A lifelong leader of Temple Israel has passed on. We remember her here:
Phina Hoberman was born on the 24th March 1928 in the Booth Memorial Hospital in Cape Town to Jack and Esther Shaer. Jack was from Gradno, which is today in Slovenia and Esther was born in Chicago. Jack had come as a child to Cape Town and worked as a bookkeeper and Esther was a nurse on Robben Island having moved there from Piketberg. Phina was the eldest of 5 children who grew up in a warm family home and was always close to her 4 siblings. As her sister Doreen says, Phina was as much a mother to her as an older sister. Max and Harry predeceased her and Doreen lives in Joburg and Josie lives in LA.
Her family moved to the Transkei and then to Vredendal in Namaqualand. The nearest shul was in Van Rhynsdorp where they went for yom tovim and a teacher came to Vredendal to teach Hebrew. Vredendal only had an Afrikaans Primary School so she and her sisters were sent to the Jewish Children’s Home in Cape Town in 1942 as boarders. Her nickname at school was “blikkies”. Blikkies means tin in Afrikaans and she got this nickname because her family couldn’t afford to buy her a new lunch box, so she took her lunch to school in a tin. In grade 7 she was appointed to be the head girl of the school, but at the end of that year she had to leave school because her father needed her to help at work. She loved maths at school and became the bookkeeper for the family store and later for Imperial.
In the meantime, her family moved to Piketberg where her mother had grown up and there was a large Jewish community as well as a synagogue, which is today a museum. Phina proudly attended the 100th anniversary of the Jewish community in Piketberg in 2011 organised by the municipality to acknowledge the Jewish contributions to the town.
Phina was 20 when she got married to David Hoberman on the 16th of January 1949 and they were married for 52 years. Her four children followed, being Pat, Lesley, Linda and Jeffrey. For Phina, family was first and she was the matriarch and scribe for the whole tribe, including her seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She was also the most tech-savvy grandmother you could find, keeping in touch with the whole extended mishpocha around the world with her family newsletters.
Her other family was of course the shul. Throughout her long shul career, Phina was involved in everything that there was to be involved in. She served on all the committees, was elected to the Councils and Board and became the first Elder of the Congregation when she celebrated her 80th birthday. She was on-and-off many-times chair and or treasurer of the Sisterhood and was the creator of many special brochas for shabbat and simchas including generations of bnei mitzvah. Another special thing about Phina was how she was at the same time the treasurer of the ladies guild at Chabad. She gave of her time and skill to the whole Jewish community.
She was a great artist and artisan, designing and making special Torah covers, ark curtains and bimah decorations for all the shuls and most of the grandchildren received a handmade tallis bag from her. Her work was recognised at home and abroad — the Southern African Union of Temple Sisterhoods (SAUTS) honoured her in July 2000 when they bestowed upon her the honorary life Vice Presidency in recognition of many years of devoted service to the SAUTS, and in December 2001, the sisterhoods of Cape Town presented her with the same honour for “exemplary leadership and many years of devoted, loyal and faithful service to the sisterhood and the congregation.” She was nominated and served for three terms on the board of directors of their international organisation, the Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ).
Most importantly, she was a positive and creative do-er. She had a sharp eye and sharper tongue and never let anyone get away with anything, but she led by example. Her devotion to the shul was inspirational and when she no longer was able to continue as the queen of the brochah, she arrived with one of her carers to take her place in Green Point for the Shabbat morning service. As soon as lockdown shut the shuls, Granny Phina was there on Zoom shul, ready to go. So many will miss her smile and wave and her special presence.
As we remember Phina, we need to ask — who will step up to be Phina for the next generation? Zichronah livracha — may her memory be a blessing.
Temple Israel www.templeisrael.co.za
• Published in the PDF edition of the March 2022 issue – Click here to get it.
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