Welcome to the website of the
Jewish Community of Maitland
The Cape Town suburb of Maitland is six kilometres east of the City Hall. The first arterial road out of Cape Town to the hinterland of South Africa was Maitland Road, created in 1845. In the 1860s a new railway line followed the road. Maitland is the oldest of the distinctive suburbs established along this road. The name commemorates Sir Peregrine Maitland, who was Governor of the Cape from 1844 to 1847. It was proclaimed an independent municipality in 1902, but included into the Cape Town municipal area in 1913. Maitland Road was renamed Voortrekker Road in 1938, at the centennial re-enactment of the Great Trek inland of white settlers that passed that way. Its transport connectivity made it ideal for light industrial manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing activities.
Jews started arriving in Maitland at the turn of the 20th century, many fleeing from the war-torn Transvaal. A Hebrew congregation was established as early as 1906 and was a strong and vibrant community until the end of the 1960s.
Despite the large number of Jewish people living in Maitland, Maitland wasn't an exclusively Jewish suburb, and the Jewish people weren't confined to any particular area. There may have been a greater concentration within, say, a one-kilometre radius of the Shul, but they were always interspersed with not only gentiles, but also (pre-Group Areas Act implementation) Coloreds and Malays/Moslems, the latter being mainly concentrated between the Talmud Torah hall and Koeberg Road on the one end, and towards the border of Maitland and Kensington on the other end. Some would form a distinction between the communities living on either side of the railway line, with those living on the south side being seen as "lower class", and similarly for the few Jewish families that lived in Kensington, but without knowing the reasons as to why people lived in a certain location, forming such a distinction would be seen as unfounded.
To read individual family biographies of people who lived in this unique community, click here.
Maitland landmarks and neighboring communities are shown in the full annotated version of the banner photo below. Underlined numbers are street names, circled numbers are neighboring suburbs. See labels by holding mouse over number. The full list of landmarks is shown below the photo.
- Shul
- Talmud Torah hall
- Maitland Public School
- Maitland High School
- Maitland Town Hall
- Maitland Swimming Bath
- Grand Bioscope
- Maitland Station
- Koeberg Station
- The Outspan
- Maitland Abbatoir
- Maitland Cemetery
- Pinelands Cemetery
- Berkley Road
- Milner Road
- Hely Street
- Montagu Road
- Railway Lane
- McGregor Street
- Canon Street
- Koeberg Road
- Voortrekker Road
- Coronation Road
- Royal Road
- N1 highway
- Ysterplaat Air Force Base
- Wingfield Military Base
- Old Mutual Head Office in Pinelands
- Pinelands
- Kensington
- Factreton
- Windemere
- Goodwood
This website, created in September 2024, is driven by Philip Stodel. Philip (born 1956) grew up in Maitland as a fourth-generation Maitlander. He went to school and cheder in Maitland. He left in 1981 when he got married, and then lived in Sea Point until making aliyah in 2021.
Philip has a genuine interest in the Maitland Jewish community of yesteryear, and a desire to preserve family history.
Please get in touch with Philip to help populate this website.
Click here for a map.
Website of the Maitland Jewish Community
Created and hosted by CHOL – Community History On-Line
For information and to join the CHOL mailing list, email info@chol.website
Compiled by Philip Stodel, Israel
Edited and illustrated by Geraldine Auerbach MBE, London, UK
Formatted and uploaded by Bramie Lenhoff, Delaware, USA
September 2024
