Blue plaque recognises Muizenberg Jewish community’s heritage

Muizenberg holds a special place in the hearts and memories of many South African Jews, and its Jewish community has now been recognised for its historic significance in the area with a prestigious blue plaque.

The plaque was unveiled at a small ceremony at the beginning of September.

Blue plaques are commemorative signs placed on buildings and in locations of significance. The Muizenberg synagogue on Camp Road was one of two buildings in the area, as designated by the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, to receive blue-plaque status.

“I was contacted by Glenn Babb, the head of the Muizenberg Historical Society. It wanted to honour the Muizenberg Jewish community for its service and influence in Muizenberg over many decades, and thought it appropriate to put a plaque at the shul,” says Muizenberg Hebrew Congregation Rabbi Ryan Newfield.

Chris Taylor, the chairperson of the Muizenberg Historical Society, told the SA Jewish Report that the plaque was to commemorate the Jewish community’s integral role in Muizenberg history, rather than the shul building itself.

“For a couple of years, we’ve had a low-key project to erect blue plaques on buildings of historical significance or to commemorate people,” he says. “For example, Agatha Christie learned to surf in Muizenberg, so we have one for her. A great deal of the history of Muizenberg was driven by the Jewish community. At its peak, there were about 600 families living there, mainly from Lithuania. Although there has been an exodus of Jews from Muizenberg since the 1960s, they left behind a great deal of history. This blue plaque is to commemorate that past. The shul is and was the heart of the community, which is why we felt the plaque should go there.”

He notes that there are still a small number of Jews who live in Muizenberg or who come on holiday, mainly from Johannesburg. He finds it interesting that the builder of the synagogue was Charles McCarthy. Taylor dug into his history, and found that he was “an Irish Catholic Cockney, who converted to Judaism for the woman he loved before coming to South Africa from London. So, he was an Irish Catholic Cockney Jew.”

According to the book Muizenberg: the Story of the Shtetl by the Sea by Hedy Davis, the woman McCarthy fell in love with and married was Fanny Schindler. They settled in Kalk Bay, and McCarthy never accepted payment for his work on the synagogue. He served on the shul committee, and was a loyal member of the Muizenberg Hebrew Congregation until his death. He and his wife are buried in the Muizenberg Cemetery. Their story is just one of many that made up the thriving, dynamic Muizenberg Jewish community in its heyday.

Newfield says he was asked what they wanted to be written on the plaque. “I left the words to some of the oldest and most involved members of our community. They chose to keep it simple, and give its full name – the Muizenberg and Kalk Bay Hebrew Congregation – and the date of establishment. The date itself was subject to dispute, but the earliest was 1916, the first step in setting up a Talmud Torah. We went with that date, as everyone who was involved in setting up the Jewish infrastructure of Muizenberg should be honoured.”

The keynote speaker at the ceremony was Democratic Alliance federal council chair Helen Zille, who spoke about “various Jewish people who changed Muizenberg forever, like Gerald Musikanth and Mendel Kaplan, who helped to build the boardwalk to Kalk Bay, as well as many others”, says the rabbi.

“I commended the society for remembering history as the Jewish people so often remember their history, and it seems the Torah promotes looking back at the past to understand who we are in the present,” he says. “I also mentioned that in a world of numbers, where everyone is focused on COVID-19 numbers, vaccination numbers, etcetera, the Jewish people have defied numbers. The Muizenberg Jewish community is no different. Somehow, a little corner of Africa was built and largely influenced by a few hundred Jewish families that would forever change this part of the world.”

“The event itself was delightful, and Helen Zille asked to be invited to our century anniversary of the current shul building in 2024,” he says. “It was a bad week of weather, but somehow the sun came out for the event, and Glenn Babb joked to me that G-d answered my prayers.”

Ward councillor of the Cape’s Ward 64, Aimee Kuhl, told the SA Jewish Report, “I’m always enthusiastic about anything that celebrates history in my ward because I believe that only once we remember where we come from do we know where we’re going.” She made the time to attend the blue plaque unveiling ceremony at the shul, and says, “We cherish the Jewish rich cultural history that we have in Muizenberg. As ward councillor, I’m very aware of that history.”