Kimberley, South Africa

Kimberley - Newsletter #26

Kimberley Ex-Pats Newsletter No 26

Compiled by Geraldine Auerbach, MBE, London 

February 2020

Union of Jewish Women

 

I have long wanted to document the Jewish Women’s organisations of Kimberley. it was great when Gwynne Robins recently told us how and why her mother Mary Schrire, became the Chair of the newly formed Kimberley Women’s Zionist League in 1951, and remained so until she left Kimberley in in 1956. You can read this along with more of Gwynne’s memories of life as a small child in Kimberley – including her Bat Mitzvah – the first in the city or maybe even in South Africa. https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kimberley/Schrire.html

 

I was therefore delighted, to get an email out of the blue from someone about the Union of Jewish Women (UJW).  She had discovered our website and got in touch. At UJW Head Office, she had found a history of the Kimberley Branch from its inception that went right up to 1986. And what is more, she had typed it up and she sent it to me.

 

The Kimberley Branch of the Union of Jewish Women came into being in 1939. Sadly, it no longer exists, however, Kimberley is extremely proud that the current National President of the UJW is Kimberley girl and past Chairman of the Kimberley Branch, Myra Goldenbaum (pictured left)

 

 

The history of the branch, which was actually all written up by my mother Beryl Kretzmar, shows what a huge social, cultural and educational focus the UJW was for Jewish life in Kimberley. The women created and ran balls, youth events, programmes for oneg shabbat, study groups and play-readings for the community. They gifted chandeliers, Torah mantels and bells, and ark coverings to the synagogue.

 

But they were not for themselves alone. This history saga shows how the committees worked with and supported all sections of Kimberley society, with decades of running soup kitchens for coloureds in the Floors Township and creating vast lending libraries including school textbooks for Africans in the ‘Locations’. They maintained a Cosy Corner at the City Hall, dispensing tea and advice (including a foot clinic) for Afrikaaner and English pensioners, after they had collected their pensions at the Post Office. UJW volunteers helped out for the Blood transfusion service, instigated a UCF campaign and never turned away any request for help. The organisation was highly respected throughout the city and held many civic and fundraising events.

 

There are many names that will resonate with ex-pats. They write that ‘Mrs Polly Horwitz was proposed as first chairman by Mrs Bessie Stoller and was seconded by Mrs van der Heim.  Nancy Marcus was elected vice-chairman. Mrs Horwitz said she would do her best to make the Union successful not only in its own sphere of work, but also a driving force in the communal life of Kimberley’. That it certainly was to become.

The caption to this picture above, taken in 1964, says: The first chairman of the Kimberley branch of the Union of Jewish Women, Mrs Polly Horwitz, was among the honoured guests at a luncheon arranged in celebration of the 25 yeas the branch has been in existence.  Left to right: Mrs Julie Jacobson, secretary, Mrs Polly Horwitz; Mrs Marie Datnow, treasurer; and Mrs Helen Brown, chairman and vice president of the national board.

 

The first committee in 1939, all duly proposed and seconded, comprised 16 members: Mesdames Betty Levinsohn, Freda Barnett, Ruth Broude, Bessie Stoller, Beryl Kretzmar, J. Hotz, A Friedberg, H van der Heim, J.M Bayer, Helen Brown, Kate Friedman, S. Horwitz, A Goldberg, Ray Allen, Hilda Hendler and Miss B Stein.  Mrs Nan Sagar and Mrs Tilly Price were elected joint Secretaries and Treasurers.

 

Membership fees were set at five shillings a year (with a request they should be paid promptly). I have endeavoured to replace initials with first names where I know them, but please tell me if you know any others. In the early stages, where a woman’s name and initial was mentioned, it was usually the husband’s initial.  Who were Mesdames J Hotz, S Horwitz, A Goldberg and Miss B Stein?

 

Many women in the community took their turns as hon officers. But some names stand out and recur time and time again. The pinnacle of these were Delia Benn’s mother Helen Brown and my mother Beryl Kretzmar. They remained significant UJW figures all the time they were in Kimberley and took the chair on several occasions. They were eventually made hon Life Presidents of the branch. They also nurtured younger members who later became hon officers and participants such as Doreen Cohen, Natalie Sussman, Cecile Jawno, Hellen Benjamin, June Haberfeld, Shirley Katz and Delia Benn.

 

Helen, in addition to her work for the Kimberley branch, became a regional officer for the Northern Cape and Orange Free State and was a cultural convenor for the Adult Education section of the branch. She arranged opera lectures, music festivals, exhibitions and theatre shows. She also played the piano at many functions.

