“All the inmates have at one time been active and independent members of the Community, but in the evening of their lives, they have found themselves destitute…”

-Harry Rosen, Former Highlands House President

Historical Background

The Eastern Europeans began to flood into South Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Part of the great outpouring of Jews fleeing the harsh conditions in Tsarist Russia brought along with them the tradition of charitable institutions from the Old Country. these included homes for the aged – or Moshave Zekenim – as they were known in Yiddish. The immigrants to the Cape encountered a small Jewish community comprised of Dutch, German and English Jews, who, despite small numbers, had established the first Hebrew Congregation Tikvath Israel in 1841. Eighteen years later, in 1859, they saw the need to establish a charitable society to provide for their impecunious brethren, the Cape Jewish Philanthropic Society. It was the fourth charitable organisation established by a religious group at the Cape, following a Home for orphans and a Fund for elderly ladies established by the Dutch Reformed and Lutheran Churches in 1809 and a relief society established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1854.

The early Jewish immigrants were mainly young men -with women in the minority- and it was not until the 1910s, when the small Jewish population at the Cape had increased to 16,744 (9,382 males and 7,362 females) – that thoughts began to turn to the care of the aged. The welfare of the young had presented a much more urgent problem. The death of both parents had, on occasion, left children stranded in the care of servants in the country districts or placed in the local Christian Orphan asylums in the city. Thus, in 1911, the Cape Jewish Philanthropic Society helped to facilitate the establishment of the Cape Jewish Orphanage. When on 16 May 1916, the first gathering was held to consider the problem of “eight very old people [and possibly others], in need of such a home”, the Jewish Orphanage had just acquired a brand new building at 16 Montrose Avenue in Oranjezicht, a new suburb on the slopes of Table Mountain.

By 1916, there were already at least four homes for the aged of various denominations in Cape Town. The earliest was the Ladies Christian Home in Vrede Street (1876), followed by Nazareth House in Upper Mill Street (1893), the Princess Christian Home in Mowbray (1904), and Rogelim, Tehuis vir Ou en Behoeftige Mans/ House for Old and Indigent Men in Faure Street (1908). Except for the Princess Christian Home, all the other Homes were situated in the Gardens area within walking distance of the city. However, unlike the case of the Christian orphanages, there is no evidence of Jewish elderly persons having been residents there.

The meeting of communal workers to consider the establishment of a Home for the destitute aged, which took place in the Committee room of Synagogue House overlooking the Public Gardens in Cape Town, included a fairly broad cross-section of the more established members of the community. They were led by Cambridge-educated Reverend Alfred Philipp Bender, the spiritual leader of the Cape Town Hebrew congregation since 1895; Lazarus Pinn, the jeweller; Maurice Rosen, the furniture manufacturer; N. Bashew, the mineral water manufacturer; Henry Hermann, the auctioneer Nathan Ipp, the egg merchant, S. Milner, an ailor, Isaac Ochberg, the wholesale merchant, M Rosenthal, the watchmaker, Isaac Isaacsohn, the picture framer, Leib Rostowksy, Brown and Miller. Maurice Rosen, who took the chair, informed the committee that they had GBP 400 immediately available and that support was available from other sources. It was decided that the present company would form a committee to cavass for funds, and “as soon as a monthly income of GBP 20-25 is assured, work can be started”.

The committee was shortly joined by Hyman Liberman, a former mayor and still prominent member of the City Council, Maurice Eilenberg, the pioneering clothing manufacturer, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Mirvish, who represented the other Hebrew congregation, the Beth Midrash Ha-Gadol, in Vredehoek Avenue.

At the committee’s second meeting on 28 May 1916, Reverend Bender urged every Jew in Cape Town to contribute a shilling a month towards the new venture. He suggested they begin by renting a house, furnishing it plainly and hiring a housekeeper to take charge. New backers of the scheme included another member of the City Council, IJ Honikman, J Kadish, the jeweller, who was also the president of the Cape Jewish Orphanage, and L Kottler, a well-known feather and curio dealer. Reverend Bender and counsellor Hyman Liberman were appointed joint presidents, and the committee was expanded to include six ladies: Mrs Friedlander, Rosen, Levy, Stern, Naustbaum, and Kluggman. Canvassing was soon underway, and by July, subscriptions totalled GBP 99. Among the subscribers were the Witwatersrand Old Age Home and the Hebrew congregations of Stellenbosch and Laingsburg, while responses were also received from the towns of Darling, Riversdale, Roberston, and Heidelberg in the Western Cape.

Acknowledgement
Our thanks to Veronica Penkin Belling, who compiled the majority of our historical archives into a Centennial Volume published in 2016, ISBN 0780620718110