(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 the way dorpies such as Bodenstein, Beitjiespoort, De Post, Ezelback, Greatberg Siding and Immigrant’s Siding.
In almost all towns and even the smallest settlements, Jews played a major role in the economy as small shopkeepers, hoteliers, tradesmen and professionals. Some did not live in the towns but owned land or had a concession or business which brought great economic benefits to the area.
Life in the small towns was never easy, especially for those newly arrived Yiddish–speaking immigrants who had few friends and little money. Nevertheless, those born in the platteland and who came as young adults most often recall this time with great warmth and fondness. Living in the country was a time of peace and tranquillity. People slept with doors and windows open. Children could walk to school or take their bicycles to the village. There was a great sense of community, where everyone knew everyone else. Jews supported the kerkbazaar and the Christians supported the Zionist balls.
I have noted with sorrow how these rural communities, with their once active Jewish communal life, have shrunk as the children have left for the cities or greener pastures overseas. As just two of many examples, there are today perhaps ten Jewish people in Potchefstroom and sixty in Klerksdorp, whereas during the peak period of settlement, there were respectively 100 and 180 Jewish families in those towns.1
The 12th Century Spanish Jewish poet Yehuda Alcharizi2 wrote, “I hurried to guard a stranger’s vine/ And yet in my haste abandoned mine.” I did not want our warm memories to disappear in the haste to grasp the apparently more flourishing vines of the wider world. Precious documents, photographs and memories have been taken to foreign shores.3I came to realise how vital is the recording and preserving of our history, and so became involved in documenting the role Jews played in ‘platteland’ photographic exhibitions.
This is a record of exhibitions on aspects of Jewish life in the South African country areas that I have been involved in or curated over the years.
Klerksdorp (1989)
The Klerksdorp Jewish community, from which I hale, lives in one of the oldest white settlements north of the Vaal River and is one of the oldest organised Jewish communities in the former Transvaal.4 In 1989, I became involved with the community when the centenary of the establishment of the first Jewish congregation in the town was marked with a reunion of current and former members and a photographic exhibition. Many people generously assisted in translating the latter idea into a reality. Material was gathered over a period of eighteen months, and over a thousand photographs arrived from all over the world. This is when my interest in documenting the history of Jewish life of the country communities began.
The history of the Jewish presence in Klerksdorp stretches back to 1886, when gold was discovered in the area. Within weeks, the population had grown to 3000, with impoverished Jews joining the ranks of diggers and speculators, merchants and bottle store owners. Three years later 38 Jews, calling themselves the Hebrew Congregation in Klerksdorp, asked the government for land for a cemetery. The same year, 1889, they established a Zionist society. When the first rabbi, Rev Mizrachi (who anglicised his name to Rev East), arrived in 1893, there were twenty Jewish bachelors in Klerksdorp.5The first shul service was held in the stock exchange building, and eventually a shul was built in 1902. The community also organised a well-patronised concert in aid of persecuted Jews in Russia.6
By then Klerksdorp, had 69 liquor establishments. The Klerksdorp Hebrew Congregation held their meetings in Joseph Horwitz’s Klerksdorp Hotel, which guaranteed “Best brands of liquors only kept”. Horwitz would get his liquor from Kroonstad, where there was a depot for Cape wines and brandies. To bring it into Transvaal, he had to pay a hefty duty, while no duty was payable for bales of grass or animal forage. So crates of liquor were labelled ‘bales of grass’. Back in Klerksdorp, these were carefully opened and if by a miracle some hay had changed into bottles, Mr. Horwitz would pour the contents into barrels.
