Jews Reach Vryburg: Early Arrivals

Among the earliest recorded Jewish arrivals in the Vryburg area were Isaac (Ikey) and Jeanette Sonnenberg, and members of the Isaacs family. These pioneers were unlikely to have been the only Jews in the district, but they are among the first for whom documentary evidence survives. In January 1872, an infant son of Isaac and Jeanette Sonnenberg, named Marcus, passed away in Vryburg. In 1887, Amalia Rosenblatt (née Falkenberg), Jeanette’s mother, died and was buried in Kimberley; at the time, she was living in Vryburg. War records further note that Albert Isaacs, the son of Pauline and Samuel Isaacs, was born in Vryburg in 1880. Pauline herself was not Jewish..

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The Isaacs Family

The Isaacs family is relatively well documented, in part because of the tragic fate of Albert Isaacs, who later took his own life. His sister, Lillie Isaacs—born in Vryburg in 1887—married Max Sonnenberg in 1906. Albert’s father, Samuel Isaacs , subsequently moved to Johannesburg, where he became a prominent stockbroker.

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In April 1898, a 24-year-old bookkeeper named Archibald Isaacs died in Vryburg. It remains unclear whether he was related to Samuel Isaacs or whether he was Jewish. His funeral was conducted by a local priest, and he was buried in Vryburg.​

 

The Bechuanaland Expedition and Commercial Foundations

A pivotal moment in Vryburg’s Jewish history occurred in 1884, when Charles Sonnenberg and Samson Solomon arrived in town with the Bechuanaland Expedition, led by Sir Charles Warren. This marks the second clearly documented Jewish presence in the town. The two men quickly established a trading enterprise, S. Solomon, which became one of Vryburg’s defining commercial institutions and laid the foundations for a local Jewish community. 

Around this time, Isaac (Ikey) Sonnenberg left Vryburg for Barberton. Charles Sonnenberg, however, was joined by siblings from Germany, followed by other relatives, further strengthening the Jewish presence in the town.

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The First Recorded Wedding of Jews 

The first documented marriage of a Jewish couple in Vryburg took place on 12 September 1885, when Caeser Gers married Mathilda Wallach. Caeser, originally from Sondershausen near Kassel in Germany, had moved to Vryburg from Hopetown and had ties to the Mosenthal family. He was the son of Abraham Adolf Gers and Hannchen Johanna Louisa Mosenthal.

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The Wallach family was closely related to the Sonnenbergs, and Mathilda’s aunt, Amalia, married into the Rosenblatt family—one of the most prominent German Jewish families in Vryburg.

 

The Rosenblatt Family and Civic Life

Millicent and Josephine Rosenblatt, daughters of Herman and Jeannette Rosenblatt, were born in Vryburg during this period. Herman and Jeannette were married on 26 October 1886. By that time, Herman was already an established lawyer and would later become mayor of Vryburg. He was a partner in the firm Rosen & Wessels, which later evolved into Wessels, De Kock and Frylinck.

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Herman’s brother, Julius Rosenblatt, was involved in S. Solomon and Company. Adding a layer of complexity, another Jeannette Rosenblatt—apparently unrelated—had married Charles Sonnenberg as early as 1866 after the couple met in Queenstown.

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As becomes increasingly evident, the German Jewish families of Vryburg were deeply interconnected through both business and marriage.
 

Further Sonnenberg and Rosenblatt Marriages

In 1895, the Jewish Chronicle of London announced the birth of a son to Harry Sonnenberg and his wife Rosalie Abrahams. Although the child was born in Cape Town, the couple were residents of Vryburg, where they had married on 17 September 1894. Their marriage certificate certificate records that Harry had lived in Vryburg for two years..

 

Rosalie was from Kimberley and the daughter of Reuben Harris Abrahams, a Polish Jew, and Miriam Cohen from Bohemia. Her parents had married in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1872—a reminder of the remarkable mobility of these Jewish pioneers. Rosalie’s siblings included Lilian Charlotte, and her brothers Lionel, Alfred, and Arthur.

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​Jeanette Sonnenberg, the daughter of Louis Rosenblatt, married Herman Rosenblatt in Vryburg in October 1886. Louis was present at the wedding. He died in 1896 at the age of 70. His death certificate lists him as a general dealer from Calvinia. He also had a son named Julius. Both families were of German origin. In 1895, Maurice Sonnenberg married Betty Sonnenberg in Vryburg.

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Later Generations and Professional Legacies

Fritz Sonnenberg, the eldest son of Theodore Sonnenberg and Bertha Bing Sonnenberg, returned to Vryburg after serving in World War I in Namibia. He came to do his articles at the firm founded by Herman. He completed his legal articles at the firm founded by Herman Rosenblatt and later went on to serve as Mayor of Cape Town. Julius Rosenblatt, Julius Rosenblatt, who worked at S. Solomon (later Solomons Stores), eventually bought into the business. He married Lina Sonnenberg, the half-sister of Max Sonnenberg and the sister of Theodore.

