Jewish service to Australian Hellenism

The centenary of the Consulate-General of the Hellenic Republic (Greece) in Sydney was marked with a series of events in May and June this year.

Amongst these events was the publication of a history of the Consulate-General since the first Honorary Consul was appointed in 1891. Few know about this unbroken diplomatic presence. Fewer still know about the Jewish dimensions of this rich history.

Decades before the re-formation of the State of Israel, a Jewish Australian was serving as a Honorary Consul of the Hellenic Kingdom (Greece). Darlinghurst-born Sir Samuel Sydney Cohen served in Newcastle between 1905 and 1915, becoming popular for his diligence in consular affairs.

In his report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens in early-1915, the Honorary Consul in Melbourne, Alexandros Maniakis threw his weight behind Cohen’s candidacy for the post of Honorary Consul in Sydney, informing that Cohen had been energetic in his duties in Newcastle, had financially aided Hellenic national causes and had been unfailing in his support of the Hunter region’s Hellenes. Cohen’s appointment was confirmed in June 1915 by royal decree.

The confidence in Cohen’s abilities was well-deserved, illustrated – for example – by his regular correspondence with the Australian media. The Wednesday, December 22, 1915, edition of the Sydney Morning Herald carried one of those characteristic Cohen letters. Greece at that time was in the throes of the National Division, a period when the pro-German King Constantine and the pro-British prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos were struggling for dominance.

Cohen wrote: “With respect to the general public … kindly permit me to set forth a few facts which will confirm the good opinions generally entertained regarding Greek citizens.

“1. The Greek community, individually and collectively, is ardently pro-British.

“2. The Greek navy is supervised by the British Naval Mission, the reappointment of which for another term of three years has recently been announced.

“3. The Greek government has amply testified its friendship for the Allies by placing of their disposal the naval bases of Lemnos, Imbros, Tenedos and Mitylene, as well as by facilitating operations at Salonica.”

Signing as Acting Consul-General for Greece, Cohen was serving the interests of Australian Hellenism as effectively as any official diplomat from Athens.

During the Greek Genocide, Cohen kept the Australian media supplied with reports on the Ottoman Empire’s systematic destruction of its indigenous Hellenic population. This knowledge served Cohen as he assisted hundreds of German and Australian Jews find refuge from Nazi persecution in Australia a decade later.

In May 1926, the first official diplomatic representation of Greece arrived in Australia, the inaugural Consul-General posted to Sydney. In January 1939, the third man to hold the post arrived here in turn, also accompanied by his family.

Dr Aimilios Vryzakis was an experienced diplomat who had served in Washington, DC, and Prague amongst other posts. His wife Eugenie was born to a Jewish family in Romania. One of Eugenie’s grandfathers had been a rabbi and one of her nephews was a founder of the first kibbutz in Israel in 1948.

What was meant to be a brief stay lasted over 13 years. Dr Emil and Eugenie Vrisakis served the Australian Hellenic community with passion and diligence, electing to settle in Sydney once he left the diplomatic service in the mid-1950s.

Over the decades since, numerous Jewish-Hellenic events and initiatives have been held in Australia. The late Vasilios Tolios (Consul-General from 2007 to 2013), Dr Stavros Kyrimis (Consul-General from 2013 to 2017) and Ioannis Mallikourtis (Consul-General from 2022 to 2025) in particular supported such initiatives as concerts of the Australian Hellenic and Jewish Society Choirs.

A stalwart of this cooperation has been Vic Alhadeff. Drawing on his family heritage on the Hellenic island of Rhodes, Alhadeff has been a regular feature and a behind the scenes force of Jewish service to Hellenism in Australia for many years and continues to contribute greatly.

During his time as CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the NSW Department of Education was persuaded to mandate teaching about the Shoah in schools. This opened the path to the 2027 NSW History Syllabus mandating study of “Australia’s civic action and humanitarian response during World War I” within the Depth Study (core) – Australia: making a nation – from Federation to WWI (1889 – c. 1919).

Amongst these “Significant groups, individuals, ideas” is the relief efforts on behalf of the survivors of the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes, including Samuel Sydney Cohen and Rabbi David Freedman (vice-chairman of the Armenian Relief Committee of Perth).

In the centenary year of the Consulate-General of the Hellenic Republic in Sydney, celebrate a century of formal Hellenic diplomatic representation in Australia. Celebrate the Jewish contributions to that century of service, great and small. Toda rabba!

Dr Panayiotis Diamadis is a director of the Australian Institute of Holocaust and

Genocide Studies and a student of the late Professor Colin Tatz.