Jewish women in Early Johannesburg

(Author: Naomi Musiker, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010)

• Feature image: Laying of the foundation stone of the Fordsburg synagogue, 1904, by Mrs L R Melman on behalf of the Fordsburg & Districts Benevolent Society. With her is her husband, Mr Melman. 

Most of the early immigrants to the Witwatersrand were unaccompanied males due to the difficult, unsanitary and unpleasant conditions prevalent on the early goldfields. In July 1896, according to the Sanitary Board’s first conducted census, there were 6253 Jews in Johannesburg, of whom only 1549 were women. The wives of families generally followed their men-folk to South Africa. In 1904, the Jewish population of South Africa consisted of 25 864 males and 12 237 females. By 1911, these figures had risen to 27 820 and 19 099 respectively.

In 1904 there were 36 more men than there were women in every Jewish group of 100 souls. In 1911, the excess had dropped to just over 18 and by 1918 it had fallen to 11. The sexes thus rapidly approached equality in numbers.v

Women frequently had a difficult period of readjustment in their daily routine, particularly those who came from Eastern Europe. Not only did they have to learn a new language but they also had to adapt to new social and cultural patterns. Their greatest need was to attend to family and domestic requirements and, in many cases to assisting their husbands in building up their businesses. Such spare time as they had was taken up with participation in women’s benevolent associations. In most cases, these were combined with membership of ladies’ synagogue guilds.

In the Victorian era, Jewish women in Johannesburg were obliged to adopt a conventional respectable middle class identity. The true ‘lady’ was defined as completely subservient to her husband and confined her activities to domestic and family matters. Higher education for girls was not given the same priority as that of boys. Where possible, girls of the upper middle classes were not expected to earn a living, and were preferably only skilled in the social graces of music, deportment and domestic matters.

Women’s voluntary work in the charitable and Zionist organisations was of fundamental importance to the operation and welfare of the community as a whole. Their fundraising activities facilitated the operation of the community, sponsored its projects and were the central factor that gave Johannesburg Jewry such a remarkably strong presence and force.

“There are three distinct societies among Johannesburg women”, wrote correspondent Miss M C Bruce in the early 20th Century, “the British, the Dutch and the Jewish”:

Like the Dutch, Jewish women believe in the bending of the twig, and they keep their young people together by means of many social institutions. The women are bright… and they have an extraordinary influence over their men and their children, on whom they lavish the best possible educational advantages…In a city like that of Johannesburg where there are many poor Jews, and a large pushing middle class, and a few refined and cultivated people, it is difficult to generalise, but they form an intelligent, thrifty, loyal and law abiding asset.vi

Women’s philanthropic groups were expected to be ‘non-political’ and spanned a range of programmes of education and welfare, following patterns established by the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War. The Guild aimed at transcending parochial identities with ‘patriotic South African Nationalism’. The Guild established three institutions to support needy working class women and children, the Queen Victoria hospital, the Alexandra Convalescent Home and the Guild Cottage for Destitute Women and Children. The most popular form of women’s philanthropy was the informal system of ‘home visiting’.

Jewish women generally attempted to follow this trend, as is evident from contemporary writings.In May 1905, the South African Jewish Chronicle began a special woman’s page, entitled ‘Social and Fashionable’, and produced in the form of a ‘Diary of Jessica’, “designed to reflect the lives of women, especially Jewish women in Johannesburg. Her philanthropies are general, her hospitality proverbial: she is a good dresser, smart businesswoman, and her tastes are cosmopolitan. She is interested in all the social and artistic matters of her day”.

Flora Berman, a founder of the Union of Jewish Women, arrived in Johannesburg in 1906. She later produced a fascinating account of the daily existence of a married upper class Jewish woman in the early 20th Century, extracts from which follow:vii

In my trousseau appeared the first ankle-length dresses. Until then, most dresses for grown-ups swept the ground and most of them had a slight train as well, gathering up dust and dirt, impeding walking and rendering the catching of a tram a hazardous venture.

