(Author: Dan Brotman, Vol. 67, No. 1, Pesach 2012) The South African Jewish community is currently experiencing attrition through emigration, which has diminished the number of residents by close to 50% since the end of apartheid in 1994. The Cape Town Jewish community in particular
(Author: Gita Gordon, Vol. 66, #2, Rosh Hashanah 2011) The latest royal wedding has brought back memories of another royal occasion, in a time and place far removed from 21st Century London. At that time I was three years old, so perhaps “memories” is
(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
(Author: David A Sher, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) The Great Synagogue in Wolmarans Street, Johannesburg, can be seen as being reflective of and formative in the history of the Johannesburg Jewish community as a whole. The synagogue traces its roots as
(Author: Rose Norwich, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Following this year’s centenary celebrations of the Great Synagogue in Wolmarans Street, it is now more generally known that the first congregation to be established in Johannesburg was the Witwatersrand Hebrew Congregation. It was
(Author: Shirley Klein Kantor, Vol. 69, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2014) Calvinia1 is the place of my birth, the place of my childhood, my first experience with death, the ancestral burial site and my chosen burial space. By digging up and into my past,
(Author: Joy Kropman, Vol. 69, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2014) A hundred years ago, Jewish communities were spread throughout South Africa. There were Zionist societies in 300 centres – from Aberdeen, Amersfoort and Alice, to Zastron, Zeerust and Zalolo; even in tiny, out of
(Author: Saul Issroff, Vol. 71, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2016) In his 1999 paper ‘The Port Jew: Notes Toward a Social Type’1 David Sorkin, drawing on his work on Sephardi and Italian Jews living in Mediterranean, Atlantic and West Indian seaports between the 17th and