 

Delia had sent me many pictures and newspaper cuttings of her mother’s activity in Kimberley. Now at last I had a proper purpose them. I have added these pictures to the document, at appropriate points in time. I have also transcribed, or summarised, many of the articles from ‘Judy’s Page’ of the DFA.    

My mother Beryl also had a great collection of photographs and cuttings which I was able to fit in next to the appropriate text. Sadly, the quality of most of the pictures is quite poor as they are photocopies of pictures, in yellowing newspapers. But I hope you will agree they give a flavour and are better than nothing.

Here, left, is one of the better-quality pictures from 1955 where we see Beryl Kretzmar the new Chairman, (left) and Pearl Tooch, the secretary (right).  I am not sure who the ladies in the middle are.  Does anyone know?  Also note that in the early days, hats and gloves were worn to UJW functions.

 

Another name that really stands out is Doreen Cohen, wife of Webby (Leonard) Cohen. When she first became chairman in 1971 it was reported that ‘Mrs Doreen Cohen. through her hard work and pleasant manner was a wonderful inspiration to the Committee and many younger women joined her, and two very active years ensured much being accomplished on all fronts’

 

When Doreen left Kimberley in 1983, they said ‘Doreen Cohen had 18 years of involvement in our community. She served three separate terms as chairman of our UJW Branch, as well as every other executive position. A farewell party was given to Doreen and Webby by the combined Jewish organisations. A Goodwill Certificate and mezzuzah were presented to Doreen by our branch.  She was a model of inspiration to all who worked with her. Her departure has left a void in our midst.

 

Here we see Doreen Cohen on the right handing a Goodwill Certificate to Helen Brown.

 

Throughout the latter years they are saddened by the loss of membership. They noted that in 1967 that they had had 126 paid up members.  Eleven years later (1978) there were only 92 members. Five years later, by 1983, they said: ‘Although we have welcomed a few new members, regretfully our community is decreasing, we now have only 84 paid up members’ – as people continued to leave Kimberley.

 

The last entry for 1986 says, ‘Myra Goldenbaum resigned, as chairman pending her leaving Kimberley.  Cecile Jawno and Shirley Katz agreed to be co-chairmen of the branch. Our membership is now only 71 paid up members.  They mention that Rev and Mrs Warman, have commenced duties.  

 

We don’t know exactly when the UJW in Kimberley ceased to be. My mother Beryl Kretzmar died in July 1989. Helen Brown died in December 1989. Both passed away in Kimberley where they had been born and had spent their whole lives. Delia Benn left Kimberley in June 1990 for the USA. Miriam Klein and Sharon Geller were two that I know of who carried on the leadership till the late 1990s. They both died in March 2014 – Miriam in Vancouver and Sharon in Johannesburg. Shirley Katz kept helping to run the UJW Cosy Corner tea centre, that she had started decades previously, until ill health overcame her in 2016. She died in March 2018.

 

You can read the whole document and see all the pictures on the history of Kimberley Branch of UJW on the website. UJW History of the Kimberley Branch.pdf under ‘Articles’.

’Please send me any additions, pictures, anecdotes or amendments you would like me to add.  

 

 

The UJW Cookbook

 

Shortly after the war, the Kimberley Branch of UJW produced a cookbook – to support the South African Jewish war appeal. It was called ‘Favourite Home-Tried Recipes. (I wonder if any of you still have a copy – I have a somewhat battered one here in London – see left.)

 

In her forward, the UJW President Sara Sloman, was moved to say that ‘one is perhaps struck by the contrast between the well-being of the housewife who can afford to choose at leisure, varied and palatable dishes – and the dire hunger of the starving thousands of our people in devastated Europe’.

 

In this book must surely be so many of our remembered tastes of Kimberley. The names of the cooks are some of those already mentioned above. There is Ann Frank’s cold beetroot soup, Hannah Frank’s gefilte fish; Ruth Broude’s sweet and sour herring. There is Mrs G Sussman’s Prune Chimas, Mrs Y Sachs Tomato Bredie and Mrs D Lurie’s Pitza (which in this case was brawn).

 

There were pickles, sauces and salads and hot and cold puddings. The delicious cakes and biscuits included Lily Jawno’s cheesecake, Fanny Brown’s Ginger Sponge and Ann Haberfeld’s Viyotas – some sort of cupcakes. It even contained a recipe for Stella Weinberg’s famous fudge, and an anonymous recipe for taglach. Surely all priceless today!

 

There were also household tips such as, how to freshen stale buns. (Dip them in milk and heat in the oven, butter while hot!)  I remember my children bursting out laughing when reading some of these recipes which said: ‘Have the vegetables peeled and chopped’. (It might have been from another such book – but only in South Africa!)

