(Author: Peter de Jong, Vol. 66, #2, Rosh Hashanah 2011)
Klerksdorp, it was once believed, would “grow to rival Johannesburg in size and importance”. Gold had been discovered in 1886 and the following year public diggings were proclaimed and a mining commissioner appointed. Within weeks, the population of the rustic dorp grew to 3000. Gold was the magnet, the opportunity to accumulate untold wealth the attraction. A certain group of adventurers, who had previously tried their luck on Kimberley diamond diggings, then on the Lydenburg/Pilgrims Rest/Barberton gold diggings, arrived. The common threads were that they were Jewish and that they were ‘Masons.’1
When this group first came to Klerksdorp is not known. The brothers George and Joseph Horwitz are said to have arrived at the end of 1886. Archive records of the Zuid Afrikaanshe Republiek show that M. Nathan, T. Sonnenberg, and F. Kohn had all appealed to the State Secretary to establish themselves as ‘market master, auctioneer and doctor’ in the district in 1888.2 When they formally constituted the “Hebrew Congregation” is not known, but by then a sufficient number had settled for 38 persons to petition the State President of the South African Republic “for land to bury their dead”. The cemetery was consecrated a year later on 24 August 1889 by Rev Joshua East (anglicised from Mizrachi).3 It would take another fourteen years before the synagogue was built.
In August 1888, the Klerksdorp Mining Representative (KMR) began publication. This newspaper, which later changed its name to The Klerksdorp Record, continues publication this day. Newspaper reports and legal notices of establishment or dissolution of partnerships, company reports and community news, are the source of a list of recognisably Jewish names, which by the end of 1889 approached 100. Unless otherwise referenced, this newspaper is the source of all the information contained in this article.
Three characters deserve specific mention. Charles Sonnenberg was the acknowledged leader of the Jewish community.4 He had fought in the American Civil War, made his fortune on the Kimberley diamond fields and been involved with the Lydenburg/Barberton gold rush, before moving to the Klerksdorp diggings. His wife had laid the cornerstone of the Kimberley synagogue. Sonnenberg’s occupations are described variously as stocks and shares Broker, agent for S. Solomon and Co. and auctioneer. His other interest was Masonry. The ‘Charter’ meeting of the Thomas Gardner Masonic Lodge (1988) reads like a congregation attendance list: “Bro. Charles Sonnenberg was voted to the Chair proposed by Bro. Rosenstock… that it is advisable in the opinion of this meeting to form a Lodge… seconded by Bro Boaz. Carried unanimously. Proposed by Bro. Levein…to apply for a charter… Seconded by Bro. Walters.” After the stock market crash, Sonnenberg returned to Vryburg, where he was elected to the Cape Legislative Assembly as the representative for Paul Sauer’s Afrikaner Bond Party.
The Treasurer, Louis Emanuel, had earlier served as Secretary for the defunct Witwatersrand United Hebrew Congregation. Well educated at three universities, he soon became prominent in town affairs. The KMR reported that “…. an urgent need in our town is in the most capable hands of Louis Emanuel”. He figured prominently in the affairs of the Stock Exchange and was probably their Secretary. The partnership “De Beer, Emanuel and Company” is prominent in advertisements in the KMR. It must have been a stormy association, for it was dissolved with a great deal of bitterness in 1890, a short time before the collapse of the Stock Exchange. Emanuel was arrested and charged with ‘fraud and embezzlement‘. Sonnenberg and “another’ posted two bonds of £500 each and Emanuel moved back to the Witwatersrand. The reports of the trial intimate that Louis Emanuel did not have much patience with the slower De Beer and often criticised him in front of the staff. A company floated by Emanuel, ‘The Klerksdorp Board of Executors’, brought the issue to a head. De Beer accused Emanuel of keeping for himself the commission from the sale of shares to Sonnenberg, commission that was due to the partnership. The charges could not have held water because within months of his return to Johannesburg, Emanuel had been elected to the Sanitation committee. The Standard & Diggers News reports, with undisguised glee, a ‘tongue lashing’ given by Emanuel to Julius Jeppe in a meeting of this Board.
The Rev. J M East was born in Palestine. In Cape Town, he served in the dual capacity of “shammus and shochet”. There he had met Sophie, a girl so young that the Chief Justice of the Cape Colony had to give permission for them to marry.5 In Klerksdorp, he was appointed the Honorary Minister. Within months of his arrival in Klerksdorp, the KMR printed an interesting “Editorial” extolling the virtues of “kosher” meat. He remained after the Stock Exchange crash in 1890 and throughout the Anglo-Boer War. The Commander of the British Garrison in the town was less than flattering in his assessment of East, describing him as “a subordinate Jewish Priest of the lowest rank; employed to prepare Kosher meat. Reported to be anti-British…”6 Reverend East remained in Klerksdorp until the consecration of the synagogue in 1903. He represented Transvaal Jewry at the re-interment of President Kruger, and went on to become the minister for the Jeppestown Hebrew Congregation in Johannesburg.
