Faith and culture

Esther was a Jewish woman, and her baby Rosanna was Jewish too.  There were about 15 other Jewish people who were also convicts on the First Fleet. This meant that Rosanna was the first free Jewish person to arrive in Australia. A Jewish community was formed by these people, but it took some time to establish a formal religious organisation.

Annandale Farm was a self-sufficient enterprise, almost like a small village, with servant’s cottages, a dairy, a butcher, a mill, a bakery, a blacksmith, stables, a vineyard, a slaughterhouse, storehouses, beehives and, of course, the orange grove. Some people think Esther might have operated a private kosher kitchen from her farm too. We have no evidence that Esther Abrahams practiced her faith or even ate kosher food but let’s explore this idea as a possibility and imagine she did.

Research the term kosher. [See also Additional Information.]

Answer these questions:

• What products and/or services could a kosher kitchen provide?
• From the evidence we have, what food could we deduce Esther supplied in her kosher kitchen?

Esther might have run the kosher kitchen privately but today she could run it publicly with a sign out the front. As Esther’s husband George called her Hetty for short, she might call it Hetty’s Kosher Kitchen.

Design a logo and sign for ‘Hetty’s Kosher Kitchen’ or design a label to go on jars of her food.

Identify the services you have in your community that help others. Just like Esther and other convicts in the colony, find a need in your local area that hasn’t been addressed, where you could make a difference.