AustLit

'My grandparents and their baby, my uncle, arrived in Melbourne aboard the RMS Mooltan on 16 February 1939. They were met by the Australian Jewish Welfare Society, formed only two years before to assist Jewish refugees upon their arrival. It is possible that either Leo or Mina Fink, or both, were among those who greeted them off the boat. It stuck in my grandparents’ minds for the rest of their lives, the kindness shown by these Jewish strangers, and their gratitude. Leo and Mina Fink had been in Australia less than 10 years before my grandparents arrived, yet in this short time were already spearheading the relief and reception of Jewish refugees from Europe. After the war, Leo Fink also gained the ear of Australia’s first immigration minister Arthur Calwell, travelling regularly to Canberra determined to plead the case for the acceptance of Jewish survivors in Australia’s first mass immigration intake. For decades, the Finks were synonymous with Jewish life in Melbourne. Even today, as Margaret Taft notes in her history of this remarkable couple, it is impossible to venture far in the Jewish community of Melbourne without stumbling across their names engraved on plaques or enshrined in education and philanthropic endowments.' (Introduction)