Number 94: Dreadful August 2020 desecration of 42 graves invokes memories of Oudtshoorn’ s special Jewish History and Community

My Great Grandmother Rachel Katzef z”l of Wellington South Africa called for her brother Avraham Yitzchak Locketz who then left the Poverty and Pogroms of Kupishok, Lithuania, with his family, for the thriving Jewish Community of Oudsthoorn.  

Scratching a little below the surface reveals Oudtshoorn family connections of so many South African Jewish families. Our family stories are woven into the history of colourful “Yerushalayim beD’rom Afrika” which offered wonderful promise and opportunity to our Jewish forebears.  South Africa’s first Hebrew School opened September 1908.  Six hundred Oudtshoorn Jewish families by 1914!

Louis Locketz, Avraham Yitzchak’s son, married Oudtshoorn’ s Martha Sindler and became one of its many successful Jewish businessmen. The Shul’s Gabbai, he owned a tobacco factory, traded in hides and ostrich feathers. 

Queen Street’s “Englische Shul” built 1888; St John Street “Griener” Shul 1892: There has to be a Shul to not go to!

Uncle Hymie Paradisgarten, brother of my wife Sheryl’s mother Fanny, married “Auntie Milly” Fivelowitz, 27/12/1942, St John Street Synagogue, which, reflecting the dwindling Community, closed in 1973.

Noreen Lees, on Sheryl’s father Hackey’s side, and Bennie Herman, were one of many couples who raised families and lived decades in Oudtshoorn, before moving to their children in other cities and countries. Many stayed, now buried in “Jerusalem of the South’s” historic Jewish Cemetery, first burial: 1884.

Isaac and Feige Schneider,  parents of Sheryl’s maternal grandmother, Ida, fled Tukums, Courland, Latvia with their family, rebuilt their lives in Oudtshoorn and passed away there. Of Ida’s four siblings, three are buried in Oudtshoorn Jewish Cemetery: David Zelick Schneider, Rachel Herring, Esther Finkelstein.

Many family stories!  Avrim Paradisgarten remembers family distress at Bobba Schneider’s funeral: Almost placed wrong way round in her grave! The burial ceremony halted, coffin turned 180 degrees – feet pointed toward cemetery gates and Jerusalem.

Zichronam Livracha to all buried there. May a way be found to restore the Cemetery to the dignified state Oudtshoorn’ s caring Community have kept it in for so many years.