Prominent Australian book publisher Louise Adler talks about the values and events that matter to her
Your parents were Jacques and Ruth Adler, both Jewish immigrants.
My father came here from Paris in 1948, my mum from Berlin in 1939. My father was in the Resistance in Paris and came after the war.
Were you raised in a household that was both religiously and culturally Jewish?
We were “devout secular Jews”, atheists steeped in Jewish culture. I’m not denigrating people who believe but, for me, it’s about this world, this life. Can you be a decent person? Can you do something? Can you make a contribution – however modest – in your private life, your public life, in this world?
I don’t believe in the hereafter. My parents and grandparents didn’t, either; we went to Yiddish school to learn Yiddish and Jewish traditions. My parents didn’t go to synagogue, but were deeply Jewish in their attitudes to life. I think I am, too.
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Photo: Louise Adler (Kristoffer Paulsen)