In the days before telephones, supplies for the home were simply arranged. There were daily deliveries of various foodstuffs by the various shopkeepers “At times, a newly arrived Russian Jewish immigrant from Poland or Lithuania would call with eggs, live chickens and non-perishable fruits of the earth, potatoes and onions. He would always willingly replace a cracked or bad egg, not to mention potatoes or onions that had gone moldy”.

It was not long before the immigrant arrived in a horse-drawn vehicle, and usually not more than a couple of years before he was replaced by a young son, who explained that Pa had to look after the shop, at the back of which the newly arrived family was housed. When a lady left the environs of her house, she wore a hat and gloves. Until 1907, hats were large and mostly trimmed with ostrich feathers. With the advent of the motor car in 1907, the head hugging style became imperative. It was worn with a large veil that anchored the hat down, preventing not only the hat but the wearer’s very head from being blown away.

Roads had not yet been macadamized, except in the heart of the town. Red dust lay inches deep, whirling into dense clouds at the slightest breeze that blew. Whenever it rained, the dust was churned into red mud that clung to delicate fabrics that no amount of washing could remove. Storm water drains had not yet caught up with the needs of the city. It was a common occurrence for a daintily shod lady to have to wade through raging gutters to step into a car or cab. There were no buses in those days and trams drawn by horses moved along at a leisurely pace.

Life between 1906 and 1913 ran along normal lines, and the social scene was gay and lighthearted. Servants, such as ‘nannies’, were recruited from the poorer white members of the community. However, no white servant would perform tasks considered to be ‘kaffir’ work and so “there were natives, men and women in all homes even the poorest. Even in the most modest homes there would be a cook, a washerwoman, a gardener and in some cases a driver, all black” (ibid.). Lighting in the home was done by electricity. Cooking was carried out with coal and firewood.

Life for the married woman was gracious and flowed along on easy lines, but that for the spinster was desperate. Clerical work for women was unknown. Her only means of subsistence lay in the badly paid professions of teaching, music and dress-making. Marriage was therefore a matter of urgency while divorce was considered a disgrace, not only for the couple but for the whole family. The lowly position for spinsters vanished with the onset of World War I, when women came crowding into the business world.

Communal Work

The Chevra Kadisha, formed in 1888, was the earliest Jewish communal organisation. From the outset, it had a Ladies Messakos who attended to the final rites of females. This was the first organised service group of Jewish women in Johannesburg.The Johannesburg Jewish Ladies’ Benevolent Society originated in June 1893 as the Johannesburg Jewish Ladies’ Society, attached to the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation. It was formed in response to economic distress in the Jewish population following the depression of 1890-1. Its aim was to assist the Chevra Kadisha in some of its relief work, making donations and arranging benefits that raised impressive amounts of money. The first President was Dinah Joel, who had had considerable experience as President of the Kimberley Philanthropic Society before relocating to Johannesburg. Bella Isaacs, wife of the Reverend Harris Isaacs, succeeded her and held the post until 1899.

Members helped with maternity cases among poor immigrants and made regular weekly visits to the Jewish patients in the Johannesburg Hospital. They conducted free education classes for adult Yiddish speaking immigrants to teach them English and embarked on ‘home visiting’ to widowed women and sick women. They also made loans to poor women to enable them to start businesses. Funding came from voluntary subscribers, who totaled 212 in 1894. In 1898, the society was greatly assisted by a donation from the Dynamite Relief Fund, established by the government after the Braamfontein Dynamite Explosion.

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) had a bad effect on the philanthropic societies as most of the subscribers and members left Johannesburg for Cape Town and other coastal centres. Some of the members, such as Mary Solomon, joined refugee committees at the coast working to support and care for these immigrant refugees. The President, Rebecca Klagsbrun, was left to struggle on almost single-handedly. She was assisted by Reverend David Wasserzug, who succeeded in making a collection from some of the leading financial houses for the benefit of the Society. Mrs Klagsbrun operated a Soup Kitchen throughout the war, providing for the city poor, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. In order to augment the Society’s funds, a Purim Ball was held in 1901. Simchas Torah balls became a regular fund raising feature of the Society.

