GOLDHAR, PINCHAS

GOLDHAR, PINCHAS (1901–1947), Australian writer of Yiddish fiction. Born in Lodz, Goldhar migrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1928. His early death (of heart disease) was said to have been aggravated by hard physical work in his father's dye factory. Goldhar wrote many short stories, chiefly in Yiddish, which are regarded as among the best ever written by a Jewish writer in Australia. They focus on the loneliness (as was the case at the time, before the arrival of large numbers of Yiddish-speaking Holocaust survivors) of East European Jews in remote Australia, and the relative lack of culture in that country. Goldhar also edited Yiddish supplements in Australian Jewish newspapers and a collection of short stories, Dertseylungen fun Oystrale, in 1939. In recent years there has been a considerable revival of interest in his work. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Maclean, "The Convergence of Cultural Worlds – Pinchas Goldhar: A Yiddish Writer in Australia," in: W.D. Rubinstein (ed.), Jews in the Sixth Continent (1986); idem., "The Australian-Yiddish Writer, Pinchas Goldhar (1901–47)," in: Southerly, 55, 29–34; W.D. Rubinstein, Australia II, 326–27. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)