The Jewish Community of Cape Town
Legislative capital of the Republic of South Africa, capital of Western Cape Province.
Founded in 1652 by the Dutch east India Company as a victualing station at the cape of good hope, southernmost tip of Africa, on the sea route to India and the far east. The town had Jews among its early settlers. The rules of the company, however, allowed only Protestants as settlers; two Jews were converted to Christianity in Cape Town as early as 1669. After the British occupation of the cape in 1806, a steady flow of Jewish immigrants came from central Europe and England and later, in larger numbers, from Eastern Europe.
As the oldest Jewish community in South Africa, Cape Town's organized communal life provided the pattern for the future development of South African Jewry. The Cape Town Hebrew congregation, the first in South Africa, dates back to 1841. The first synagogue, which still stands, was built in 1849. It was called Tikvath Israel ("Hope of Israel"), a reference to "good hope". Isaac Pulver was the first minister (1849-1851). He was succeeded by Joel Rabinowitz (1859-1882), Abraham Frederick Ornstien (1882-1895), Alfred Philip Bender (1895-1937), and Israel Abrahams (1937-1968). As the Jewish community grew, other congregations and synagogues were established. The present great synagogue, a beautifully situated synagogue, was inaugurated in 1905.
For many years, Cape Town was the principal center of Jewish communal life in South Africa. With the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley and the rise of the Witwatersrand gold fields, however, there was a northward shift of the population, which played an active role in the development of trade and industry in the country in 1904, "The Cape Jewish Board of Deputies" was formed at Cape Town, a year after the corresponding body was created for the Transvaal and Natal. The two organizations merged in 1912 to establish the "South African Jewish Board of Deputies". Among its most prominent members was Morris Alexander. From the early days of the Zionist movement in South Africa, Cape Town was a center of Zionist activity. The "Bnei Zion" was formed in 1897 and was followed by the "Dorshei Zion Association" (1899) and the "Bnoth Zion (women's) Association" (1900). One of the outstanding personalities in the Zionist movement was Jacob Gitlin.
Jews have made large contributions to the cultural and civic life of Cape Town. These include the "Max Michaelis Art Gallery", the "De Pass" collection in the South African National Gallery, and the "Mendelsohn Library", one of the most important collections of Africana, presented to the nation and stored in the Houses of Parliament. Hyman Liberman was the first Jew to become mayor of Cape Town (1903-1907); others were Louis Gradner (1933-1935), his son Walter (1965-1967), Abe Bloomberg (1945-1947), Fritz Sonnenberg (1953--1951), and Alfred Honikman (1961-1963).
In 1969 Cape Town was the second largest Jewish center in South Africa (after Johannesburg), with a Jewish population of approximately 25,000 (out of a total population of 750,000). Cape Town was the seat of the provincial branches of national organizations with headquarters on the Rand. These included the "Cape Council of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies", the "Western (cape) Province Zionist Council" (representing the South African Zionist Federation), and the "Union of Jewish Women". Although both the "Cape Committee of the Board of Deputies" and the "Western (cape) Zionist Council" were a part of their national organizations, they preserved a considerable autonomy. Organizations situated in Cape Town, such as the "Cape Board of Jewish Education" and the "United Council of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations", were entirely independent. This emphasis on Cape autonomy from the more dominant Johannesburg Jewry characterized much of the later history of Cape Jewry but has diminished.
The "Cape Board of Education" in 1969 supervised 31 Hebrew schools and was responsible for a fine Hebrew secondary day school (Herzlia), three Hebrew primary day schools, and a hostel. In that year there were also 12 Orthodox congregations in Cape Town and its neighboring communities and two Reform congregations under a council of progressive Judaism, with its own school. Among the welfare institutions were a Jewish orphanage and old age home. The Zionist movement, especially among the youth, was strong. The main charitable organization was the "Jewish Board of Guardians". Apart from the Jewish Museum based in the old synagogue building, various cultural Hebrew and Yiddish societies functioned. Between 1970 and 1992 some 39,000 Jews left South Africa, while in the same period approximately 10,000 Israelis moved in to the country.