 

Diminution of the Community – and Growth of the Virtual Community

 

While the community continued to lose families – I am glad to say that the website is gathering up families again and making a significant virtual Kimberley Jewish community. At present (February 2020) there are nearly 100 separate entries of families who lived in and around Kimberley in the 20th century.

 

Since our last Newsletter in December 2019, Eli has posted several family and wedding pages. There is a revision of Harry Hecht’s page with a picture taken in the Kimberley shul hall in 1948 at a function to commemorate the founding of the State of Israel. Can you recognise anyone? Hecht, Harold There are entries for both Awerbuck and Brown families Brown, Harry and family (Awerbuck and Brown) and the Apter Family   And we have posted a long story about my father Noel Kretzmar and his family history which includes our family life in Kimberley Kretzmar, Noel.

 

We have also posted two families who lived in Kimberley in the early 1900s. See the family Borkum, Philip & Ella (nee Heydenreich) and Shapiro, Woolf (Willie). Descendants of these got in touch through my researches into the ‘smous’.  Both are really interesting stories. Philip Borkum came to a sad end through his smousing activity. Willie’s story also includes the intriguing part played by Wissotsky tea in sending money back to the heim. It also includes photocopies of some postcards sent from Lithuania to the family in Kimberley as well as his uncle Hyman Levy’s memories of early life as a smous in the Rustenburg area.  

 

I am now working on the family story of Mr and Mrs B Goldberg and also Gertie and Ivor Haas.

 

Smous article

 

By the way my full ‘smous’ article (the first step on the ladder of many of our grandparents) with all my research and literary sources, is now on the website under articles here Smouse.pdf

 

Many more Wedding Pictures

There are several more pictures on the wedding galleries. There are updates and additional pictures to Hannah Bergman/ Jack Frank (1939), Alma Frank /Arnold Steinberg (1965). This  includes a picture of the famous Cantor Moshe Kraus of the Oxford Synagogue where the groom, Arnold was the choirmaster at the time. He came to Kimberley specially for the wedding. For my own wedding (Kretzmar /Auerbach 1962) there is a picture of us getting into the car, showing the familiar silver shul perimeter railings. There is also a picture of Cecil and Natalie Sussman’s 70th wedding anniversary celebrated in March 2019 – shortly after the sad death of their daughter Sandy, and just a few months before Cecil himself passed away in September 2019.

New entries are Violet (née Blumenthal) to Abie Toube’s wedding in 1929; Minnie Moross to Jack Germon in 1943; Eleanor Finberg to Ronnie Kotkis in 1972 and we go right up to the latest 2019 wedding in our shul last September of Ida Horwitz to Zach Lieberman.

I decided also to include Kimberley boys’ wedding pictures. They might have taken place elsewhere, but as many people in the retinues are Kimberley people it’s important to see these celebrations. You can see David Levinsohn to Jennifer Gifter (1958), Bernard Benjamin to Hellen Baitz (1963) Leon Chonin to Barbara Sandford (1970). As you will see if you go to   Kimberley weddings, there are now three separate wedding galleries. (still some tweaks to do) 

 

 

New Contacts and Connections

 

Its always lovely to receive emails from new people who have been sent our Newsletter by their families or who discover the website.  Recently we had emails from:

 

Marcelle Plaut from Perth Australia, who contacted me last December via Eli. She said:

Dear Geraldine

I know Eli and Jill Rabinowitz who gave me your email. I am the niece of Solly and Julie Jacobson and my granny was Dora David. I found your Kimberley news very interesting. Please add me to your mailing list, thanks. I have a sister in Cape Town and brother in America and Reisa Bronks née Jacobson (my dad and mum’s cousin) is still alive and living in Cape Town so have forward the Kimberley news to her.

Thank you

Best wishes, Marcelle Plaut nee Jacobson

 

Glenn Kirschner – another visitor to Kimberley also contacted me through mutual friends. He said:

Dear Geraldine

Our mutual friend was kind enough to send me one of your emails on the Jewish Community in Kimberley. My late grandparents were Harry and Esther Nogid and I spent many happy school holidays with them in Carrington Road, Atlas Street and then Chapel Street. I was four when my dear departed Uncle Boetie (Joseph) Nogid was killed. (in a plane at Kimberley airport, flown by his friend Vernon (Tossie) Goldman who also sadly died in the crash.  See https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kimberley/Nogid,_Harry.html)

 

Glenn writes: I was friendly with Dr Milton Geller and others of my generation but whose names escape me at present.  I do recall the names of friends of my grandparents and their daughters such as Apter, Tocker, Goldman, Brown.

 

My grandfather used to take a large suitcase of fresh meat from the Sussman Butchery to his daughters in Johannesburg and to my mother in Cape Town; with a tiny suitcase for his personal effects. Your email has prompted so many memories which I would be happy to pass on if they would be of interest to you and your readers.

