History of Cape Town's Jews

Jews have been involved in the exploration and settlement of the Cape since Europe first developed an interest in finding alternate routes to India. The early Portuguese navigators Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco Da Gama would not have been able to make their journeys without the Jewish mapmakers, and the astronomical tables drawn up by Abraham Zacuto which enabled the sailors to navigate on a large ocean that has no roads or street signs, just big waves or little waves.

Although Jews were shareholders and directors of the Dutch East India Company, the company only employed Protestants. The Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1652 occurred a few years after the massive disruption to Jewish life in Poland caused by the massacres of Chmielnicki, and some desperate Jewish refugees fleeing to Holland were prepared to be baptized in order to get a job with the Dutch East India Company. There were baptized Jews in the Cape in 1669 like Samuel Jacobson who served as a shepherd, and David Heilbron who was stationed on Robben Island. In the 18th century we know of Abraham of Prague, Johan de Souza, and some who did not deny their Jewish identity despite their baptismal certificates, like Eschel Joel, a helmsman who was involved in a fight in 1754 with the ship's mate when he called Joel the Dutch equivalent of damn Jew, and Fernando Henriques who brought along kosher food for the journey for himself and for his slave, but it was only when the British took over the Cape in 1805 that freedom of religion was established and Jews could really come as Jews without having to pretend to be something else.

Lady Anne Barnard bought a rare plant for her garden from a Jewess called Da Costa whose husband was a sergeant in the garrison and later a bookkeeper in the prison. The first practising Jew was Dr Siegfried Frankel who arrived in 1808. A Danish ship's doctor, he was arrested on arrival with the rest of the crew as Britain was at war with Denmark at the time, and when released in a prisoner exchange, he got permission to remain in Cape Town. Dr Frankel later helped to establish the South African College where his sons were among the first students. One of the well known characters in Cape Town was old Moses the Money changer, who came in 1817 and lived at the Castle and was immortalized in a popular song called Katy Kekkelbek (Chatterbox) with the lines:
“Right it is true what Old Moses says in the Cape,
that it is all flausen and homboggery."

Another well known Jew in the early years of the 19th century was Joseph Da Lima, who taught slaves, ran the first Dutch bookshop, started a weekly newspaper and published poems, plays, pamphlets and the first history of the Cape.
Organised Jewish worship was initiated by Jews who had arrived from England with the 1820 settlers. The leader of one party, Mr Wilson, absconded in Simons Town with the group's money. The British Government would not pay his successor, Rev Boardman, the full minister's salary as some of his group were Jewish. These included the Nordens and the Slomans, who were to play a prominent role in the establishment of a Jewish congregation in the Cape 20 years later.

The Norden sons distinguished themselves in settler activities. One of them, Benjamin, explored the interior trading with the Xhosas and reached Natal where he brought a letter to the Zulu chief, Dingaan, from the Governor Benjamin D'Urban about a new settlement to be called Durban. Benjamin retired to Cape Town where he went into business, selling guano. He brought together the first minyan on Yom Kippur 26th September 1841 when seventeen men met at his house, 5 Helmsely Cottages on the Helmsley Estate in Hof Street including Morris Sloman, Simeon Marcus and Dr Frankel. The following week they met again at the home of Simeon Marcus in Loop Street and established the Society of the Jewish Community of Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope or Tikvath Israel (Tikvath meaning Hope). This later became the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation. Contributions also came from Old Moses and Dr Da Lima.

The following year they bought two plots of ground in Woodstock for what became the Albert Road Cemetery. The first person to be buried there was Abraham Horn one of the trustees of the Tikvath Israel, whose posthumous son was the first recognised Jewish birth in 1845.

The first Jewish marriage took place in 1844 between Marcus' daughter, Amelia, and Michael Benjamin. As there was neither synagogue nor rabbi, the wedding took place in the St George's Church under the Senior Colonial Chaplain, Rev Hough of St George's Church in a ceremony in which, with the permission of the Attorney-General, all allusions to the Trinity had been carefully removed.

Their son was to become the first barmitzvah boy in 1858 although the 13 year old son of Sloman was the first boy to be called to the Torah in 1849 at the first public reading of the Torah in South Africa by the Rev Pulver. This brave young man had his bris the year before when he was 12 years old because there had been nobody in the Cape qualified to do it before then.

The first bris was performed in October 1847 by R Joseph, the honorary secretary of the synagogue, who, as a qualified mohel, was a welcome addition to the small community. The first South African boy on whom he performed the operation was his own newly born son.

The new congregation acquired their first Sefer Torah in 1848, brought from England by Aaron de Pass an elder of the shul, who, together with his brother, Elias, the honorary secretary, was very active in the new congregation. They were ship-owners, and built the first facilities for shipping repairs. They also bought the Sea Bride, the ship captured off the coast of Cape Town in 1863 by the Alabama, a Confederate raider that preyed the seas during the American Civil War. (The folk song DAAR KOM DIE ALABAMA - There comes the Alabama - has remained popular ever since.) The greatest benefactor to the South African National Gallery was to be Aaron's grandson, Alfred, whose donations of paintings and etchings formed the nucleus of its collection.

In 1849 the first synagogue was purchased, on the corner of Bouquet and St John's Street adjoining the Lodge De Goede Hoop. It formed part of a house, suitably altered, the rest of which was to serve as living quarters for their first minister, the Rev.Isaac Pulver. This was the first synagogue in the sub-continent.
The first Jewish bride to be married in a synagogue was one of the eight daughters of the Slomans. These daughters had made themselves responsible for providing the vestments and curtains of the synagogue suitably embroidered - a very acceptable occupation for Victorian daughters. The synagogue had at the time no marriage canopy (chupah) so the ark curtains had to be removed to serve the purpose.

The establishment of the first Jewish welfare organisation in the Cape was a direct result of the city's link with the sea and the dangers thereof. Solomon the synagogue secretary had already dealt with a few stranded or shipwrecked Jewish passengers. One day he was approached by a destitute young man who had lost all his possessions in a fire on board ship. The Cape Argus in its report of the destruction of the barque Joseph Somes in 1857 had reported that apparently the passengers had seen the Flying Dutchman with its ghostly captain sail under their bows. Soon after, someone dropped a lamp, but they were too demoralised by the ghastly experience to put the flames out properly thinking them the flames of hell. The newspaper stated that "no man except a Jew and an intermediate passenger saved anything except the clothes he wore at the time." As a result of the report, a public subscription was opened for the victims but the Jew was excluded from its largesse. Those two men were the cook's assistant and a passenger, not the unfortunate young Jew - who had landed as destitute as the others. Solomon complained to the newspaper about the injustice done, with its undeniable tinge of antisemitism. The statement was repudiated, but too late for the young man, for the funds had already been distributed.

With the establishment of the Philanthropic Society of the Jewish Community of the Cape of Good Hope - today's Jewish Community Services - the Jewish community could look after their own, and the Society maintained an active interest in the welfare of new arrivals and in cases of hardship.

By 1861 the congregation had outgrown the small synagogue and with the encouragement of their minister, Rev Rabinowitz, a house, stables and a large garden extending back from St John's Street onto Government Avenue was bought. On this was built a synagogue, now the Jewish Museum. It was consecrated on Rosh Hashanah, 13th September 1863, the 14th anniversary of the opening of the Bouquet Street Synagogue. This was the first synagogue built in South Africa,

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History of Zionism