Yudlov 1505 Haggadah London 1878 2

Yudlov 1505 Haggadah London 1878 2

Author: Rev. A. P. Mendes

Publisher: P. Vallentine

This Passover Haggadah was printed in London in 1878 and bears later ownership inscriptions connecting it to the Jewish community of St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia.

Written inside the volume are the names:

Charles Schott
Esther Kowadlo
10 Westbury Grove
St. Kilda

The inscription of Esther Kowadlo almost certainly refers to the family of Reverend Ephraim Isaiah Kowadlo, one of the most respected Jewish religious leaders in Melbourne during the mid-twentieth century.

Rev. Kowadlo served the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation from 1931 until 1970, functioning as cantor (chazan), assistant minister, educator, choir director, and pastoral figure for generations of Australian Jews, conducting synagogue services, teaching children and helping shape communal Jewish life in Melbourne over nearly four decades.

The address recorded in the Haggadah — 10 Westbury Grove, St Kilda — appears to have been the Kowadlo family residence. Contemporary accounts and synagogue memorial material place the Kowadlo family firmly within the center of Melbourne Jewish communal life.

Esther Kowadlo herself appears in synagogue memorial records alongside Rev. Kowadlo. Available records indicate she died in 1964 at approximately sixty-eight years of age, suggesting a birth year around 1896.

The earlier ownership inscription likely belongs to Charles Jacob Schott (1870–1929).

Charles Schott was part of Melbourne’s established Jewish community and married Bertha Branee Sagel (1885–1957). Their son, Flight Sergeant Keith Jacob Schott, was born on 18 January 1924 in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Australian Air Force.

Keith was killed in action over France in July 1944, only twenty years old.

SPECIAL