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Julius Rosenfels and Landownership

Another German Jew who features in the area was Julius Rosenfels. Estate records indicate that he held a share in a farm called Mooifontein near Kuruman, purchased around 1888 with J. C. Chase. Julius and his brothers Max and Jacob were active in the Free State towns of Rouxville and Hoopstad. They hailed from Forchheim -near to Nuremburg and south of Kassel and were the sons of Sigmund and Regina Rosenfels (née Bergman). ​

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The Blum Brothers and the Langeberg Rebellion​

The German Jewish Blum brothers, Alphonse and Arthur, also merit mention. Well established in the district, Alphonse Blum—a trader and farmer—was killed during the Langeberg Rebellion of 1896 by rebelling tribesmen. Estate records show that the family business, Blum Brothers, operated a store in Phokwane stad (Hartswater). Alphonse was born in Dublin to Gobert and Wilhelmina Blum. He was married to Blanche Bora Marcelis, and they had four children: Gobert, Mila, Charles, and Leve.

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As noted by Max Sonnenberg (pp. 38–40), the rebellion was triggered by cattle slaughtering intended to halt the spread of rinderpest. Arthur Blum served as a field-cornet, reflecting the wider recruitment of local Jews into rural militias.

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Jewish Participation in the Boer War

Bramie Lenoff, who chronicled the Upington Jewish community, shared a copy of the Vryburg Town Guard, which includes several Jewish names.. A well-maintained website called AngloBoerwar.com lists Herman Abt, Louis Behr (a Russian Jew who died in 1922), Albert Elkan (German Jew), William Klisser (Dutch Jew), Harry Salomon (possibly related to Ludwig), Gustav Seidel, Maurice Reuben Silverman (hotelier from Vilna), Maurice Sonnenberg, and Max Sonnenberg members of the Town Guard. The Kuruman list includes M. Cohen.    

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​Legal proceedings were initiated against Ludwig Salomon in 1901. According to court archives from a case between Willemina Hendrika Lotter and Hamburg-born Salomon, the latter fled from Schweitzer Reineke during the Boer War and rented a farm and store called Mooifontein. The same farm was earlier owned by another Germán Jew, Julius Rosenfels (see above). Salomon had traded with Solomon and Company. Salomon later had the license to operate a bottle store at the Vryburg Hotel until 1910. He ended up making Vryburg his home, marrying out, and was buried in the local general cemetery.

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The Stern Family and Schweizer Reineke

Another prominent Jewish family who hails from Schweizer Reinecke are the Stern family. The renowned artist Irma Stern was in fact born in the town. Her father Samuel Stern (born in Reichensachsen - Hesse, Germany) passed away on his farm Palachoema and is buried in Schweizer Reinecke. He married Henny Fels. Irma's brother Rudi (1899-1956) is also buried in the local cemetery. 

 

Post-War Accusations and Legal Proceedings

After the Boer War, Isadore Blumgart was accused by the authorities of selling provisions to the Boer leader General de la Rey. Nothing seems to have come of these charges. There is also reference to an AP Velenski (a farmer and speculator) in a case related to Boer War High Treason charges initiated in 1902. Velenski sought to supply 100 head of cattle to besieged Mafikeng. Abraham Phineas Velesnki, whose wife Fanny, passed away in 1903 in Oudtshoorn was an active member of the Oudtshoorn community (Aschman, p. 124). His second wife Theresa (nee Hut) was from Koblenz in Germany. She was a widower and previously married to Isaac Rosenblatt. They married in Durban in 1910. In 1911, AP Velenski passed away in Baden-Baden. 

 

These stories highlight the impact of conflicts on the lives of frontier Jews seeking to forge new lives. These conflicts upended livelihoods, shaping identity and testing fealty. 

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Other Early Arrivals and Eastern European Jews

Other Jews who arrived around the time of the Second Anglo Boer War (October 1899 to May 1902) include the Hammerschlag and Blumgart families, the Abt brothers, Herman and Daniel and Max Seligmann. All German Jews. Other early settlers included Morris /Maurice Silverman (Lithuanian), Philip Jacobson (Russia), Joseph Bein (Polish), and Pinkus Goldberg (Polish). Moritz Heiman Kallmeyer from Talsen was also in the region. There are 1899 death certificates for William Ruthenberg (a transport rider) and a nurse called Hannah Marks. Both could be Jewish. The Smollan family (Lithuanian Jews), seem to have established a local trading post in 1902. 

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As already noted, there were also Jews in places like Pokwani (Hartswater), Taungs, and Pudimoe. Other names from the district include Julius Kovensky (Lithuania) and Israel Jacob Blumberg (from Talsen). The well-known Bayers, Raufs, and Senderowitz families—all Lithuanian—were prominent in Taung. Then there were the Lithuanian Solomon’s at Brussels siding. 

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Family Life, Identity, and Continuity

There is no comprehensive list or clear picture of early Jews, and I assume many Jewish pioneers went unnoticed. Importantly, we begin to see the arrival of Eastern European Jews.

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Most of the new arrivals were bachelors—a few went on to start families. The Senderowitz family was in Taung in the early 1890s, and in 1896, a daughter, Eliza, passed away in Vryburg—only a few months old. For many, Vryburg was home, where families were established and children raised. Isadore and Hannah Annie's eldest son, Cecil Leonard Bernard Blumgart, was born in Vryburg on January 21, 1899. Their next two children, Harold Herman and Marion, were born in 1901 and 1905, respectively. Undoubtedly, issues of Jewish identity and education arose in these remote areas.

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We will revisit the German Jews in more detail in a section that explores the Jewish presence from 1880 to 1909. 

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