Kimberley, South Africa

Dear Friends

 

The website is gradually accumulating a rich tapestry of Jewish life in Kimberley. Thanks to people like Leon Chonin, Milton Jawno, Leslie Stein, and their collaborators, a lot of memories have been added this year, particularly on youth activity and business life of Kimberley in the 1930s to 70s. Several more people have discovered the website and have posted their family details and stories.

 

We have recently heard from Selwyn Strano, son of Solly and Esther, (nee Benjamin) who sent a wonderful picture of the two of them aged 95 and 90 in Jerusalem (on the website now under Families/ Strano).  Selwyn says, ‘BTW, we lived in Athens Street across the way from 7 Oaks, the home of Julius and Althea Kretzmar, Phillip and David. Abe Beinhart from Malmesbury visited us in Kimberley and met up with Julius’. Marshal Hotz wrote in from Herzlia Israel where he has been living for 40 years with wife Rosemary of 48 years, son and daughter in their 40's, 5 lovely grandkids. His sister Pam lives in George and Shelly in Boston. He says, ‘So good to have read the newsletters, I still work as a dentist but spend more time playing tennis on our complex where we live’ 

 

The Buirski girls have been in touch. Beverley now Solsky lives in Sydney and Lynette who is now Rosenbaum, lives in Cape Town.) They lived in Memorial Road near the Jacobson’s. Beverley says there is quite a Kimberley ‘gang’ in Sydney and she sees Jack Klein and Robin Apter regularly. She also sees Mike Sperber whose granddaughter is friends with her granddaughter. she saw a lot of Doreen and Webby Cohen when they were alive. Sharon Seidle was there too. (Their entry will soon be on the families’ pages). (They are related to Col Sir David Harris, whom you can read about on the Pioneer’s pages)

 

When I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s there were said to be about 180 Jewish families. (I’m not sure of the date of this picture above – of the City Hall and market –  that later became the farmers’ market.) A survey that I have just seen, showed that in 1965, Kimberley had 141 Jewish families, totalling 423 people. As is the case all over the world, the children of Jews who settled in small communities like Kimberley, gravitated to larger centres for study and more opportunities. And we marvel to see how former Kimberley-ites, and their children, like all South African Jewish families, are now spread across the major cities of the English-speaking world – and of course in Israel.

 

It was but a short sojourn in South Africa for many Jews, barely 100 years – from the 1880s to 1980s – but a very fruitful one, enabling poor and persecuted Jews from Eastern Europe to escape the Holocaust and to develop their talents in freedom and with excellent free education. I have always said that South Africa could never have contained the number of Deans of Medical Schools, Professors of Science, and leaders in every sphere of commerce, science, art and culture, that this small community produced. 

 

Leon’s meticulous research on Kimberley Jewish businesses and their founders and followers, has been praised as an invaluable piece of history that has not been recorded anywhere else. We are all grateful to Leon and to those he consulted and who contributed, thus enabling him to complete such a significant piece of work that is now listed and described on the website, hopefully in perpetuity (whatever that means in this digital world.) See Leon’s survey on the website here: https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kimberley/business.html.

 

Here above, is the junction I showed you last time, but looking the opposite way, towards Beaconsfield showing Blumenthal’s corner.

 

Since the last Newsletter in September, which flagged up Leon’s survey, several people, particularly Cecil Sussman, have sent us more names of people involved in Kimberley commercial and civic life. Milton has also provided extra information.

 

While Leon has strict parameters on the information he needs and the people who can be included in his survey and table, what I have below is a more informal list of other Kimberley people who may not have been entrepreneurs themselves, or may be outside his timescale, but who also contributed to Kimberley work, communal and city life, and worthy of documentation of some sort. Some entries, might well make it on to Leon’s’ list, by the time he does an update. Some names are indeed already on his table. Check his table here: https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kimberley/bus.html

 

 

Here is the market square showing Union Cycle Works and Stollar’s furniture and some wonderful motor cars that could probably date the picture to the 1940s or 50s?

 

Milton Jawno reminded us, ‘My late father (Lionel Jawno) told me many years ago, that during the second world war, the then balabatim of the shul took all the old records stored in a few cardboard boxes, and gave same away to the war effort for collecting old paper waste. Thus were destroyed priceless records and community history dating back to the very early years. This will then explain why we have no records of the past except our memories to go on’. 

