The Roaring 1920s​

By the 1920s, Vryburg had a small but active Jewish community, mainly built around family ties, business, and civic engagement. Several families had arrived before or during that decade, starting businesses, professional practices, and community institutions.

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Among the newcomers was Sarah (Cuddles) Lewis (née Sebba), whose family was from Talsen. Sarah moved to Vryburg sometime after her marriage to Abraham (Abbie) Lewis (Levius). Abbie (1884-1955) was in business with Abe Lax/ Leibovitz. His brother, Louis Lewis, who married Sheila Hirshowitz in 1950, later joined them, as did their sister Regina Levius (Lewis). Regina met and married Harry Jacobson on May 30, 1937, in Johannesburg. Jacobson, originally from Liepāja (Lepeija), owned the Central Hotel in Vryburg. The Lewis family also came from Liepāja, Latvia.

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Other early arrivals included Nathan (Nat) Levine, a tailor, and David Solomon Cohen (1863-1943), a movie theatre owner. Cohen remained in Vryburg until his bankruptcy in 1935. His sister Millie married into the Schneier family. Samuel Schneier and Solomon London later purchased Solomon’s Stores from Max Sonnenberg. The wives of Samuel and Solomon, Mina and Taube Michaels, were sisters form Libau, Latvia. Nat Levine, born Naphtoola Vinograeliski, changed his name in 1921. He married Maude Fisher in 1915 at the West End Talmud Torah and Bikkur Holim Synagogue. Maude died in 1922 and was buried in the local cemetery, after which Nat appears to have left town temporarily.

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Moses Cohen of Bloemhof owned the Savoy Hotel (later the International Hotel) from 1919 to 1929. In 1922, Ephraim Gluckman and Samuel Solomon Kaplan (1888-1971) served on the local Town Council. Gluckman, a bachelor and lawyer born in Talsen, Latvia, managed Solomon’s Stores on behalf of Schneier and London. Estate records reveal that his sister Nadia Gluckman was married to Joseph Berman; both were in Vryburg before emigrating to the United States.

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Samuel Kaplan was married to Fannie Kaplan and partnered with Harry Abrahamson in the general dealership Kaplan & Abramson. In 1921, Harry and his wife lost a baby, (tomb is listed as Segoite) who was buried in Vryburg. The family left the town after filing for insolvency in July 1922.

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Records from the Stella Lodge of the Freemasons provide further insight into the Jewish presence in the town. Members included Solomon Maurice Redhouse (from Shauliai, Lithuania), initiated in 1902, who later moved to England and married Millie Hauser, and Samuel Bing, initiated in 1912 and listed as a clerk, likely at Solomon’s Stores. Bing was the son of Benjamin and Ida Bing and brother of Bertha Bing, who married Theo Sonnenberg. Other lodge members included Pasech (Philip) Lavin (1899-1983) of Dvinsk, Latvia, who was married to Helen Friedman (1907-1942). He was a farmer and initiated in 1913, and Jacob Trass (or Frass), who joined in 1914 and resigned in 1918.

 

In 1922, Shmaryahu Levin was the chief guest at the Eighth South African Zionist Conference. The Zionist Record highlighted that the Vryburg Zionist Society, which was previously led by Harry Abrahamson and founded by Woolf Goldwater, was represented by Joseph Reeb. While Reeb's residence in Vryburg is uncertain, government records indicate that he lived in Mafikeng in 1902, in the Carolina District in 1919.  He was associated with the Wekshner Benevolent Fund. Reeb hailed from Viekšniai, Mazeikiai. He was both a farmer and a merchant based in Rysmierbult, where the Sussman family would later reside. His brother, Charles Reeb, also immigrated to South Africa. Reeb's background suggests connections to Abe Lax and the Friedman brothers.

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Other figures active during the period included Jack Silbert (1897-1979), first mentioned in 1922, and Simon Maurice Suchet, nephew of Elias Helfer of Geluk, who married Fannie Katzin in 1927. Businessmen Percy Friedman (son of Jacob Freidman from Shavel and brother of Helen - who married Philip Lavin) and Morris Bayer, both from Taungs, were active around 1918.

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In February 1928, Lazarus Falowitz passed away. His Pudimoe business, L. Falowitz and Son, is referenced in estate distribution. Falowitz had arrived in South Africa by 1904 and was married to Leah (née Horwitz). His daughter Betty married Solomon Lipschitz (1881-1926) in 1920 and they worked in Pudimoe and the Petresburg. This list also includes Herman Greenberg (son of Zalman and Chana) from Lithuania and married to Bertha Linde from Uniondale. He died in 1929 at the residence of Louis and Chai Chesne Linde residence in Uniondale, leaving behind two daughters, Felicia Daphne (born 1924) and Eleana (born 1928). He is listed as a storekeeper and speculator on his death certificate. In Vryburg he had the license to run the Savoy (later the International) bottle store. Other Jews with licenses in 1928 were Jack Perel and Jacob (Jack) Cohen - The Grand Hotel and William (Willy) Heppel who married Ethel Aaronofsky - The Central Hotel. 

 

Esther and Jack Perel and Jacob (Jack) Cohen and Fay Cohen, who arrived in 1927. Fay and Esther were sisters from the Manoim family. Fay and Esther were to establish the Vryburg Jewish Ladies Society. Jacob Cohen was from Bloemhof and the son of Moses Michael Cohen. Jacob's brother Maximillian Isaac (Max) Cohen was engaged to Ida Goldinger of Zeerust in 1931 and was also listed as living in Vryburg by the Zionist Record. Ida's father, Isaac Goldinger, was from Hasenpoth or Aizpute in Latvia.

 

Hotelier Kevi Levin, left Kuruman for Vryburg in 1929. Charlie Osrin - briefly served as a government veterinarian in 1928. He married Fanny Bayer from Taungs in 1929. She was the daughter of Morris & Freida Bayer. The Osrins came from Krustpils/Kreuzburg, Courland.

 

Elias Traub, who was born in 1906 in Beaufort West came to Vryburg in 1924, at the age of 18 years, to do his articles with Wessels. de Kock and Van Rooyen. According to an interview he conducted with Eve Horwitz in 1986, he noted that he came to Vryburg “on the recommendation of a relative.” From the estate of Nechama Horwitz (Bayer) we glean that Elias’s father was her brother in law. Later, Elias’s brother Izzy also did his articles in Vryburg. The Traub's were from Courland. 

 

David Salmonson from Libau reached Vryburg in 1921. Abe Lax was joined by his sisters. First, his brother-in-law, Chanan Poliak in 1925 reached and in 1927 Tzirre (Celia) Poliak joined. Next, Avraham Mordechai (Morris) and Pessa (Pauline) Wald reached.

 

The community buried three members in the 1920's: Maude Levine died in 1922, aged 24. She was the first wife of the tailor Nathan Levine. Her death would explain Nathan's absence from the town around then. He remarried Raie, Rachael Diamondstone in Kimberley in 1926. The second burial was a 33 year old lawyer, Jacob Hoffland practicing law in Taung. The third, Ludwig Hammerschlag, aged 41 passed away in October 1928. ​​