Pine Street Shul relocating to improved premises

There are few shuls in the world whose histories include housing national leaders. The Pine Street Shul, once the home of Mahatma Gandhi who became the leader of India, has an interesting past, and an even more interesting future in a new location.

The shul, which opened on 11 June 1961, will be moving out of its present Pine Street address into The Avenue, also in Orchards, at the end of this year. This will be the third move since the shul, officially called North Eastern Hebrew Congregation, was originally launched in 1948.

It has been at its present premises for more than 60 years, since just after South Africa was declared a republic.

“We’re not just building a shul, we’re building a community centre, a spiritual home for every person,” said Pine Street Shul Rabbi Motti Hadar. “We’re working to ensure that our new shul will be ready as soon as possible. There might be an interim period when we will be in a temporary space.”

Hadar said that the shul had experienced tremendous rejuvenation, with an incredible energy, positivity, and level of engagement over the past few years. “There has been a significant increase in daily shul attendance as well as on Shabbos, yom tovs, events, and shiurim, especially from the younger families in the community,” he said.

However, the rabbi said that the present building was no longer suitable for the community. “The sanctuary of the shul is too big for us, with more than 700 seats, while about 500 members attended these past high holy day services. Our small shul, the shtiebel, which we use daily, is too small, with only 25 seats, and we regularly have more men than that because Pine Street is renowned for having a reliable minyan 365 days of the year.”

The shul’s social hall is too small, and the community needs a better space for children’s services and other events.

The rabbi said that in considering the community’s needs, they recognised that either they had to do a significant renovation or relocate, and they decided the latter made more sense.

The move will make the shul more central to its community. Pine Street Shul was in the centre of the community, but today, most congregants live further away from Louis Botha Avenue.

In the early years of the last century, Gandhi lived on the premises that houses the shul today. “The property and adjoining thatched building, now the Satyagraha House Museum, was owned by Gandhi’s close friend and fellow political activist, Hermann Kallenbach,” according to Charisse Zeifert in her article on the shul’s history. Kallenbach was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant, and became one of Johannesburg’s leading architects and property developers.

From his early days of attending the shul, community member Gaby Lazarus, who is in his 90s, remembers it being combined with a nursery school in the double-storey building at the previous premises on the corner of Louis Road and Pine Street.

“I was present when the committee decided to raise the funds to buy the stand to build the new shul across the road,” Lazarus said. “Funds were raised to get the best sculptor, Edoardo Villa, to do the façade on the shul’s outer walls.” Villa, described as South Africa’s most prolific and famous sculptor, came to South Africa in the 1940s as an Italian prisoner of war.

According to Zeifert, “The then new building was swish, the architecture grand, and it had a particularly meaningful feature on its eastern façade: stone friezes depicting the 12 tribes of Israel by Villa. It could seat about 700 people.”

Hadar has followed in the footsteps of many prestigious rabbis who have served at the shul, the first being Rabbi Dr Solomon Rappaport, whom Lazarus describes as a “marvellous orator”. Before Hadar, Rabbi Anthony Gerson served the shul from 1995 to 2022.

Hadar said he was grateful to each of the rabbis who have served this community before him. “The community is what it is today because of them,” he said. “My wife and I joined the shul only two and a half years ago, so our tenure has been briefer than those before us, but it has been an incredible journey.”

He said many congregants were the third generation of their family to attend the shul. “Their grandfather, father, and son have all had their Barmitzvah or bris at the shul.”

Hadar said the highlight of his time at the shul was its youth participation. “The energy, particularly among young adults, is incredible, and we regularly have Shabbat dinners at our home with more than 30 young adults.”

He is also so grateful for the monthly Sunday morning community outreach work. “Community members come together to pack sandwiches for the non-Jewish community. Shul members come from young to old. The youngest one was probably two years old. The oldest person was in their 80s at least. Everyone comes and gives of their time.”