(Author/compiler: Ruth Coggin, Vol. 79, #2, Summer 2024)
The passing of Rose Norwich on 26 August 2004 at the age of 103 years brings to a close a remarkable life characterised by service to humanity in general and the Jewish community of South Africa in particular.
Rose Sive was born on 2 January 1921 in Johannesburg to Abraham and Lily Sive. Abraham was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to South Africa in 1895 where he started work in a pharmacy. Her mother’s family originally came from England in the late 19th Century. They were married at the end of World War I.
Rose was one of five children, of whom four survived. The first born child, Saul Isaac, died shortly after birth. He was followed by Frederick and then Rose, who was named after her Dad’s sister, Reizel (Shoshana or Rose). Annette and Herbert made up the remainder of the family.
Rose’s childhood was a happy one that began in a home in St Patrick’s Road, Houghton. She wrote in her biography, In Celebration of a Century, that the house had a lovely garden with a willow tree, from which her father made whistles, as well as a tennis court and an orchard with plums, figs and walnuts. Her mother would make Pesach wine every year in a small wooden barrel from the grapes growing on the tennis court wire.
Rose attended the Johannesburg Girls’ High School, known as Barnato Park, with her sister Annette. Apart from music and elocution lessons, the children had private Hebrew lessons every week. The family attended the Wolmarans Street Synagogue. She later became a founding member of the Great Park Synagogue in Melrose, giving a generous donation towards it and funding two stained glass windows.
The year in which Rose started her studies at the University of the Witwatersrand – 1939 – also marked the start of World War II. She had considered becoming a landscape architect, but there were no such courses available at that time. Instead, she enrolled for the Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) degree. This was usually a five-year course but was shortened to four years because of the war and was followed by a practical year. She graduated during World War II. Although there were few jobs for architects – even fewer for women architects – she was taken into the office of Cook and Cowen where she worked without payment for a long time, eventually receiving a pitifully small salary. This was followed by a junior job for another firm. A year later, she took leave and flew to Cape Town to spend time with her uncle and aunt in Kalk Bay. Many happy hours were spent on the beach in the company of other young people – one of whom was Dr Oscar Norwich. However, it was only on returning to Johannesburg after the holiday that she and Oscar started dating.
After a relatively short courtship, Oscar asked Rose to marry him. In spite of the age difference – Oscar was 35 and Rose 24 – Rose was very happy to accept and so followed almost fifty years of happy marriage. The wedding was held in Rose’s parents garden on 8 July 1945, with Chief Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz of the Great Synagogue officiating. A train trip to Cape Town that night was followed by boarding the ship to Argentina. And so began the next great adventure in Rose’s life.
A period of working and travelling in the USA came to an end in 1946 when the couple returned to Johannesburg and Oscar began consulting in a private practice. They moved into their first home at 41 First Avenue, Houghton, where they were to live for many years and bring up their family of four: Michael Saul, Brahm, Elda May and Lorraine Sue.
In addition to the many happy hours spent in the First Avenue home, Oscar and Rose took vacations at Edward Mansion in Kalk Bay. Apart from the times spent on the beach, there were many enjoyable fishing expeditions. Other overseas trips were embarked on, including for lecturing and holidays, one of which was in 1964 on an old Cunard liner, the Mauretania.
Rose’s interests during this time were many and varied. In 1966, she became involved in ORT, an international educational organisation, and helped to grow and strengthen it considerably. From its early days, ORT developed into a highly respected outreach in teacher training, robotics and mathematics instruction. It also provided bursaries for Jewish students.
In 1968, Rose was asked to join the executive committee of the Union of Jewish Women. One of her first assignments was to arrange a Jewish photographic exhibition in the Johannesburg Library. It was the first of many visual displays of Jewish interest that she made in South Africa and abroad.
Illness hit the family in 1967 when Oscar fell ill after their return from an overseas trip, and a decision was made to seek treatment for him in London, UK where he was operated on. Various complications meant that the trip was extended to six months. Fortunately, he recovered and life in Johannesburg resumed.
In 1976, Rose took up her election as president of the Union of Jewish Women. This position involved a lot of hard work and included helping to run the national office. It also meant seeing that the finances were sufficient and that the different divisions were active. During Rose’s term, she visited all the many UJW branches with the exception of Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp – a record that other presidents had not achieved.
She was outspoken in her opposition to apartheid, saying at the Union’s 1979 conference that “history has shown us that it is not possible for one section of the population forever to dominate another”.
The 1980s were a busy and creative time. Rose compiled an exhibition of South African Jewry for the Diaspora Museum in Israel. This mammoth undertaking culminated in the opening of the exhibition on 9 March 1983 at the Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv. The exhibition remained open for three months and was seen by over 60 000 people. Several years later, it was brought to South Africa and moved around the country with sponsorship from Standard Bank. During this period, Rose also served as a member of the Jewish Board of Deputies.
It was also a time in which Rose embarked on her Master in Architecture with a seminal work, “Synagogues on the Witwatersrand before 1930: their origin, form and function”. This involved writing the history of the buildings, tracing, copying and drawing the plans of each. Finding some of them was no mean feat of dedicated detective work, but Rose set about this with a passion and her usual high level of organisation. One of the interesting finds of this study was that the earliest South African buildings faced east, which was the aspect of European buildings. It was Chief Rabbi Landau who insisted that the synagogue in Wolmarans Street should face north as that was the direction of Jerusalem from South Africa. Thereafter the new synagogues changed the direction they faced. Ultimately, the project was a huge work with 43 buildings documented, all of which was done by hand. With it, Rose earned her Masters’ degree.
On 16 October 1994, following a short illness, Oscar Norwich passed at the age of 84. The family remembers him for his joy of life, and his kindness and concern for all human beings. He was buried in the special section of the Westpark Jewish cemetery and a large crowd of family, friends and colleagues attended the service.
Like all widows, Rose had to get herself together, as she put it, and continue with her life. It was not easy and she missed Oscar for the remainder of her life with not a day passing without thinking of him. In memory of him, Rose and the children started the “Oscar Norwich Travelling Fellowship” in 1995 to encourage and reward the study of new skills.
Apart from travelling to many countries to visit her family and attend interesting events, Rose became the joint convenor of a documentary project to record the history of Jewish communities in country areas of South Africa, co-heading a team with Adrienne Kollenberg and Phyllis Jowell. It grew into the publication of six volumes by The South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth. With the title of Jewish life in the South African country communities the books cover more than 1 500 communities across the country. The collection provides a unique record of the estimated 10 000 to 20 000 Jewish people who lived in the country districts of South Africa at various times from as far back as the 1820 Settlers to the present day.
Rose is survived by her four children, three of whom live in the US and the fourth in England. She has eight grandchildren, one of whom was adopted from Ethiopia, and four great-grandchildren.
Rose used to modestly describe herself as having been “lucky in life”, with good parents, an excellent education, a happy marriage, and a family who are all good human beings. She was always grateful to her family and friends for the support they gave her – “you can’t do it all yourself’”, she would say.
Above all, Rose’s life was lived in the service and deep love of humanity, without prejudice towards anyone. She will be greatly missed.
