Timeline of Jewish Life in Grahamstown
1815 – Grahamstown town laid out.
1820 – Arrival of 1820 Settlers, including 18 Jews (Norden, Norton, Simons, Sloman).
1822 – Town becomes magistracy seat for Albany.
1823-1829 – Benjamin Norden trades ivory in Uitenhage, later returns to Grahamstown.
1838 (Oct 30) – Death of Lyon Benjamin; request for Jewish burial ground (earliest Jewish document in SA).
1839 (Feb) – Death of Moses Isaac Leon; second Jewish grave.
1841 – Cape Town’s first Jewish congregation founded; Nathan Birkenruth of Grahamstown a founder.
1843 – Jewish cemetery officially purchased in Grahamstown.
1845 – Grahamstown and Cape Town bring mohel from Europe.
1848 – Grahamstown Jews donate £12 to Cape Town’s first synagogue.
1870s – Jewish decline due to assimilation/migration to the Kimberley diamond fields.
1895-1897 – Abraham Radomsky arrives; opens Noah’s Ark store and cigarette factory.
1901 – Grahamstown Hebrew Congregation revived.
1911-1914 – Synagogue constructed; consecrated in 1914.
1934 – Grey Shirts antisemitic trial in Grahamstown; court exposes forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
1937 – Nazi newspaper Der Blitz reports antisemitic propaganda in Grahamstown.
1939 – Communal hall purchased and adapted.
1943 – New Jewish cemetery opened.
1960 – Hillel House opens for Jewish students at Rhodes University.
1963 – Synagogue Golden Jubilee.
1992 – Jewish Museum founded at Hillel House.
2000 (Mar) – Congregation dissolved; synagogue foyer becomes Jewish Museum.
2002 – Hillel House sold; Jewish student life scaled down.
2005 – Synagogue sold to law firm; heritage features preserved.
2018 – Town officially renamed Makhanda. Only a handful of Jews remaining, down from a peak of 196 in the 1936 census.
