Early days - a fluid community: 

A Jewish presence in Vryburg can be traced back to its earliest years, although it took some time for a discernible community to develop. Early prominent figures included Charles Sonnenberg and Samson Solomon, both members of the Warren Party. Pioneer families in the area included the Sonnenberg, Solomon, Rosenblatt, Salomon, Isaacs, Abrahams, Blum, Abt, Max Seagull, Klisser, Hammerschlag, and Blumgart families. Most of these families were German Jews, alongside smaller groups of Anglo-Jewish families, particularly the Solomons, and Dutch Jews, represented by the Klissers. The German Jewish families were closely connected through business and marriage, creating networks that later supported the community's growth.

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Many Jewish settlers first arrived in Kimberley and then moved north as the railway extended toward Rhodesia. The booming mining industry and the colonial administration's expansion (led by Cecil John Rhodes), aided by the railway, were major factors attracting Jewish migrants to the area.

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A small number of Lithuanian (Litvak) Jews were also present. Among the earliest was Philip Jacobson, likely the first Jew to assimilate into local society. In 1889, Jacobson married Lea Magdalena van Rooyen and was listed as a trader. He was naturalized in Willowmore a year later, where his documents indicate that he had arrived in South Africa four years earlier and came from Shavel/Shavli. Jacobson was naturalized alongside Lipman Freedman (from Skaudvile) and later moved to the Transvaal, settling near Schweizer-Reneke.​

Another early Litvak settler was Maurice (Morris) Silverman, who owned the Grand Hotel from 1901 to 1906 and was naturalized in Vryburg. Paul Cheifitz records several other Jews who were naturalized in Vryburg between 1896 and 1905, including Max Sonnenberg and Max Seligmann (both Germans), Joseph Abe Bein (Polish watchmaker), Ludwig Salomon (German Jew who fled the Transvaal), Pincus Goldberg (Polish tailor), and Moses Lemkus, a shoemaker from Talsen. Lemkus, aged 32, applied for citizenship in July 1905 after spending two years in the colony and eight months in Vryburg.​

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According to his death certificate, Ludwig Salomon died in Vryburg in 1926. He had married Annie Church and, having married outside the faith, was not buried in the Jewish cemetery. Pincus Goldberg, who was naturalized in 1904, placed advertisements (discovered by Anney Garnett) in the Northern News, as did an A. Goldberg, likely his brother.  Newspaper sources (Anney Garnett) also show that Ludwig Salomon owned the Vryburg Hotel by 1905. Another early resident was Solomon Maurice Redhouse, listed in 1902 as a member of the local Freemasons’ lodge. The Redhouse family originated in Lithuania. He later moved to Wales. 

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Milton Shain (Jewry and Cape Society: The Origins and Activities of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Cape Colony, 1983, p. 15) notes that journalist Louis Lionel Goldsmid launched South Africa’s first Jewish newspaper in 1902. Goldsmid spent time in Vryburg and Mafikeng and appears to have been connected with the Bechuanaland News. He married Isabel Ada Solomon, daughter of Edward Solomon, in 1906. This indicates a presence in the area around 1900.​

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Compared to German Jewish families—especially the Sonnenbergs and Rosenbergs—many Eastern European Jews seem to have only stayed in Vryburg briefly. The German Jews, often linked to Solomon Stores, tended to establish deeper roots. There's little evidence of an organized community before 1900. The dedication of a Jewish cemetery in 1905 strongly suggests that a process of community organization had started several years earlier.

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Marriages and Mixed Affiliations: 

William Klisser (Willem Marcus), who died in Vryburg in 1917, is credited with a well-known 1890 photograph of Cecil John Rhodes taken in the town. His wife Emily (nee Palmer) died there in 1906 and he remarried Hilda Estel Osborne in 1908. Another Klisser, Henry, married Hilda Ethel Lollie Decent in Vryburg in 1902. Both seem to have married outside the Jewish community. The exact relationship between William and Henry Klisser remains unclear.

 

The Klissers were part of a larger Dutch Jewish family with strong ties to Cape Town and Australia. William was the son of Mark Klisser, a prominent figure in Cape Town Jewish life (Herrman, p. 247 & Abrahams, p. 22). At the same time, Bernard Klisser played an important role in Kimberley's Jewish community (Rosenthal, p. 114) and left much of his estate to the local community.

