The American Jew Who Fought for the Boers During the Second Boer War (1899-1902)

Posted by Ann Rabinowitz

Harry Spanier
Lancaster, Ohio

This story ends on December 11, 1899, with an American, the first Jewish casualty on the Boer side, killed needlessly on the field of battle during a night attack of Surprise Hill, at the siege of Ladysmith, South Africa. However, it begins fortuitously enough with a German Jewish boy, Harry Spanier, who came to America with his siblings Joseph and Pauline as part of the mid-19th Century German Jewish migration to America.

The Spanier siblings were barely teenagers when they arrived and strove to integrate into the American melting pot. Siblings, Joseph and Pauline, settled in post Gold Rush era San Francisco, California, and Harry took to the east coast, New York, and then Columbus in mid-western Ohio.

According to Harry’s passport application, he was the son of Abraham Spanier of Wandsbek, Germany. He had two passports with varying birth dates, one in 1840 and one in 1853. Records are never accurate it seems, even on important documents such as a passport.

Later, as he became acclimated, Harry Spanier became a grocer, a fish market owner, and a speculator in America. He was someone who looked for the main chance, a good idea, a way to make his mark. He was eager to make his first million like he had heard it was possible to do in America, the land of opportunity. The streets were paved with gold were they not?

To others, he appeared to be a fine figure of a man, attractive with blue eyes and light hair, hardly with the look of a Jew about him. He fit in everywhere. He must have been a persuasive talker as he gained the attention of many a prominent businessman, belonged to civic organizations and lodges, and he had many devoted friends.

At some point, he met the lively, ebullient and social Frances Emma Vagnier, the daughter of Bartholomew and Frances Vagnier, who were French Catholics and early settlers of Lancaster, Ohio, a small town not too far from Columbus, Ohio. It was not known how “Emma” met Harry Spanier. She was young, much younger than he was, and eager to see the world and he was a worldly man intent on making things happen. She was smitten despite the difference in their ages and their religions. However, she took her religion seriously, seriously enough to require that their forthcoming children would be brought up Catholic.

Frances Emma Spanier

Columbus, OH

So, they were married in approximately 1884, although no records remain of their joining and whether it was done civilly or in a church. Intermarriage or marrying out whilst frowned upon, occurred frequently in those days where Jews were located in areas where there were few other Jews. The fact, too, was that many of these early German Jewish settlers were of the reform persuasion and also may have become much less observant in the less restrictive confines of America.

The Spanier’s had their first child, Joseph, immediately, and two more, Clara Belle and Lewis J., followed. However, their first son Joseph died in 1890 as did Harry’s brother Joseph. It was a terrible year, but Harry carried on.

It was difficult trying to make something of ones self and raise a family too. However, Harry was a hustler and always eager to find his niche. He kept up with current affairs and what was going on in the world. Eventually, he concocted the idea that he should become involved in South African-related commerce. South Africa was teeming with possibilities as they had much in the way of natural resources such as diamonds, gold and other things, but little in the way of standardized or commercially mass-produced products such as carriages, railroad cars, mining machinery, explosives, etc.

His first successful venture was to represent a combine of New Yorkers in the shipping of mules to South Africa. Since mules were not naturally raised in South Africa and were stronger and more long-lasting than horses, there was a great desire for them, especially in mining where twenty mule teams pulled ore from the mines as well as equipment. They were essential ingredients in the mining industry. In addition, they were most important in military operations such as carting food, guns, and equipment, as had been found in the First Boer War (1880-1881).

As it so happened, the major companies in Columbus, OH, The Columbus Buggy Company, Inc. and Kilbourne and Jacobs Manufacturing Company were intent on providing items related to mining, transportation, and other similar areas. Harry established connections for selling their products overseas in far-off South Africa. A group of the companies hired Harry to go directly to South Africa and negotiate contracts with the government for many diverse items. This was his chance at making it rich. His ambitious plan was to spend a year or two in South Africa, make his fortune and bring his family out to join him.

It was now 1896, and he got his passport and packed his bags and bid good-bye to his devoted wife and two young children and away he went on a ship to South Africa. As he left the coast of America for a daunting and unknown foreign shore, like all adventurers, he penned a letter to his wife of which only the first page remains:

“On board ship, Saturday, Oct.17, 1896

My own dear wife and children,

This is a great moment for me. It almost breaks my heart, but we will trust in God to land us safe and may God keep you and the children until my return. I have set my teeth together to keep from almost breaking down not because I am a coward, but because I miss you so much my darlings. We are just leaving the shore of our country behind and with a heavy heart I am looking at the………………”

And so, Harry sailed across the seas and arrived in South Africa and immediately set about making connections, so he could consummate some deals. He was widely accepted in the halls of government in Pretoria where many other speculators competed with him for the lucrative government contracts. His friends were other Americans, who hung out at certain social clubs, but also the Boers officials who he had to deal with. He was a fresh face who represented companies that had a worldwide reputation which boded well for his future success in closing some deals.

He began to have some successes and American products from Columbus, Ohio, flowed to the Boer Republic in significant amounts. Despite this, he recognized that the big money was going to come from the provision of the railroad cars and lines for new main and branch rail lines being constructed as well as other related machinery for the mines.

In 1898, he represented a group of companies in the following undertaking:

“News by Wire
Transvaal
The New Branch Lines
A Syndicate Offer
Undertaking the Work
At Eight Thousand a Mile

Pretoria, 3rd (Central News Agency)

An American syndicate, which has practically secured the contract for the Vryheid-Dundee line, has submitted a proposal to the Government offering to construct all the new branch lines at an average rate of £8,000 per mile, to be paid in State debentures bearing four percent interest. The proposal will have to be submitted to the Volksraad.”