The KMR reports the first Rosh Hashanah services to have been held “in a building on the Market Square, the Rev. Pincus officiating”. In 1890, the service was conducted “in the side room of Mr. Samuel Nathan’s store”. From 1891 until the synagogue was built, services were held in the Stock Exchange Building, owned by Mr R. Hanson.7
Building a synagogue was always the priority on the agenda. Two conflicting accounts of how the ground was granted to the congregation exist. The story in the KMR refers to a ‘one man delegation’ sent to President Kruger to resolve a church dispute between two Dutch Reformed congregations. He asked Mr. Shapiro to accompany him “because of his knowledge of the Bible”. Shapiro “… used the opportunity to ask the President for ground for a synagogue for the Jewish community”. Another version credits Joseph Horwitz with making request, whilst he was on a trip to Pretoria to renew his liquor license. Either way, two erven were granted by the State. The cornerstone of the building was laid in 1902 and the synagogue building was consecrated in 1903. Interestingly, Horwitz’s name does not appear on the congregation board. As a POW in the lately concluded war, he had not yet been repatriated from St. Helena
The Jews were a conspicuous and colourful element on the diggings. As with Catholics, they had no franchise in the Republic’s Volksraad. Communication with the government was through resolutions at local meetings put to the Potchefstroom Volksraad member under whom the Klerksdorp District fell. Sonnenberg and Rev East had much to say. On the subject of the franchise for Jews and Catholics, Sonnenberg was most vocal in advocating they be granted the vote. Interestingly Rev East, who opposed him, felt such a resolution to the Volksraad would jeopardise “the granting of other rights”. The KMR reports “…Sonnenberg thanked the government for remitting the duty on bread …but thought they should go much further… and do away with the duty altogether”. Another of his resolutions was “to urge the erection of suitable public buildings ….and provide the Magistrate with more clerks”. He also supported the extension of the railway through Kimberley to Klerksdorp and Johannesburg
The congregation engaged in every normal activity. They were butchers, bakers, shopkeepers, grain merchant, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, hoteliers and barmen. All can be identified from advertisements in the KMR. The Brothers A and J Bernhard were secretaries and as secretaries of the Klerksdorp Sporting Club were probably Klerksdorp’s first ‘bookies’. There was a smattering of industry amongst the congregation. Balkind and Kohn were jewellers while Barnie Arenstein had exhibited and won awards for his cigars at the Paris and Berlin Exhibitions. Arenstein set up a manufacturing facility in the town and advertised for youngsters to be apprenticed to him. Most significant was the link with Paul Kruger’s industrialist friend Sammy Marks. The ‘Agent for the Hatherley Distillery’ and Vereeniging Coal were the brothers Mark and Fred Joseph.
Klerksdorp was the very essence of a digger town. Of the 200 new buildings erected, 69 were bars or places where liquor was sold. Jews figured prominently. “Mr. J.H. [Joseph Horwitz] guarantees that persons patronising this hotel [Klerksdorp Hotel] will meet with every comfort and convenience. BEST BRANDS OF LIQUORS ONLY KEPT.” A hotel of significance was the Argyll Hotel of Josiah Levine (“First Class accommodation, comfortable single and double bedrooms, large Billiard Room with A1 size table, large stabling and attentive groom in attendance. Only Best Liquors Kept”). It was here that the executive met to conduct the business of the Congregation. The Lindenberg Brothers had listed all the qualities required of “The Central Hotel in the Rietkuil Goldfields near Klerksdorp”.
The first recorded birth of a Jewish child that of “a daughter to Mr and Mrs Josiah Levine.” The first mention of a marriage is a notice in German, Dutch and English reading, “Theodore Sonnenberg announces to the citizenry of Kaizerlauten, Lich and Klerksdorp, that he and Bertha Bing, daughter of the horse trader Abraham Bing, want to get married to each other”. A burial was the first public function at which Rev. East officiated. The ten month-old Simon Lazarus Abrahams was buried on 24 August 1889 in the new cemetery. The KMR printed the hesped verbatim
All active aspects of community life in Klerksdorp today had their origin in these years. Concern and responsibility for fellow Jews was a given. The KMR advertised “A Concert in Aid of the Persecuted Jews in Russia”. Fred Joseph, “a man with a fine voice”, his wife Mathilda and daughter Nellie on the piano, were frequent performers. They also helped to raise funds for the Anglican Cathedral. Sadly, Nellie later died at the age of ten.
Following on the inaugural World Zionist Conference in 1897, Klerksdorp formed a local Zionist Association the very next year.8 Avram Kirson would represent Klerksdorp at the establishment of the South African Zionist Federation in 1905.9
Locally, charity was an ad hoc affair. When “the popular Arthur Schiff” was declared insolvent, his belongings were auctioned and the community raised his fare back to England. The Chevra Kadisha was founded in 1906 and provided a more organised function thereafter.
