ARONSON, ZARA (1864-1944), journalist and charity worker, was born on 4
September 1864 in Sydney, daughter of Moritz Baar, merchant of Hanover and London,
and his wife Zillah, née Valentine. Taken to Europe at 3, she was educated at
Bradford Girls Grammar School, Yorkshire, England, and at Weisbaden, Germany. She
returned to Sydney in 1879 and attended Mrs Morell's school. At the Great
Synagogue on 25 October 1882 she married a 32-year-old merchant Frederick Aronson
(d.1928). They lived at Woollahra near her father, who now imported Indian and
Chinese wares.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Zara Aronson, née Baar, distinguished herself through her journalism, feminism and charitable work in Sydney and Perth, after having spent her early life in Europe. She returned to Sydney in 1879 to complete her education. After her marriage to Frederick Aronson, a merchant, in October 1882, she launched into her charitable work and served on the committees of the Sydney Industrial Blind Institution and the Thirlmere and the Queen Victoria homes for consumptives. As an active feminist from the 1890s, she was an original member of the Women's Literary Society and a founding member of the National Council of Women in 1896. She contributed to a range of journals and newspapers throughout her life, which included Australian Town and Country Journal, The Sydney Mail, and The Sydney Morning Herald, and wrote a cookery book, the proceeds of which she donated to the Junior Red Cross in New South Wales. She was an original member of the executive committee of the New South Wales Division of the British Red Cross Society in 1914 and organised and ran the depot which distributed more than a million books and magazines during World War I. She maintained her feminist interests when she became foundation secretary of the Women Writers of New South Wales in 1925, assuming the presidency in 1930. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 23 June 1936 for her services to the Red Cross Society.
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c. 1890 - c. 1920
Career in journalism active
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Australian Women's Register