This was an important arterial rail line which was scheduled to connect the Richards Bay coal line with the Durban-Gauteng main line. The initial section of 11km was built in 1896 from Glencoe to Talana. Due to the onset of the Second Boer War, the line was not extended to Vryheid until 1903.

The South Africa Harry saw was wild and full of possibilities. He continued to write glowing letters to his wife about what he could accomplish. Meanwhile, his letters added that he was terribly homesick and missed his family. The time flew by and it was now three years later, 1899, and Harry had not managed to go home yet. Things were still on the cusp of succeeding for him.

He wrote to his wife that if things did not work out he would come home, but he wanted to stay until he had tried every means of succeeding on a special project he was working on. He told his wife that if he did succeed he would be a millionaire many times over. She wrote back and agreed that he should stay until he reached his goal or his opportunities ran out.

At some point, Harry became a burgher of the ZAR and joined the Boer commandos. He, along with many others from Pretoria, left to defend Ladysmith. It is quite strange that Harry, a man who was considered elderly by most accounts as he was about 59-60, should have done so. It is true that there were older men who joined, but many took non-combatant roles. In addition, he had a wife and two young children who needed his support in America.

What prompted him to take this life-changing and subsequently fatal move which risked everything he had or hoped to accomplish?

• Did he suddenly become idealistic and join a foreign army, despite the fact that he had only been in the ZAR for only three short years? There is no documentation that has survived of his feelings along these lines.
• Was he influenced by his friends? Americans speculators, for the most part, who were in South Africa, supported the British and not the Boers. He was also in the minority as a Jew, although there were those who did join the Boer cause, but they were significantly smaller in number than those who fought for the British. However, he did have some close American friends who did join the Boers and this may have accounted for his decision.
• Was he caught up in something that has not been documented perhaps such as spying for the American government? There were many Americans who were in the same position as he was who just left and went home when the War was declared. They did not stick around. Several descriptions of his activities during the War led one to believe that he was watching and observing the proceedings from the sidelines and not actually participating.
• Or, did he feel that his participation and support would guarantee his success after the War was over and the Boers won? This may be the final answer as he had told his wife he was in it for the long haul until he reached the success he had struggled to get.

This is the missing link in Harry’s story. There is nothing to tell us either in his correspondence or, those things which have up to now have been uncovered, as to what caused him to end up on a battlefield at Surprise Hill in the dark early hours of December 11, 1899.

One of the unique bits of necrology following Harry’s death was the letter written to Harry’s wife by a Catholic priest, the Rev. Father A. Baudry, who had shared a tent with him on the battlefield.

12.12.1899
Hoofdlager

Madam,

It is my sad duty to ----to you news which will grieve you very much. As you know your husband joined the Boers forces here near Ladysmith. For a couple of weeks he shared the tent where I was. We soon became very friendly and he talked much to me of you and your two children, gave me your address and told me that if anything happened to him to inform you. Though not a R. Catholic he attended mass which I celebrated in the camp on Sunday. We parted about a week hence; he was going to join the Pretoria Commando.

Our eyes were full of tears when we last shook hands to see each other no more. Yesterday morning at about two o’cl his picket was attacked by the English; heavy firing commenced and continued for about an hour.

The English were repulsed, but not until they had blown up one gun with a charge of dynamite. On the Boers side there were 2 killed and 14 wounded. Your husband was among the last. He was mortally shot in the stomach. As soon as I heard of it I went to the ambulance, but he had not yet been brought there.

I went again in the afternoon, but to learn that he had succumbed to his wound. He died in the ambulance wagon on his way to the ambulance train, which was to carry him to Johannesburg.

I need not tell you how much I sympathiese (sic) with your loss. I pray almighty God that He sends you grace and strength to bear your bereavement with the proper Christian resignation and submission to God’s will. Any further information I may gather I shall carefully take down by writing and send to you later on.

Anything I can do for you on my return to Johannesburg I will do with much pleasure. Your husband told me he sent you £400 just before this breaking out of hostilities. He also mentioned something about his affairs in Johannesburg but entered into no details. Your husband was well acquainted with the American Consul in Pretoria and Acting Consul in Johannesburg. They must know the state of his affairs.

If you answer this letter be kind enough to address it to The Rev. Father A. Baudry(sp?),R. C. Priest, Box 430 Johannesburg. The letter will be sent to me, if I am not back in J. H. Burg by that time.
(-------)again my heart felt sympathy and the promise of my humble prayers,

I remain Dear Madam
Yours very truly in J & M

Baudry, R. C. P.” (Roman Catholic Priest)

The unusual nature of Harry’s passing whereby he had been shot by his own side, the Boers, and then bayoneted by the other side, the British, and the fact that he was a foreign soldier, a Jew, at that, and was a person well-known in the halls of power in the Boer Republic, caused his funeral to gain a magnitude that might not have been felt for a regular soldier.

The following is a government report of what took place in Pretoria on December 13, 1899, with President Paul Kruger in attendance:

The certified burial certificate for Harry was attested to by S. [Sigmund] Wolfson, of The Pretoria Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society, on January 1, 1901. It states that Harry was buried in the Jewish Burial Ground, Block B, Grave #3, Pretoria, SA, on December 10, 1899. It was slightly off a few days from the correct date of December 13, 1899, but still of interest.

