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The Koseff Family Collection comprises a number of photographs documenting the family events and memories of the Koseff Family, including weddings, holidays, and a small number of photographs taken in the family's original home of Rokiškis, Lithuania.

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 Berger Video Collection contains digitised footage. It was donated by Solly Berger and contains one video showign a Zionist Youth Meeting near 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.

Lippy Lipshitz and Louis Slobodkin Donation to SAJM.

Donated by Tamara Slobodkin.

Louis Slobodkin (1903 - 1975) was an American sculptor, writer, and illustrator of numorous children's books. Israel-Isaac Lipshitz, known as Lippy Lipshitz (1903 - 1980) was a South African sculptor, painter and printmaker.

During Lippy's visit to Paris, he created these drawings while in the company of Louis Slobodkin. Most of Louis's drawings from this period remain unsigned, while several of Lippy's bear his signature. These drawings were primarily completed between 1928 and the early 1930s during Lippy's time spent alongside Louis Slobodkin.

The Victor Kaplan Collection (donated by Robert Kaplan) showcases a variety of World War I memorabilia relating to Pvt Victor Kaplan.

Victor Kaplan died at the age of 23 during World War I combat at Delville Wood in 1916. He was awarded several medals to commemorate his military sacrifice, including a bronze Memorial medallion, a Victory Medal, a British War Medal, and a 1914-15 Star. His name also appears on the cornerstone and Roll of Honour at the National Jewish War Memorial in Johannesburg.

The bronze Memorial medallion depicts an engraving of a Greek goddess and a lion. The inscription reads, "He died for freedom and honour: Victor Kaplan".

This collection shows the front and back views of Pvt Kaplan's medals. On the front of the Victory Medal is a female winged figure representing Nike, the mythological Greek goddess of victory. The back view of this medal reads, "The Great War for Civilisation – De Grote Oorlog voor de Beschaving 1914-1919".

The front of the British War Medal shows King George V, who was King of the United Kingdom and British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 until 1936. The back view of the medal has an engraving of Saint George, naked on horseback and armed with a short sword.

The front of the 1914-15 Star is engraved with a crown, swords, and a wreath. The back is inscribed, "V. Kaplan: 10th Infantry".

This collection also includes delivery notes from the Gerald and Marc Hoberman Collection to Robert Kaplan and Ms Sheila Kaplan of the Kaplan-Kushlick Foundation. These document the return of several books and Victor Kaplan's medals, respectively. The items had been on loan for use in the book, "Tzedakah".

A series of photographs in this collection shows the National Jewish War Memorial in Johannesburg. The cornerstone of the Memorial was unveiled by the Mayor of Johannesburg, Les Dishy, on Sunday, 19 September 1993. Particular mention is made to the Kaplan-Kushlick Foundation, who contributed to the Memorial in memory of Pvt Victor Kaplan. The photographs of the Memorial show a beautiful sunny setting: the gravestones are on an elevated piece of land, overlooking a lawn with pathways. Behind the graves are many trees on a hill. The cornerstone and Roll of Honour are on the brick wall which separates the graves from the lawn.

Other items of interest in the collection are Pvt Victor Kaplan's receipt for his awarding of the 1914-15 Star and a letter from King George V of Buckingham Palace, which reads, "I join with my grateful people in sending you this memorial of a brave life given for others in the Great War."

This fascinating collection traces the history of Pvt Victor Kaplan's World War I efforts. Besides his accolades and their related documents, the collection also highlights the contributions made by Victor Kaplan's family to the National Jewish War Memorial in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Written by Alex Abrahams

South African Jewish Museum archives a greatly fascinating collection about advocate Sir Sydney Kentridge. The collection includes a newspaper article from December 1999 about Sir Kentridge’s knighting by Queen Elizabeth. There is a photograph of Sir Kentridge with wearing his insignia. The collection also includes an editorial from the British magazine Legal Business which profiles the ten leading Queen’s Chambers (QCs) as selected by more than 100 litigators in London.

The newspaper article titled “Brilliant Kentridge upheld law’s moral thread in apartheid era” by Jeremy Gordin and Stanley Uys appeared in The Sunday Independent in December 1999. The article discusses Sydney Kentridge’s soon-to-be knighting by Queen Elizabeth. It also provides the background to Kentridge, regarding his representing the Rand Daily Mail in the 1969 prisons case and as the advocate against the security police at the 1977 inquest into the death of black consciousness leader Steve Biko.

