Bloemfontein Activities
At its height in the 1950s, with more than 450 Jewish families, 1400 Jewish souls, Bloemfontein was a hive of Jewish activities for men, women and young people.
Goldie Rosen, wife of the late Ronnie Rosen, writes:
An important event was the laying of the foundation stone of the new shul, April 3, 1965, which served the community for 25 years. We had Chazonim and Rabbonim grace the community; some were successful and others not so. Another great event in 1996, through the generosity of a former resident, Lewis Bloch, then living in London, and recently making aliyah to Modiin, was a concert by Cantor Paul Kowarskly then living in Toronto, and a former rabbi of the same period, Rabbi Ben Isaacson. It was a memorable weekend of music - chanozis, droshas, and camaraderie. Many former members attended the function. There are many photographs of Bloemfontein at the SA Jewish Museum in Cape Town. The curator is Gavin Morris, born and bred in Bloemfontein.
If we take a peek at the 1953 comprehensive Golden Jubilee edition of their monthly magazine, Hashomer, we see full and illustrated reports of the communal organisations such as the Community itself, the Chevra Kadisha and the Talmud Torah. The women organised activity for the Benevolent Society, the Union of Jewish Women and the Zionist League. They arranged fundraising bazaars, dinners and dances, and a debutantes' ball at the City Hall in 1951. During the war, the women's organisations donated linen and crockery to the Tempe hospital for soldiers and supported other local needs.
Culturally there was the Bloemfontein Jewish Guild, the HoD lodge and the Yiddish Cultural Circle. For youth there was the Young Israel Society, sports clubs and scouts. As early as 1930 Habonim arrived in Bloemfontein. The article in Hashomer on page 120 lists those involved and the movement. The Second World War brought many changes. Bnei Akiva came later.
You can read about them all in the golden jubilee edition of Hashomer, which you can find on the Articles page. Also there is a detailed History of the Bloemfontein Community written in 2001 by Dr Sheila Aronstam, bringing the story more up to that date with the activity and personalities active in the intervening decades.
