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South African Historical Journal Volume 31, 1994 - Issue 1
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ARTICLES/ARTIKELS

The Anatomy of an Immigrant Community: Cape Town Jewry from the Turn of the Century to the Passing of the Quota Act

EDNA BRADLOW University of Cape Town,
Pages 103-127 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • Shimoni , G. 1980 . Jews and Zionism: The South African Experience 1910–1967 Cape Town See ch. 1
  • G19–05, CGH, Census of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1904, Parts I, II, III;Cape of Good Hope (hereafter CGH), GH6–92, Census of the Cape of Good Hope, 1891, pp. i, xxxvi, xxxix, xlii. Urban Jews formed 1.67% of the urban white total, rural dwellers 0.18% of the rural white population;University of Cape Town Libraries (hereafter UCT Libs), BC160, Morris Alexander Papers (hereafter Alexander), List 3, No. 4(b);Cape Town Jewish Philanthropic Society (hereafter CTJPS), committee minutes 30 Nov. 1896, 25 Jan. 1897, 1 Feb. 1897, sought to discourage this 'influx of foreign Jews'. But once they arrived, the Society tried to find work for them to prevent their being declared prohibited immigrants
  • ibid., 10(d) Immigration notebook, 1911;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3, No. 3, South African Jewish Board of Deputies (hereafter BOD);G63–04, CGH, Report on the working of the Immigration Act 1902 (hereafter Gregory Report), p. 5
  • 20 Aug. 1911, another ‘filthy’ passenger.UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, list 3 (10d), 20 June 1911, passenger dressed ‘in an unclean manner’
  • G4–1910, CGH, Report of the Chief Immigration Officer for the year ending 31st December 1909, p. 2ff;G21–07, CGH, Report on Immigration and Labour for the year ending 31st December 1906, p. 3ff;L. Hotz, ‘A Survey of the Jewish population in South Africa’, South African Jewish Yearbook, 1929;L. Herrman, A History of the Jews in South Africa (London, 1930), 252ff;C. Gershater, ‘From Lithuania to South Africa’, in G. Saron and L. Hotz, eds, The Jews in South Africa: A History (Cape Town, 1955), 61ff;M. Zborowski and E. Herzog, Life is with People: The Culture of the Shied (New York, 1962);B.I. Feldman, ‘Social Life of Cape Town Jewry 1904–1914: With Special Reference to the Eastern European Immigrant Community’ (BA Hons thesis, University of Cape Town, 1984);G. Saron, “The Making of South African Jewry', in L. Feldberg, ed., South African Jewry (Johannesburg, 1965), 31ff. For an anatomy of the early Johannesburg community based on somewhat impressionistic sources see R. Krut, ‘The Making of a South African Jewish Community in Johannesburg 1886–1914’, in B. Bozzoli, ed., Class, Community and Conflict: South African Perspectives (Johannesburg, 1987)
  • Zborowski and Herzog . Life is with People 291
  • Encyclopedia Judaica Vol. 5 , 489 vol., p.;Zborowski and Herzog, Life is with People, Part 4, 2;UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C. D. Clain, pp. 7, 18, 30, 45–6
  • UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C, D. Clain;UCT Libs, BC 798, Schoonder St. Hebrew Congregation Archives (incorporating Roeland St.), B. Marriage Register, 1920–1924;M.E. Katz, ‘Jewish Education at the Cape, 1841 to the Present Day’ (M.Ed, thesis, University of Cape Town, 1973), 75
  • UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C, D. Clain.UCT Libs, BC 783, South African Hebrew Dividing Benefit Society (hereafter SAHDBS), A1, minute books, 1917–1934
  • Yearbook, 1929 UCT Libs BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, general meetings June 1918-Oct. 1921;UCT Libs, BC 784, Kowno Hebrew Friendly Society (hereafter KHFS), A 2, members meetings Nov. 1917-Dec. 1920;UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File D, 0046, D.D.;ibid., File G. 0068, I.I.G.'s landmanschaft also gave members interest free loans;South African Jewish Chronicle (hereafter SAJC), Vol. 8, 32 (new series, 19 Aug. 1921, 14 Dec. 1945)
