The roaring 1930's:

The 1930's saw a large inflow of families, including: Dr. Marcus and Tilly Getz (1930), Leo and Zelda Lieberthal (1930), Leah and Ephraim Hechter (1931), Pesha and Zalman Davidovitz (1931), Solly Alufowitz brother of Pessie Davidovitz (around 1932), the Joffe brothers - first Harry and Anne (1933) and then Joe (1934), and Phil and Billie Rauff (1932). Max Cohen arrived around 1937. Harry Joffe and Max Cohen worked for Solomons Stores, as did and Willie and Barney Levick. It is worth nothing that Max Cohen was one of the Isaac Ochberg's orphans. These years also saw the arrival of John and Dinah Weinberg (1936), Dorothy and Nathan Rosenblatt (1937), Max Muskat (1939). Max Cohen and Ephraim Hechter’s wives were first cousins, their respective mothers were sisters. Billy Rauff and Dolly Rosenberg were sisters. 

 

Though Laurie and Hannah Jocum arrived in 1938, they were not affiliated with the shul. Hannah was from Kimberley and retained her ties with that community. Harry Jacobson married Regina Lewis in 1937. According to a note on Jewish hoteliers prepared by Graham Brodovcky, Harry was based in Stella. There is also reference to a Jewish lawyer Louis Simon Friedman. He was probably not related to the Lieberthal-Freidman clan) and his own firm is listed in 1937. In the Stellelander we see a greeting from a Mr. and Mrs. Chas (Charles) Lazarus in 1935. Joe Davidovitz recalls the name and that the family were possibly farmers in the district. The Stellelander's 1935 Jewish New Years greetings include a greetings from, a Mr. and Mrs. P Hoffman, Solomon and Annie Wailer (The Central Hotel), Louis Singer, Morris Edelstein who lived on a farm called Steinsrust and a L. Nowitz. In 1932, The Stellelander reports that an Izzy Traub (brother of Elias and son of Isaac Traub (from Beaufort West) leaves for Cape Town. Sharon Bolel confirms that her mother Eva Goodman (nee Lemkus) and her first husband Bernard Goodman, a pharmacist, were Vryburg residents between 1934 to 1938. Their daughter, Jacqueline, was born in Vryburg in 1935. 

 

Based on the list of those who donated to the shul building fund and for service subscriptions in 1939, which was preserved by Graham Brodovcky, we can also place the following people in Vryburg, at the time: H. Adler his wife Rosalie, S. Becker, Joseph Berman and his wife Nadia, Sister Brodziak (born Senderovitz, in Taung and married to Dr. Brodziak, who was not Jewish), Morris Edelstein (farmer), Mickey Folb (barman), H. Fish (barman), J. Gabbe (presumably Jeannat from Libau, Latvia, whose brother Herman passed away in Mafikeng in 1927), Elias Helfer (farmer from Židikai, who's sister Sara Rachel lived in Cape Town, who was in Vryburg before 1910), P. Jacobson, B & J Jaffit (there are records for a Bernard Jaffit and a Jack Jaffit), S. Joffee (from Kuruman it would appear), M. Kaplan, Mike Klein (related to the Kimberley Kleins), B. Kruger (who worked at Headermans), Lazar Levinsohn (a butcher from Taung who married a Bayer) and Hans Liebenstein , Liebenstein was a German refugee who found hos way to Vryburg. A.M. Lazarus (a teacher, who was killed in World War Two), Abe Milstein (a friend of Rabbi Slonim and not from Vryburg), Nathan Mendelow, a Paltsky, S. Phillips, A (Arthur) Savell (who was the brother of Sonia Friedman, wife of Woolf), Jack Silbert. Also on the list are Mr. Simon, Solomon Sochen -who married Sylvia Sefor in 1938. Solomon Sochen arrived in South Africa on 10 February 1926 and was 19 at the time. He was a butcher at the time and sailed on the LLANDOVERY CASTLE from London. Sylvia Sefor's father was a farmer in Balfour Heidelberg and had passed away in 1936. Solomon spent about three years in Vryburg. Both the Sochen and Sefor families were from Lithuania.

 

We have Isaac Spitz (Yitzchak ben Baruch) who owned a bottle store. In 1942 he passed away in Cape Town, where he was buried. He and his wife Gery (Marovitz) owned the Premier Bottle Store. The Spitz family were from Plungian. The earliest reference to Spitz I have found is a Government Gazette from 28 September 1928, where is said to  be living in the Taungs district. All told, he lived in the region for two decades. J (Joseph Gerald) Tillen is also on the list. He left Vryburg, where he was a General Dealer. He seems to have arrived in 1933 (Government Gazette of 30 June 1933) and in 1940 he left for the USA. The list also includes, Charles Toube,  David Wilks (the  father of Samuel Harry Wilks, who was Stella based storekeeper) and C. Winekow.