As a closing remark, it appears that poor Harry Spanier not only was killed twice, but according to the above letter, he was buried before his death!!!! In addition, he was never able to consummate any of the deals that were in the works before his death which had kept him in South Africa for three long years, away from his beloved family. On top of it, he joined the losing side in the War and got himself killed almost as soon as he was deployed in battle.

All I can say is that unlike the popular Yiddish song “Wie Nemt Men A Bissele Mazel, Harry, poor fellow, had no mazel whatsoever!

Previously published in the Chanukah Edition, December, 2009, “Jewish Affairs”, Johannesburg, South Africa, with permission of the author.

NOTE: Members of the public are invited to attend the ceremony to rededicate the monument for the British killed at Surprise HiIl and a new monument to commemorate the Boer burghers who fought and died there with a special plaque in Hebrew in honor of Harry Spanier.

The function will start at 11:00 a.m. on the December 11, 2009. Lunch will be served to be followed by short talks on various aspects of the night attack on Surprise Hill. Venue: Moth Hall, 17 Egerton Road, Ladysmith, 12:30 p.m. A hike to the gun-emplacement on the summit will take place on Saturday morning, December 12, 2009, and may also be arranged for Friday afternoon. Options for visits to nearby battlefields, regional game reserves and Ingula archeological site over the weekend are open. More information can be obtained from the Siege Museum Trust, (camphere@telkomsa.net), 082 801 6524 or Ladysmith Historical Society (jhuman@telkomsa.net), 083 627 8446.

Syrian Sephardic Community in America

(hat tip: Ann Rabinowitz)

Image Magazine has an interesting article about the the Syrian Sephardic community.

Click here to access the site and the entire article.

Ancestry's Expert Connect

Posted By Ann Rabinowitz

One of the interesting features which Ancestry.com now provides is called Expert Connect (www.expertconnect.ancestry.com/Home). It is cleverly set up and bills itself as a means to call in reinforcements for genealogy research that the average researcher is not able to handle by themselves. It is quite easy to use and allows members to obtain the following seven services:

• Ask an Expert
• Custom Research
• Language Translation
• Local Photo
• Personal History
• Record Lookup
• Record Pickup
  

Ancestry.com handles obtaining the researcher, provides a venue for the member to obtain a fair price and have it handled through Ancestry.com’s secure payment environment. The funds for the work are paid in advance and held by Ancestry.com until the work is completed.

A graphic depicting how the system works is provided below from the Ancestry.com site:

How it Works

The experts are found in a database which covers the following information: Provider Name, Feedback Rating, City of Residence, State/Province, and Country. You can also find them by their specialty such as by Geography, Heritage/Religion, Era, and Archive. At present, there are thirty-one experts who have registered to do Jewish research, one of which is the President of the Utah JGS.

So far, Expert Connect covers work in the following states in America:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Countries outside the United States which are covered are the following:

Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

As the service grows, there are sure to be more states and countries included within its parameters.

For experts who want to belong to this service, they can view the following area on the site: http://expertconnect.ancestry.com/ProviderHome.aspx . By expert, the service also encourages regular researchers who are familiar with their local archives or resources to register too. They can be most helpful for picking up records or taking photographs.

So, if you are not able to do certain research chores yourself, you might want to consider the Expert Connect service. It makes it easier to find and connect with the appropriate researcher for the tasks you need to have done.

*REMINDER: JewishGen receives a commission for users who access Ancestry through our website. Please visit www.JewishGen.org and use the "search ancestry" box to get started.

Suspect in Nazi trial admits killings

A former member of the Nazi SS being tried for murder admitted in court Tuesday that he killed three Dutch civilians during World War II, but insisted he was following orders.

Heinrich Boere told the Aachen state court in a statement read by attorney Gordon Christiansen that he had killed a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian in 1944 as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad.

The 88-year-old faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted of three counts of murder.

The prosecution has painted Boere as a willing member of the fanatical Waffen SS, which he joined shortly after the Nazis had overrun his hometown of Maastricht and the rest of the Netherlands in 1940.

After volunteering for the SS, he fought on the Russian front, and then ended up back in the Netherlands as part of "Silbertanne" - a unit of largely Dutch SS volunteers responsible for reprisal killings of their countrymen.

Boere told the court that his superiors said his victims were to be killed in revenge for attacks by the Dutch resistance.

Boere already admitted the three killings to Dutch authorities when he was in captivity after the war but managed to escape from his POW camp and eventually return to Germany.

He was sentenced to death in absentia in the Netherlands in 1949 - later commuted to life imprisonment - but has managed to avoid jail so far.

In another development Tuesday, the court rejected a defense motion arguing that the trial should be halted because it constitutes double jeopardy under a new European Union charter.

Boere's attorneys had argued that, since their client had already been tried in Holland in 1949, he could not be tried again in Germany for the same crimes. (WP)

Click here to read the entire article

Jewish Soldiers at Pearl Harbor

A U.S. battleship sinks during the Pearl Harbor attack. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

The following comes from "Jewish Heroes in America."

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on that Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Jewish fighting men stationed there quickly responded to the call to repulse the attack. Ensigns Nathan Asher and Milton Moldane were aboard the U.S. S. BLUE, a destroyer that was at sea protecting the shores of Pearl Harbor. That morning, the BLUE was docked for refueling. The skipper of the destroyer was on shore and Ensign Asher was in charge of the ship.