At the turn of the century, Jews numbered approximately 18,000, about 22 percent of all Jews in South Africa. Half the population lives in a cluster of suburbs and 11 percent in the city bowl. The "United Herzlia Schools" run a network of Jewish day schools, including four primary schools, a middle school and a high school, incorporating approximately 1,600 pupils. The "Cape Council of the South African Jewish Board of Education" supervises religious instruction for Jewish pupils who attend state schools and whose main access to Jewish Education is through the Cheder program. Hebrew and Jewish studies is taught at the University of Cape Town which, in addition, incorporates the "Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Center for Jewish Studies and Research".
There are 17 synagogues affiliated to the "Union of Orthodox Synagogues" and three Reform temples. The Lubavitch movement was established in 1976. In 1995 Cape Town inaugurated its first yeshivah. The "Cape Council of the South African of the Jewish Board of Deputies" incorporates a range of cultural and welfare institutions. Zionist activities are coordinated by the "Western Province Zionist Council". Two important new cultural institutions that came into being in Cape Town in the late 1990s were the "Cape Town Holocaust Centre" and the "South African Jewish Museum", the latter focusing on the history of the Jewish community in South Africa.
Raymond Goldstein
(Personality)Raymond Goldstein (b.1953), composer, arranger, pianist and organist, born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa. He completed his musical studies in his native city. Since 1978 he has been on the faculty of the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, specializing, inter alia, in opera. He also holds the post of arranger/composer (associate conductor) for the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir, with more than 600 works to his credit. In 1991 he was appointed senior teacher at the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute.
As musical director/accompanist, he frequently performs on stage, radio, and television in Israel and has undertaken concert tours in Europe, North America, and Australia. He has made professional recordings with international cantors and singers; his name, as accompanist and/or arranger, appears on more than 200 CDs, cassette tapes, and DVDs. His compositions include a chamber opera, two cantatas, a concert Kabbalat Shabbat service, works for chamber ensemble, orchestrations, and more than 1,800 arrangements of sacred and secular music.
Michael Saul Comay
(Personality)Michael Saul Comay (1908-1987), Israeli diplomat, born in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied and practised law in South Africa and then served in the South African infantry during World War II. He saw action against the German army in the North Africa and reached the rank of major. From 1946 to 1948 he represented the South African Zionist Federation in the Jewish Agency's Political Department.
From 1948, after immigrating to the newly established State of Israel, he worked in Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Comay was Israeli Ambassador to Canada from 1953 to 1957. In 1960 he was appointed Chief Delegate to the United Nations, succeeding Abba Eban, and from 1970 to 1973 he was ambassador to Britain.
Shalom Schwarzbard
(Personality)Shalom Schwarzbard (1886-1938), poet, born in Izmail, Ukraine (then in Bessarabia, part of the Russian Empire). he became active in the revolutionary movement of 1905 and organized Jewish self-defense against the pogroms. In 1906 he escaped from Russia and settled in Paris, working as a watchmaker. InWW I he joined the Foreign Legion and was awarded an honorary decoration. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he hurried back to Ukraine to organize an international battalion to fight against the White Russians and the Cossack marauders of Semyon Petlyura who were responsible for murderous pogroms in which at least 50,000 Jews died, including many of his close relatives. Returning to Paris, he learned that Petlyura had transferred his Ukrainian government-in-exile to Paris, he tracked him down and shot him dead in 1926. After a sensational trial, in which he passionately defended himself, he was acquitted. He wrote memoirs and accounts of the Russian revolution.
Schwarzbard is the author of poems in Yiddish entitled Troymen un Virklikhkeyt (Dreams and Reality, 1920) and of his autobiography Inem Loyf fun Yoren ("During the Passing Years", 1934). He died in Cape Town, South Africa.