By 1903, the Society had established a Dorcas Society, under the guidance of Mrs E. Sasserath, to make and distribute clothes to the poor. In 1906, the Dorcas Society made over 1000 garments, sent chiefly to the SA Jewish Orphanage. The workroom of the Dorcas Society was at first attached to the Fordsburg Shul, moving to new premises in 1930 at the Hebrew High School, opposite the Wolmarans Street Shul.viii

The Johannesburg Jewish Ladies’ Society was from the outset in the 1890s involved in maternity work, first in the patient’s own home and later in the Queen Victoria Hospital. The latter was started in 1904 by the Guild of Loyal Women in a house in End Street, Doornfontein. If a patient was unable to go to hospital, the Society arranged for a nurse to be engaged at a daily fee. By 1913, the Society was dealing with over 200 cases a year, raising its funds from subscriptions of £1 per annum per member, from private collections and from its annual Simchas Torah Ball.

Patients in the hospital were regularly visited and a kosher kitchen started at the hospital and furnished by donations of cutlery and cooking utensils. The work of the Kosher Kitchen was handed over to the Jewish Ladies’ Association,to which an annual donation of £10 was promised. At the September 1907 meeting, the name of the society was changed to the Johannesburg Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society.

In February 1912, the Chevra Kadisha decided to establish the first Jewish old age home or Moshev Zekinim, in a house on four stands at the corner of Banket and Smit Streets, Joubert Park. The official name was the Witwatersrand Jewish Aged Home – Beth Moshev Zekinim. Mrs. L Gluckman was appointed the first matron. There were initially twelve residents. The Home was administered by a Ladies’ Committee, supervised by Raphael Alexander, president of the Chevra Kadisha and three members of his committee. Mrs. Dora Hillman was chairperson. At a meeting of subscribers held in March 1913, the first elected committee of the home consisted of men. A Ladies’ House Committee, chaired by Mrs. Hillman,was elected.

A Jewish Ladies’ Society was formed at Fordsburgwith the following office-bearers: Mrs. Max Langermann as President, Mrs. A Solomon as treasurer and Secretary Mrs. A Jacobs and these ladies, together with their committee, raised £320 towards the furnishing of the Fordsburg Synagogue, erected in 1906 and opened by Max Langermann, President of the Jewish Board of Deputies. In 1913, a fund-raising ball was held, and was a great financial and social success. The Chairlady of the Fordsburg and District Ladies Benevolent Society was Mrs. L. Melman, who laid one of the stones of the Fordsburg Synagogue in 1906. Rachel Zidel, wife of the Reverend Jacob Zidel, was a member of this society for over thirty years and greatly assisted the poor and middle class people who had fallen on bad days.ix In 1922, the Fordsburg Synagogue instituted a Memorial Fund in the name of Mrs. R Melman as tribute to her devotion to the cause of Jewish welfare in general and Fordsburg in particular.

The Johannesburg Jewish Ladies’ Association of the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation was mainly concerned with supplying the needs of Jewish patients at the Johannesburg Hospital.The hospital supplied and fitted out the room for the Kosher Kitchen, some of the food and some of the labour. An annual donation was provided by the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation, while the ladies and the rest of the Jewish community had to raise the remainder. The Chevra Kadisha donated £5 towards the upkeep of the Kitchen, with a further amount for special Passover food as part of the Passover Relief Fund. The Kosher Kitchen managed well until 1907, despite little support from the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation.

The Jewish Ladies Association also ran a Soup Kitchen. This ceased to function atthe end of August 1907 and was replaced by a ‘grocery branch’ that distributed groceries and provisions to 675 families in twelve months.