 

I hope to hear more from Glenn Kirschner (does anyone remember him?)

 

Mel Goott, another visitor to Kimberley, contacted Eli Rabinowitz last September and sent the picture below. He said: Hi Eli, I am not from Kimberley but spent many holidays there and was friendly with Eric David, see attached photo taken in 1964, 55 years ago!   Shabbat Shalom, Mel

 

This is an amazingly evocative picture of Kimberley: the relaxed handsome boys Mel Goott and Eric David on the fancy Pontiac with its CC number plate, tin roofed houses with stoeps, the dusty pavements that some people had grassed over. It’s obviously winter with bare trees and thick jumpers in the bright sunshine.  Thank you for this picture and for contacting us, Mel

 

 

 

Dov Werner (Rabbi Oscar Werner’s son Bernard) wrote to us answering some of your questions on his time in Kimberley and after. He said:

 

Dear Geraldine

No, I am not a rabbi. I am a UCT- trained GP with a practise in an Ultra-orthodox area of Jerusalem. We came on Aliyah in 1977 (my wife is a Capetonian) and lived in Jerusalem and Netanya before being one of the first families in Efrat in 1983. Four of five of our children are married with children, TG.

 

When I had my Barmitzvah, I leined the whole sedra. Besides Trevor Toube and myself do you know of anyone else doing that in Kimberley?  [Yes, Leon Chonin, grandson of ‘Rev’ Lipi Weinstein did I believe]. Of course, the diamond pointer was used!!  The boys from my era were Brian Dubowitz, Colin Kenny, Brian Levinson, Roger David, Michael Lussman, Jack Klein, Geoffrey Geller, Dennis Hammer, Leslie Brenner and my neighbour Leslie Goldberg. We all went to Habonim especially after Bnei Zion amalgamated with it in 1957.

 

In general, South African Jewry, and Kimberley as a prime example, is remembered for its strong community ties practised with lovingkindness and non-publicised charity. When I went to Johannesburg, I was shocked to learn that there were even poor Jews. If there were any cases in Kimberley, to this day I do not know of them. [as they would have been helped discretely by the community].

 

Highlights? I have just returned from the National Convention Centre in Jerusalem where the completion of the 13th cycle of learning the Babylonian Talmud was celebrated with all of world Jewry. "Siyum Hashas".

Hopefully I will write again soon. All the Best, Bernard Werner 

 

And my contemporary, Sheila Grant (née Frank) wrote and promised to help. She said:

Dear Geraldine, Having just celebrated my 80th birthday a few months ago, I know it is quite daunting, but as long as we are surrounded by loving and caring family and friends, and our minds are functioning soundly, we are so blessed. You are absolutely amazing and doing such a superb job of keeping the old Kimberley folks together and bringing our early memories to life, not to mention compiling a record of a once vibrant community for posterity.  I keep saying that the saddest thing about growing older is that there are so few people still around who share my memories.  I am not working at present and attending to all the tasks that have been neglected while I was working full time, so hope to share some input on your (and Leon’s) various records, if not in the next couple of weeks, while I am away visiting my daughter and her family in New Zealand from mid-February to late May.  Lots of Love, Sheila

 

For the future – Collecting Farm Stories

I am still trying to collect information about Jewish farming around Kimberley and the Northern Cape. Some information has been promised. I look forward to hearing from you, Jennifer Hendler, Jeff Sussman, Leon Chonin – any others? – what about Trevor and Hubre Datnow? 

 

And War stories

People have been sending me stories and pictures of what (their menfolk particularly) did in WW2. This mainly consisted of going ‘up north’. Many of

our Kimberley men did this, but what did it actually entail? And what effect did it have on them? I have a wonderful story from Dave Apter about his father Mendel’s activity in the navy and Robin Apter has sent stuff about his father Alec in the Airforce. I have heard from Selwyn Haas, born in Kimberley (Gertie and Ivor Haas’ son) about his family involvement with a picture (left) that includes the Sphinx, a Pyramid and South African soldiers on camels. When I have received enough information, I will write the article about war service.

 

We are so grateful to all those who have emailed us and shared their stories, comments, pictures and ideas.

This Newsletter and the Website are collaborative efforts made up of your valued contributions. I may be the catalyst, and Eli Rabinowitz the chronicler, but it’s only because of your contributions and input that it exists and grows.

 

If you have a story to tell or comment about Jewish life in Kimberley, please write it up – or just jot down some notes and send it to us. We will be happy to help you edit and complete your story. 

 

 

Kimberley Ex-Pat Newsletter no 26,

Compiled by Geraldine Auerbach MBE, London, February 2020