My journey to leadership: ‘if I am only for myself, what am I?’

KIM RUBENSTEIN: As borders close, nations and states huddle, exclude and banish strangers, Hillel’s famous words resound to me louder by the day

I AM OFTEN asked what led me to law, academia and, more importantly, to human rights and gender equity advocacy?

There are many drivers but my Jewish identity has always been central. As a sixth generation Jewish Australian, my story is an unusual one.

My ancestor, Henry Cohen, was indicted at the London Old Bailey on March 20, 1833, for receiving stolen “promissory notes.”  His indictment is accessible on the Old Bailey website, as are the Crown’s witness statements, which make for fascinating reading. 

Cohen’s defence is rousing: “Gentlemen, I have taken these notes in my business, and I am entirely innocent of any guilty knowledge.” Naturally, “had [I known they were stolen] I would not have gone to Messrs. Masterman and Co. (the bank) where I must have been well known, having paid at that house monies at different times to a large amount, for bills of exchange accepted by me.”

Only a court with a heart of stone would stand unmoved by his request to be restored “to my wife and ten helpless children.” But no such luck, at least in England. Cohen was found guilty and at the age of 43 was transported (for 14 years), arriving in Sydney on December 18, 1833.

Thanks to Rabbi Dr John S Levi AC, we know Cohen’s wife Elizabeth and 10 children (and two of their servants) travelled to Australia on a separate ship, arriving three days after the convict ship that transported Cohen.

Cohen was sent to Port Macquarie, about 400km north of Sydney. He was “assigned” to Major Archibald Clunes Innes, in whose “service” he remained for six years. In June 1839, Cohen requested a pardon, supported by Clunes Innes, and by the following February he was given a “leave ticket” but had to remain in Port Macquarie.