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Absent from the crucial list shared by Graham Brodovcky are the Hodes family. Paul Cheiftz brough to my attention that Meyer Max Hodes was born in Vryburg. His parents, Aaron Louis and Hannah (nee Farfel) were married in Schweizer-Reneke in 1921 and were both from nearby Bloemhof. This implies a viable Jewish community at the time. From the Government Gazette of 18 August 1922 we learn that they had a store at a place called Fairview in the District. Hannah was the daughter of daughter of Max Farfel and Eva (Chave Freda) Posel. The Farfel family were from Ponidel (Pandelys) in Lithuania. The Hodes family hailed from Pikeliai, near Kovno. From a Government Gazette of 17 November 1933 we learn that a Mr. H. Hodes bought a store at Gibeon in the District from an A. Diab. I presume this were the parents of Max Meyer Hodes.  

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A shul is built:

The Synagogue, which still stands today, was built in 1939. As early as 1918 the Northern News noted: "The Jewish community at Mafikeng intend erecting a Synagogue. Why not one in Vryburg?" A clear case of Plattelanders ‘keeping up with the Joneses.’ Nay, in our case, the Cohens. According to the Jewish Life Study, by SA Friends of Beit Hatfutsot, the capital raising campaign was launched in 1937. By 1939 contributions of £ 916.5 were collected from the local Jewish community and some who had left (Poliak). Even gentiles supported the effort. Jannie Niemand who made soap at the Lieberthal soap factory was one such supporter. As were the Elliot family, the Harrows and the Jeppe brothers. The Lieberthal's donated the land for the shul and the rabbi's home. The cornerstone of the new building was laid on 5 November 1939, some two months after the German invasion of Poland and the commencement of World War Two. By June 1940 when the building was formerly inaugurated by the Jewish Member of Parliament Morris Alexander France and the Netherlands had been swept aside by the German Wermacht. A year later Latvia and Lithuania would be invaded. From the report carried by the Stellelander on the grand opening, we glean that cost of the project was £ 2,800. We also learn that the "Guild Hall, which is to serve the congregation as a place of worship, until a synagogue is later erected......" That never materialized. 

 

In 1939 the subscriptions and donations to the shul were made by 55 families. As not all those who paid were living there, 45 families would be a good estimate of the community's size at that time. Two known visitors were Klawansky (according to Phil Toube it was probably Jack Klewansky) and Sklaar, presumed to be visiting his daughters, Dollye and Billy, who lived in Vryburg. 

 

The building, aptly named after the leader of the community, Simon Lieberthal, doubled as a communal hall and synagogue, with the Holy Ark being closed off for community events. There was also an exposed mikvah. A modicum of privacy was provided by four fig trees, which were planted around the mikvah. Years later, the kids ate these with relish. Myra Sutin (Joffe) recalls that Rabbi Kemelman joked that the mikvah was his swimming pool. Others also recall using the Mikvah as a swimming pool in their youth.

Pearl Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi Kay, recalls: “Our house was on the property of the shul. In between the house and the shul was our "swimming pool". It was a structure with four walls and a tap near the bottom through which we would run water. It was not below the ground as pools are, but above the ground.  In summer it would be our favourite activity. When I grew up and recalled that time, I realised it was not actually a pool but a mikvah. Who would have thought there would be a mikva in Vryburg? Maybe because of that, I have been running a mikva in Johannesburg for over 20 years!"

 

There was also a room for Cheder lessons. The complex also included a home for the rabbi too. Based on the size of the community - 50 families- at the time of construction, the building was aptly sized. The cornerstone was laid by the president of the congregation, Simon Lieberthal, on Sunday 5 November 1939. Weekly services were held in the Lieberthal family home prior to the construction of the synagogue. Avi Hechter notes: "Before the shul was built the prayers were held in Simon Lieberthal’ s house. To me it seemed to be a few families living next to one another."

 

Simon and Lea Lieberthal offered focal stewardship to the community. Gita Franco aptly describes them as the "doyens" of the community. Myra Sutin recalls Sunday afternoon gatherings at the Lieberthal home. Henry Wald notes: "Our many visits to the Lieberthal's were always fun-filled and enjoyable. Their house was right next door to the Simon Lieberthal Shul. The Jewish community was very vibrant, closely knit and there were occasions my mother invited visitors for tea parties, who also reciprocated." The Lieberthals were the proverbial “sun” of the Vryburg Jewish solar system. A few other Jewish families lived in close proximity.

 

In the 1950s Mike Allen served as president of the Vryburg Hebrew Congregation. He was followed by Jack Katz, who was elected to the role in November 1961 and served untill 1966. This role was then fulfilled by Harold Scheckter.

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