Ensign Moldane was a graduate of the Washington University Law School and a native of St. Louis. Ensign Asher was a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Both men were having breakfast when they were informed that the Japanese had attacked the battleships anchored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor and that they were to take the BLUE out to sea.

Asher directed the crew in heading the BLUE out. Moldane took charge of the forward machine guns and watched the ARIZONA, a battleship, take a direct hit and sink. He describes what he saw as the BLUE battled its way out to sea:

"I could see Japanese planes coming down about 30 or 40 feet over our heads. dropping bombs and shooting at anything that happened to come along. Our ship kept firing at the planes as it headed out to sea. I went out to the bridge to help Asher when we both saw a Japanese plane that the BLUE's guns had hit go into a pineapple field. The men gave out a cheer when they saw the plane burst into flames. It took the BLUE one hour and a half to reach the open seas."

At Hickam Field young Private Louis Shleifer, U.S. Army Air Corps, of Newark, New Jersey, was on his way to breakfast when he heard the sounds of airplane motors. He looked out his window and saw Japa- nese planes dropping bombs on the field and strafing American planes. Schleifer grabbed his helmet and his.45-caliber revolver and dashed onto the field to help the other men move some of the planes into hagars. As he was moving the planes, he saw Japanese planes headed his way strafing the men and planes before them. He drew out his revolver and kept firing at the planes until he was mortally wounded. There is a memorial fountain for Private Louis Schleifer in the garden of Temple Beth Shalom, Livingston, New Jersey. Every year on December 7, the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association holds services at this fountain.

Lee Goldfarb, Jersey City, New Jersey, was a 3rd Class radioman on the U.S.S. OGLALA. He had just finished his watch at 7 a.m. and was preparing to get some sleep when he heard the sounds of aircraft motors. He looked out of his porthole and he saw Japanese planes at- tacking the seven battleships tied up at Ford Island, one ship after an- other getting hit with torpedoes. He went to his battle station to defend his ship against the enemy, when it was struck by a torpedo and sank.

There were many other Jewish fighting men at Pearl Harbor. Radio Mechanic 3rd Class Rosenthal gave his life aboard the U.S. S. CALIFORNIA. From Philadelphia, there were Alex Sherman, of the U.S.S. NEW ORLEANS, Ben Lichtman, of the U.S.S. WEST VIRGINIA, and Irvin Greben, at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe Bay. From Overland Park, Kansas, Stan Levitt was aboard the U.S.S. RIGEL, and Bernard Rubien, of Rancho Mirage, California, was at Hickam Field.

Click here to read the entire article.

Vignettes From Africa - Extended Post

Posted by Ann Rabinowitz

The South African influence has been immense on the growth of other Jewish communities throughout the African continent including Kenya, Namibia (formerly German South West Africa), Zaire, Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), and Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia. In fact, many immigrants came to South Africa only to pass through to these other places where they built strong and energetic communities.

Various African countries such as Angola, Botswana (formerly Bechuanaland), Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho (formerly Basutoland), Madeira, Malawi (formerly Nyasaland), Mauritius, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanganyika (formerly German East Africa), Tanzania (formerly a combination of Tanganyika and Zanzibar), and Uganda, survived colonial rule with perhaps no remnant of Jewish influence or small or now extinct Jewish communities.

Basically, present day African Jews are struggling to maintain whatever communities they have managed to retain with some so much on the decline that they will or have totally disappeared; whilst others have gained a revitalized shot in the arm from new internationally-based businessmen, entrepreneurs and government officials who have been drawn to these countries by the vagaries of economics or war. Whatever their size or status, the African countries represent a colorful hybrid of Jewish life and are well worth noting.

What follows are a series of vignettes featuring a selection of these countries that deal with some of the events and people of long ago illustrating the connectivity of the African Jewish communities.

THE MUSIC OF EXILE – Cape Verde Islands

A barren place which was uninhabited until 1456, it was settled primarily by the Portuguese as a way station for provisioning vessels on their way to voyages of discovery in the New World and as a slavery outpost. The islands which number about ten, are three hundred miles off the coast of Africa, a two-hour flight from Dakar. They sit isolated, but serene, an idyllic footnote in the history of the Jews who fled the Inquisition and those who came afterwards from Morocco and Europe. Their cemeteries of Boa Vista, Ponto do Sol, Praia, Santiago, and Santo Antao, abound with names of Portuguese exiles and their presence is little seen now except for the rhythmic lull of the music of the islands.

The Portuguese brought with them their music, the fado; the beautifully evocative strains which were taken from the streets of Lisbon and with what some think have Jewish Sephardic roots. Listen carefully to this exquisitely beautiful music, so popularized by Amalia Rodrigues, and you will hear it.

When you have listened, then you realize that its legacy is also to be found in the Cape Verde music of today, the mourna, which resonates with the themes of nostalgia for home, immigration, and loss . . . all those things which the Portuguese Jews and others felt. At a recent concert given by Cape Verde’s most popular chanteuse, Casaria Evora, these themes were most evident and, I felt, the connection to that far-off time when Jews were despised and dispersed to the far corners of the world, even to Cape Verde in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

SOLOMON’S CHILDREN – Ethiopia

One day, not too long ago, I was given a small photograph of several people, all in either World War II Army kit or civilian clothes which was taken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1942. What marked the photograph for me was the slender exotic dark man at the far left of the photograph, a poignant reminder of a culture that began with a Jewish king.

