Max and Leah (Scheckter) Cohen moved to Vryburg around 1937 from East London, where Max was a Hebrew teacher and also taught Hebrew at Selbourne College. 

 

Mordechai (Max, born 1909) and his brother Shachna (Sidney, born 1911) were from Pinsk In present-day Belarus, two boys were very young when raiding Cossacks came to their village and murdered their parents. The boys fled into a nearby forest, where they hid and survived for nearly a year on plants and berries. Isaac Ochberg learned about the many orphans and, with help from the South African Jewish community and permission from Jan Smuts (the then Prime Minister), organized a rescue. He transported 171 of them by boat to Cape Town. They were in horrible condition, starving and sick. The Jewish community in Cape Town couldn't care for all the boys, so some, including Max, were taken to Arcadia Orphanage in Johannesburg. Max's Hebrew name was Mordechai ben Moshe Rem Ha Rov. 

 

At age 18, he left Arcadia and, with the help of some wonderful families in Doornfontein, he began teaching Hebrew. He lived in Kroonstad for a few years and then moved to East London. Leah's cousins, the Hechters, offered him a job in Vryburg. He worked for Ephraim at Solomons Stores for several years before feeling ready to go on his own.

 

He and Leah were married and moved to Vryburg, where they lived for many years. Max was a community leader who helped keep the Jewish community active. Leah was the chairwoman of the ladies' society, and they did a lot of charitable work. They had two children, Mike and Jeanette. 

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The Hechters, Scheckters, and Cohens were related. The mothers of Leah Scheckter (who married Max Cohen) and Leah Celser (who married Ephraim Hechter) were Grobman sisters. Leah Cohen was Harold Scheckter’s sister. 

  

In 1967, they left Vryburg for Johannesburg, and Max continued his business there.