  • Bradlow , E. 1978 . ‘Immigration into the Union, 1910–1948: Policies and Attitudes' University of Cape Town . see also M. Shain, Jewry and Cape Society (Cape Town, 1983).(Ph.D. thesis
  • UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 4(b), CTJPS, 25 Mar. 1903, 18 May 1903, 8 June 1903, a deputation comprising several congregations and philanthropic societies urged the government to drop the prohibition on Yiddish
  • UCT libs, BC 784, KHFS, A 2, 26 Mar. 1911, 17 July 1921;Cape Archives, Cape Supreme Court (hereafter CSC), Criminal Records, 1/1/1/51–1/1/1/156, 1902–1930;BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 14 June 1921;UCT Libs, BC 809, Cape Town Jewish Board of Guardians (hereafter BOG), A, 13 Apr. 1921, 21 Nov. 1922, 29 Nov. 1922, 13 Dec. 1922, 27 Dec 1922, 7 Mar. 1923;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 2, list 3 4(b), 11 May 1903, 18 May 1903, 15 June 1903;Shain, Jewry, chs. 2, 4, 5
  • 1904 . SAJC , 3 ( 24 ) 10 June similar conditions of Jewish immigrants in Stepney, London
  • Lewin , D. From the History of the Cape Town Jews' (n.d.), described living conditions in the ‘ghetto’ as “very bad UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 1, File C, 1899–1905
  • Alexander . 1903 . ibid, List 1, C, File 11, P. Jochelson to Secretary, BOD, Johannesburg, 1 Aug. 1923;UCT Libs, BC 160, List 3 4(b), CTJPS,;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, membership applications, D 2, nominations of beneficiaries, 1908–1976;UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS, A 1;UCT Libs, BC 782, Sons of Israel Dividing Benefit Society;UCT Libs, BC 852, Bnoth Zion, A 2, committee meetings, 1927–1933;Corporation of the City of Capetown [sic] Minute. for the Mayoral year ending 11 Sep. 1902, pp. 157–58;The Cape, 30 May 1924;Juta's Cape Town and Suburban Directory 1902, 1912, 1930
  • UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 1. An appeal for the victims of the Kishinev pogrom (1903) was distributed in Yiddish and Hebrew
  • 1904 . SAJC , 3 ( 26 ) 24 June E. Mantzaris, ‘Jewish Trade Unions in Cape Town, 1903–1907’ (Fourth Workshop on the History of Greater Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 1983), 8: trade unions offered free English tuition
  • Geffen , M. “ ‘Cape Town Jewry 1902–10’ ” . In The Jews Edited by: Saron and Hotz . 56;Shain, Jewry 90, quoting The Cape, 3 Jan. 1908;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, D 2, members' nominations of beneficiaries, 1908–1976;UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS;A 2, Minutes of members' meetings, 1910–1939;UCT Libs, BC 863, Bickur Cholim (Sick Benefit Society);SAJC 39, 12 (new series), 24 Mar. 1950
  • Geffen . “ ‘Cape Town Jewry’ ” . In The Jews Edited by: Saron and Hotz . 55;Lewin, 'From the History of the Cape Town Jews', 16
  • Goldblatt , D. 1905 . in . SAJC , 1 ( 2 ) 12 May See (new series)
  • Grosman , M. P. 1966 . ‘A Study of the Trends and Tendencies of Hebrew and Yiddish Writings in South Africa since their Beginnings in the Early Nineties of the Last Century to 1930’ University of the Witwatersrand . J.A. Poliva, A Short History of the Jewish Press and Literature of South Africa, from its Earliest Days until the Present Time (Johannesburg, 1961);(Ph.D. thesis,;J.S. Judelowitz, ‘The Jewish Press in South Africa’, in South African Jewish Yearbook, (1929), 253–54;Shain, Jewry, 64;SAJC 3, 26 (24 June 1904);Dictionary of South African Biography, vol. 5, p. 293;E. Mantzaris, ‘Class, Community, Language and Struggle: Hebrew against Yiddish in South Africa, 1900–1914’ (Paper, University of the Witwatersrand History Workshop, 1987)
  • SAJC , 6 ( 15 ) (11 Apr. 1919, 17 Apr. 1919);UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C, D. Clain, File D, 0049, R.D
  • Deutscher , T. 1968 . “The Education or a Jewish Child' ” . In The Non-Jewish Jew Edited by: Deutscher , I. London For the content and atmosphere of a traditional Jewish education, see in