By 1908, subscriptions to the Kosher Kitchen had declined to such an extent that the Hospital Board promised an annual maintenance grant of £200, leaving the committee with £160 to find each year. By 1909, the number of patients served with kosher meals had increased to 735. After 1915, the Kosher Kitchen became a well supported enterprise incorporated into the Federation of Synagogues Women’s Guilds of South Africa.x

Jewish Ladies’ Communal League of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation xi

In 1898, the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation celebrated the 10th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the synagogue. The celebration took the form of a ball and concert at the Freemason’s Hall on 16 November. It was decided that the profits should be used for the formation of a Ladies Communal League to supervise the care of the Vestments of the Synagogue, oversee the Congregation’s Hebrew and Religious classes and plan for the future formation of a Kindergarten to serve the community.

On 30 November 1898, Reverend J H Hertz called a meeting of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation. A total of 39 people assembled, of whom 31 were women. Hertz was perturbed by the social problems of the poorer areas of Johannesburg and by the existence of ‘immorality’ among the immigrant Jewish population, particularly the white slave trade and prostitution. He pleaded for the formation of a committee to work among poor women and children in the immigrant committee with a programme of education as well as alms. At the same time, the committee should continue to oversee the decoration of the synagogue.

Rabbi Hertz proposed Samuel Goldreich as president of the committee and E M Davis-Marks as Honorary Secretary. All the other members of the committee were women. Financial matters and the right of veto and policy were controlled by the two men on the committee, with Rabbi Hertz as ex-officio adviser.

The women created sub-committees that reported back at monthly meetings. Each month, different pairs of women visited the sick in their homes and in the hospital and tried to find employment for people leaving hospital. Members were expected to find new recruits as subscriptions were a major source of income. Social activities were as important as philanthropic ones, and were used to network and increase membership, share experiences and develop a collective identity.

This was not to Rabbi Hertz’s liking, and in 1899 he proposed disbanding the League. This idea was rejected by the ladies, who embarked on a more active programme of community work. They set about raising funds for the synagogue decoration by means of society balls and fetes involving a great deal of organization and hard work. The League women relied heavily on the volunteer work of organisers assisted by domestic labour from their own homes. African women servants did the cooking and other preparations for the dinner dances and fund-raising functions and the cleaning up afterwards. League members were active in selling tickets for society balls, making up rosettes and ordering large amounts of food for preparation. The Jewish Ladies’ Communal League was the major fund-raiser for their synagogue.

In November 1902, the League held a general meeting at the Old Synagogue, President Street, at which Samuel Goldreich, the president, announced that the balance sheet showed an income in 1899 of £200. This had been used for the installation of electric lights in the Synagogue, and for the relief of the poor caught up in the war. It was mentioned at this meeting that a fund for the maintenance and education of Jewish orphans should be established and that hospital visits should be re-started. A new committee was elected, in which Goldreich retained the presidency with Mrs. J Jacobs as vice-president. Subscriptions were fixed at 1 shilling a month. On 3 December, it was decided to hold a fund-raising New Years’ Eve ball, which proved a great success.

The League now turned its attention to the South African Jewish Orphanage founded by Rabbi Dr Hertz in 1903. Max Langermann donated £200 and four valuable stands in Kensington for the erection of an orphanage. The League formed a special sub-committee to deal with the orphanage question, assisted by an advisory board.

On 13 July 1903, a house was rented as a temporary orphanage at 51 Pretoria Street Hillbrow and Mrs Celina Lowenstock was appointed as matron. The SA Jewish Orphanage opened with eight children, including those previously housed at Nazareth House, the Catholic Orphanage in Norwood. Donations included furniture, household utensils and food. The house soon proved too small, and in July 1904 a building was leased at 23 Esselen Street, Hospital Hill. On 23 March 1905, Alice Langermann laid the foundation stone of the building in Kensington and in October, twenty children moved in. The League continued to run the Orphanage until December 1920. In 1915, Mrs Langermann retired as President, leaving the committee’s affairs largely to the vice-president, Mrs Clare Jacobs.