Among the well-known Jewish personalities who lived in Klerksdorp are the Radio 702 chat show host John Berks, the athlete Sol Sandler, who won first place in Israel in the 1950 Maccabi Games, and the Subel family, who were synonymous with the Subel Soccer Team that played against numerous teams in the country. ‘Luries’ was the town’s first jewellery store, opening in 1922. Harry Lurie was the only practicing watchmaker. At that time, a complete clean and overhaul of a watch cost five shillings. Apart from keeping an eye on the time, Mr. Lurie would also test the eyes of the residents, as there were no registered opticians.7[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] Maccabi gold medallist Sol Sandler A few years after the Klerksdorp centenary, I was asked to organise a second exhibition, for the centenary celebration of the role of Jews in Potchefstroom. It was to be a small project, but soon hundreds of photographs had flowed in, together with records of family trees, newspaper articles and personal memoirs. It all developed into an exhibition which took 38 panels to display. As people wandered between the stands and recognised the faces of their friends and family – some no longer with us – they wiped away their tears. When a Jewish man died in July 1880, Mr. Hirschfield and Mr. Davies went to the Commissioner for Potchefstroom to ask for a “small piece of ground next to the churchyard for the purpose of a cemetery for Israelites to bury the man who had died that morning.” Permission was immediately granted. Two of the founding members of the congregation were the Aronsteins from Lithuania, who bought the Central Hotel in 1896. Other early settlers were the Levys, who in the 1890s worked for Sammy Marks at his Hatherley Distilleries, die Eerste Fabrieken. The first factory to distil gin and whisky in the South African Republic, the latter had been opened by President Kruger in 1883. Levy then moved to Potchefstroom to run transport to Ventersdorp and Lydenburg until the completion of the railway line. The Levy Family, Potchefstroom Then there was the story of the top hat. The volksraad was due to hold a meeting in Potchefstroom, and President Kruger was advised to address them wearing a top hat. The only top hat in town belonged to a Mr. Silver, chairman of the Potchefstroom shul. Mr. Silver duly loaned his hat to the President. After that, whenever he went to Pretoria on business, he was expected to pop into the President’s house to have a cup of coffee. You can see the sort of forgotten stories that are unearthed from such an exhibition. We featured, for example, the honoured memories of Lionel and Bertha Bloch, who were killed in Israel fighting in the 1948 War of Independence. From the smous – the quintessential wandering Jew – who paved the way for the commercial expansion, to the business magnate, from the humble shopkeeper and the beloved family doctor to the famous scientist or parliamentarian – we found Jews and their descendants spread all over the South Africa and the world. My aim with both of these exhibitions was to reach as many current and past Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp Jews as possible so as to gather their memoires. My hope was that these would capture the history and highlights, the achievements and significant movements in the town. How excited ex-Potchefstroomers like Natie and Issie Kirsh were, and how meaningful it was for the few residents who remained! And how rewarding it was for me personally to hear Mrs. Green say, “We were a forgotten little group, and this celebration made us feel important and alive again – thank you.” One of my most humbling experiences was to curate an exhibition of memorabilia from local Holocaust survivors, many of whom shared their stories. This was exhibited as an ancillary exhibition for the Ann Frank in the World and Children’s Art from Terezin exhibitions in 1994 and 2000 respectively. One lady gave me a glove she had saved when she worked in an arms factory as a prisoner during the war. Another loaned the exhibition a music satchel that she managed to salvage and use as a talisman in the various prisons she had been in. As a child, she had been hidden by her music teacher. A third lady brought out a handkerchief she had been given by her father, together with his watch, as he was being dragged away by the Gestapo. These stories will be with me forever. An exhibition that gave me great satisfaction was that on Jewish-owned hotels, held under the auspices of the SA Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth. It was compiled together with Yvonne Jawitz. Many stories are told about the early hotels in South Africa. Each would employ a runner or tout to meet the incoming trains and recommend their own hotel. Imagine the voices: “Masonic Hotel!”, “Royal!”, “Commercial Hotel!”, “Grand Hotel!” Travellers were piled onto a horse drawn bus seating eight people with the luggage on top. Runners could make or break the hotel as could the chefs – mainly black chefs, who were trained by the baleboste. Indeed, it was largely the hardworking wife of the hotelier who was responsible for a hotel’s success. Table-settings