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https://www.sajewishmuseum.co.za/museum-history

Mendel Kaplan was a prominent leader of the South African Jewish community, an industrialist executive with the firm Cape Gate, philanthropist and community activist. Mendel Kaplan was born in South Africa. After graduating from Wynberg Boys' High, he received a degree in law from the University of Cape Town in 1958 and an MBA from Columbia University in 1960.

Kaplan was the honorary president of Keren Hayesod and a former chairman of the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors. He financed numerous philanthropic projects in South Africa, Israel and Jewish communities around the world. In 1980, he founded the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town. In 2000, he established the South African Jewish Museum.

Mendel Kaplan passed away on 19 November 2009. [Source: https://www.jpost.com/; https://en.wikipedia.org/]

Leon Glaser, great grandson of Tzvi Hirsch Shewach Glaser and Devora Glaser (nee Behrmann). The Glaser family emigrated to Cape Town, South Africa from Lithuania. They had 9 children. Their daughter Rebecca Zuckerman (nee Glaser) was one of the founders of the first women’s Zionist Societies in South Africa, the Bnoth Zion. Their son Abram (Abraham) served in the Colonial Defence Force. He married Rebecca Feinstein in 1904. Their grandson was Leon Glaser. [Source: 1. The Jewish Chronicle London, May 30 1958].

Elsie Menasce (nee Mizrahi), daughter of Jacques Mizrahi and Violetta Mizrahi (nee Hasson) was born in Rhodesia where her family immigrated from the Island of Rhodes in the 1920's. The family maintained a strong connection with their Rhodian roots. Elsie Menasce (nee Mizrahi) published a cookbook, ‘The Sephardi Culinary Tradition’ which illustrate the history of the Jews from Rhodes, their customs regarding each recipe and it was illustrated with tableware passed down from generations. Elsie Menasce died on the 6th April 2019 in Toronto, Canada.

Esther Barsel (nee Levine) was a South African political activist. She was born in Raguva, Lithuania and left for South Africa with her parents when she was just 3 years old. Esther Barsel joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) when she was just 14 years old and was later a member of the the African National Congress (ANC).

Esther Barsel married fellow anti-Apartheid activist Hymie Barsel. Esther Barsel passed away on the 6th October 2008 [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Barsel].

Jonathan Ancer is a journalist, who has held various positions on a
variety of publications: reporter on The Star, editor of Grocott’s
Mail and crossword columnist for the Cape Times. He has won awards for
hard news journalism, feature writing and creative writing. He is the
author of Mensches In The Trenches - Jewish Foot Soldiers In The Anti-Apartheid Struggle (2022), The Victor Within (2000), Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson
(2017) and Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies (2019).

Max Raysman came from Kovno in Lithuania to South Africa in 1929 at the age of 16. After his death, his books and papers were donated to the Gitlin Library of the Western Province Zionist Council, who passed the Yiddish books and papers on to the Jewish Studies Library. An engraver by profession, Max always retained a love for his mother tongue, Yiddish, reading Yiddish books and participating in Yiddish theatre in Cape Town.