Johannesburg, South Africa

Mayfair - Fordsburg

COMPILED BY DAVID SANDLER
EMAIL sedsand@ca.com.au

MEMORIES OF MAYFAIR by Gidon Katz

I am part of the Katz family. My mother Milly Gilinsky is one of six, two brothers and four sisters. Brother Solly married Sara Geyer, she and her sister Eva were part of the Ochberg group. My father Max came to the City of gold from Lita at the age of 18. My mother was born in Benoni but spent much of her youth in Upington. Ruth, Shirley, Jeff, Rami Norman and I were all born in Mayfair probably at home. I was in Bnei Zion and that's when I took the name Gidon. In 1955/6 went on the Machon, that's where I met Beryl.

We lived at 6,14th Ave, close to Church Street which I call the Clever Corner and I remember the following all lived in a small area of Mayfair: Frank Becker Dentist, Lionel Sadowsky Dentist, Cyril Sadowsky Dentist, Abraham Eidelman Doctor, Shmuel Eidelman Doctor, Jack Rom Ophthalmologist, Max Rom Dentist, Harry Alsfine Anesthetist, Stanley Bennett, Ruth Katz BA Witz, Bennie Berchowitz Tzora and Colin Bikof.

We all walked to Crown Reef School unless there was heavy rain. We were a close group of friends who spent much time together mainly at Bloch Park Sports Field at the bottom of 14th Avenue playing soccer or cricket. Most of us had cycles so we were mobile going all over the place, even up Central Avenue to number 17 shaft at some time the deepest mine shaft in the world. Many of the kids at school were children of miners at Crown Mines. We spent much time on the mine dumps and the Blue Lake and once I came home with only one shoe the other one is still in the mud near the lake.

We all went to Cheder. My teach was Mrs Joffe and I'm sure that is partly why I'm here in Israel. The older boys were Under Rabi Zagnoev. We kept him fit by him chasing after the tennis balls that we used to play soccer with in front of the shul. He eventually had a pocket knife that he used to cut the balls with.

Ronnie Richter and I prepared for our Barmitzvahs with Mr. Walazinsky, an angel of a person. We celebrated my barmy at 6 14th Avenue. The highlight of the party was Danny Goldblatt singing for us. We were a very active group and soon became involved in Bnei Zion. Some of those memories are with me even now. On a few occasions we climbed over the swimming pool wall for a night of kaal gat fun and games.

I remember the tram line started the other side of Regal Court, the western terminus The conductor had a smart red stripe along the seam of his pants. On his belt he had a machine that contained tickets and change.

On the arrival at the terminus he would walk along the isle up stairs and down moving the back of the seats to face the direction of travel so you could see where you were going. Under the tram there was a long bamboo pole that enabled him to reconnect the tram to the high tension line above the if it the connection came off.

The route was along Central Avenue passing the Fordsberg dip and the end of the line outside Solly

Kramer's Bottle Store outside of the Johannesburg Library and Museum.

The following is partial list of Jewish business's along the way. Sids Barber's Shop, Jock's Hardware, Maxwell Mens Outfitters, Sarah Gilinsky's Grocery, Maxie Gilinsky Watch and Jewellery Business, Saiterwitz Butchery, Sadowsky Meat Market, Rolex Cycle, Orkins, Drewin's Furnitures, Ostroff's Plumbers, Beckers Bottle and Bags and many more.

From Crown Reef School we advanced to John Ware. The last time I was there it had been taken over by the Telephone Department. The next step was moving to High Schools beyond Mayfair and not a few continued to Witz. University.

A few years ago while on a visit Russel and I drove around Mayfair and other places of interest.

Two photos of Crown Reef School one with my childhood friend Russel Sadowsky. The Shul it now an Indian Girls School.

We saw the haunted house and visited the swimming pool. You can see Russel with the manageress and her assistant you decide which is which. We looked through the

season ticket register from over 60 years ago. You may recognize some of the names.

Many of us from Mayfair fought in defence of Israel. South African 800 has references to Timorim, Shuval, Maayan Baruch and other kibutzim (where those from Mayfair and South Africa settled) who's presence enabled soldiers to join their units. Through the years people from Mayfair served in the IDF. There was Zelig Milner, Norman Godon, Doddie Gordon, Leibie Gafanowitz, Joe Libner, Etamar Joffe, Eli Klass, Solly Blacher, Ivan Woolf, Gidon Katz and probably a few more.