Who was this mighty king? Solomon, of course, and the story of his visit from the Queen of Sheba is well-known and the events that followed this meeting have brought much trauma and excitement even into our own 21th Century.

Wartime in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 1942

The man at the far left in the photograph above was most probably Israel Jacob, the President of the Dire Dawa Congregation, a leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community. He is shown with several Jewish men, all who had come to Ethiopia from either Europe or South Africa. Amongst them, from left to right was M. Ben Ari, who had been born in Palestine and came to Wynberg, South Africa in 1925 at the age of 18, and thence went to live in Cape Town; an unknown Polish Jew who came in 1932; Simie Weinstein from Oudtshoorn; an unknown German Jew who came in 1933; and Percy Berger, who was born in Kupiskis, Lithuania, and came to Cape Town. Such a polyglot of nationalities was represented, all in wartime Ethiopia.

It so happened that another Berger whose family was from Kupiskis changed the course of Israel Jacob’s people. He was Graenum Berger, who first met Ethiopian Jewish students at Kfar Batya, Israel, in 1955. He became so entranced by their history and culture that he spent the rest of his life in efforts such as Operation Solomon to bring them out of Ethiopia to Israel. His book Rescue the Ethiopian Jews! A Memoir, 1955-1995, tells of that struggle and its success.

Graenum Berger, Yona Bogale and Kessim (priests) at the Synagogue, Ambober, Ethiopia, 1965.

Now, in this decade and century, I find a cousin in Addis Ababa too. A British-born adventurer, Simon Winetroube, is a lawyer, educational administrator, and cultural disseminator, with a Bosnian-born wife, who is raising a baby in the steamy latitudes of a worn and fascinating ancient place. He is one of many Jewish newcomers intent on teaching, training and trading in this wild country and no less successful than those before him. I admire his grit and fortitude, his intelligence and knowledge of the people that permits him to live amongst them in harmony and respect.

OUT OF AFRICA – Kenya

Famed for the many books written and movies produced about her, Kenya has been in the forefront of African thought for generations. The Jews played an intimate role in her development and the Bloch family from Nairobi was one of these families. Owners of well-known hotels, a widespread occupation for Jews even in der heim, they were involved thoroughly in the local economy and social life.

Unfortunately, the family gained international attention when Dora Bloch, the 73-year-old widowed grandmother of the family was killed in 1976 after being dragged from a Kampala hospital in Uganda after Israeli commandoes raided Entebbe Airport. The rescue of 100 other Israelis came after they had been taken as hostages from a hijacked Air France plane.

In another place, in a room filled with books, we sat sipping cappuccino and chatting about Africa and our common relatives. Elliot Sachar mentioned his uncle and he told me the story of how he was involved with the famous incident at Gilgil, Kenya.

Gilgil, a sleepy village in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, located between Naivasha and Nikuru, and eighty-two miles north of Nairobi, was the internment camp setup for Jewish prisoners of war, mostly Irgun’s top leadership, who had been arrested in Palestine for anti-British activities.


As I listened attentively, the story seemed to take on familiar dimensions and I felt the tug of memory. Then it hit me, it was the selfsame story as told to me by my cousin Ralph Yodaiken. As we sat at the table, I called Ralph on my mobile and asked him if he knew Bernard Wolf, Elliot’s erstwhile uncle.

Gilgil Camp, 1948

Yes, he did. He remembered that South African’s, including himself, had participated in the liberation of the Gilgil camp on March 28, 1948, and that Bernard had been instrumental in this effort. Bernard had been a pilot, but had acted as the driver called “Wilson” to help the escapees, Reuven Franco, Nathan Germant, Yaacov Hillel, Yaacov Meridor, Shlomo ben Shlomo, and David Yanai, leave the camp.

They had departed from Gilgil overland in a rented car and went onto Uganda where they crossed the border using five South African and one South American passport. From Uganda, they were then taken onto the Belgian Congo and from there to Brussels.

For both Bernard and Ralph, other wartime feats engrossed their energies. Their participation in the bricha to rescue some of the surviving Jews of Europe and bring them to Palestine was followed by service as South African machalniks during the 1948 Israeli War for Independence.

They had not seen each other since.

Now, fifty years later, following on the lead I’d given him, Ralph contacted Bernard in Cape Town and they enjoyed a pleasant reunion of mates, reminiscing about those old times and the adventures of their youth when Jews were fearless in their fight to defend their homeland of Palestine even in a faraway place called Gilgil, Kenya.

A REFUGE FROM HARM – Mocambique

The graves of the one hundred or so Jews in the Cemeterjo Comunal Israelita in Maputo speak to the early settlement (1880-1940) in this distant Portuguese outpost by those fleeing the Inquisition and other forces. They were followed by Eastern Europeans who could not get into South Africa, those fleeing the Nazis, or those who came later from South Africa, some fleeing the apartheid regime.

Most well-known of the South Africa anti-apartheid exiles who found a refuge in Mocambique was Albie (Albert Louis) Sachs who was born in Johannesburg on January 30, 1935. An attorney, civil rights activist and leading member of the ANC, he was twice detained without trial by the Security Police before departing for exile in England. Returning to Africa in 1977, he chose Mozambique as his safe harbor.

Taking a position as Professor of Law at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo and subsequently, from 1983 to 1988, as Director of Research in the Mozambique Ministry of Justice, he fit in well until this idyllic existence was shattered by his near death experience in a car bombing. After an interlude in England and several other venues, he returned to the new South Africa, now serving as a Justice of the South African Constitutional Court.