Several high-profile lawyers provide rich praise for Kentridge in the article. Nelson Mandela adds his voice to the celebrations of Kentridge’s knighting. Kentridge was a member of the defence team during Mandela’s 1956 treason trial.

A photograph of Sir Sydney Kentridge in this collection shows him wearing the insignia of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George in London in May 2000.

An editorial from the British magazine Legal Business profiles the ten leading Queen’s Chambers (QCs) as selected by more than 100 litigators in London. Kentridge got a perfect scoring of five “wigs” and led the selection. There is much praise for Kentridge in his profile. He is described as “the most admired man at the commercial Bar, particularly for his courtroom skills.” His audience shows him deep respect, describing him as “the best advocate in the English speaking world,” and, “Brilliant, excellent, analytical mind. All round the best.”

This collection is greatly fascinating for its history of Sir Sydney Kentridge. The praise shown to him by his peers is all but recognised by Queen Elizabeth who appointed him Queen’s Chamber and then knighted him.

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.

South African Jewish Museum archives a greatly fascinating collection about Jack Penn, who was a Plastic Surgeon.

According to his son John Penn, Jack Penn was blessed with a wonderfully artistic eye and ability. He enjoyed hobbies of sculpting, drawing and painting. He grew up in Cape Town and then Johannesburg and received his medical education at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Jack Penn established a Reconstructive Surgical Unit during the Second World War. He also established the Brenthurst Military Hospital during the war where thousands of servicemen were treated for burns, gunshot wounds and other injuries. He developed the first Journal of Plastic Surgery in the English language, the Brenthurst Papers. During the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, he established a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Service and continued to work on casualties in that country for many years thereafter. He worked with Dr Albert Schweitzer in Lamborene, Gabon, developing reconstructive techniques to rehabilitate lepers. He went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1956 as part of an international effort to rehabilitate the long term victims of the Atomic Bomb in those cities.

He taught and operated as a visiting professor at many academic centres in the USA, Europe and Asia, passing on his skills and experience to others.

This is a fascinating collection on Jack Penn, the Plastic Surgeon who was a leading member of his profession. He established military hospitals and provided relief for many victims of war.

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 Feinstein Family Collection gathers photographs and documents inherited by Jessica Feinstein from her grandmother Rose Hurwitz. It includes items from the Hurwitz family (originally Gurvich, from Svencionys) and the Feinstein family (originally from Polangen, Lithuania).

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 Davidian Collection comprises twenty-two papers from the official school newspaper of King David High School. This Collection of papers date to the 1960's.

The Davidian went to print every month or two, and the articles covered various aspects of school life, including Matriculation results, awards, the Headmaster’s address, sports team photographs, and sports results. Being a predominantly Jewish school, King David High School was, and still is, involved in international Jewish activities. These included inter-school competitions with Herzlia and other schools, Ulpan Hebrew lessons, chess contests in Israel and Ukraine, and Final House Positions for Maccabi, Weizmann and Bar Kochba.

There were moments of tragedy in The Davidian when the newspaper printed obituaries; moments of great pride when awards and results were announced; and The Davidian also told its student, parent and teacher audience when students were being called to join the South African Army.

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.

This Collection of photographs were taken in 1934 by Hyman Schauder during a student trip that took him to the USSR, Eastern Europe, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Italy and Switzerland.

Hyman Schauder was studying Economics at the LSE and travelling with an HB Webb Scholarship for overseas study. He took this trip with a party of 8 other economists to study the economic situation in Europe.

Schauder investigated industrial conditions and methods of unemployment insurance and relief in Britain and the United States, and did research work in Geneva.

Hyman Schauder wrote letters to his family and wrote notes on the backs of his photographs. All these sources of original narrative are available today in the collection held by South African Jewish Museum. In some cases Hyman Schauder's notes are availble in this collection and in other cases they have been transcribed.

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.

During the period of 1890 to 1930 a great migratory movement took place in Europe (particularly Eastern and Southern Europe). Jewish people fled to other countires due largely to economic hardship and political persecution. South Africa received a large influx of these immigrants with the largest Jewish population in South Africa being of Lithuanian heritage [https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/capetown/Jews_in_SA.html].