Many years later in Israel, I was privileged to be hosted to a visit to Rambam by my dear friend Prof. Shmuel Eidelman of Church Street Mayfair.

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VERA RUBEN (ZIDEL) remembers life and her school days in Mayfair

Vera's older sister, Maisie, was married to Jonah Perkel (of Arcadia). Vera’s husband was Mayor of Port Elizabeth

My family moved from Durban to Mayfair in 1933 when I was two years old and we stayed for a year or so with my grandmother, who only spoke Yiddish, having come from Lithuania in about 1900 with my mother only a year old. We then moved to our own house in 9th Avenue.

Everything was of course in walking distance as none of us had cars (we were given our 1939 Chev after new cars were available in South Africa after the war). There was a local bioscope, swimming pool, park with swings etc.. There was a railway line between 7th and 8th Avenues and the shops, bioscope etc. were all in the main road, Central Avenue, A travelling library used to visit once a week.

As young children we use to walk to the pool (without adults) clutching our 1 penny entrance fee. There was a fierce dragon lady (as I recall her) in charge of the little girls when we got there. I taught myself to swim by just pushing off from the side.

I first went to a kindergarten in 7th Avenue at the age of five and then went to Crown Reef School from grade 1 to standard 2 (it only taught those grades) and then to John Ware School which was very near our house and only taught standards 3 – 5.

Sport at primary school was netball. As children we spent a lot of time at the park – a block from home – which has swings, a merry-go-round and a slide. I managed to break my arm falling off the swing, and later off the slide!

There were two shuls, the Mayfair in 11th Ave, where my friend Naomi’s father was the Rov and the Fordsburg-Hebrew, where my uncle, Rev Jacob Zidel was the only Rov from 1903–1953. There is chapter of the book, The Fordsburg-Mayfair Hebrew Congregation 1893-1964 by Bernard Sachs, devoted to him.

My grandmother lived in 7th Avenue with my uncle Laz Rappoport, Aunt Rose and their four daughters. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about the Cheder as when I was 8 years old, I had a disagreement with the teacher and my mom said I didn’t need to go back there. As I result my Hebrew reading is very poor!

We walked every where, as most places were nearby. There was a municipal swimming pool at the end of our street. My sister and I had piano and ballet lessons. She was quite good, but I was a better hockey player! As an adult I played cricket for our local Mayfair girls cricket club.

The local high school stopped at standard 8, so in order to matriculate my sister and I went to Parktown Girls' school for our last five years of schooling. It was

an excellent school, but it meant travelling an hour each way – a tram into town and then a bus to Parkview. The school offered net ball, tennis, swimming and hockey as sports and even had a separate gym.

There were only three Jewish girls in my class and we used to sit at the back when there were religious classes. I never experienced discrimination at school generally and my friends there were all non-Jews. In fact if there was any discrimination, it was that the rich Jewish girls at the school looked down on me as a poor girl from Mayfair.

My father, Charles Zidel, was a technician who worked at the Crown Mines, south of Mayfair. His proudest achievement was a Blasting Certificate, as he would set the detonation to open up new areas of the mine. He came from Russia. He used to go to work by bike.

My Mom worked in the city central which was only a 10 minute tram journey away and was a legal typist and as a result, I became an Attorney (studied at Wits) and my two sons and have followed in my footsteps and are both qualified Attorneys. We lived happily in Mayfair until my father died in 1960.

We bought our kosher meat from my uncle, Hymie Sadowsky, who owned a butchery in Main Road. My mom kept strictly kosher, with a separate set of dishes, pots etc. for both milk and meat and another set of each for Pesach.

Every yom tov our extended family which included an Uncle and Aunt and four girl cousins, all went to shul together. I enjoyed sitting with a family group (as opposed to my married life with sons only, where I had to sit separately from my immediate family.

Membership card of Mr I W Schlesinger

2

THE MAYFAIR COMMUNITY CONNECTION WITH KIBBUTZ TIMORIM
Extract from a letter by Abe Isenberg zl.