Albie Sachs

In addition to Albie Sachs, there were Franny Rabkin and her two children; a couple who fled the dictatorship in Chile; and Jews who came from Europe and North America to work towards the reconstruction of Mocambique. While nominally Jewish, none of these actually became involved in forming a cohesive Jewish community.

Renewed interest in Jewish communal activities has surfaced in the past several years as Jewish tourists have visited this unique spot and others have settled in Mocambique for business purposes. There have even been non-Jews such as Alkis Macropolous who assisted in 1989 with the return to the Jewish community of the main synagogue in Maputo which was built in 1926. Its dramatic and extensive reconstruction has sparked further activity in the community. Despite this, it remains a transient place, a fading, yet flickering memory in the Jewish lexicon of the diaspora.

HANGING BY A THREAD - Namibia

One of the most fascinating stories I heard as a child was from my uncle Max Hillman about his older brother Louis. The Hillman family came from a long line of rabbis stretching back to the 1400’s in Metz, France, and they belonged to the well-known Heilprin rabbinical dynasty which traced its lineage to Rashi and even to King David.

The Hillman family consisted of seven brothers and one sister. The oldest, Louis, became involved as a young man in activities which led to the 1905 Student Revolution which swept through Russia and was the harbinger of the later 1917 Russian Revolution. Hearing he was a marked man and also knowing that he was going to be conscripted, he fled his home in Bauska, Latvia, for the warmer and more hospitable climes of Johannesburg where he had Hillman and Tankelowitz relatives waiting for him.

A “greener”, Louis struggled to make his mark. He became a smous and rag dealer and came to know the towns and villages surrounding Johannesburg quite well. Seeing the difficulties of making a living in Johannesburg, he heard of better opportunities in Southwest Africa which was then a protectorate of the Germans. He spoke German fluently as Bauska, his home town in der heim, was also under the protection of the Germans and he had been schooled in that language. Seemed a good match.

By this time, Louis had inveigled some of his other brothers to join him in Africa as they too were eligible for the dreaded conscription and off they went to Windhoek.

Windhoek seemed quite an amenable place to them, a bit of wild and open, but being enterprising young men, they went about seeing what they could develop in terms of work. However, as they were just getting their bearings, for some reason, the German authorities became aware of Louis’ activities in Latvia. They grabbed him and he was taken off to jail posthaste. The Germans then decided to hang him summarily as he was considered a dangerous spy and draft evader.

As Louis stood upon the scaffold, he felt his life hanging by a thread. His brothers seeing his dilemma, conceived of a dramatic diversion and like the three musketeers of old, managed to drag him from the scaffold and spirited him away. Since it was a hurried escape with no prior planning, the four brothers never knew if they would make it back to Johannesburg alive, but after much travail, they did.

Upon their return to Johannesburg, they decided that they had enough of Africa. Their relatives helped them with passage and they left immediately for Panama where they heard there were good jobs to be had in the tanneries owned by Jews. It was possible then to save up enough capital to go onto America, the goldene medina or land of riches.

Finding jobs in Panama, they soon realized that the tanneries were held by despots who ruled the tanneries like slave plantations with the intention of never releasing their employees, no matter how much they earned. The system was abusive and the conditions worse than those in the sweatshops in New York. After much struggle, the Hillman brothers managed to save enough money to leave Panama and came to America in 1907, all the wiser for their aborted chance at riches in Africa and Latin America.

FROM A TAPESTRY OF LIFE – Zaire

Chief Rabbi Moise Meir Levy, born in Athalya, Turkey, on August 12, 1915, lived a long and distinguished life, passing away in Brussels on September 29, 2003. Called “my rabbi” by King Baudouin of Belgium, he was first and foremost a Sephardic Jew whose family left Turkey following the Armistice in World War I for the Island of Rhodes where he studied for the rabbinate.

Rhodes, that little pinprick in the Mediterranean, was the cradle of a Jewish community stretching back many centuries. Jews from there came to South Africa in the 1920’s and slowly wandered northward to what was then the Belgian Congo and is today’s Zaire. Others from Eastern Europe had preceded them and the community then grew to approximately 2,500 Jews scattered about in eight small communities, the largest of which was Elizabethville (now Lumbasha).

Rabbi Levy was such a traveler to the Congo and he arrived there in 1937 to become rabbi of the congregation in Katanga which was made up primarily of Jews from Rhodes. He stayed and became the Chief Rabbi of the Congo and Rwanda-Burundi from 1937 to 1991. He was forced to leave Katanga in 1991, but remained the Chief Rabbi, an expatriate governing his community from his seat of exile in Belgium; a community that was now drawn back to South Africa, and onto America, Israel, and Belgium.

The Rabbi and wife Felicia Levy-Piha on their 65th wedding anniversary

When the Rhodean Jews came to the Congo, opportunities abounded with the natural resources a predominant feature of the economy. A comfortable niche was created for small traders and factors who could move easily along the trade routes and provide the necessary supplies to the newly emerging towns and villages. The Rhodean Jews settled in quite nicely and thrived and continued to bring in their relatives and friends. Others became attracted by the same opportunities and joined them.

The life they created was not to last, but they left with their memories intact of a time and place of special meaning among the riches of Central Africa.

