Roodepoort synagogue and religious life
1904: The Roodepoort Jewish Community was established in 1904, with Charles Tannenbaum and Avraham Boner on the committee. Services were held at the home of Charles Tannenbaum.
As the members of the community prospered, it was decided to build a synagogue. Funds were collected and the foundation stone was laid in 1905, by G. Frankel. Mr Frankel and a Mr Seehoff owned a large business, dealing in groceries and fresh produce, in the centre of Roodepoort.
With the opening of the synagogue, the community expanded and a rabbi was employed. Services were conducted at the synagogue on Shabbat and on the various festivals. The rabbi provided cheder classes for the children of the community. The rabbi was also the schochet and provided kosher slaughter of animals.
Over the years there were many rabbis, including Wisken, Orenstein, Friedman and Kaye.
In the early years there were about fifty families and at its peak in the 1930s and 1940s there may have been up to seventy families, who were members of the synagogue and who paid for their membership according to which seats they were allocated for services in the high festivals.
The community decided to build a community hall, adjacent to the synagogue. This was completed in 1949 and named for Morris Hockman, a prominent community leader. The new building included a classroom for cheder lessons and a large hall. The hall then became the centre of activities of the community.
From the 1950s the community started to decline as members followed their children to Jewish schools and university in Johannesburg.
In the 1960s it was decided to amalgamate the communities of Roodepoort and Florida, forming the Roodepoort-Florida Jewish Congregation. The Florida congregation had been a small congregation, with a small synagogue in Maraisburg. Several members of the Florida congregation described the Maraisburg Synagogue as being an intimate site of prayer with a closely knit congregation. The amalgamation of the two congregations provided new life for the congregation. In 1975 the congregation celebrated 70 years of its existence.
By 2000, in spite of the increase in activities of the congregation, families continued to leave the area and to move mostly to Johannesburg with all the educational facilities. It was thus that in the early 2000s it was decided to dissolve the community. All assets were sold, and the money was devoted to Jewish education. One Sefer Torah was donated to a congregation in Australia.
Thus after 100 years the previously strong Jewish Congregation in Roodepoort came to an end. The buildings of the synagogue (above left) and Morris Hockman Communal Hall (right) are still standing but have no connection with the former Jewish residents of Roodepoort.
