Meet the Jewish Community of

Darling

People

Jews in Darling were engaged in the usual economic activities such as trading or speculating in agricultural products (wool, hides, sheep, cattle and grain). There were general dealers and there was a local tailor, Isaac Weiner. There were also hoteliers, a medical doctor, garage owners and a manufacturer of jelly products. For a short while there was a Jewish schoolteacher in the town. Some were farmers (either as a second occupation or full-time) and partners in the salt pans in the area. Here is what we know about some of them.

Cats, Jacob: The first government teacher here, from 1876 to 1895.

Becker, Hyman: Was a councillor for 8 years. Both the Royal and Commercial Hotels were subsequently owned by him. He was also a town councillor for 8 years until 1980. He later became the president of the Schoonder Street Synagogue.

Becker, Reuben: Arrived in Darling in 1925, unable to read and write and speaking only Yiddish and Lithuanian. He was first employed at the Commercial Hotel doing menial jobs. He later owned a small shop and visited the local farms as a smous, selling fish, etc. Eventually he owned the Royal and Commercial Hotels, assisted by his wife, Mary, and sons, Hyman and Allan. The Commercial Hotel was previously owned by Mr Israel Miller. The Royal Hotel became the Nemesia Hotel.

Beinart Brothers: Were trading in the town by 1914.

Boruchowitz (later Brock) Shraga: Settled in Yzerfontien in 1908/6 and moved to Darling in the early 1920s, where he had a general dealer business.

Brock, Dr Samuel: Shraga Boruchowitz’s son, practised in Darling for many years.

Diamond, Gershon: Owned the Darling Trading Association. It was later sold to a consortium of local farmers and became Die Groenkloofse Handelhuis Ko-op Beperk. Today it is the Spar.

Diamond, Lily: Wife of Gershon Diamond. When the Dutch Reformed Church burnt down in 1957, she made curtains for the new church. The Jewish community also donated the church clock and part of the organ.

Golding, W L: Living in Darling by 1910.

Gordon, Rev Jonah: From 1930, when Rev. Kotlowitz left, Rev. Gordon served the community until his death in 1955. His passing was effectively the end of the Darling Hebrew Congregation.

Gordon, Professor Siamon: Son of Rev. and Mrs Gordon, became a Professor of Medicine at Oxford University.

Herman, Joe: A speculator and dealer in livestock, settled in Darling by 1920. Together with Mr Singer, he established a stable in a large building opposite the Dutch Reformed Church.

Kotlowitz, Benjamin, Rev.: Established the Darling Hebrew Congregation in 1924 as its first spiritual leader. He brought a Torah with him from Lithuania. A special prayer and study room was reserved in his home. He was succeeded by Rev. Jonah Gordon when he left in 1930.

Levy, Barney: Was also a partner in the Royal Salt Pans and later owned the Royal Hotel. The hotel was later taken over by Mr and Mrs Sifrin and then the Becker family.

Miller, Israel: Owned The Commercial Hotel.

Mr and Mrs Sifrin: Owned the Royal Hotel.

Mr Singer: Established a stable with Joe Herman and also was a partner in the Royal Salt Pans near Yzerfontein.

Stoch, Abraham and Sarah: Settled in Darling in 1930. His general dealer shop, opposite the present day butchery, is now a private home.

Stoch, Mavis Belle, Dr: Daughter of Abraham & Sarah Stoch, was assistant professor, Psychiatry Department, at the New York Medical College and was a co-author of the first and second editions of the book "Human Behaviour", together with Prof Eleanor Nash and G D Harper.

Uys, Pieter Dirk: Although not born in Darling nor part of its Jewish Community, Darling's most well-known Jewish citizen is surely the South African actor and satirist Pieter Dirk Uys. He was born in Cape Town on 28 September 1945 and later settled in Darling, where he converted the old, disused railway station into a cabaret venue and arts centre called Evita se Perron (perron is Afrikaans for station platform) and performs there regularly as his famous alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout. Brought up as an Afrikaner Calvinist, it was only when he was in his twenties, after the death of his mother (by suicide) that Pieter and his sister, the well-known pianist Tessa Uys, discovered that their mother, Berlin-born Helga Bassel, was born Jewish. She had been a gifted concert pianist whom the Nazis had expelled in 1935 as part of their campaign to root out Jewish artists. She later escaped to South Africa and managed to take her grand piano with her. Once safely in South Africa she had married Hannes Uys, a fourth-generation South African of Dutch and Belgian Huguenot descent, who was a musician and organist in his local church. Bassel spoke little about her Jewish past to her children, whom she encouraged to embrace Afrikaner culture. The piano on which she taught her daughter Tessa, now a concert pianist based in London, has been poignantly returned to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Read more about their story on the Articles page.

Weiner, Isaac: A tailor.



From the 1924 – 1929 SAJBOD Passenger Arrival lists, the following people have Darling as their destination address. It shows us how those already settled worked hard to bring their relatives from eastern Europe to join them in South Africa.