Jewish Heritage

On 2 September 2021, the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society was pleased to unveil a plaque in honour of the Jewish Community of Muizenberg. It was affixed to the wall of the synagogue in Camp Road, directly above the foundation stone and unveiled by Helen Zille. The congregation was represented by Rabbi Ryan Newfield. A small crowd gathered, perhaps 40 people.

Abe Berry drawing of the Muizenberg Shul

Photograph of the Shul (SJ de Klerk)

The Jewish community is much diminished from its glory days, which ran from the 1880’s to about 1970. About 600 Jewish families settled in the village, many from Lithuania. Muizenberg was a booming holiday resort in those days, and of the 26-odd hotels in our heyday some 17 were Jewish-owned and run. For many reasons our little world changed, people looking for a prosperous future had to look elsewhere and most of the younger generations left for opportunities elsewhere.

The diaspora of Muizenberg Jews stretches around the world. I bought my own house in Muizenberg from Jean Tockar, without question the doyenne of our estate agents. The house had been owned by two Jewish brothers who kept...

The article below forms part of Mike Alfred's series on Joburg personalities from the first decade of the 21st century. Click here to view Kathy Munro's fantastic introduction and here to view the series index. The stories were written in 2005/6.

Irving Lissoos earns his living as a highly respected, specialist urologist. He consults and operates from Milpark Hospital. But his life embraces other enthusiasms, among them a love of Johannesburg, partially illustrated by his membership of the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust. Lissoos’s guided tours through Joburg’s old cemeteries in Braamfontein and Brixton are always sell outs. Lissoos lives in Victory Park. He grew up in Berea, attended Yeoville Boys’ and King Edward’s schools. I arrived in his rooms one day armed with a tape recorder and one or two simple questions, asking him to talk about his early life. Nothing had been planned. He quite spontaneously and easily advanced down ‘memory lane.’ He told me with many chuckles and obvious reminiscent enjoyment, about a social existence, the world of his childhood and youth, which no longer exists:

Braamfontein Cemetery (The Heritage Portal)

‘My mom was born in London. Her father was a cabinet maker who came to Johannesburg just after the turn of the 20th century. She went to school in London but never got a chance to...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie unpacks some of the history of the landmark Wolmarans Street Synagogue. The article was first published on the City of Joburg's website on 17 March 2003. Click here to view more of Davie's writing.

The Great Synagogue in Hillbrow lives again after being closed and shuttered for nine years. It’s used now as a Rhema church, and every Sunday is filled with the inspired singing and hand clapping of 500 congregants of Pastor Thivha Lidzhade.
 
Lidzhade, head of the Bethesda Bible Church, says his challenge is to “clean Hillbrow and turn it to Jesus”. He started the church in 1997 in Germiston with 12 people, and today 500 people, mostly from surrounding Hillbrow, Doornfontein and Berea, and as far as Soweto, Pretoria and Tembisa, come every Sunday and offer their praises to God.

It’s not surprising that Lidzhade and his congregants feel inspired in the building – it is a magnificent piece of architecture. As you enter the tall-domed structure, you’ll be drawn upwards into the glorious soaring space, offset with a gold Star of David in the middle of the dome. A set of leaded-glass arched windows running around the base of the dome lights the space.
 
It’s a huge dome, supplemented by four supporting half domes, within which the women’s balconies nestle. The ground floor consists of a charcoal painted wooden floor in small graded steps, now stripped of its original wooden benches.
 
It was designed and...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie reveals some of the history of the Jewish Community in Johannesburg. The article was originally published on the City of Johannesburg's website on 2 February 2007. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

Jews first settled in Johannesburg a year after the town was proclaimed. Public digging in Joburg was opened by Carl von Brandis, who read a proclamation written by President Paul Kruger on 20 September 1886.

Statue of Carl von Brandis in the Joburg CBD (The Heritage Portal)

This year marks 120 years since the Jewish community was first established in the town. Wendy Kahn, national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBOD), says that the 120th anniversary “is a meaningful anniversary for the Jewish community as in Jewish tradition, based on Genesis 6.3, the number 120 always represents a coming of age and completion”. Living for 120 years indicates a complete lifespan, symbolising fulfilment, according to Genesis.
 