Abba Eban
(Personality)Abba Eban (1915-2002), diplomat, government minister and Member of Knesset, born in Cape Town, South Africa, and brought up in England. As a child, he recalled being sent to his grandfather's house every weekend to study the Hebrew language and Biblical literature. At Cambridge University he studied classics and oriental languages and then in 1938-1939 became a research fellow in Hebrew and lecturer in Arabic. As an undergraduate he was one of the founders of the university Labour Society and was elected president of the Union largely on account of his skills as an orator.
During his time at University and afterwards, Eban was highly involved in the Federation of Zionist Youth and was editor of its journal, "The Young Zionist". At the outbreak of World War II, Eban went to work for Chaim Weizmann at the World Zionist Organization in London from December 1939. He joined the British army and rose to the rank of major. As such he served for some time on the staff of the British Minister of State in Cairo, Egypt, and then became an intelligence officer in Jerusalem where he helped to train Jewish volunteers to resist in the event of a German invasion.
In 1945 he emigrated to Palestine where the Jewish Agency appointed him to be its political information officer in London. He participated in the final talks between the Jews and British before the declaration of the independent State of Israel. In 1947 he became the Jewish Agency's liaison officer with the UN Special Committee on Palestine and a member of the Jewish Agency delegation to the UN General Assembly which ensured that the partition resolution was passed by a majority of countries. When the State of Israel was declared Eban became the new country's first permanent representative to the UN and served in this position until 1959. An excellent orator, Eban's public appearances not only earned him high public esteem, but also increased the support for Israel an many Western countries. His polished presentation, grasp of history, and powerful speeches gave him authority in a United Nations that was generally skeptical of Israel or even hostile to it. He was fluent in ten languages.
When he returned to Israel he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Mapai party and between 1960 and 1963 served as Minister of Education and Culture. Between 1963 an 1966 he was deputy to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. In1966 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and as such he sought to consolidate Israel’s relations with the United States and secure association with the European Economic Community. Before and after the Six-Day War, he led Israel in its political struggle in the UN.
In the years 1974-1991Eban was chairman of the Board of Governors of Beit Berl, in 1974-1984 he was Member of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security and from1984 to 1988 Chairman of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security. Eban was a member of the American Academy of Sciences.
His books include Heritage: 'Civilization and the Jews', 'Promised Land', 'My Country: The Story of Modern Israel', the autobiographical 'Abba Eban, Voice of Israel', 'The Tide of Nationalism', 'My People', 'The New Diplomacy', 'Maze of Justice', 'Personal Witness', and, in 1998 'Diplomacy for the Next Century'. He was consultant and narrator of the nine-part television program 'Heritage', and editor-in-chief and narrator of the five-part television series 'Personal Witness: A Nation is Born'. He completed The 'Brink of Peace', a film on the Middle East peace process for the PBS television network in the U.S. He received the Israel Prize in 2001.
His most famous comment was that the "Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity", made after the Geneva peace talks in December 1973. Eban's brother-in-law was Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel.
Isaac Rosenberg
(Personality)Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918), painter and writer, born in Bristol, England, into a family of Jewish immigrants from the Daugavpils (Dvinsk) in Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. Already at 14, he began his training as an engraver. His artistic talent was recognized by a family friend, Lilly Joseph, who funded his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College in London. He was a prolific artist and writer, with a particular interest in poetry inspired by John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1912, he published a volume of poetry called Night and Day, which showed a strong romantic influence. During this time, he met Edward Marsh, who became his patron and introduced him to other influential artists, including Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, and James Joyce.
Rosenberg had to go to Cape Town in South Africa in 1913 due to ill health, but he continued to be artistically active. When the First World War broke out, he returned to England in 1915, but he lacked professional prospects. To remedy this, he volunteered for military service and was sent to France with his regiment. He continued to write poetry while serving in the trenches. His last poem, Through These Pale Cold Days, was sent in a letter a few days before he was killed at the Battle of Arras on April 1, 1918. His body was buried in Bailleul Road East Cemetery near Saint-Laurent-Blangy. Some of his paintings are part pf the collection of Tate Britain and National Portrait Gallery, both in London, England.