in a typical country town hotel A significant aspect of Jewish country life was the legendary Jewish hospitality.8 In some hotels, Fridays were taken over by the cattle farmers coming to town for provisions and a meal and to stock up with liquor. People would come from far and wide for the special Sunday lunch that cost three shillings (half-pence for children). The busiest nights were Mondays and Thursdays, when the dining room was filled with travellers. The latter often formed rotating poker schools, playing each night and sometimes through the night. Often the hotelier – much to the disgust of his wife – would enthusiastically join in. Touring theatre companies and sports teams were very welcome guests because they ate – and drank – so much. Often the hotel was a place of celebration of weddings, barmitzvahs and special dinners; when a show came to town, it would be overflowing. The Royal Hotel, Hermanus. Bridal couple Morris Silke and Lena Stockman pictured in front of the hotel in 1904. The proprietor Mr David Allengensky, is standing on the extreme left of the balcony, while Rev. Bender is seen between two other top-hatted gentlemen. These hoteliers of an earlier generation lived in their hotels and treated their passing guests as if they were old family friends. For many a weary traveller, the roads were long and hard. The hotels were a haven where they received hospitality, warmth and kindness and were provided with the best table of home-cooked food. The Jewish hoteliers exhibition grew and grew. And so did the verribbles from people whose hotels we had left out – and did not know about! People came forward with information of relatives and friends who had owned or managed hotels. Almost no village was without a Jewish-owned hotel. The exhibition was displayed several times in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Eventually, it was taken over by the Cape Town Jewish Museum, where it was re-designed and exhibited for nearly six months. From hotels, the natural next step had to be an exhibition on our favourite holiday spot, Muizenberg. Memories of Muizenberg travelled from Cape Town, where it was on display both at the SA Jewish Museum and the Casa Labia in Muizenberg, to Johannesburg where it was exhibited at the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre, and to Israel, London and Australia (Melbourne, Sydney and Perth). Each locale had overwhelming amounts of visitors – beyond anything envisaged. Memories of Muizenberg means something different to each of us: those genuine Muizenbergers who were fortunate to breathe that healthy luft as they were growing up in the village; the Capetonians to whom every Sunday all summer long the golden sands of Muizenberg beckoned and the ‘Vaalies’ and the stream of other holiday makers from up country, from as far afield as Rhodesia and the Congo, who invaded for a few months each year, adding their own flavour to the little town. This exhibition sought to bring to life the summer holiday at the seaside. Jewish holidaymakers, Muizenberg, 1925 It was amazing how many people were interested in the early history the exhibition captured. Of great importance to the development of the holiday resort was the completion of the railway line in 1883, which signalled the beginning of a new wave of prosperity. Summer residents included Sammy Marks, Sir Abe Bailey, the Oppenheimers and Cecil John Rhodes (who died in his beach house, now a museum, in 1902). Olive Schreiner was a regular visitor9 as was Rudyard Kipling. The wooden pavilion was built in 1911 and demolished in 1929 when a new one was completed. A promenade was designed in such a way that together with the pavilion and the bathing boxes on the beach front a wind-free beach was created – the Snakepit. By the 1920s, Muizenberg was no longer a little village but a growing town. In the 1930s through to the 1950s, there was a huge influx of Eastern European Jews, and there were about 600 Jewish families living in Muizenberg supporting four women Zionist branches and a synagogue (built in 1924). Local and touring companies put on Yiddish plays at the Muizenberg Pavilion in summers. Once Harry Turok, the front of house manager, approached a woman sitting on a bench on the beach front, trying to drum up business for a Shalom Aleichem play. “Would you like to enjoy yourself?” he asked. To his dismay, she grabbed her sunshade and hit him over the head.10 Fishing boats on Muizenberg beach, circa. 