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Some families listed as Jewish in secondary sources (SA Friends of Beit Hatfutsot) were not actually Jewish. The Halse family, including Walter (who arrived in 1897) and Fred Halse, was likely included because they supported Jewish causes. Similar misclassifications apply to families such as Crosbie, Bruhus, Goodwin, and Fletcher.

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Legal Records and Later Arrivals

There is also a reference to an appeal by Israel Lipshitz in 1910 against a conviction. Sometime in June 1909, Israel Lipschitz, who was in Lichtenburg, Transvaal, acquired a horse, a gig, and harnesses, which he was to sell. However, he disappeared without paying for the goods and was arrested at Vryburg about a month later (9th July 1909). He was returned to Lichtenburg, where he was charged. From the case material, we learn that his alias was Mark Liefman, he was described as a “male Jew speculator,” and he was charged with the crime of “theft by means of false pretenses.” Fortunately, Lipschitz was discharged and returned to Vryburg. In 1910, a warrant was issued to re-arrest Lipschitz, and he contested it; as a result, the subsequent case in Cape Town challenged the warrant.

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Among the more established residents were the Smollan brothers, Jos and Solomon, who bought the Grand Hotel in 1906 and ran it until 1917. They came from Lazdijai/Lazdy, Lithuania. Solomon’s wife, Leah (née Edelstein), died in 1917. Their half-brother, Harris, and nephew, David Smollan, also had ties to Vryburg, with the latter later playing a key role in civic and sports activities. Another notable arrival before 1910 was Abraham Leibowitz, who changed his name to Abe Lax.

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The wider district:

The route from Kimberley to Vryburg passed through Hartswater (known as Pokwani), Taungs, and Pudimoe. From the beginning, there were Jews here as well. The Blum brothers—Alphonse and Arthur—shaped local politics and dynamics. They were—of course—German Jews. Anney Garnett found a notice in the Northern News in 1910 reporting that Julius Kovensky bought a store in Rocklands, Pokwani (present-day Hartswater), from Israel Jacob Blumberg (a German Jew who married Feige Minnie Jassinousky). The Blumbergs were buried in Kimberley's Jewish Pioneer cemetery. Julius Leon Kovensky was born in 1875 in Serey/Seirjai—not far from Lazdijai (Smollan family). Kovensky was buried in Middleburg on September 10, 1939. His daughter Helen married Abe Bayer. Years later, Percy Friedman (1888-1930) and his Afrikaner partner Daniel Jacobs bought a store from Samuel John Bayer in Pokwani. Percy Friedman (who later lived in both Taung and Pokwane) was the son of Jacob and Tophilia Friedman.

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Taung was especially a significant railway and commercial hub. Families from Taung with ties to Vryburg included Rauff, Jocum, Senderowitz, Bayer, and Traub. Like the Jews in Vryburg, Harry Traub was originally from Talsen and married Bella Blumberg. Some members of the Blumberg family moved to Vryburg and worked as jewelers. There was another connection between Traub and Vryburg: Isaac Traub from Beaufort West was related to Samuel John Bayer through marriage, and his son, Elias, trained as a lawyer in Vryburg. Later, Arthur Getz, son of Dr. Marcus and Tilly Getz, married Bernice Traub, daughter of Eli Traub. Harry Traub purchased his business from Leon Albow in 1917. According to Leon's death certificates, he was from Taurigan (also known as Tavrig or Taurage) in Lithuania and had a brother, Ephraim, along with two sisters. In 1920, Traub sold the business to Samuel John Bayer. 

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An article in the Northern News of 13th October 1915 sheds more light on the Jews of nearby Taungs and Bloemhof. We learn of a partnership between Herman (1872-1948) and Abel Abraham Katzen (1870-1955), Joseph Fisher (1882-1936) and Leopold and Max Setzen (Schatzen - Latvia). The Katzens hailed from Krustpils/Kreitzberg, Latvia. ​

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In 1910 Israel Solomon (son) sold his Pudimoe store to Lazarus Solomon (father). The family lived at Brussels rail junction outside of Vryburg. In 1913 an L. Solomon took over a general dealership at Lowlands - Brussels siding. I assume that it was a transaction that Lazarus (1858-1912) initiated shortly before passing away. Lazarus Solomon (1858-1912) who was from Neishtot Sugint or Naumiestis, Lithuania and Annie Solomon had six sons: Bernard, Israel, Simon, Reuben, Maurice and Meyer (a minor). The list of Jews who served in World War One, included an S. Solomon, presumably Simon Solomon. In 1917 Annie Solomon sold the Poedimoe (Pudimoe) and Mathlaku trading stations to Lazarus Falowitz.