  • Standard Encyclopedia of South Africa Vol. 9 , 216 vol., p.;M.E. Katz, ‘History of Jewish Education in South Africa, 1841 to 1980’ (D.Phil (Educ) thesis, University of Cape Town, 1980), vol. 1, pp. 10, 20, 22, 140ff, 263ff;Katz, ‘Jewish Education at the Cape’, ch. 2, p. 70ff, A 28, A32;L. Herrman, A History of the Jews, 268;Yearbook, 1929;Geffen, ‘Cape Town Jewry’, in Saron and Hotz, The Jews 50, 52;SAJC 3, 2 (8 Jan. 1904);UCT Libs, BC 695, L. Herrman Papers, E.7.1, ‘The Cape Town High School: An Historical Sketch’;SAJC 2, 20, 43 (2 Aug. 1902, 22 May 1903, 6 Nov. 1903, 27 Nov. 1903), on the establishment of a girls' school
  • Shimoni . Jews and Zionism 9ff;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 (2), Cape naturalizations, 1904–1906;UCT Libs, BC 798, Schoonder St. Hebrew Congregation Archives (Roeland St.), B, marriage registers, 1903–1924;UCT Libs, BC 786, Grand Order of Israel Friendly Benefit Society. Registered pursuant to Act of Parliament. The Lord Milner Lodge, No. 21, Cape Town (hereafter GOI), 1903–1958
  • UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 1, C, File 11, P. Jochelson to Secretary, BOD Jhb., 1 Aug. 1923;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 1918;UCT Libs, BC 809, BOG, A, 29 Nov. 1922
  • G21–07, CGH, Report on Immigration and Labour for the year ending 31st December 1906;G4–06, CGH Report of the officer in charge of Immigration and Labour, p. 13;C1–06, CGH Report of the Select Committee on Conducting of Factories and Fair Wage Clause, pp. vii, ix, x, 30, 35a ff, 47a;UCT Libs, BC 809, BOG, A, 7 June 1922,13 Dec. 1922, 24 Feb. 1926;R. Hallett, 'Policemen, Pimps and Prostitutes', in C. Saunders, ed., Studies in the History of Cape Town, vol. 1 (Cape Town, 1979), 9;M. Alexander, in The Owl, 8, 20 Sep. 1903, described Jews working as labourers at the docks and on building sites;see also I. Deutscher, ‘The Russian Revolution and the Jewish Problem’, in The Non-Jewish Jew
  • GOI;UCT Libs, BC 786;UCT Libs, BC 798, Roeland St., Marriage register, passim;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 1917–1924;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 (2), Cape naturalization, 1904–1906
  • UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 6 Mar. 1917, 10 Nov. 1920, 12 Dec. 1920, 5 Jan. 1921, 5 Oct. 1921, a memento worth about 30/- was to be presented to the retiring Registrar of Friendly Societies
  • UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 (4b), CTJPS, 1897–1903;G63–04, CGH, Gregory Report, p. 15;UCT Libs, BC 918, Oranjia, Cape Jewish Orphanage Collection, A 1, 19 May 1912
  • UCT Libs, BC 809, BOG, A, 1921–26, AGM 17 Feb. 1924;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 4(a) and (b), CTJPS 1896–1903, in the post-South African War depression, this society urged the English Board of Guardians to discourage non-skilled indigents from emigrating;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 26 Mar. 1919;History of the Cape Jewish Board of Guardians (published by the Board, 1963), 15–29
  • Abrahams , I. “ ‘Western Province Jewry’ ” . In The Jews Edited by: Saron and Hotz . 27 in
  • CSC, Criminal Records, 1/1/1/51–1/1/1/156, 1902–1930;Cape Archives, CSC, Review Books, 1/4/1/19–1/4/1/29, 1901–1915;Cape Archives, 1/78, PBW, Archives of the Superintendent, Breakwater Convict Station, 1859–1913, Vols. 120, 122, 162, 199;Hallett, ‘Policemen’
  • Link , P. 1987 . “The Loshen Hakaudesch in Schopfloch' . Jewish Affairs , 42 ( 9 ) Sep. I am indebted to Mrs Lilian Dubb for this material, including the reference to the gaunersprache in
  • Shain . Jewry , 4 47 Hallett, ‘Policemen’, 7ff;E J. Bristow, Vice and Viglance: Purity Movements in Britain since 1700 (Dublin, 1977), 173–96;Cape Archives, CSC, 'Criminal Records', 1/1/1/59, Joe Silver's case
  • SAJC 2, 40 (16 Oct. 1903), 41 (23 Oct. 1903).UCT Libs, BC 849, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A 6, minute books, 1 Mar. 1896, 22 Mar. 1896, 17 Apr. 1898, 8 Sep. 1898, 8 Feb. 1903 (discussion with Colonial Secretary), 17 Sep. 1903, 6 Mar. 1904
