| Judah Waten | |
| Birth Name: | Judah Leon Waten |
| Birth Date: | 1911 7, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Odessa, Russian Empire |
| Death Place: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Occupation: | Writer, novelist |
| Notableworks: | Alien Son (1952) Distant Land (1964) |
Judah Leon Waten AM (29 July 191129 July 1985) was an Australian novelist who was at one time seen as the voice of Australian migrant writing.
Born in Odessa to a Russian-Jewish family, after a brief sojourn in Palestine,[1] Judah Waten arrived in Western Australia in 1914, where the family settled in Midland Junction, before shifting to Perth.[2] He attended Christian Brothers' College, Perth and, moving to Melbourne in 1926, University High School, Melbourne. He joined the Communist Party of Australia while still at school.[3] Between 1931 and 1933, he visited Europe, where he engaged in left-wing political activities in England, and spent three months in Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
He wrote novels, short stories and a history of the Great Depression in Australia. He is best known for two books, his autobiographical novel, Alien Son, first published in 1952 and for Distant Land, a story about a Yiddish-speaking Polish couple, the husband a former Talmudic prodigy turned intellectual and his wife Shoshanah, as they struggle to recreate and conserve their Jewish culture in a strange land. He travelled to the Soviet Union several times, once with Manning Clark and James Devaney.[4] He was involved in the Realist Writers Group, International PEN, the Fellowship of Australian Writers and served on the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
In 1967, he became a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party. However, he left the party in 1972 to join the pro-Soviet Socialist Party of Australia.[3]
In 1985 he died on his birthday in Heidelberg, and was survived by his wife, who was of Scottish descent,[5] and their daughter.
In 1979 he was awarded membership of the Order of Australia.[6]
In 1985 he was posthumously awarded the Patrick White Award.
Novels
Non-fiction
Memoir