MIRIAM AMELIA BLOOM (NEE JOACHIM) AND ABRAHAM JACOB BLOOM
Miriam Amelia Joachim was born on 28th May 1870 in Port MacDonnell, South Australia. Will we ever know what took her parents Abraham Joachim, Reyna (nee Ottolangui) and their first-born Joseph (born in Melbourne on 11th April 1869) to this small port on the coast of South Australia?

The South Australian sojourn was short-lived as the Joachim’s third child Maurice was born in West Melbourne on 13th February 1872. The adventure across the border seemed to have faded from the family’s oral history, as has the reason for calling Miriam, “Matilda” for the rest of her life. I will refer to this forebear as Matilda from now on, as I am sure she would be most displeased if I called her anything else!

I cannot enlighten you as to Matilda’s education, her likes and her dislikes as a girl or a young woman. In fact I know nothing about her life until 1914 when she was operating a boarding house situated at 117 Wellington Street St.Kilda. Bert Chapman, our St.Kilda Football hero was boarding at the premises when he met Matilda’s sister, Susan (Cissie) whom he married in 1916.

At some stage Matilda acquired the property situated at 4 Crimea Street St Kilda. According to her Wedding Certificate she married Abraham Jacob Bloom on the 3rd August 1922 at this residence. However Keith Chapman, son of Bert and Susan Chapman is adamant that the newly married couple did not move into 4 Crimea Street when first married but lived in a semi-detached villa on the corner of Argyle and Chapel Streets, East St.Kilda.

When Raymond Apple knew “Auntie Mat”, she and “Little Beck” (Rebecca Joachim) were living at 4 Crimea Street “which was a rambling Federation-style house. Matilda was operating a boarding house in the Crimea Street premises using Becky as her skivvy. …. I have no idea whether there were any maids in the house, nor whether lodgers got meals - I guess they did. After Shule on Shabbat I would visit them…. I do recall Miriam's funeral leaving Crimea Street with Rabbi Danglow officiating at prayers in the house”.

Abraham Jacob Bloom was born about 1862 in Radzano~w. wojewodztwo, Ciechano~w Russian Poland, he was the son of Samuel Bloom and Deborah Jacobs. To date we know of one brother, Alexander Bloom born in 1868 and died in Melbourne in 1924. No marriage or children for Alexander Bloom have been located.
Abraham (Abe) married Annie Zendall in Poland in about 1882, she died in Melbourne in November 1919 and so Matilda was his second wife. Abraham and Annie Bloom had three children – Rebecca Bloom born about 1882, Sadie Bloom born about 1885 in London, England and Solomon Bloom born 23 July 1887 in London, England.
Little again is know about Abraham and his first family, however Keith Chapman tells me that Abe was quite a character and was great with the “one-liners”.

Abraham died on the 1st April 1938 at the Alfred Hospital and Matilda died on the 28th August 1952

Stories of Matilda’s strong will and domineering character are legendary amongst the family, but sadly photographs of her are few and far between. There appears to be no photographs of Abe Bloom and until recently there was nothing known about his first marriage and his children. However slowly this part of the family’s wider history is being painstakingly unearthed. With the help of Merle, website builder and researcher extraordinaire, Abe’s descendants have been located.

Abe’s son, Solomon Bloom died on the 8th July 1944 in Los Angles, California, USA. It is hoped that more details may be unearthed on this relative, once removed, in the near future. However, Abe’s second daughter Sadie married Joseph Schubert, and our super sleuth Merle has located her granddaughter Gilda. With Gilda’s permission I re-print her initial response to Merle’s enquires in respect of Matilda, Abraham Bloom and his descendants:

“Unfortunately, I do not have any knowledge about Miriam. The only person my grandmother (Sadie Bloom) ever spoke about was her brother Sol, who was apparently very clever. I vaguely think he was a lawyer. We never met him or saw any pictures of him. I think I remember seeing some of the books he was given for his Bar Mitzvah, but I don't have them. We did not know that he died in America.

My grandmother was always known as Sadie, but I had the impression her name was actually Sarah. I think I recall that her birthday was June 6. She married Joseph Schubert. They were married in Melbourne.

I wish I had asked my grandparents about their parents and grandparents, but I never did. Nor did I ask my mother, who is now deceased. The only information I have comes from my mother's birth certificate. My mother, Rachel Schubert, was born on 19th January 1913. She had one brother, Simon, three years older than her - he has been dead a number of years now. Sadie is shown on the birth certificate as being 26 years old and being born in London. Joseph is shown as being 30, a commercial traveler in jewellery, and coming from Thorne Posen Germany. (We thought he came from Poland!)

We always knew that my grandmother was born in London, as she talked about "going home" (rather than going to England) - a common form of expression at the time. My sister found it useful as having an English grandmother meant that she did not need to get a visa and that she could work in England. I think that has all changed now.

My grandparents lived at 44(?) Botany Street Randwick NSW while I was growing up. They owned the house.  As was common with women in those days, my grandmother did not work. 
I remember my grandfather used to grow some veggies in the back yard. He used to say to us: "Would you like a drop of beer, old dear?" when he offered lemonade and we all used to laugh. Occasionally I had a holiday for a week with them while I was young. I remember being very excited when they took me to the pictures to see Little Women. The other thing I remember was that my grandmother's cooking was slightly different to my mother's. They both used to serve baked dinner (meat and vegies) on Sunday, but the potatoes were baked more crisply at my grandmother's place. My grandparents visited us once a week on Sunday afternoons. They always brought us a chocolate frog, my fondest memory of their visit. For a large part of the visit they played cards (solo) with my parents.

I used to visit my grandparents when I was a first year student at the UNSW (which was relatively close) and I used to study there when I had free time between classes.

My husband and I remember clearly how my grandmother always wanted her cup of tea to be poured hot. Then we used to watch in bemusement, as she let it cool for ages, before she drank it.

My grandfather died on 30 June 1958. As my grandmother grew older, my parents and she decided it would be easier if she were cared for in an aged care nursing home near to where they lived at Earlwood. My grandmother was not really happy there. I think one of the reasons was that she did not relate to any of the other residents. We visited her there often and she did live to see my husband and I think, my first child. One thing that I do remember was that she took pride in her hair and we could obviously make her happy by commenting upon how nice it looked. (When she was younger, she had dark hair, but by the time she was in the nursing home, it was a silvery grey.)”


I wish to thank, in alphabetical order of course! Rabbi Raymond Apple, Keith and Shirley Chapman, Liz James, Merle Langley and Gilda Segal for their assistance in writing this article. I also take this opportunity to ask you all, once again to take a long hard look at old photo albums in your possession as we are desperately seeking photographs of Matilda and Abe Bloom.
Jenny Cowen