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South African Jewish Museum archives a greatly fascinating collection of photographs that have been handed down from the Port Elizabeth Jewish Museum for digitising. All the content is focused on Jewish life in Port Elizabeth. This large historical collection covers social areas such as weddings, families, entertainment and youth activities. It also covers institutional life such as SA Jewish Board of Deputies, SA Ex-Service League, Wedgwood Park Country Club and Theodor Herzl Schools.

Many of these photographs are from the first half on the twentieth century. The entertainment in Port Elizabeth at the time involved concerts, operas, local plays and orchestras.

Important to the youth at the time was Scouts and Habonim camp. This collection features a photograph from the very first Habonim camp held in South Africa.

Judaism institutionalised itself in Port Elizabeth. This collection contains sections on SA Jewish Board of Deputies, Hebrew Order of David, Masonic Lodges and the Zionist League.

Other important institutions included Wedgwood Country Park Club for sport, SA Ex-Service League for the military, Theodor Herzl Schools for education, and PE Civic Leaders and Mayors for politics.

This collection also contains some history of the Port Elizabeth Jewish Museum, for example, Chanuka 2006 in the Shul, the photographs featured downstairs and in the reception area, the 85th anniversary of the Raleigh Street Synagogue, and the visit of Rabbi and Mrs Harris in October ’94.

History is captured beautifully in the section about Synagogues from around South Africa.

The collection also features a small section on the Uitenhage Hebrew Congregation; Uitenhage being a small town near Port Elizabeth.

Photographs and phone numbers of the Museum curators are also included in this collection.

This collection is greatly fascinating, and South African Jewish Museum is grateful to PE Jewish Museum for giving us the opportunity to digitise their content. This collection includes social history of Jewish life in Port Elizabeth, as well as the institutions set up to ensure a thriving community.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

Consisting of a large number of photographs, the Potchefstroom Collection depicts various aspects of Jewish life, divided into seven sub-series named as General; Business; Marriages; Pioneers Day; Community Involvement; Sports and hobbies and The Arts.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Large Rapeport Collection comprises fifteen photograph and document series depicting the lives and events of various families connected to the Rapeport family.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections. If you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Robert Louis Dickman Collection contains photographs of soldiers and an unnamed women, likely Mrs E Dickman. The collection includes a number of correspondence written during World War II.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Robertson Hebrew Congregation Archive Collection is shared to sajmarchives by the Kaplan Centre and UCT archival collections. The physical collection is stored in the Kaplan Centre archives under the collection number BC873 and was digitised in 2022 for online display.

Robertson was established in 1853, on the farm Over het Roode Zand, and attained municipal status in 1902. It is named after Dr William Robertson. The town is situated in a fertile valley in an important wine-growing district and is known for its sherry, dessert wines and liqueurs. Other crops include fruit, lucerne, almonds, coriander, and vegetables, as well as wool. Robertson was a thriving centre of ostrich farms from the late 1880s until c1916.

Some of the first Jews who lived in Robertson from 1857 onwards were Levi Witsteyn, a converted school teacher, Abraham Rosenthal, a Russian trader and farmer, Joseph Gluckman, a Russian wagon maker and farmer, and Harry Abraham Millin, a Lithuanian.

Other settlers in the 1890s were marks Simenhoff in 1893, Maurice and Ellen Greenwall and Rev Klein in 1985, Willie and Rose Millin, who were married in Robertson in 1896, Joseph Johanberg from Sweden, Isaac Marks and Moses Rom from Zesmer, Russia, and Maurice ‘Max’ Goldstone from England.

Prior to the establishment of a congregation in 1881, Louis Silbert arranged minyanim for the High Holy Day festivals. The Robertson Hebrew Congregation was founded around 1895, with Rev B Klein appointed as the first minister. The first Jewish wedding in Robertson was between Ellen Buirski and Maurice Greenwall, solemnised in 1895 by Rev Rabinowitz, who came from Cape Town to officiate the event. A Talmud Torah operated from that year with 20 scholars. The synagogue was designed by HC Marcus, built by Solomon Zurnamer and consecrated by Rev B Klein. The synagogue was called the Knesset Israel Synagogue and was situated on Adderley Street. On 24 March 1896 Rev Bender solemnised the marriage of Willie and Rose Millin, the first wedding to be held in the Robertson Synagogue.

Rev Bender dedicated a torah to the congregation on 19 August 1896. On 20 August he consecrated a burial ground at the bottom of White Street. Members of local churches attended the ceremony. An infant named David Rosenzweig was the first grave in the cemetery.

In 1897 services for the High Holy Days were conducted in the synagogue by Rev Klein and Isaac Marks. A general meeting to elect a congregation committee was held shortly afterwards.

In 1900 a ladies’ gallery was built as an addition to the synagogue, at a cost of £60.

Reference:
Rehbock, R. & Delvare, I. (eds.). 2007. Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities, Volume III. Johannesburg. The South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth.
Researcher: Alex Abrahams

The Rubik collection contains several wedding photographs, taken at two separate wedding ceremonies, of the entire wedding party and the Rubik family members. Also included are various family photographs, including children playing and one young boy during what appears to be a Bar mitzvah ceremony.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Rummel Family collection contains images of two shtetls in Friederichstadt in Latvia. Also in this collection is an invitation to the opening of Highlands Place – a set of apartments for the elderly in Cape Town, held in 1979.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Saacks and Effune Family Collection, donated by Sharon Saacks contains photographs of family members taken variously during World War Two as well as a small number of portraits taken in Eastern Europe.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Sam Caplan collection consists of images and newspaper cuttings concerning Sam Caplan's life.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections. If you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

The Sandak-Lewin Collection includes a number of photographs and documents relating to the reform congregation of Temple Israel in Cape Town.

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.