Zionist Activities

From the outset, women were involved in Zionist work, mainly through men’s societies. They performed valuable secretarial tasks and were entrusted with fund raising, particularly distribution and collection of Jewish National Fund (JNF) boxes.The earliest official women’s Zionist organisation in Johannesburg was the Ladies’ Zionist Society, formed with the encouragement of Rabbi Hertz and Bernard Jacob Chaimowitz in 1904. Credit for the formation was due to the efforts of two young Lithuanian immigrants, Edith Treisman (later Adelson) and Tilly Michalisky (later Moross) who succeeded in enrolling some 150 members. Tilly Michalisky was the first Chairman while the Joint Secretaries were Miss Katz (later Becker) and Edith Treisman. Mrs. Glaser, a Zionist Socialist who had experience of Zionist work in Europe, also played an important role in the Society. In 1905 Regina Lourie became Chairman with Katie Cohen (later Mrs. Gluckman) as Secretary. Mrs Gluckman was eventually elected to the executive committee of the S A Zionist Federation in 1928, in recognition of her personal contribution to the Zionism, and from 1936 to 1949 served as chairman of the JNF Department.

The Johannesburg Ladies’ Zionist Society made notable progress, attracting many young women from Eastern Europe. By 1905, its membership had grown to 400.xii At the first SA Zionist Conference in 1905 in Johannesburg, there were ten women delegates, representing various South African Women’s Zionist societies.

After 1905, interest flagged in the Women’s Zionist Movement until 1914, when Rabbi J L Landau and his wife, Annie, established the Johannesburg Women’s Zionist League with Annie as President. Isabel Salomon was the first Vice Chairman with Cissie Shapiro and Lily Machanik (later Sive) as Joint Honorary Secretaries. Lily Mechanik ran a Young Israel Society in Johannesburg until 1916 and, as juvenile commissioner, became the first woman on the executive committee of the SA Zionist Federation.

Thus it is evident that in all the Jewish communal activities of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, women played a vital role in building up institutions, many of which still exist today. Their role has only recently been acknowledged, particularly by the social historian, Riva Krut and more research remains to be done.xiii

Naomi Musiker, a frequent contributor to Jewish Affairs and long-serving member of its Editorial Board, has contributed numerous biographical articles for the Dictionary of SA Biography and the Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa and, as an indexer, has worked for some of South Africa’s leading publishers and indexed many important reference works. She has held the position of archivist at the SAJBD since 1992.

NOTES

1. Hotz, L. A Survey of the Jewish Population in South Africa in South African Jewish Year Book. Johannesburg: S A Jewish Historical Society, 1929, p38
2. Bruce, MC, The New Transvaal. London, 1908
3. Berman, Flora. My Sixty Odd Years in Johannesburg 1906-1966.
4. Jewish Women’s Benevolent and Welfare Society Johannesburg celebrates 80 years of service 1893-1973. Yeoville, The Society, 1973.
5. Sachs, Bernard. The Fordsburg-Mayfair Hebrew Congregation 1893-1964. Fordsburg: The Congregation, 1964.
6. Kaplan, Mendel and Robertson, Marion. Founders and Followers: Johannesburg Jewry 1887-1915, pp109-110
7. Much of the information for the Jewish Ladies’ Communal League is to be found in the Abstracts to the London Jewish Chronicle1887-1910. Communal Outside Cape, ed.SA Rochlin.
8. Gitlin, Marcia. The Vision Amazing: the Story of South African Zionism. Johannesburg: Menorah Book Club, 1950 pp80-81.
9. Krut, Riva Michal. Building a Home and a Community: Jews in Johannesburg, 1888-1914. Doctoral Thesis School of Oriental and African Studies, London.