How Did Zionism Start in Cape Town?
By Gwynne Robins The first Zionist society in Cape Town was the short-lived Bnei Zion Society which had been established on 27 November 1897 by Reb Yehuda Leib Schrire, the…
All local narratives and histories, anything Gwynne wrote
The 1918 Flu Pandemic and the Cape Town Jewish Community
Prof Howard Phillips' Interview with Jenny Stern (14.11.1978) - born 1903 Abbreviated from the interview in In a Time of Plague: Memories of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 in…
How Did Astra Begin?
By Gwynne Robins Global education network ORT, which started in St Petersburg, Russia in 1880 to teach Jews employable skills, came to South Africa in 1936 when its chairman, Dr…
How the Jewish Community Services Started
By Gwynne Robins The hazards of the sea were directly responsible for the establishment of the first Jewish organisation in the Cape, the Jewish Philanthropic Society of the Jewish Community…
How the Cape SAJBD Started
By Gwynne Robins Since the fourth century BCE, the Jews in the Diaspora have found it necessary to have a kehillah, a semi-autonomous organised Jewish community structure, that could intercede…
A Kneidlach Chicken Soup (not representative of this recipe).
Cape Town dad’s Kneidlach Chicken Soup
By Clive Dallas Ingredients • 8 spoons Matzah meal • 3-4 Eggs • 2 tbsp Schmaltz • 1 large onion • 2 carrots • 1 stick of celery • 4…
Infographic: Cape Town Jewish Community Snapshot
An infographic detailing Cape Town Jewish life, based on the Kaplan Centre at University of Cape Town's Jewish Community Survey, published early 2020.
The 1901 plague and its effect on Cape Town’s Jews
By Gwynne Robins In 1901 the Bubonic plague reached Cape Town. The South African War was at its height and the British had imported horses for its troops and fodder…
Statement by Premier Alan Winde on first coronavirus deaths
A few short months ago, the world learned of a virus that was spreading rapidly through the province of one country, leaving little in its wake but chaos and mourning.…
Holocaust survivor, Miriam Lichterman.
Yom HaShoah Vehagevurah: A History
Most South African Jews came from Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1930, with some from Germany in the 1930s and others from Rhodes Island in the 1960s. After the Holocaust,…