Australian Dictionary of Biography

Sir Asher Joel

National Archives of Australia

• Sir Asher Alexander Joel (1912–1998), journalist, communication consultant, parliamentarian, and media proprietor, was born on 4 May 1912 at Stanmore, Sydney, oldest of three children of English-born Henry (Harry) Joel, salesman, and his wife Phoebe, née Jacobs, from Victoria. Joel grew up in Enmore where he attended Enmore Primary School and Cleveland Street Public School. A year after his bar mitzvah at the Newtown Synagogue in May 1925, he left school. Starting out as a messenger boy at the Daily Telegraph, he went on to train as a cadet. He moved to the Labor Daily in 1933, becoming State political reporter. The position brought him into direct contact with State politicians and required him to develop his broader communication skills. His attributes did not go unnoticed. In 1935 he was invited to serve as private secretary on J. T. Lang’s campaign tour of New South Wales, an experience Joel recalled as ‘very dramatic and an intoxicating brew for a young man’ (Joel c. 1996–98, 416).

In 1937 Joel left the Labor Daily and his career in journalism to become publicity officer for the Co-operative Building Society scheme. He was concurrently publicity director for the King George VI coronation celebrations (1937), followed by the New South Wales sesquicentenary celebrations (1938). They were the last public events for which he accepted payment as an organiser. His flair for event management and promotion nonetheless led to further public relations opportunities, including with the committee to establish a permanent memorial to the late Labor minister John Dunningham. On 8 July 1937 he married locally born Olga Helene Parish at the district registrar’s office, Randwick. His parents were disappointed that she was not Jewish and did not attend the civil ceremony.

Growing hostility towards Jewish people in Europe, and the prospect of war, alarmed Joel. Feeling that he had a duty ‘as an Australian and a Jew’ (Joel c. 1996–98, 578), he enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces in March 1939. However, his organisational skills were in demand and he was discharged in October to serve in a reserved occupation, as organising secretary of the Lord Mayor’s Patriotic and War Fund, which was also the New South Wales division of the Australian Comforts Fund.

Becoming increasingly frustrated with his public relations roles, Joel chose to re-enter the services, enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force, on 26 June 1942. In October, however, he was appointed as a paymaster sub-lieutenant in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. The next month he was posted to HMAS Magnetic, Townsville, Queensland, as assistant to the staff officer (operations). Promoted to lieutenant in the Special Branch in February 1943, he was transferred in August to the Base Staff, Milne Bay, Papua, as operations officer. His duties included ships of the United States Navy; for his efficiency and cooperative spirit, he was awarded the American Bronze Star Medal (1945). In March 1944 he was attached to the Naval Intelligence Division’s information section, first at Navy Office, Melbourne, then, from August, in the advanced echelon of General Headquarters, South-West Pacific Area, responsible for ensuring that Royal Australian Navy operations received appropriate publicity. In that role he learned ‘the art and importance of public relations,’ notably how influence could be exerted and how it was used’ (Joel c. 1996–98, 925). He was present when General Douglas MacArthur returned control of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to President Sergio Osmeña in February 1945. ‘I had a tremendous war’ (Joel 1973, 8,505), he later recalled.

As the war wound down, Joel resumed more familiar activities, organising Melbourne’s celebration of victory in the Pacific. Demobilised on 17 August 1945, he set up his own public relations consultancy in Melbourne, began to build a solid business based on his networks, and worked on the Liberal Party campaign for the 1945 State election. He returned to Sydney in 1946 in an unsuccessful attempt to save his marriage, which ended in divorce in 1948. On 7 April 1949 he married locally born fashion model Sybil Jacobs at the Great Synagogue, Sydney.

Whether or not Joel was the first public relations consultant in Australia, as he claimed, he was certainly a pioneer in the field. The demand for such expertise expanded in the immediate postwar period. He served as one of the inaugural councillors of the Australian Institute of Public Relations when it formed in 1950, was elected president in 1952, and would remain an active member for decades. The Asher Joel Advertising Agency’s major clients included the Returned Services League of Australia, and the United Licensed Victuallers’ Association.