  • G66–1902, CGH, Reports on the Public Health for the year 1901;UCT Libs, BC 918, Oranjia, A 2, 8 Feb. 1920;G66–1903, CGH, Report of the District Surgeons, pp. 34, 171, 172, 182;G63–04, CGH, Gregory Report;Corporation of the City of Cape Town. Minute. of the Mayor for the mayoral year ending Sept. 1902, p. ci ff;Corporation. Minute. 1910, p. xxi;UCT Libs, BC 849, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A 6, 25 Aug. 1898, 4 Sep. 1898;UCT Libs, BC 798, Schoonder St., B, Burial records, 1902-Sep. 1919;UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C, D. Clain, p. 34;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 1918;UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS, A 1, 1918–1919;H. Phillips, Black October: The Impact of the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918 on South Africa (Archives Year Book for South African History, II, Pretoria, 1990), 12, 21, 23, 138 n.15, 139;Feldman, ‘Social Life’, 24 ff
  • Deutscher dismissed such observances as ‘religious' taboos and rites [which] were. archaic and anachronistic’: Deutscher, “The Russian Revolution', 63
  • Saron . “ ‘The Making’ ” . In South African Jewry Edited by: Feldberg . 15ft;B. de Breffny, The Synagogue (London, 1978), 180
  • UCT Libs, BC 849, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A 7, minute book, 3 July 1904, described it as ‘an infamous case’
  • L. Mirvish, ‘Cape Town Jewry in 1910’, Jewish Affairs 15, 5 (May 1960);UCT Libs, BC 849, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A 6, A 7, minute books, March 1896-Nov. 1912;S.A Rochlin, ‘Jubilee of Cape Town's Oldest Minyan’, S.A. Jewish Times 12, 24 (19 Dec. 1947);SAJC 6, 4 (new series), 24 Jan. 1919;SAJC 6, 37 (new series), 12 Sep. 1919;D. Lewin, ‘From the History’;Yearbook, 1929, 69 ff;M. Geffen, ‘Cape Town Jewry, 1902–10’, in Saron and Hotz, The Jews, 50;Katz, ‘The History of Jewish Education’, vol. 1, p. 145;Grosman, ‘Trends and Tendencies', Ch. 3, quoting N.D.B. Hoffman's ‘Book of Memoirs'
  • 1896 – 1905 . UCT Libs, BC 849, C.T. Hebrew Congregation, A 6,BC 160, Alexander, List 1, C, File 4 (1913–1917);;Shain, Jewry, 87 ff, thanks to the efforts of the Cape Jewish Board of Deputies, shops supplying kosher meat and bread baked after the sabbath (for which they had closed) were exempt from the Half Holiday Act of 1905
  • 4 Nov. 1902, 27 Nov. 1902, the Gardens committee prescribed costs for Beth Hamedrash burials;UCT Libs, BC 849, C.T. Hebrew Congregation, A 6, 12 June 1898, 2 Feb. 1902, refers to 'considerable unpleasantness' between the Gardens and Wynberg congregations;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, Jan.-June 1923
  • UCT Libs, BC 849, A 6, 24 Feb. 1904, 13 Mar. 1904
  • T. Gutsche, The History and Social Significance of Motion Pictures in South Africa, 1895–1940 (Cape Town, 1972), passim. The Princess National Theatre in William St., for example, charged 3d a performance.UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS, A1, 25 June 1916 to 1 Sep. 1918, passim
  • UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 19 June 1921, ‘P.G.’ abused the secretary, 27 Jan. 1924, an argument between the chairman and two members
  • ibid., C, rules, 1933.UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS, A 1, 1915, Statement of objectives
  • BC 918, Oranjia, Cape Jewish Orphanage Collection, A 2, 1 Aug. 1920, 19 Aug. 1920;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, C, File 6, Jan.-Apr. 1921, pamphlet on this fund;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, 5 Feb. 1922, the Registrar queried whether a donation for the orphans from the society's sick and funeral fund constituted a benefit for members
  • UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A1, and BC 784, KHFS, A 1, A 2, passim;For example, the SAHDBS and the KHFS took opposing positions on participation in the Dorshei Zion's 1920 motorcade to celebrate the international community's recognition of Jews as a nation. Sources for this section can be found in G5–91, CGH, Reports by Government actuary upon Friendly Societies, 1890;Abrahams, ‘Western Province Jewry’, in Saron and Hotz, Jews in South Africa, 42
  • passim UCT Libs, BC 938, Jewish Girls' Association, D, Minutes 1918–1922, handwork, deportment, physical education and elocution classes were offered. In 1921 the proceeds of the annual dance were divided between the BOG and the Cape Russo-Jewish Relief Fund;Abrahams, ‘Western Cape Jewry’, 34, 35, 54, 55;S.A. Rochlin, ‘They Helped to Shape our Future’, South African Jewish Frontier 5, 9 (Sep. 1946);SAJC 2, 12 (27 Mar. 1903)
  • Shimoni . Jews and Zionism 19 ff;UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 1, C, File 1, 1899–1905;Yearbook, 1929, 73
  • Judelowitz , J. S. “The Jewish Press in South Africa', in ” . In Yearbook, 1929 254;UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File D, 0046, ‘D.D.’;Poliva, Short History of the Jewish Press
  • Katz, ‘Jewish Education at the Cape’, 76–77, Appendix IX;UCT Libs, BC 852, Bnoth Zion, A 2, committee meetings, Feb. 1927-Oct. 1929;Katz, ‘History of Jewish Education’, 161–62. In Johannesburg, Hebrew classes for girls had started in 1903 and were much opposed by orthodox Jews
  • BC 809, BOG, A, minute books, 1921–27.UCT Libs, BC 160, Alexander, List 3 4(a) and (b), CTJPS, 31 May 1897, 9 Aug. 1897
  • 1904 . SAJC , 3 ( 25 ) 17 June letter from ‘E.L.’
  • Mantzaris , E. 1984 . “ The Promise of the Impossible Revolution: The Cape Town Industrial Socialist League, 1918–1921', in ” . In Studies in the History of Cape Town Vol. 4 , 146 – 32 . Cape Town vol. E. Mantzaris, ‘Jewish Trade Unions in Cape Town, 1903–1907: A Socio-Historical Investigation’ (Fourth Workshop on the History of Greater Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 1983);E. Mantzaris, ‘Radical Community: The Yiddish-Speaking Branch of the Internationalist Socialist League, 1918–1920’, in Bozzoli, Class, Community, Conflict, Cape Times, 18 Apr. 1919, editorial describing Berman as 'a sort of Bolshevik John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lapitsky, Sosnovik [sic] campaign‘. The South African authorities ‘persuaded' them to abandon most of their tour and Lapitsky left for Lisbon on 17 Apr. 1919, accompanied by his wife and pet monkey;W.H. Harrison, Memoirs of a Socialist in South Africa 1903–1947 (published by author, n.d., about 1948), 64 ff
  • Johns , S. W. 1965 . ‘Marxism-Leninism in a Multi-Racial Environment: The Origins and Early History of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1914–1932’ 1 – 6 . Harvard University . (Ph.D. thesis, chs.The Bolshevik 1, 12 (Oct. 1920;2, 3 (Jan. 1921);South African Communists Speak Documents from the History of the South African Communist Party, 1915–1980 (London, 1981), 62
  • Shain , M. 1990 . “ passim ” . In ‘The Foundations of Anti-Semitism in South Africa: Images of the Jew about 1870–1930’ University of Cape Town . (Ph.D. thesis
  • UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, Aug. 1917-Feb. 1918.UCT Libs, BC 784, KHFS, A 2, general meetings, Sep. 1917-May 1919
  • Shimoni . Jews and Zionism 2 ff;UCT Libs, BC 949, Kaplan Centre Interviews, File C, D. Clain, pp.5–7, 51, File D, 0045, ‘A.D.’, File E, 0050, ‘R.E.’, 0052, ‘B.E.’, File G, 0068, ‘I.G.’;UCT Libs, BC 783, SAHDBS, A 1, general meeting, 4 Nov. 1919;SAJC, passim
  • UCT Libs, BC 809, BOG, A, A.G.M., 17 Feb. 1924. It is unclear whether the men were Eastern Europeans or earlier arrivals;UCT Libs, BC 849, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A 6, Aug. 1896-Apr. 1903;Z. Strelitz, ‘Jewish identity in Cape Town with special reference to out-marriage’, Jewish Journal of Sociology 13, 1 (June 1971), 73–93
  • Feldman , K. 1960 . ‘Yiddish in South Africa’ . Jewish Affairs , 15 ( 5 ) May : 66

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