Max and Leah (Scheckter) Cohen came to Vryburg in or about 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 current day Belarus) and were both very young when the Cossacks, who were on the rampage came to their village and murdered their parents. The boys fled into the nearby forest where they hid and lived for almost a year, surviving on plants and berries. Isaac Ochberg heard about the many orphans and with the assistance of the South African Jewish Community and  the permission of Jan Smuts (the then Prime Minister) launched a rescue. He brought 171 of them by boat to Cape Town. They were in a horrific condition, starving and sick. The Jewish community in Cape Town could not keep all the boys so some, Max included, 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 amazing families in Doornfontein he began to teach Hebrew. He lived in Kroonstad for some years and then East London. Leah's cousins, the Hechters offered him a job in Vryburg. He worked for Ephraim at Solomons Stores for some years and then felt ready to go it alone.

 

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

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The Hechter's, Scheckter's and Cohen's 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 to live in Johannesburg and Max took care of his business from there.