The large Lithuanian and Surrounding Towns Collection includes photographs taken from towns in Eastern Europe that existed for years prior to, and during, the first half of the 20th century. This collection primarily includes towns that fell under what was previously the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in interwar years traded titles as part of various powers, but settled into Independent Lithuania after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, there are also some towns that are from surrounding Eastern European countries, all of which had some connection to the Soviet Union, and which had very similar characteristics to the Lithuanian towns in this collection. These towns had considerable Jewish populations, either in number or in presence, referring here to significant Jewish cultural and religious contributions. These photographs have been preserved by survivors of the Holocaust, or by family members of survivors, and have been donated for the purpose of educating and providing comfort to those interested in or invested in the lives of East European Jewry.

Each town is named according to the moniker for that town in Lithuanian, or in the language of the country that the town in question falls under.
In the Series Description for each town, alternative names are given, for ease of reference and for contextual clarity. The number of alternate names is limited to Eastern European countries and Russia, due to the commonplace act in the first half of the twentieth century for these towns to pass from one occupying country to another. This is particularly true for occupation by Russia (then the Soviet Union), and Poland, thus justifying these as the most common alternative provided. Further, being primarily Jewish towns (plural: shtetlekh; singular: shtetl), the Yiddish name is given if it has been identified. This information was sourced from JewishGen, using the Communities page, which provides historical, current and alternative names for various towns. [Source: https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp].

Interconnections between towns, with family and community ties were an extremely important factor deciding where Jewish communities lived and spent time in terms of school and work. This extended from within the little town (referred to as a shtetl in Eastern Europe), to in between shtetlach (plural of shtetl). [Source: https://avotaynuonline.com/2007/01/the-ties-that-bind-jewish-kinship-networks-and-modernization-in-darbenai-and-its-diaspora/]. There has been an attempt to illustrate some of these linkages, with examples of movement between towns and strong community and inter-organisational activities, demonstrating the strength and significance of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

Importantly, although not always visible in the photographs, various stages of occupation and reoccupation by different powers throughout this period meant conditions for Jewry in these towns could change significantly from one day to the next. Some towns have larger treasure chests of tangible memories in photograph form, while others were unable to preserve as much.

The general pattern of occupation for most of these towns in Lithuania went as follows: The Russian Empire controlled Lithuania until the outbreak of World War I. Bolsheviks (the Red Army) occupied many Lithuanian towns during WWI, which was accompanied by a decree from the Tsar that all Jews were to be exiled deep into the interior of Russia. After the Russian Empire fell at the end of WWI, some of these exiled Jews could return to their original shtetl, but many did not due to having emigrated or died in the transit or by more cruel means. This meant the Jewish population had already begun to decline by the First World War.

During the period of the Independent Republic of Lithuania between WWI and the Second World War, while Jews had some community leadership positions, anti-Semitism was generally quite violent. This Independence was disrupted by Soviet invasion in 1940, which saw the confiscation and nationalisation of economic resources and new governance of these towns. Since Soviet rule had anti-Semitic tendencies, but not necessarily murderous ones, and since some Jews were supportive of communism as part of their Zionist or Bundist ideologies, many Lithuanian nationalists perceived Soviet rule as being beneficial to Jews and saw Jews as supportive of Soviet occupation. Therefore, when Nazis occupied in 1941 at the beginning of war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, many Lithuanian citizens turned against their Jewish neighbours and either orchestrated or collaborated in massacres of Jews.

Lithuanians saw Jews as threats to their independence in many instances, and saw Nazis as more amenable to allowing Lithuania to govern itself compared to Soviets, and thus Lithuanians were likely to collaborate with Nazis. This is one of the reasons that such a large proportion of Lithuanian Jewry were killed during the Holocaust, as Nazis were not acting alone and were not met with resistance from local non-Jews in many instances. There were periods of mass exodus from Lithuania, whereby some Jews were able to escape in between occupations, or during occupation when borders were still open, with most Jews from Lithuania immigrating to South Africa, America and Israel. [Source: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_lita/pinkas_lita.html; https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania6/lit6_00i.html#Pagexxxivhttps://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania6/lithuania6.html#TOC]

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.