Stellenbosch 2019

Early morning in Stellenbosch

Wednesday 6 March 2019

Stellenbosch Shul

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/stellenbosch/Home.html

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/stellenbosch/Shabbat.html

Meeting Daniella Van Niekerk

Translated the Partisans’ Song into Afrikaans & presented her project on the Jewish wedding ceremony to her ed last year.

Highlight Photos

THe Partisans’ Song In AFRIKAANS

Translated by Daniella Van Niekerk

STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY, SOUTH AFRICA

Moet nooit sêdaar wag net dood vir jou nie,

alhoewel loodswaar hemele die blou lug mag versteek,

want die uur waarna ons gehunker het, is naby;

die aarde sal bewe onder ons tree – ons is hier!

Van die land van palmbome, tot die vêrre land van sneeu,

sal ons kom met ons pyniging en geween,

en oral waar ons bloed in die aarde ingesyfer het,

sal ons dapperheid, ons krag, uitbloei!

Ons sal die môreson hê om ons dag te laat gloei,

en al ons gisters sal verdwyn saam met ons vyande.

En indien dit nog lank is voor die son weer verskyn,

laat hierdie lied soos ‘n sein voortklink deur die jare.

Hierdie lied is geskryf in bloed, nie lood nie.

Dit is nie ‘n lied wat somervoëls oorhoofs sing nie.

Dit was ‘n volk ter midde van brandende versperrings,

wat die lied van ons gesing het met pistole en grenate.

Moet nooit sêdaar wag net dood vir jou nie,

alhoewel loodswaar hemele die blou lug mag versteek,

want die uur waarna ons gehunker het, is naby;

die aarde sal bewe onder ons tree – ons is hier!

Daniella’s Tour of Stellenbosch University

The Botanical Gardens

Daniella Van Niekerk

Jewish Wedding Class – March 2018

Using resources from Eli Rabinowitz

Enacting Breaking the Glass

Comments by students

July 10, 2016July 10, 2016

Bubbles – From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End

Bubbles – From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End

a new publication by Bubbles Segall

Bubbles Segall was born in South Africa and moved to Australia in 1974.
She moved to the Northern Territory in 1976 where she worked for thirty-three years as a midwife, as a Community Health Nurse and as a Community Development Officer in Darwin and in remote Aboriginal communities.

“This autobiography of Bubbles tells the story of her journey from Cape Town to the Northern Territory of Australia, which more than lived up to the enchantment she held in her childhood.”

This is her story.

From Bubbles:

After many months of slaving over my laptop, I have finally finished a book about my life.

The title: Bubbles. From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End.

To celebrate, I had a launch at our favourite Irish pub on Sunday 26 July 2016 with somewhere between 60 and 70 people friends and family.

To order copies go to the website http://www.underthesun.net.au/

Click on Buy Books

Scroll down to Quick Links (listed by author’s surname).

Click on S-Z and find my book
Love from Bubbles Segall” bubblessegall@gmail.com

April 28, 2016April 28, 2016

The Boerejode of the Boland

A visit to Cape Town is not complete without a drive to one of the towns in the Boland.

From Wikipedia:

Boland, Western Cape

The Boland (Afrikaans for “top country” or “land above”^[1]) is a region of the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated to the northeast of Cape Town in the middle and upper courses of the Berg and Breede Rivers, around the mountains of the central Cape Fold Belt. It is sometimes also referred to as the Cape Winelands because it is the primary region for the making of Western Cape wine.

Although the Boland does not have defined boundaries, its core lies around the towns of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester. It may be understood to extend as far as Malmesbury, Tulbagh, Swellendam and Somerset West. This is approximately the area included in the Cape Winelands District Municipality, which was formerly called the Boland District Municipality. To the southwest lies the Cape Town metropolitan area, to the northwest the Swartland and West Coast, to the northeast the Great Karoo, to the east the Little Karoo, and to the south the Overberg.

The “Boland” name is given to a number of sports teams from the region, including the Boland cricket team and the Boland Cavaliers rugby union team.

Many of the Jews who came to Africa from Europe settled in rural areas and small dorps. They formed a subculture within the Afrikaner environment of these towns and many were known as Boerejode, Afrikaner Jews or more literally “farmer Jews”.

These towns could be regarded as Africa’s version of the shtetl back in Eastern Europe.

In the earlier years of settlement, there was the Jewish pedlar or smous, who travelled from town to town, farm to farm, selling his wares. Here is a memorial to the smous or pedlar on my new Graaff Reinet KehilaLink:

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/graaff_reinet/Smouse.html

Below you will find a selection of my images of Stellenbosch, one of the main towns of the Boland with its striking mountains, rich winelands and outstanding Cape Dutch architecture.

I have also included some interesting articles which I found at the Kaplan Centre archives at UCT, the Univeristy of Cape Town, my alma mater!

A big thank you to Juan-Paul Burke, the librarian at the Kaplan Centre, always so obliging and helpful, for allowing me to use them.

And on a tangent – on campus there was no sign of Cecil John Rhodes, except for the old signs!

Boerejood

in Wikipedia, die vrye ensiklopedie

Afrikaner-Jews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Afrikaner-Jews or Boere-Jode as they are sometimes known, are an offshoot of Afrikanerdom and Judaism. At the beginning of the 19th century, when greater freedom of religious practice was introduced in South Africa, small numbers of Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Britain and Germany. They established the first Ashkenazi Hebrew congregation in 1841. Between the end of the 19th century and 1930, large numbers of Jews began to arrive from Lithuania and Latvia. Their culture and contribution changed the character of the South African community.

According to the South African Jewish Museum, “Many of the later immigrants arrived with no resources other than their wits and experience. Most could not speak English when they arrived. Often they would learn Afrikaans before English. Their households were often multi-lingual, with parents speaking Yiddish and Afrikaans, and the children learning English at school.”^{[citation needed]}

The University of Cape Town Jewish Studies library has a comprehensive collection of South African Yiddish books. Its collection of Yiddish periodicals is, however, not as comprehensive.

Famous Afrikaner-Jews

Olga Kirsch was a noted Afrikaans author and poet.
Rabbi M. Romm translated and published the Siddur (Hebrew prayer book) into Afrikaans, which was widely distributed.^{[citation needed]}
Pieter-Dirk Uys is a South African satirist, active as a performer, author, and social activist.
David Kramer is a South African singer, songwriter, playwright and director.
Siegfried Fraenkel is widely regarded as the founder of Judaism in South Africa.