The Anglo-Boer War split the congregation into factions, some supporting the Republican cause and others the British. For the British, the Gordon brothers appear in a picture of the Town Guard. The only congregation fatality among the Boers was Herman Lindenberg, killed in an attack on a blockhouse outside Kimberley.10 Joseph Horwitz was captured commandeering horses for the Boers and shipped to St. Helena. The occupation of Klerksdorp closely resembles the script of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. It was first surrendered to the solitary Captain Lambart, who raised the Union Jack himself. His supporting squadron was thirty kilometres away in Hartbeestfontein, sent to guide a garrison back into the town. In turn, Lambart left town six weeks later, believing himself to be surrounded by a commando of 2000. Two months later, the British reoccupied the town. It had changed hands three times without a shot being fired.
Notable amongst those who stayed in Klerksdorp for the duration of the war were Rev. East, Wolf Carliss and Maurice Lipman. The latter would later become the Market Master and President of the synagogue when it was consecrated.
Antisemitic outbursts are found in the correspondence to the KMR, but these seem to have been the exception rather than the rule. Interfaith relationships were generally cordial. Thus, the side room of Samuel Nathan’s store was used by St. Peters Anglican community until they built their church while Wolf Carliss donated the land for the Methodists to build their church as well as the bell for the new Dutch Reformed Church in Newtown.
Jews themselves did not seem to have had the expertise to mine their claims. Herman Abt had to advertise for “an experienced prospector…” to do the job for him. “Claim Jumping” was a problem. At a special meeting Herschel Cohen was “cheered to the echo for his denunciations of the common thieves, robbers, rogues and scoundrels”. Less flattering is a letter to the KMR, which stated “We are entitled to a little more than the claptrap nonsense Mr Cohen treated us to on Thursday night”. The real value the Jews brought to the diggings was knowledge and experience in raising investment capital for mining. Much of this came from the profits on the Kimberley diamond diggings. Jews were very prominent in the formation of the Stock Exchange. This was “very active at the start, and many a fortune was made or lost with never a sod being turned or a rock broken. While it flourished, over 150 companies, probably all of them mining, were listed. A reckless trade developed in shares and claims, many of which were worthless. Inevitably the bottom fell out of the market at the end of 1889 and by January 1890 the Exchange closed down with brokers and investors alike vanishing into thin air”.11 The Exchange had acquired a reputation for “swindlers, cheats, and insider trading”. Although six mines continued production, capital for the further development of the gold field was severely jeopardised for many years.
Prominent amongst those who left were Sonnenberg, Emanuel, and Cohen. Membership of the congregation dropped to forty. One report says there were “…5 families and 20 bachelors, most of whom were barmen”.
After the Anglo-Boer War, the congregation grew steadily. The goldfields had never ceased production and after 1945 experienced exponential growth. With this came a new influx of Jews. By 1966, the congregation numbered 200 families.
The Jewish community has always been prominent in the activities of the town. A 1910 photo of the volunteer Fire Brigade shows three congregation members amongst them. A number have served as Town Councillors. Many have served as Presidents and Chairmen of the Lions and Round Table service clubs. Five were Charter Members of the Klerksdorp Rotary Club. A ‘Masonic type Lodge’, the Hebrew Order of David, operated in the town for a number of years.
In 2011, the population of Klerksdorp is half a million. Gold mining remains the most important industry. The ‘Masons’ are now almost defunct. The Jews have land to bury their dead. They have built three synagogues in the course of their history in the town, and a minyan still congregates every evening for prayers. Moses lived for 120 years. The Klerksdorp Hebrew Congregation has survived for an equal time-span.
Peter de Jong is a long-serving member of the committee of the Klerksdorp Hebrew Congregation, of which he has been a member since 1966. His article on the history of the congregation appeared in the Pesach 2003 issue of Jewish Affairs.
Notes
- Thomas Gardner Lodge, Minutes 1888
- National Archives, SS Vol. 0: R2699/88, R4072/88, R5481/ 88: “M Nathan, T. Sonnenberg, F. Kohn maakt applikatie voor……..”
- For more on Rev East, see Newman, R, ‘The Sad Tallis Bag’, Jewish Affairs, Chanukah 2000.
- Rosenthal, E, ‘The Jewish Gold Pioneers’ in South African Jewish Yearbook, 1929
- Personal communication with Sidney East (son of Rev. J M East)
- National Archives .Compensation Claim 207 9 Apr.1901
- De Jong, Peter, ‘The Klerksdorp Hebrew Congregation, 1888-2003’in Jewish Affairs, Pesach 2003.
- London Jewish Chronicle, 19 August 1898
- Minutes of the First Annual Conference of the South African Zionist Federation
- Saks, David, ‘Jews on Commando’ in Jewish Affairs, Spring, 1999
- M. Chapman, R.F. Tucker and R.J. Kidger, ‘The Klerksdorp Goldfield’ in Witwatersrand Gold – 100 Years: A review of the discovery and development of the Witwatersrand Goldfields as seen from the geological viewpoint, Geological Society of South Africa, 1986.
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