Sara Segal z'l

Sara Segal was born in Poland in May 1920 and emigrated to Palestine on the 4th Aliya with her Zionist family in 1924 when she was 3 years old. The family settled in Jerusalem and Sara attended the well renowned English school, the Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls, where she excelled in English.

She came to Australia in January 1939 to visit her aunt and planned to spend a year abroad before returning to Palestine, however, she was forced to remain in Melbourne when the second World War broke out in September 1939. She subsequently met Harry Segal to whom she was married for 42 years and they settled in Melbourne.

Sara was actively involved in Jewish education all her adult life. She was the first kindergarten teacher at the Bialik School in Drummond St. North Carlton when it opened in 1942.

She was a former President of the Mt. Scopus Memorial College Mothers’ Club and was a delegate to both the Mt. Scopus College Council and the Jewish Community Council (formerly known as the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies) for many years.

Sara was a member of WIZO for over 40 years and was a founding member of WIZO Tivon. She joined the Executive of WIZO State Council of Victoria as Chairman of Education and Bible Studies, (a position she held for 25 years) and later became Chairman of Education and Information for the WIZO Federation of Australia.

During her time on the WIZO Executive, Sara wrote over 250 papers on Judaism and Israel. Her articles were regularly read and discussed at local meetings all over Australia. They were also sent to the WIZO Headquarters in Israel and distributed to WIZO Federations across the world. Some of her articles were published in the World WIZO Review magazines.

Sara received the Rebecca Sieff Award in 1981 for her services to WIZO, particularly as Chairman of Education and Information. She retired from her official WIZO positions in 1999, but remained member of WIZO Tivon.

Sara was the very proud mother to Carmella Prideaux and Aron Segal, and adored her 5 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter. Since her death the number of great grandchildren has grown to 14. She would have been extremely delighted with all of them as family was always her highest priority.

Sara passed away in 2009 at the age of 89. She is sorely missed by her family and those in WIZO who still remember her.