Cyril Haberfeld mentions this loss too, and fills in the history from the 1940s in his interesting survey of the history, compiled in 1973, on the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1873. (You can read this booklet, supplied by Bernard Melunsky, and scanned for our website here: http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kimberley/Community_files/Haberfeld%201.pdf.)

 

Here is the list:

1. 1Arons, Leslie – Sales Representative - for whom? When?
   

2. 2Aronson, Jordy - Diamond buyer
   

3. 3Asherson, Benjamin ??  Who was he? What did he do?
   

4. 4Chananya, Philip and wife Ethel, were American citizens of Polish origin. He was a diamond buyer representing his principals in New York. They made lengthy stays in Kimberley buying diamonds.
   

5. 5Chorn, Abie and his wife Dina worked in an administrative capacity at the SAR in Kimberley. (Dina was a convert). Both Abie Chorn and Caspar Klewansky families should be remembered. Milton Jawno knew them well.
   

6. 6Cohen, Bernard was an agent for Chevrolet cars at 5a De Beers Road. (Milton recalls seeing. as a child, a rusty old sign on the premises which was then Advance Furnishing Co.) Bernard Cohen was Mayor of Kimberley 1931-32, A widower, his daughter Anita acted as his mayoress. Anita married Masel Frank, brother of Jack and was the mother of Sheila Grant and Milton’s friend the late Jeffrey Frank, also Marilyn and Colin. (See Sheila’s complex history of the Frank families in Kimberley on the family pages).
   

7. 7Damelin H  ??
   

8. 8Dave, Monty – worked for A David & Co
   

9. 9Davidson – Haberdashery ??
   

10. 10Davies, Leo ??
    

11. 11Ellis, Sam – Tatersalls
    

12. 12Finberg, Micky – Had his own business as a manufacturer's representative for V. Katz appliances Cape Town and others. Mick was in Milton’s opinion a war hero having flown very many active missions as a tail end gunner in Liberator bombers. Milton says, I saw his log book. Please believe me, this modest man was a true unsung war hero. His wife Dorothy had a Beauty Salon and they also ran a private boarding house.
    

13. 13Frank, Cyril – brother of Jack Frank the attorney was married to Renee; (Milton remembers he was a great friend of Willie Smith the manager of Plaza cinema – always sat with his wife in the royal circle right at the back  of the old Plaza every Saturday night.
    

14. 14Garsh Alec – worked at Diamond Fields Bazaar for Klein Brothers.
    

15. 15Goldberg Abraham – Was a cattle buyer and speculator who lived near the shul. Probably traded from home and in his own name. Such was the custom of those days
    

16. 16Goldberg Nathan – Natie was a scrap merchant. Lived in a beautiful old colonial-style house. He was the son of Rev Chaim Goldberg (who was Milton Jawno’s mohel.) David Goldberg is his son they had a sister Maureen. They now live in Sydney.
    

17. 17Goldenbaum Annie (born Alufovovitz, Joseph and Pearly's late mother.) She was a fine lady and stood beside her husband Louis and established Bargains Unlimited. Annie died a young woman in childbirth.
    

18. 18Haberfeld Gustave Bowman – Gus was the first Kimberley born Jewish person to be Mayor of Kimberley. He served two terms 1953-55 and 1965-67. He was President of the shul from 1947 – 1954.
    

19. 19Harris, Cyril – Journalist on DFA and later editor De Beers Diamond News journal. I had thought that he was related to Sir David Harris, but no. Cyril B Harris was born on 11 October 1894 in Dawlais, Wales, and came to South Africa (and Kimberley) with his parents in 1902. in 1909, aged 15 years, joined the Diamond Fields Advertiser as a reporter. He was the youngest journalist in South Africa. His daily DFA column was entitled “The Conning Tower” and his byline, or pen-name, was “Rockshaft”. This column was a hotch-potch of Kimberley and regional gossip and included many quite amazing interviews and stories from the early diamond days. Harris married late in life, tying the knot with Sophie Zweiback (nee Ettin), a widow, in 1946. (Sophie’s first husband, Dr Solomon Zwieback, had represented Beaconsfield in the Cape Provincial Council in the 1920s and been a town councillor for some time. He died in January 1943). He was Chairman of the Red Cross Society and the editor of the Diamond News and SA Jeweller when he died in Kimberley on 1 October 1967. Cyril Bertram Harris is buried in the West End Jewish cemetery. See full appreciation from Kimberley Calls and ReCalls https://www.facebook.com/groups/1374275302814914/permalink/2009412852634486/
    