A MAN AS OLD AS TIME - Zimbabwe

He was born on the brink of the new century on April 2, 1899, a willing and eager participant in the great events to come. Leizer Abrahamson, the son of Abraham and Chaya Sheina Abrahamson, the youngest of ten Kasperowski siblings from Sczuczyn, a shtetl not too far from Bialystok, Poland, lived to see the great empire of Rhodesia fall and two new and energetic countries command the world stage in the form of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Arriving in 1926, he has seen the growth and vibrancy of a Jewish community in Bulawayo that at one stage numbered approximately 3,000, and has now dwindled to less than 300 souls and which lost their oldest shul in a fire on October 4, 2003, of the past year, a shul he faithfully attended and assisted in leading the services of. What haven’t those eyes seen?

Further, his family has played a vital role in the development of Zimbabwe with his nephew Abe Abrahamson, the son of his brother Morris, who was born in Bulawayo in 1922, achieving not only commercial success, but the high office of Rhodesian Minister of Treasury & Local Government in 1958, and serving in the Rhodesian Parliament, 1953-1965. Recently, this role has expanded to include an autobiography detailing his many other accomplishments including those in the Jewish community.

Another man of this time was Abraham Benjamin Kavonic. A quiet introspective man, he had been born in Sheffield, England, in 1883, studied engineering and had come out to Oudtshoorn, South Africa, to seek his fortune. There he had met and married sixteen year old Lithuanian-born Rebecca Isserman. They moved to the Salisbury South (now Harare) area of Northern Mashonaland in Rhodesia, and their life revolved around their large tobacco-rich farms, laden with a crop that was difficult to cultivate and that required intense knowledge and hard work. Abraham expanded his farming interests to three farms, two of which he gave to his sons, and one he reserved for himself.

They did well until the mid-1970’s when the troubles began during the eventual ousting of Prime Minister Ian Smith which was to take place in 1980. Kay Samuel Isserman remembers her brother, Jack Samuel, sent his family into the city and stayed at the farm and actually slept in the passageway in the middle of the house as it was the safest place to avoid the guerilla bombs and other activities. There were anti-grenade sirens on the roof, double-barbed wire fencing surrounding the property and, at least, nine fierce weimaraner dogs patrolling the perimeter. Eventually, the family had their property confiscated and they left for America in 1980, their farming days at an end.

Kay Samuel Isserman also remembers that her father, Sydney Samuel, a dentist and a most creative soul, used to make for his children, toy trains and other items for their board games out of his dental fillings.

The Samuel children carried on the legacy of the ostrich feather business that came into the family from their Isserman relatives, and today, in Florida, Darren Samuel, a fourth generation of the family, born in Rhodesia, but living in the America since he was thirteen, ships multitudes of feathers to glamorize the costumes of Las Vegas showgirls and the uniforms of band members worldwide.

To add a Sephardic twist to the mix of people who came to Zimbabwe, there was the Elkaim family, whose roots were originally from Morocco. They had been in Palestine for many generations and the majority of the family still resided there. Chanan Elkaim arrived in Africa in 1933 at the port of Beira in Mozambique, having traveled from Palestine down the east coast of Africa. His plan was to find a job in Southern Rhodesia where he knew of a family friend, Ephraim Cohen, who was already living and working in Bulawayo.

Unfortunately, the immigration authorities in Southern Rhodesia were not very welcoming to Jews and so did not grant him the clearance to remain there. He then decided to go North and try his luck there. He boarded a train and arrived at the platform of Livingstone railway station in 1933, tired and thirsty from his long trek. Refused permission to stay in the country, he sat forlornly on the platform trying to determine what to do.

Suddenly, he heard a loud voice boom out to him, Du bist a Yid? The person who called to him was a giant of a man, over 250 pounds, who looked at him kindly from the other end of the platform. He replied that he was and the man, a fellow Jew, then offered to use his good relations with the immigration officials to allow Chanan to continue on his way north to opportunities in Ndola in the Copperbelt.

As it turned out, the man was in the taxi business and was at the station daily. He had become very friendly with the immigration staff and others there too including Sir Roy Welensky, born a Jew, who was a fireman for Rhodesia Railways in those days, and later became the architect of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federation and its last Prime Minister from 1956 to 1963.

The man helped where he could and later was much assistance to the refugees who came through the station prior to World War II. On one occasion, an immigration official asked whether the man would stand guarantee for these immigrants. The man convinced the official that there was no need for any guarantees, because the Jewish communities of the various small towns in Northern Rhodesia would take care of each and every one of them until they were able to fend for themselves. And, this indeed, happened.

Chanan arrived in Ndola and thrived there and eventually became a successful road contractor among other things. He was responsible for constructing all of the intertown roads all over the Copperbelt. He married and brought up three very talented children. He donated very generously to deserving causes all over Northern Rhodesia/Zambia and was later awarded Zambia’s highest medal of distinction for his outstanding generosity and service to the community, by Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the then President of Zambia.

In 1953, when he returned to Israel for his mother’s funeral, he suggested that his nephew Avner should join him in Africa to work and thereby help support his family financially. At the age of twenty-two, Avner arrived in Ndola in April, 1954.

Sometime later, at a social get-together held on July 16, 1954, at the home of Mrs. Kapulski whose husband was related to the famous Israeli bakers, Kapulski Brothers, Avner was to meet his beshert. She was a young woman who had been sent to Ndola for a two week stay to organize Zionist Youth/Habonim activities. Avner was of two minds whether to attend the get-together as it was Friday night. He had intended spending it with his aunt and uncle, until they decided to go to bed. Eventually, he did go and spent the evening chatting in Hebrew with the young woman.