Joel’s expertise lay not only in his strategic relations work for government and corporate clients, but also in his pro bono organising and staging of major public events. He orchestrated the Waratah Festival (1956–63), Anzac Day broadcasts, the visit of Princess Alexandra (1959), the Pageant of Nationhood staged during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (1963), visits by Lyndon B. Johnson (1966) and Pope Paul VI (1970), the bicentenary of James Cook’s charting of Australia’s east coast (1970), the International Eucharist Congress in Melbourne (1973), and the opening of the Sydney Opera House (1973).

Both Joel’s event management skills and his networking abilities were integral to his political career. Despite having worked at the Labor Daily, he was ‘not a committed party man’ (Joel c. 1996–98, 406) and had been disillusioned by some of the party’s inner machinations. He joined the Woollahra branch of the United Australia Party in the late 1930s and was elected secretary. In 1940 he withdrew from the contest for preselection for the seat of Hornsby when a party elder advised him that his faith would impede his success. His political ambitions were rekindled after the war. He unsuccessfully contested election to the Legislative Council in 1949, 1950, and 1955 as one of the members elected by members of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. In November 1957 he was finally elected, having been nominated by two Liberal members of the Lower House, but took his seat as an Independent in April 1958, the first person to wear a yarmulke while taking the oath in that place. A year later, perceiving there was little hope of retaining his seat as an Independent, and displaying what Michael Kirby later described as Joel’s ‘catholic political tendencies’ (Kirby 1992, 3), he joined the State branch of the Australian Country Party whose members he admired for their ‘frank, earthy approach to problems’ (Wynhausen 1976, 19). He later served on the central executive (from 1971) and as treasurer (1971–72). Opposing the idea of a popularly elected Legislative Council, he campaigned vigorously to defeat a vote to abolish the upper chamber at the 1961 referendum. To his own parliamentary speeches he brought an air of creativity, incorporating props to colourfully illustrate his arguments. Electoral reforms to the Legislative Council providing for direct election by the voting public induced him to retire in November 1978. Drawing on his experiences as a parliamentarian and as an organiser for state events, Joel published Australian Protocol & Procedures, a treatise on ‘good manners’ (Joel 1982, 2).

Having agreed to mediate an industrial dispute for Mount Isa Mines, Queensland, in 1964, Joel eventually established Carpentaria Newspapers Pty Ltd in 1966 and launched the North West Star newspaper. In 1973 he acquired Mount Isa Television Pty Ltd and its station, ITQ8. Further acquisitions followed as he built up a portfolio of publications concerning the mining, building, and construction industries. By 1980, the Asher Joel Media Group was operating as a family business, with Joel serving as the chairman. The business was sold to Peter Isaacson Publications in 1986.

Joel was a proud and active member of Sydney’s Jewish community. In addition to being a member of the North Shore Synagogue, he served on the boards of a number of organisations including the Anzac Memorial and Forest in Israel committee and the Australian Jewish Welfare Society, and was vice-president of the Jewish National Fund. His network enabled him to garner broader political support for Jewish causes, notably in facilitating the transfer of locally raised funds to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

In acknowledgement of his public service, he was appointed OBE in 1956, knight bachelor in 1971, and  KBE in 1974. In 1978 he was appointed to the Order of the Knights of Rizal by the Philippines government, and received the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Torch of Learning award. He was appointed AO in 1986, Macquarie University conferred on him an honorary degree of doctor of letters in 1988, the Sir Asher Joel Synagogue was consecrated at Masada College, St Ives, in 1990, and he was appointed knight of the Order of St Sylvester by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

Joel died from a gastrointestinal haemorrhage on 9 November 1998 at Elizabeth Bay. His funeral was conducted at the Great Synagogue, and he was buried in the Northern Suburbs Jewish Cemetery, North Ryde. He was survived by his wife, his children Richard and David from his first marriage, and Michael and Susan (Alexandra) from his second marriage. Observing that he ‘walked with kings, queens, princes of the Church—and rabbis, leaders of nations, captains of industry, military dignitaries and media moguls—with a genuine aristocracy of personality and presence’ (Apple 1998), Rabbi Raymond Apple’s eulogy underscored Joel’s greatest strength: his capacity to connect. The typewriter he used as a naval officer during World War II is part of the Australian War Memorial’s collection.