20. 20Hendler Nate. Although Geraldine has no recollection of Nate Hendler being in the Motor business, Milton Jawno says that in the Jewish Year Book of 1929, 5689/90, on page 342 there is an advert Hendler’s Motors. This was  in Stockdale Street and in 1929 the phone number was 773;  P.O. address Box 91, Telegrams Henmotor. They were distributors for Buick, Cadillac, La Salle, Vauxhall , and Pontiac cars. I am wondering if this could have been Nate’s father’s business with brother Alec who later went to Johannesburg and imported Catalina Swimwear. Alec and his wife Chrissie’s beautiful daughter Lorraine, married Bobby David, son of Louis David of A David and Co. They lived in Kimberley where Bobby worked in the business. They had 4 sons.  Bobby’s brother Aubrey David, became an architect/artist and a very early pioneer property developer at Malaga on the Costa Del Sol in Spain.
    

21. 21Herman J. ??
    

22. 22Hertog Lucien - Attorney partner in old firm of Haroff, Hertog and Moult.  He lived in a beautiful old colonial mansion at 28 Carrington Road. Their Law offices were definitely in town. Milton remembers that his partner Moult’s first name was Finley, who also lived in Carrington Road.
    

23. 23Hofman Ch – ??
    

24. 24Hyam Jackie – broker ??
    

25. 25Jacobson Solly – was a sales representative for A David & Co. Married Julie Lurie who died in Cape Town in 2017.  
    

26. 26Jawno, Lionel – as well as running a leading firm in the furniture business, and other communal and civic duties, Lionel was Mayor of Kimberley 1959 - 1961
    

27. 27Klenerman B ??
    

28. 28Klein, Harry, Mike and Philip began Diamond Fields Bazaar business in the iconic building with clock tower, that stood on the corner of ‘Pan Road and Jones Street (and is now at the Big Hole Museum). Harry Klein went off on active service during the war years while Philip minded shop. In later years they formed Klein Brothers wholesale merchants and the Dubowitz family owned the Diamond Fields Bazaar. (Ray Dubowitz was born Klein, a sister of the brothers)
    

29. 29Klewansky, Casper (his wife was Betty) worked for many years in an administrative capacity for the SAR. (South African Railways.) He and his family came from Maritzburg, Natal. He was the active Secretary of the shul committee in 1973. 
    

30. 30Levine, Sam (an old bachelor in the 50s) came out from England and took this role of Secretary of the shul full-time from 1900 – 1935. After his ‘retirement’, he continued in this capacity part-time until 1952.  Who remembers Sam?
    

31. 31Lewis – ?? worked at SAR&H
    

32. 32Lowenthal Hal, Doctor of German-Jewish origin. Was in general practice from the 1930s – then went on to the specialist register as a surgeon in 1950s. Had a son Allan.
    

33. 33Marcus Norman – Diamond Buyer. Lived at 38 Carrington Road – then sold the house to Icky and Helen Brown.
    

34. 34Maross Family? Sister a spinster was a teacher? and son was a bachelor who worked at SAR ticket office so half eligible for the list .
    

35. 35Nastor J. ??
    

36. 36Peisach, Dr Harry – was a General Practitioner. Killed in tragic motor accident on the corner of Dalham Road and Carrington Road late one night.
    

37. 37Pollen Abe – Abe bought L. Isaacson from the founder. Later he was in partnership with the Haberfeld brothers Gus and Cyril. He lived at 8 Carrington Road. Active in the shul benevolent society. Keen bowler.
    

38. 38Rabinowitz S ??.
    

39. 39Raichman, Harry and Rene were furniture merchants on the Market Square. Herman ‘Poddy’ Shein worked for him – and he sold the business to Poddy.) Harry was also a director in Hodgetts Timbers. Son Gerald (b c1937) and daughter Naomi (b. c1940). Geraldine's father Dr Noel Kretzmar was also a director of Hodgetts Timbers with Harry Reichman – and Louis van Zyl father of Colin, now in Ireland, who has fond memories of his Jewish friends at CBC.
    

