The Jewish Community of Harare
Harare
The capital of Zimbabwe. Formerly called Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia. The names were changed when independence was formally granted on 18th April 1980.
Organized Jewish life in Salisbury dates from 2nd June 1895, when under the chairmanship of Joseph van Praagh (Salisbury’s first Jewish mayor), a meeting of twenty men and two women founded the Salisbury Hebrew congregation. Divine services were first held in a room of the former masonic hotel in pioneer street, now no longer in existence, and a house in Rhodes avenue served as a synagogue until one was built in 1920, and consecrated by the late Rev. J.J. Rosin jp who served the community from 1918-1935. He was succeeded by the late Rabbi M. Konviser Obe, who vacated his office in march 1967. The first minister of the community was appointed in 1909. Thus these two rabbis ministered to the community over a period of half a century.
The first Sephardi arrived in Salisbury in 1895, and from 1905 there was a large influx into the then Rhodesia of Sephardim, mainly from the Aegean island of Rhodes. They were scattered in all parts of the country, and it was not until 1931 that a separate Sephardi Hebrew congregation was founded in Salisbury. Its first rabbi, the late Dr. M. Papo, was appointed in 1944. There were a few Sephardim in centers outside Salisbury, but most have now gravitated to the capital.
The Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations have built imposing communal centers comprising synagogues, schools, halls and youth centers. A reform congregation was formed in 1960. The Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations formerly maintained afternoon Hebrew and religious schools, with enrolment of about 220 pupils, but these institutions no longer exist. A Jewish primary day school opened in 1960. In the decade between 1958 and 1968 the Salisbury Jewish community grew rapidly and eventually outstripped the one in Bulawayo.
Jews have played an active role in the developing Salisbury: Joseph van Praagh (1900- 1901), H.l. Lezard (1914-1917), H. Pichanick (1955-1957), I. Pitch (1961-1962 and 1967- 1968), B. Ponter (1964-1965) and R.S. Cowan (1978-1979).
In 1968 the Jewish population of Salisbury was about 2,500 of whom two-thirds were Ashkenazim and the rest Sephardim. The Jewish population of Zimbabwe was drastically reduced by emigration in the years immediately preceding independence. From a maximum of approximately 7,300 in 1968, the total number of Jewish souls in Zimbabwe as at 31st may 1989 was 1,092 of whom 184 were children, infants and scholars up to the age of 18. There was a grand total of 637 Jews in Harare.
The headquarters of the two official institutions, the Central African Jewish Board of Deputies and the Central African Zionist organization are situated in Harare, while Jewish women, Harare Womens' Zionist League, hevrei kaddisha and Hebrew order of David, continue to function. There was one rabbi in Harare, namely Rabbi b. Isaacson, who assumed office in March 1988 as spiritual head of the Ashkenazi Hebrew congregation.
Anthony Gubbay
(Personality)Anthony Ray Gubbay (b.1932), jurist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, born in England, the son of Henry Selim Gubbay and Gracia nee Djeddah. He studied at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, graduating with a BA in Greek and in Classical Life and Thought in 1952. He continued his studies at Jesus College, Cambridge University, earning an MA in 1955 and layer an LLM.
He started working as a lawyer in 1957 and the next year he immigrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) settling in Bulawayo. In 1974 he become a Senior Counsel, and then served as President of the Matabele and Midlands Valuation Board, National President of the Special Court for Income Tax Appeals, the Fiscal Court and Patents Tribunal and Chairman of the Law Development Commission of the Rhodesia Bar Association.
Gubbay was appointed judge of the High Court of Rhodesia in 1977, then Acting Judge of the Supreme Court in 1983, and in 1990, when he was 58 years of age, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, the youngest person to hold this position. Gubbay resigned his position in 2001, following pressure from the President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
Gubbay was awarded the Peter Gruber Foundation's Justice Prize for 2001 at Runnymead, UK.
Bulawayo
(Place)Bulawayo
Second largest town in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), when independence was granted on 18th April 1980.
Bulawayo is one of the two main commercial and industrial centers in Zimbabwe and Jews were among the earliest pioneers to settle there. The first white child born there (April 1894) was Jewish, and the first newspaper (March 1894) "The Matabele Times and Mining Journal" was owned and edited by a Jew, William Francis Wallenstein.
The Hebrew congregation was formed in 1894 and the foundation stone of the synagogue building was laid in 1897. A "Chovevei Zion" society was established in 1898. In 1900, when there were 300 Jewish residents (76% of the total Jewish population of Rhodesia), Moses Isaac Cohen (1876- 1939) from London became the first official minister of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation. He was an active Zionist and the acknowledged leader of the Jewish community. An authority on general education, he helped plan the system of public education in Rhodesia and was also a mediator in industrial disputes. His wife Birdie and two children went on "Aliyah" to Israel soon after the founding of the state of Israel. Rabbi A.M.I. Avnit has been the minister of the congregation since 1986, and is also the "shochet" (ritual slaughterer) and "mohel" (circumciser). A progressive congregation was established in 1956 and had its own rabbi.
Despite its remoteness, Bulawayo Jewry has been notable for its active communal and cultural life, and especially for its strong Zionist affiliation.
In 1958 the Carmel Jewish primary day school was established which, in 1968, had 158 pupils (57% of the total Jewish school attendance). With the diminishing numbers in the Jewish community following independence, the majority of the pupils at the school are non-Jewish.
In addition to the two Jewish national organizations, namely the Central African Zionist Organization - CAZO (established in 1943) and the Central African Jewish Board of Deputies (1945) as well as the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation, there Chevrah Kaddisha and free loan society, Jewish women's communal league (1898), union of Jewish women (1974), Hebrew Order of David - lodge Ashkelon (1974), Bulawayo women's Zionist society (1932), "Habonim" youth movement and a home for the Jewish aged - Savyon lodge (1966). In the past there were also Yiddish and Hebrew cultural societies.
Jews established many of the light industries, and predominate in the furniture and clothing sectors. Many are prominent in commerce and are represented in medicine, dentistry, law and accountancy. They have also taken an active part in civic affairs. The first mayor of Bulawayo was a Jew, I. Hirschler (1897 - 1898); later Jewish mayors have been E. Basch (1907 - 1911), H.B. Ellenbogen (1927 - 1929), C.M. Harris (1934 - 1936), A. Menashe (1965 - 1967), J. Goldwater (1968 - 1970), H. Coronell (1971 - 1972), R.S. Harris (1972 - 1973) and E. Gordon (1973 - 1974).
Cecil Isidore Jacobs (1896 - 1967), prominent in communal and legal circles, was president of the Rhodesian Jewish Board of Deputies for seven years.
It is estimated that in 1989 the Jewish population in Bulawayo was approximately 430 souls, comprising 340 adults and 90 children.
Central African Zionist Digest is being published regularly in Bulawayo.
South Africa
(Place)South Africa
Republic of South Africa (RSA)
The southernmost country in Africa.
21st Century
Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 69,000 out of 56,500,000
South African Jewish Board of Deputies
Telephone: +27 11 645 2523
Fax: +27 11 640 1662
Email: sajbd@sajbd.org
Website: www.sajbd.org
President: Mary Kluk, also WJC Vice-President
National Chairman: Jeff Katz
National Director: Wendy Kahn