Rustenburg in the North West Province is hardly a location one would associate with Jewish history, yet its deconsecrated synagogue has raised some important questions of identity for the young Jewish artist, Joe Turpin. When the building was sold and repurposed in 2022 — yet another country town now without a Jewish community to use the synagogue — something intriguing was found behind the foundation stone: a time capsule bottle.
Inside the bottle, there were documents relating to the history of the community, and to the opening of the synagogue. The synagogue owed its existence to Philip Wulfsohn and his brothers, who came to South Africa from Lithuania.
News of the find caught the attention of Joe, who is from Johannesburg but was then living and studying in New York. Joe had many memories of Rustenburg, in particular of the Jewish cemetery there, which he visited to see his grandfather’s grave. Philip Wulfsohn was, in fact, his great-grandfather.
The find spurred Joe on to explore his own identity through his art. As he says, “I am driven to connect with and delve into [my mother’s] family’s history and heritage. The sense of community, abandonment, white flight, urban migration, and…the sale of the synagogue’s building…deepens the feeling of loss.”
An exhibition of Joe’s work, Set in Stone, is currently on at the South African Jewish Museum. The exhibition runs until 30 June.
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