40. 40Sacks, Julius and brother Alec – Printers who owned a property top end Jones Street. Known as Sacks the Printers. Retired and sold property to an old Chinese guy who redeveloped same circa 1964. 
    

41. 41Sagar, William was an auctioneer. But he was much more! He was a Justice of the Peace and the Mayor of Kimberley, 1906 – 1908. Sagar served as the popular and efficient President of the GW Hebrew Congregation for more than 25 years and was made a Life President. In 1929 a special presentation was made to him by the community for his great service to the community for 40 years!  That means from 1889.  He was also chairman of the Hospital Board and the School Board and did other great service to the civic and Jewish communities. His son Harold Sagar, presented a lectern to the community, in memory of his late father, in 1952. 
    

42. 42Schrire, Samuel was a qualified lawyer but never practiced law. He married the daughter of well-to-do Raphael Senderowitz and came to Kimberley to run his father-in-law’s wholesale business and Mill. They lived in the family house 17 Carrington Road. Sam was the father of Louis Schrire (father of Gwynne) who practiced briefly in Kimberley as an Ophthalmologist before going to Cape Town and the brilliant Velva (Val) Schrire (who at KHS got the highest matric results in the country in 1933) and who created from scratch, the esteemed Cardiac Department at Groote Schuur Hospital which went on to perform the first successful Heart Transplant in the world, (on Jewish patient Louis Warshansky.)  In that same year, 1933, Val Schrire also won an award for the top student in Matric Hebrew. Helen Maresky, of Kimberley was the first Jewish girl to pass her Hebrew matriculation examination that year. She won a City Council award for this. They were both students of Rev M Konvisser, minister of the GW Hebrew Congregation for their Hebrew studies. A Further council award that year went to Samuel Klein, the top Junior Certificate student in the city.  I wonder how many others children of the Jewish Community won such awards for top matric student?  I imagine quite a few?  ( I know Cecil Sussman, presented a such a certificate for the top matric results to Brenda Frank (Jack’s daughter) in 1964, when he was mayor.)
    

43. 43Seiradsky  ??
    

44. 44Slosberg – Optician with Van der Heim – sold to Irwin Tenin
    

45. 45Strawbaum ?
    

46. 46Sussman, Cecil Jack, Joined Sussman Bros Premier Meat Supply in 1946. They had a kosher counter in operation for many decades. Mayor of Kimberley, 1964 – 1965
    

47. 47Van Der Heim - optician sold his business, Van Der Heim and Slosberg opticians, sold to Irwin Tenin, whom Milton remembers clearly was Jewish to the core. 
    

48. 48Talmud, Jack – Lived in the district Christiana? A hotelier?
    

49. 49Tenin, Irwin optician, bought the firm of Van der Heim and Slosberg opticians and ran the business for many years. He was killed in a motor accident driving to Cape Town. His wife was Sadie and his sister-in-law Florrie Schreiber lived with them. They lived near the shul (the Business still is active in Kimberley 2017) 
    

50. 50Teukolsky Bros in 1929 owned the Savoy Hotel Kimberley – later owned by Natie and Fay cohen. 
    

51. 51Zolty B. ??
    

 

I always look forward to hearing from you, and am continually surprised and delighted with what people send in.  I wonder if anyone would like to write an appreciation of Rabbi Oscar Werner who was the second longest serving Rabbi in Kimberley – for 13 years from 1957 to 1970 so the one that many of us may remember.  Maybe you can write me one paragraph or one incident about him and I can piece a story together.  Or perhaps you want to write about a different Rabbi, or Reverend Goldberg who served the community as shochet, mohel, teacher and assistant reader for 30 years from 1925 to 1955. You can see all the ministers in Cyril Haberfeld’s booklet, on page 12. http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kimberley/Community_files/Haberfeld%201.pdf.)

I hope 2018 is good, fulfilling and sweet year for everyone.

Best wishes

Geraldine

PS all the previous Newsletters are on the website under ‘News’.   https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kimberley/News.html 

Kimberley ExPats Newsletter no 14