The first Jews in South Africa

DAVID SAKS

The year 2016 consequently marked the 175th anniversary of communal Jewish life in the country and was duly marked by a range of commemorative events, including the mounting of a lively exhibition by the SA Jewish Museum.

There were, however, Jewish people in South Africa prior to 1841. In fact, a Jewish presence, albeit very limited, can be traced back almost to the beginning of European settlement at the Cape in the mid-1600s.

Under the regulations of the Dutch East Indian Company, only employees who followed the Dutch Reformed religion were permitted to settle at the Cape. Consequently, one finds no record of anyone openly professing the Jewish faith prior to 1800.

Having said that, a number of people of Jewish origin who had converted to Christianity – either in the Netherlands or in the Cape itself – did find their way to South Africa over the years. The earliest reference to such individuals is an entry in the church register of baptisms dated Christmas Day 1669, in which it is recorded that two young soldiers in the service of the Company, Samuel Jacobson and David Heijlbron, had been received into the Christian faith.

Over the next century or so, there were a number of traditional Jewish names among those arriving at the Cape, including Kilian, Levi, Israels, Elias, Lesar, Abrahams and Raphael.

In addition, a number of long-established South African families have a tradition of Jewish ancestry. The first member of the Wessels family, for instance, is believed to have been a baptised Jew who arrived in 1680.

Particularly intriguing is the case of Adam Tas, leader of the resistance to the corrupt misrule of Willem Adriaan van der Stel in the early 1700s. While never conclusively established, it appears likely that he was at least partially of Jewish origin, which would make him the first of many Jewish-born political activists who have impacted on South African history.

The demise of the Dutch East India Company and commencement of the first period of British colonial rule at the end of the 18th century, finally allowed professing Jews to settle at the Cape. There was hardly a mad rush to do so, but gradually, a trickle of individuals, and in time whole families, made their way there.

One of them was Dr Siegfried Fränkel, South Africa’s first Jewish medical practitioner, who arrived in 1808. Together with two other Jews, Isaac Manuel and Maximilian Thalweizer, he was among the foundation shareholders of the South African College, now the University of Cape Town.

The Solomon family, originally from St Helena, were prominent citizens of the town, including playing a notable part in the emergence of its independent press. While the younger generation converted to Christianity, they maintained to a degree their ties to Jewish practice and belief.

A cousin of the Solomons, Nathaniel Isaacs, gained a place for himself in South African history as one of the first European traders and explorers in Natal. His memoir, entitled Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, is one of the classics of early South African travel literature and an invaluable record on Natal prior to European settlement.

Among the British Settlers of 1820, were 17 Jews, members of the Norden, Norton and Sloman families. Of these, Benjamin Norden achieved particular prominence as a businessman and trader, initially in the Eastern Cape and later in Natal and Cape Town. It was in his home that the first Jewish prayer meeting took place. When a congregation was formally established a week later, Norden was elected as its first president.

Joshua Davis Norden, Benjamin’s brother, became a prominent citizen of Grahamstown. He was killed in a skirmish while leading the Grahamstown Yeomanry during the early stages of the Seventh Frontier War, and buried in the town’s Jewish cemetery. The account of his funeral in the Grahamstown Journal is the first recorded description of a Jewish burial in South Africa. 

Interestingly, a case could be made that it was the establishment of this cemetery in 1838 rather than the inaugural prayer service in Cape Town three years later, that constituted the first formal act of collective Jewish community building.

Whether one accepts this or not, it provides further evidence of how even prior to the Yom Kippur gathering of 1841, a Jewish presence in South Africa had begun to take root.