Over the past 120 years, explains Kahn, thousands of Jews from around the world have settled in Johannesburg. “They have been intimately bound up with the history of Johannesburg from its very establishment, and remain so as the city continues to progress confidently into its second century.”

Although Jews only arrived in the city...

If you walk down 11th Street in Parkmore, a short distance from the Sandton CBD, you may see some bright orange signage announcing 'Saks's Corner 1949'. Considering Sandton City was only built in the early 1970s there is certainly a story to be told. The following piece was written by Juliet Marais Louw in 1982 and reveals the history behind one of Sandton's oldest shops. Unfortunately the original structure has been demolished but the memory of the famous landmark lives on.

On the corner of 11th Street and Elizabeth Avenue in Parkmore, stands the well-known landmark of Saks’s Corner with the date 1949 on the wall outside.

Old photo of Saks's Corner (Sandton Archives)

Who was Saks and where did he come from? Harry Saks was born in Saville, Lithuania in 1911. When he was thirteen he went to live in Israel and then in Palestine where he stayed for several years. He led an exciting life there working as a guard on a farmer’s land where he dressed as an Arab to fool the thieves and snipers who roamed around and were a constant menace. He also worked as a photographer and slept on a roof-top at night. He had to pay the owner of the house 50 cents a month for his bed and when he left for South Africa...

In the article below, Frank R Bradlow looks at the architectural and historical significance of the Old Synagogue in Cape Town. The piece first appeared in the 1980 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria for giving us permission to publish.

In 1866, three years after the consecration of the St. John's Street Synagogue in the Gardens, Cape Town in September 1863, an album of twelve lithographic prints by Thomas Bowler, known as The Pictorial Album of Cape Town, was published. This album had an introduction and text with a written description of each print by William Roger Thomson. Thomson, who was born at Balfour in the Eastern Cape in 1832, was the son of Rev. William Ritchie Thomson, one of the Scottish Presbyterian Church clergymen brought out by Lord Charles Somerset to minister to members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Young Thomson received much of his education in Scotland and became a clergyman in the Dutch Reformed Church. On his return to South Africa, however, he preferred journalism, and was at one time editor of Die Volksvriend. When he resigned from this position, he was appointed by Juta's, the publishers, to edit The Pictorial Album of Cape Town and to write the text.

In his commentary on Plate No. 7 "The Roman Catholic Church", he says: 

Not far from the Cathedral, in a quiet corner, almost hid among the trees of...

The captivating story below appeared in the 1982 issue of Restorica. It was compiled by Hymie Amoils and traces the origins, history and significance of the Poswohl Synagogue in Mooi Street Johannesburg. We visited this Provincial Heritage Site, now the Promise Land Pub and Restaurant, yesterday and noticed internal alterations taking place. It would be interesting to see if the necessary approvals from the Provincial Heritage Resources Authority Gauteng (PHRAG) have been secured. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA) for giving us permission to publish.

In early Johannesburg, Jewish religious life was dominated by three congregations, all of whose synagogues were built within the historic Randjeslaagte triangle. The oldest was the President St. Synagogue, founded in 1888; the Park Synagogue adjacent to Park Station, was founded in 1891 and opened by President Kruger in 1892, and the Orthodox Hebrew Congregation in Fox St. was founded in 1892.

After the Anglo-Boer War, more congregations were formed, and new institutions came into existence in order to serve the expanding Jewish community. Apart from other areas, three more synagogues were built in the Randjeslaagte area. Of the goal of six constructed in this area, only two remain: The Great Synagogue in Wolmarans St., built in 1913, which was brought into being by the amalgamation of the first three already mentioned, and the Poswohl Synagogue in Mooi St., built in 1921. The latter is situated in the central Johannesburg Business District, very close to the City Hall.

The Synagogue

Poswohl, a small...