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Early Jewish Life

Little is known about exactly how many Jews there were in Vryburg between 1880 to 1910 and how stable the community was. When Sarah Stern who died in Vryburg in 1896 she was buried in Kimberley. One wonders if she was somehow connected to the Stern (German Jews) family of Schweizer Reineke. Her burial in Kimberley would suggest that there was no formal Jewish presence at that point in time. 

 

According to the Jewish Life in the Country Communities Study, which examines South Africa's rural communities, the Vryburg community was officially established in 1912. It notes that Reverend (presumably Peretz) Boyarsky led the first services for the High Holidays. However, it seems a community was formed before this time. The Sonnenberg Papers Collection, at UCT states that Charles Sonnenberg served as the President of the Jewish Community of Vryburg “for some years.” By 1912, Charles had passed away in Cape Town. Therefore, it is plausible to assume that a congregation existed well before this. There is no archival evidence detailing the religious and communal life of these Jews during the first two decades. The earliest documented evidence of a Jewish collective forming is a petition by local Jews for a Jewish cemetery, consecrated on September 15, 1905. It is likely that this process took several months, and that Jews probably organized as a community around 1904. Since the Bulawayo Rabbi consecrated the cemetery, it appears that the local Jews looked both north (Kimberley) and south when it came to Jewish matters. 

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From Israel Abraham's writing (pp. 40-41), we learn that Upington observed the High Holidays as early as 1898 and had two minyanim made up of local Jews and Jews from nearby districts. Upington had a larger and more established Jewish community. Therefore, it seems quite likely that Vryburg Jews came together for the High Holidays sometime after Upington organized theirs. 

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Fluidity:

One can assume a degree of mutability as newcomers pursued opportunities elsewhere, whenever they arose. Max Seagull serves as a good example. He was born in St. Louis, USA, to Aaron and Pauline (née Glassman), and lived in Barberton and Vryburg before passing away in Port Elizabeth. We know that Charles Sonnenberg left Vryburg and moved to Klerksdorp, although he later returned. Ikey Sonnenberg’s brief stay in Vryburg ended with his move to Barberton. Max Sonnenberg also left Vryburg and returned after the Boer War. Theodore Sonnenberg moved to Madiboego—possibly after his father left—and then returned to Vryburg. This pattern of movement was likely common among others and was not unique to Vryburg. 

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In his study on the Potchefstroom community, Paul Cheifitz succinctly captures the fluidity of the Jewish immigrants and their communities on page 12: “It was clear that the new immigrants had no fixed ties and could move on to other towns or cities where they saw better prospects without complications. Having left their homes in Europe and travelled vast distances to reach South Africa, travelling within the country did not seem as complicated. When first arriving in or moving to new towns immigrants tended to gravitate towards their co-religionists who could advise them on whatever opportunities existed and new customs that had to be learnt. This type of mutual assistance, which had been drawn from their religious education in their places of origin, would later play an integral role in communal development.”

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Vryburg hotelier Morris Reuben Silverman serves as an excellent example. Originally from Vilnius, Morris applied for citizenship in 1910 at age 41 from Kuruman, where he owned the Kuruman Hotel. Born in 1869, he left Lithuania in 1886, spent seven years in England (got married in Wales), and then moved to the Transvaal, where he spent six years. He later moved to Woodstock in Cape Town, and after a year, migrated to Vryburg in 1900. After two years there, he relocated to Middleburg in the Transvaal in 1902, and by 1903, he was in Johannesburg for a year, then returned to Vryburg for another year. In 1906, he returned to the Transvaal again, spending two years in Pietersburg and a year in Randfontein. In 1910, he made his way to Kuruman. His naturalization application form, available in the Cape Archives, offers a whirlwind read.

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Paul Cheifitz (p. 17) notes: “Unattached, they were able to move around quite freely and if they did not see a future in one place they could easily move on to the next. We find mention of store clerks and assistants in a number of businesses who appear in no other records and it can be concluded these men stayed only a few months or weeks before moving on to another town.”   ​