Paulette Cherny OAM
Paulette Cherny OAM (Solomon) was born in Brisbane to parents who were both born in Harbin, China. The family was very communally minded, her father and brother both receiving OAMs and her mother founding the Young Matron's for NCJW. Her younger sister, who passed away too young, was President of Queensland Maccabi. In 1959 Paulette was crowned the winner of the INF Queen Competition for NCJW.
She moved to Melbourne for the 1960/61 Maccabi Carnival and has lived there ever since.
She married Ernie in 1963 and after having her 3 children decided to go back into the workforce.
She did some part time typing in a travel agency and eventually opened her own Travel Agency called Flight Director which she successfully operated for 22 years. To this day she still works in travel for which she has a passion and during the past many years worked 4 days in travel and spent the 5th day in the WIZO office
Paulette's three children attended kindergarten at Temple Beth Israel in Bentleigh and she was asked to join the parents' committee as Secretary. During that time, she organised many successful functions. She was also the Social Organiser for the first Junior Maccabi Carnival in Melbourne.
Her children went to Mt Scopus College for schooling and she worked with her daughter Leanne to put together many successful fashion parades for the school where one son was the Du and the other a model.
In 1972 Paulette was approached to start a young WIZO group which she did with some friends, the result of that is WIZO Masada where Paulette held most executive positions, including President for 4 years. This was the beginning of Paulette's 48 years ongoing association with WIZO.
Paulette attended the inaugural Aviv Conference in Israel in 1979 where she was asked to make a presentation to Yitzhak Rabin z'l on behalf of the English speaking delegates. She attended three other Aviv Conferences, the most memorable one being the 10th Aviv Conference in 1989 which included Paris, Poland and Israel where 400 WIZO women marched through Auschwitz/ Birkenau, Majdanek and Treblinka. This was a life changing experience.
Paulette has an artistic streak and organised the entertainment for WIZO's New Member's Night, as well as revues and fashion parades at both group and State level. She also used to write the WIZO Masada newsletter for many years. She is still involved in WIZO Masada and takes a keen interest in what they do.
In 1976 she became a member of the WIZO State Executive of Victoria where she held many positions culminating with becoming President in 2002. In this position she attended three Enlarged General Meetings in Israel.
During her term as President of WIZO Victoria she saw to it that WIZO Victoria became incorporated and that we applied for grants on various levels. Also during her Presidency of WIZO Victoria, Paulette organised some successful large functions with guest numbers 400 + and with great support from the community. On stepping down as President of WIZO Victoria, Paulette was presented with the highest honour in WIZO, the Rebecca Seiff Award as well as having the Library at Korsunski Youth Club named in her honour.
In 2016 Paulette was elected President of WIZO Australia, a term that will last for 6 years. She has seen the opening of Makom BaLev, the completion of a new kitchen at Ahuzat Yeladim and the newly renovated Jonas Dormitory, as well as many other improvements to Australian projects. She has established a very successful social media presence and has instituted many ZOOM meetings and functions to ensure we all remain in contact during COVID lockdown.
In January 2020 she led a most successful tour of approximately 50 people through Israel culminating in the 2020 Centenary EGM Conference.
Her greatest honour was to be awarded an OAM for her communal involvement in January 2019, following in the footsteps of her late father and brother.
She has unbounded energy for the many activities that she does and tries to accomplish as much as possible in as short a time as possible.
She pays homage to those amazing women who have gone before her and inspired her to live up to what they accomplished to make WIZO in Australia as strong as it can be. With this in mind she, together with Tania Black and Miriam Millingen, is working on this ongoing project to honour the WIZO women who have made a difference since the beginnings of WIZO in Australia.