Moshav Timorim and Mayfair are very closely related. The Mayfair Zionist youth movement started in 1942 was one of the few Societies that spoke about and took action on aliyah. The first chairman Isaac Zagnoev and co member Max Gafanowitz went on aliyah before the state was established as well as Hymie Golblatt (Chaim Zehavi).

There were other South Africans as well but I am writing about Mayfair.when Timorim settled in their permanent place on the hills of Nazareth. Many more Mayfairites arrived; Solly Kaplan Z"L, Leah Gafanowitz, Abe Isenberg, Dave Paikin, Shmuel Lurie, Elaine Glazer, Judy Berlin and Sally Kasmy.

Unfortunately because of politics we were the first settlement that had to move and find a new place to settle. We were lucky the only permanent buildings we had were the dairy, sheep sheds, garage and produce warehouse. We found a new place called Kastina Gimmel, this was opposite a British army camp. After lots of political pressure from the Fed as well as the American Zionist Organisation the Jewish Agency agreed to allow us to settle on our present place; 1000 acres of open fields with sloping land, no housing nor agricultural buildings. We had to concentrate on terrace farming and it took more time but it saved soil erosion.

Now we had two places; the old place with the live stock as well as the families and the new place being built The farm buildings were constructed by Solel Boneh the Histadruth company, and also the dairy sheds and milk parlour, silo and calf pens, poultry houses, sheep's pen, garage and implement sheds. Six of us were send down to prepare the land and plant the winter crops. We had no water. We stayed in a tent on the next door Kibbutz Kedma. We lived there for six months until our garage was built then we movedfrom the kibbutz. Meanwhile the houses were built by the SA contractor Seico. We had 40 house built and were only 26 families and one bachelor.

We were moving our livestock from the old to the new place 100 miles each way every day. We had two drivers that were doing the trip. Solly Kaplan (ex Mayfair) and Abe Isenberg(ex Mayfair)

When the houses were complete we still had no electricity, but we moved in all the same with Paraffin lamps and Paraffin stoves
We were building a Shull with the help of the American Zionist Organisation and the Histadruth. We had one

Sefer Torah. The parents of some of the people came on Aliyah. Mr. David Goldblatt and his wife Leah, had the milk and dairy shop in Mayfair all his children meanwhile had all settled in Israel Chaim Zahavi and the late Gessie Goldblatt and the late Dani Goldblatt. Mr. Goldblatt was our Baal T'fila (prayer conductor).

Rochie Zahavi (nee Heller) from Bothaville. Her parents the late Chaim Heller and Sonia came on Aliyah from Bothaville. He was the chairman of the Shul a year later. Sydney Cohen ex Bothaville ex pilot brought a Sefer Torah from Bothavile.

Abe Isenberg also brought two Sefrei Torah from the Mayfair Shul. We gave one to a new Settlement. Gidon Katz from Mayfair and his wife Sorrel joined us. Dave Paiken and Sarah (nee Spilg) joined us from Meyerton: her parents the late Avraham Spilg and Ethel from Meyerton and Dave's mother the late Gertie Paiken from Mayfair. Leah Isenberg (neeGafanowitz) and her late mother Matla Gafanowitz joined us from Mayfair.

A few of us have lived on Timorim 60 years and mentioning the Stetl Mayfair brings back memories: The baker Mr. Kruss and his horse and cart delivering bread - his daughter Rita is in Israel, Mr.David Goldblatt the milk dairy shop and fishery, Mr l Rom the photographer taking home photo's, Mr.Guttelovsky the Shochat, Mr.Zagvoev and Rev Zeidel the Mayfair /Fordsburg Shul cheder teachers.

South Africa gave us a different culture and the Mayfair boys had Lebanese friends. We have met young Jews from Europe who were saved and came to Israel, each had his own story. The Polish Jew suffered differently from the Romanian Jew. Those that escaped the concentration camps had problems sleeping at night. The Israeli had a very rough side to him but once you understood him you felt his envy. We South Africans were grateful for what we were taught and the values that we grew up with from school and home. Many of us gave up our studies, we felt that our generation has a moral obligation to the Jewish Nation. Our generation created the Jewish State, we went through all the wars of survival and we have had our share of losses. Barney and Fay Wittert ex Delmas lost a son.

We feel proud of what we have achieved .Timorim has people from 18 different countries and we are160 families.
I get carried away when I think back to 1949

Abe Isenberg