposed by migration and welfare agencies, policymakers, and community leaders shaped the family as a site of control, anxiety, and expectation. The exclusion of intermarried families from visa support by Jewish relief agencies demonstrated a desire to protect and police the borders of the Jewish community, based on older discourses of emancipation and assimilation. These discourses reinforced gendered assumptions about the home and the family as key sites for maintaining Jewish continuity. Fears about the strength and survival of the Jewish family found expression in Jewish literature and the Jewish press throughout the twentieth century, using intermarriage as a central theme.