Editing Isaac Isaacs (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Isaac Isaacs (1898).jpg|thumb|right|Isaacs in the [[1898 Australasian Federal Convention]] album.]]
Isaacs was the son of Alfred Isaacs, a tailor of Jewish ancestry from the town of [[Mława]], Poland. Seeking better prospects, Alfred left Poland and worked his way across Germany, spending some months in Berlin and [[Frankfurt]]. By 1845 he had passed through Paris and arrived to work in London, where he met Rebecca Abrahams; the two married in 1849. After news of the 1851 [[Victorian gold rush]] reached England, Australia became a very popular destination and the Isaacs decided to emigrate. By 1854 they had saved enough for the fare, departing from [[Liverpool]] in June 1854 and arriving in Melbourne in September.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=1–5}} Some time after arriving the Isaacs moved into a cottage and [[storefront|shopfront]] in [[Elizabeth Street, Melbourne]], where Alfred continued his tailoring. Isaac Alfred Isaacs was born in this cottage on 6 August 1855.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=9–10}} His family moved to various locations around Melbourne while he was young, then in 1859 moved to [[Yackandandah, Victoria|Yackandandah]] in northern Victoria, close to family friends.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=12–14}} At this time Yackandandah was a [[gold mining]] settlement of 3,000&nbsp;people.

Isaacs had siblings born in Melbourne and Yackandandah: [[John A. Isaacs]], who later became a solicitor and Victorian Member of Parliament, and sisters Carolyn and Hannah were all born in Yackandandah. A brother was born in Melbourne, and another sister was born in Yackandandah, but both died very young.<ref>Gordon (1963), pp.13,18</ref> His first formal schooling was from sometime after 1860 at a small private establishment. At eight he won the school [[arithmetic]] prize, winning his photograph by the schoolmaster, who was also a photographer and [[Shoemaking|bootmaker]]. Yackandandah state school was opened in 1863 and Isaacs enrolled as a pupil. Here he excelled academically, particularly in arithmetic and languages, though he was a frequent [[truant]], walking off to spend time in the nearby mining camps. To help Isaacs gain a better quality education, in 1867, his family moved to nearby [[Beechworth, Victoria|Beechworth]] first enrolling him in the Common school then in the Beechworth [[Grammar School]].{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=19–20}} He excelled at the Grammar School, becoming [[dux]] in his first year and winning many academic prizes.<ref name="ADB">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Cowen|first=Zelman|author-link=Zelman Cowen|year=1983|title=Isaacs, Sir Isaac Alfred (1855–1948)|access-date=2022-08-05|id2=isaacs-sir-isaac-alfred-6805}}</ref> In his second year he was employed part-time as an assistant teacher at the school, and took up after school tutoring of fellow students. In September 1870, when Isaacs was just 15 years old, he passed his examination as a pupil teacher and taught at the school from then until 1873. Isaacs was next employed as an assistant teacher at the Beechworth State School, the successor to the Common school.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|p=23}}

While employed at the State School, Isaacs had his first experience of the law, as an unsuccessful litigant in an 1875 County Court case. He disputed a payment arrangement with the headmaster of his school, resigning as part of the dispute. After returning to teaching, now back at the Grammar School, he expanded his interest in the law; reading law books and attending court sittings.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=23–25}}

As a child Isaacs became fluent in Russian, which his parents spoke frequently, as well as English and some German. Isaacs later gained varying degrees of proficiency in Italian, French, Greek, Hindustani and Chinese.{{sfn|Gordon|1963|pp=12–13, 17}}