Jewish routes in Cape Town and Western Cape

STEVEN ALBERT

A few years ago, I had an idea to research the old synagogues around Cape Town and the Western Cape. I travelled through most of the small towns, writing about the shuls, their histories and the Jewish communities.

Calvinia

  The Calvinia Synagogue was built in 1918 at
  a cost of £1 400 and opened in 1920. Used by
  the community for the last time in August 1968,
  the building was donated to the municipality for
  use as a museum in 1970. 

  It is an excellent museum, with a section
  devoted to the Jewish community including
  photographs of Jewish businesses, homes and
  local personalities, and local rugby and soccer
  teams with Jewish members.

Curator Maxie Hugo has extensive knowledge of the Jewish community. After I photographed and record her store of documents and photographs, she drove me around the streets, pointing out the Jewish houses, relating who lived where, what happened to them and other information. Many of the homes and business premises are still standing.

Uniondale

The Uniondale Shul is something to behold. A small building, very understated, quaint, unassuming, as were just about all the shuls I had seen. But inside, the ceiling was painted, covered from end to end with puffy clouds, blue skies and beaming Stars of David.

Synagogues are traditionally unadorned – and certainly the old structures were austere, almost ascetic in their complete lack of decoration. The Uniondale Shul was beautiful, almost whimsical with its stars and shining magenei david blazing across the ceiling. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Built in approximately 1901, it was either sold or given to the municipality in 1976 and bought by the Lions Club in 1994. 

Oudtshoorn

Oudtshoorn had two shuls. The early immigrants came from Shavel (in Lithuania), a large, industrial, metropolitan city. Later immigrants came from Kelm, an older, deeply religious, strictly Orthodox community.

The first shul was built in 1888, in Queen Street. Its first rabbi (Rabbi Meyer Woolfson) was from Russia but had spent many years in England.

The two groups had very different ideas about Judaism. The Kelm Jews felt the Shavel Jews were too anglicised, and not Orthodox enough, while the more established Shavel congregation regarded the Kelm Jews as new arrivals.

In light of these irreconcilable differences, the Kelm Jews decided to build their own shul, one in St John’s Street, in 1892. The Queen Street followers called it “The Green Shul”, referring to their “new” status in the community, while the St John’s Street congregation, in turn, was called Queen Street “The Englische Shul”, in reference to the anglicised nature of their services.

Ultimately the congregations united in Queen Street. The St John’s Street Shul fell into disuse and was eventually demolished. The Queen Street Shul (now Baron von Reede Street) is a charming, almost medieval-looking structure, still in use today. If Robin Hood had been Jewish, he would have got married here.

Vredehoek

  Vredehoek’s is a beautiful art
  deco building, and is the only one
  like it that I’ve seen. Built in 1939
  and closed in 1993, it is a most
  unusual and original structure.

  The Vredehoek congregation
  moved from Constitution Street in
  District Six (established in 1903)
  in 1940. When Vredehoek closed,
  the congregation moved further
  over the mountain, to Herzlia school. Much of the content of the shul went to the Schoonder Street Shul, itself later demolished.

The building itself was reasonably well-maintained. When I visited, it had been painted a rather gaudy red and blue, and housed an import/export, rugs and furniture dealer.

Many of the original fixtures were piled in odd corners around the building. It has now been quite beautifully restored to pretty much what it had looked like in the old photographs I found.

Woodstock

The Woodstock Shul (built 1910, refurbished 1950) lies in the heart of what would have been the centre of “old” Cape Town.

The shul was auctioned off in 1986 and, when I visited, was in use as a factory of sorts. At the time, it was that dirty grey that buildings go after years of weathering and neglect. The balcony had been sealed off, forming a separate second floor.

The only remaining sign of its spiritual heritage was the Star of David design windows – one large window in the centre of the building and two smaller ones on either side. But even these were difficult to discern – the large window now lay in between the two floors.

When I went past again, the entire complex had been rather creatively painted, showing off the architecture in an interesting fashion.

Since then, the shul and its hall have seen yet another change. Painted fresh white, the hall is now a gallery.