The Great Karoo: Jewish Presence In Towns

Monday, 27th May 2019

The Karoo had a sizeble Jewish community that played a major role in various towns. They also left a mark in most towns ranging from cemeteries to Synagogues.

The list below was compiled by Rabbi Stuart Serwator Country Communities Dept, S A Jewish Board of Deputies.

Aliwal North

Cemetery, synagogue: now engineering-works, refer Mrs Jocelyn Stoch, Newlands, tel. 021 – 674.1571; Mr Stanley Becker, Sea Point: 021 – 434.3381

Aberdeen

Cemetery, synagogue: sold & demolished 1958

Adelaide

Cemetery: apparently only 1 grave out of about 50 families!

Beaufort West

Cemetery, synagogue, Rabbi’s house: sold 1979; both converted into store-houses for a market-garden

Calitzdorp

Cemetery: Moses’ Hope farm (Herring family)

Colesberg

Cemetery, synagogue: sold 1955 to Volkskas Bank; Services held thereafter in home of Mr M Stern ‘till his death in 1965

Cradock

Cemetery, synagogue: sold 1986 to SAPS; now owned by Dept of Home Affairs Refer Mrs Muriel Sendzul (nee Kahn), Belmont Hotel, Sea Point: 021 – 439.7231

De Aar

Cemetery, synagogue: sold 1971? 1988?

Jansenville

Cemetery

Kimberley

Cemetery, synagogue: still functioning Refer Mr Adrian (k.a. Barney) Horwitz, Kimberley

Ladismith

Cemetery (part of municipal cemetery, synagogue (tall buildingg, pressed ceilings, built 1913, in dangerous state)

Laingsburg

Cemetery, synagogue washed away in flood?

Middelburg

2 Jewish cemeteries; 2 synagogues: 1 used from 1903 – 34; the new one from 1934 – 62, sold in 1972, now a house