Maitland Jewish Community Timeline
1898-1901: During the Second Anglo-Boer War many Jews left, or rather fled from, the Transvaal and came to the Cape, and some of them settled in Maitland, which was then called Ysterplaat.
1904-5: The community hired the local school hall for prayers.
1906: The congregation was established with the name Holy Congregation or Community of Israel, Maitland/Brooklyn, and a working committee was elected.
1906: Rev Avraham Zalman Kaufman was appointed.
1906: Funds amounting to £150 were collected to build a synagogue, and a plot of land was bought for £100.
1907: A Talmud Torah was established to teach the children.
1913: As the number of children increased, a second teacher was employed.
1937: The new Communal Hall and Talmud Torah building opened.
The Maitland Talmud Torah / Synagogue building opened in 1937
1940: A photograph of the Shul committee, dated sometime between 1938 and 1942.
1942: Rev Efron arrived from Malmesbury and was a force for cohesion and good for the community and the children in the Talmud Torah.
1949: A unique photograph of Rev Efron and 69 young Talmud Torah students.
1954: The new opulent synagogue building was officially opened.
Behind this foundation stone of the new synagogue in Maitland, laid in August 1954, was hidden a scroll espousing the history of the community and the people who had been involved on the journey, from the time Jews arrived in the area at the turn of the 20th century during the Second Anglo-Boer War, and over the next half century. It was written by Rev Avraham Zalman Kaufman himself, who had been at the forefront of activity for over 50 years. Go to Synagogue page to read Rev Kaufman's Scroll.
1968: By the late 1960s, the community started dwindling. Many people had prospered over the years and felt the need to move to greener pastures. For others, it may have been to provide better schooling for their children. But many families were still living fulfilling lives in Maitland, though life may not have been as vibrant then as it had been in the preceding years.
1970s: The community continued to dwindle through the 1970s due to natural attrition, older children leaving home, and families moving out to Sea Point, Milnerton and other suburbs, and even other countries. By September 2024, there were just three Jewish people living in Maitland.
1977: The Maitland Talmud Torah building was sold.
2000: The synagogue closed its doors as a Jewish house of prayer for the last time.
2005: Reunion of the Maitland Jewish community. Visit Maitland Reunion 2005, the dedicated website created at the time of the event.