1900 The invigorating sea airs prompted the British army to establish a camp for convalescent soldiers. Muizenberg beach became the destination of choice for bathers. Hotels sprung up in the area, many Jewish owned such as the Marine and the Park. Farmer Pecks Inn was later called The Grand Hotel, and it stood on the site of today’s Cinnabar Flats. Later, the Bay View, Scowens, Alexandra, and Park hotels were built. Haim Pogrund recalled an era when “Two shillings covered a train trip to Muizenberg for a day of unparalleled swimming and fun. A return ticket – half fare costing all of nine pence by courtesy of the SA railways: ‘alle stasies na Simonstad’ – took an hour and both the old Cape Town and Muizenberg stations provided their varying fascinations”.11 At Muizenberg, men strolled and discussed business, women sat on the beach dressed in the high fashions of the time, children played at the water’s edge, fishing and sailing toy boats on the vlei, and teenagers flirted in the Snakepit. It was there that beach bats, touch rugby and bok bok were played and young people sunned themselves using Brylcream and olive oil. Dates were made for a night out – to the bop floor, to the Milky Bar and the Vic Davis Show, to Norman’s Café and the Empire Bioscope – and a walk on the promenade, touching the end for good luck. It was here that numerous romances started, many of them resulting in marriage. There was a lot to do in Muizenberg in the summer time: dances at night in the hotels, a bandstand next to the pavilion. Surfing had taken off with six foot-long wooden surfboards.12 The famous Muizenberg ‘Snakepit’, December 1953 Until the 1950s, Muizenberg was South Africa’s premier holiday resort, but the short season and increasingly more sophisticated demands of prospective guests meant that the aging hotels could no longer compete with modern Durban hotels. One by one, they were forced to close down. Mervyn Rosenberg recalled the unspoilt and uncomplicated childhood he had had: “It was not a wealthy community; our parents were generally first generation South Africans, but it was a rich community, rich with love and respect. We felt blessed – we were living 365 days a year in this special place.”13 There were those very special moments when we were looking for memorabilia and were offered treasures, like the crockery of the Balmoral Hotel, or the fine bone china tea service lent by a lady Rosalie Wolpe, aged 100. The tea service had belonged to her mother, Eva Goldman, who used it in the tea room she operated before 1914 to support her family when her husband left her. Her tearoom was so smart, she imported waiters from Durban for the summer season. People from as far afield as Sea Point motored for three hours on a Sunday afternoon to have tea and cake (price: four-pence). And so we built an exhibition, which became a rich tapestry of many stories, pieces of information, photographs sourced from family albums, libraries and newspapers, sewn together with love and dedication over many, many months by a team in an attempt to capture and document the Memories of Muizenberg. The little brownie box photos were enhanced and enlarged, some to even three and eight metres. The journey to compile the exhibition was not always smooth sailing. There were frustrations and various verribbels. Can you imagine when a prize photo of Mrs Chaim Shmerel – fifty years younger and fifty kilos lighter – in a bathing costume, was not displayed but her cousin’s photo was! Over the years, I have been involved in a number of other exhibitions. These include ‘Well Known Jewish Personalities’ (1996, researched together Franz Auerbach and displayed at Pretoria University), ‘Jews in the Anglo-Boer War’ (1999, researched by David Saks and displayed at Museum Africa), the Union of Jewish Women Golden Anniversary (2000) and ‘Glimpses into the life of the Cape Country Communities’ (2005, under the auspices of the SA Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth.) Forming committees and including volunteers to assist with the various exhibitions, no matter how menial the job might have been, gave many people a new interest and sometimes even changed their lives. This, for me, was another most rewarding aspect of the work. The SA Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth is doing a sterling job publishing books recording the story of Jewish life in the country communities, but sometimes the communities themselves want to recall their Jewish past. The exhibitions compiled were not designed to be a comprehensive guide, but to give visitors a glimpse into the life of these smaller communities and to pay tribute to their past and the memories of their families. We need to remember that Jews played an important role in the life of South African small communities and towns, and that without a record the memory of their contribution will fade to distant reminiscences of “lank gelede was daar baie Joodse winkels hier.” That is why it is so important to keep your photographs and your memorabilia – with a note on the back giving the names and dates. People think that they won’t forget, but they will! Many people today have become interested in their roots, and are compiling family trees. Your photographs and memories are so valuable. They tell your story, your history, reminding you of your past, and telling your children and grandchildren where you came from and who you are. The great sage Chofetz Chaim, once said that, “Jewish communities are like points of light on a darkened map and the stronger the Jewish commitment and consciousness at the place, the brighter the light.” Sadly, the lights in many small communities have faded, but one hopes that through our efforts, we can, in our memories and those of the generations to come, keep the flames burning.
Potchefstroom (1992)
Holocaust
Jewish Country Hotels (2000)
Muizenberg (2010)
NOTES
