GARDEN ROUTE JEWS DECIDE TO FORM A NEW ORGANISATION - NOVEMBER 2007

History was made in the Southern Cape when the Jewish communities of Oudtshoorn, George, Mossel Bay, Sedgefield, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay – during a community outing to Uniondale on Sunday 4 November 2007 – decided to write to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, requesting guidance in forming the Garden Route Jewish Association (GRJA).

 

Some 80 to 100 participants – including children and a few friends – gathered in Uniondale for a bring-and-braai outing during which they paid their respects at the Jewish cemetery (Mendy Weiner of Plett reciting Kaddish), and visited the remarkable Shul with its painted ceiling and colourful built-in cement ark in mint condition.    In the Shul itself former members of the Uniondale Jewish community – Joan Miller  and Tanner Harris as well as Keith Jacobs who attended school in Uniondale – related the history of the community and the many stories of interest.

 

Howard Ross (formerly of Pretoria) an attorney now practising in Knysna, proposed the formation of the GRJA and after an enthusiastic response from those present, it was decided to contact the SAJBD for guidance.  

 

Howard stressed the fact that, unlike other areas in the country, the Southern Cape was a growth point, with the combined Jewish communities totalling well over 450 people – making it the fifth largest in S.A. after Johannesburg, Protoria, Cape Town and Durban.

 

Praise was showered on Myron Rabinowitz¸ President of the George Hebrew Congregation, who organised the occasion as well as previous combined community functions held in George, Oudtshoorn and Knysna.  Support and encouragement for the formation of the GRJA has come  from Gordon Buchalter and Neil Lurie of Knysna, Clifford Miller, Larry Marcus and Geoff Wilck of Oudtshoorn, David Abel and Louis Serfontein of George as well as Barry Varkel and Erez Shaked of Plett.

 

In humorous vein, the Jewish cemetery is situated in what is today the heart of the Coloured township of Lyonsville. After seeing our convoy of 29 vehicles making its way to the cemetery the people of Lyonsville told Myron Rabinowitz that “history was being made as they had never before seen a funeral without a hearse and coffin”.

 

Myron commented: “I wonder if this will one day become an urban legend like the story of the ‘spook van Uniondale’”.  He added, tongue in cheek, “The Gordon Route Association could be named after Gordon Buchalter as the person who actually got the ball rolling”.

 

The day ended with a robust rendition of Hatikvah.