By DR DAVID SCHER
This is a remarkable book about the history of a Jewish community that was always small in number, numbering perhaps a few hundred people, that lasted only some three-quarters of a century, and was sited in a largely Afrikaans-speaking, less desirable suburb of Cape Town.
But Parow’s congregational history is important in that it serves as a microcosm of so many other Jewish communities, rural and urban, that flourished and then declined over the course of the 20th century.
The author, the eminent historian, Richard Mendelsohn, grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in Parow, when the community was at
its height.
This fine work is part of the ‘Parow Project’, conceived by Oren Kaplan, son of Mendel Kaplan – in his lifetime a giant in the South African Jewish community and the scion of the Kaplan and Kushlick families – who had deep roots in Parow. The Project also serves to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the establishment of Cape Gate, a major international steel-manufacturing company founded by the Kaplan and Kushlick families in Parow during the era of the Great Depression in 1929.
Within the ambit of a shortish review, it is difficult to do justice to the multi-faceted themes of this book. Working both thematically and chronologically, the author engages in a wide range of community themes, including Jewish participation in the medical and legal professions, the important role of Jews in industry and property, the impact of the Shoah on the community, the lives and status of Jewish women in Parow, and the community’s interest and participation in sport and entertainment.
For me, the most interesting section in the book relates to the pivotal role of the dominating and controversial rabbi of the parow community, Rabbi Benjamin Lipshitz, “the most misunderstood rabbi of his time”. Appointed in 1930, he served the community for 34 years. A man of formidable learning – with both smicha and secular university education – he was, like so many ministerial/rabbinical contemporaries in small South African communities, relied upon to perform a broad and demanding range of services.
An interesting fact is that Rabbi Lipshitz married the niece of Rabbi Abraham Kook, the famed first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine. Rebbetzin Nechama Lipshitz’s brother was Hillel Kook (also known as Peter Bergson), who valiantly led protests in America to promote the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
The surviving records of the Parow Hebrew Congregation reveal constant wrangling between the Rabbi and the Shul committees over a host of issues mainly centred around his onerous duties (shechita, teacher and prayer leader) and his demands for a decent salary and pension. Over the years, the Rabbi faced a litany of complaints by congregants such as hitting the children at cheder classes, losing his temper, and calling the children “unwarranted names”. Further complaints were his supposed failure to “introduce an atmosphere of religiosity in the Synagogue”, and conducting “the most uninspiring services on Shabbat”. As the author states, one of the reasons that the Rabbi survived all these challenges was the personal popularity of the Rebbetzin and her prestigious family background.
Yet, when all is said and done, Rabbi Lipshitz was highly rated as a Hebrew educator by the inspectors of the Cape Jewish Board of Education. The author has related that, when he transferred from his Parow schooling to the Herzlia system, his Hebrew proficiency was in fact ahead of his Herzlia counterparts.
This book cannot be praised too highly. As the author generously notes, this work, a central part of the Parow Project, was a team effort, with researchers delving into a wide range of sources, including the public archives, newspapers, the Cape Town Deeds Office, various Jewish archives, and a veritable fount of online and written memoirs. Numerous interviews were conducted which give the text a very personal feel. The book is further awash with the most evocative photographs of all descriptions.
Summing up, this book is a gem. I do not exaggerate when I say it is a milestone in South African Jewish historiography. Even if you do not have a direct link to the now vanished Parow Jewish community, I urge you to read it.
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