When he returned home, he told his Uncle Chanan he had met a beautiful young woman who spoke Hebrew. Uncle Chanan was most pleased and asked who the girl was. “Oh, her name is Ronnie and she is the daughter of a Joe Furmanovsky”, he said. Joe Furmanovsky . . . that was the taxi driver that had met Uncle Chanan on the platform in Livingstone those many years ago and given him the first start towards his new life in Rhodesia. What a coincidence!!!

The Furmanovskys have also left a legacy of another sort as a granddaughter, Jill Furmanovsky, has spent her thirty year career jetting around the world photographing rock stars and other celebrities such as Blondie, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Mick Jagger, Oasis, Pink Floyd, The Police, and The Pretenders. Her intimate photographs have an intensity and insight into the souls of those pictured that enlighten and astound the viewer.

Jill Furmanovsky

Her father, Jack, son of Joe Furmanovsky, is a well-known architect who designed the new addition to the Shul in Bulawayo that burned to the ground in 2003. He now practices in London, his beautiful buildings left behind in the old Rhodesia. Who will maintain and love them now?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To the following individuals for their kind assistance and contributions to this article: Abe Abrahamson, Emma Berger, Michael Berger, Percy Berger, Linda Cantor, Ilan Elkaim, Ronnie Furmanovsky Elkaim, Mary Hillman, Kay Samuel Isserman, Dr. Saul Issroff, Roy Ogus, Rena Abrahamson Reiff, Elliot Sachar, Albie Sachs, Warren Winetroube, Bernard Wolf, and Dr. Ralph Yodaiken. And, to the memory of my uncle Max Hillman and my father William Samuel Rabinowitz, who first opened my eyes to the beauty of Africa and its people.

(Originally published in “Jewish Affairs”, Vol. 59, No. 2, Winter, 2004, Johannesburg, SA)

JAI

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Magen David Adom Reunites Siblings After 64 Years

Lena, 85, and Victor, 73, were too choked up to speak when they first met each other after not having known of each other’s existence since the end of WWII. The meeting took place recently in Australia, where Lena has lived for years without knowing that her long-lost brother was alive.

The story began in 1945, when the chaotic situation in tha war led to the separation of the two siblings, who had been living in Rostov, Ukraine. In 1965, Victor turned to the Red Cross in Russia, asking for information on his missing family. Nothing turned up, but Victor did not give up.

In 2007, a woman named Liz Soda – the daughter of Lena – turned to the Central Tracing Service of the Red Cross in Germany, asking for information on the Bogdanovich family of Rostov. Here came the first break: She was told that though no documentation on the family had been found, a man named Victor had in the past made a similar query. Liz immediately understood that this was her lost uncle, and she began to search for him – but he had moved to Moscow and could not be found.

The story then moves to the German city of Bad Arolsen, site of the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives. Victims of Nazi persecutions and their families can search there through more than 50 million reference cards for over 17.5 million people, and related documents and reference files, to verify the fate of loved ones.

The story of the Bogdonavich search was raised at the annual ITS convention this year – and listening attentively were representatives of Magen David Adom’s tracing service. With the help of Yolenta Michaeolova of the Red Cross in Russia, MDA’s Susan Adel and Eli Starik began working on the case, and within days were able to locate Victor’s son living in Moscow. When they told him that his aunt and cousin were looking for his father, “He was so excited that he could barely speak,” Adel said.

When Victor himself heard the news, he immediately made contact with his sister in Australia – but once again, they were too emotional to know what to say. They agreed that Victor would fly to Australia, where the dramatic reunion was held after 64 years of separation.

Lena’s daughter Liz said afterwards, “Our story is typical of what happened to many families of that period. We are thrilled that my mother was able, with the help of Magen David Adom, to find her brother whom she thought she would never see again.”

MDA acknowledges that its tracing service is not well known, its director Boriah Kozokin says, “But we have been involved in finding lost persons for many years, with great success. Most of our work centers around those who have lost contact with family members during and after World War II.” (IsraelNN.com)

Click here to read the entire article.

Invictus: Genealogy, Rugby and Joel Stransky

Posted By Ann Rabinowitz

“Invictus”, the Movie

The soon to be released movie “Invictus”, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, features the story of Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final in South Africa.  Of particular interest to genealogists is the star of that World Cup game, who was Joel Stransky, a fly-half, who provided the winning drop goal of the game.  Stransky, was Jewish, born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and was the son of Barry and Isabel Stransky.  After his career in South Africa, he later played for the Leicester Tigers in England. 

An amazing athlete, he was also inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, which is a great resource and primarily sponsored by Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel and the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports, Netanya, Israel, as well as other interested sports authorities and contributors.  More details about Stransky’s career can be found there. 

Joel Stransky

In 1999, he was considered for England’s 1999 World Cup team.  As a South African, although living in England, he had to provide verification of his origins.  This was due to regulations which required that England’s team players have, at least, grandparents who were born in England.

This is where genealogy came into play.  He thought his grandparents had possibly been born in England and he proceeded to inquire about them.  He found that they had been born in South Africa not England.  Further investigation revealed that it was his great grandparents who were the ones who had left England for South Africa.  Unfortunately, this information disqualified him for participation in the World Cup. 

Nowadays, Stransky could have looked at a number of on-line resources for information about his family.  Primarily, these are the South African Jewish RootsWeb site, the South African National Archives, Ancestry.com, findmypast.com and The Jewish Chronicle.

• South African Jewish RootsWeb - The site allows the researcher to plug in their family name and pull up many different kinds of records.  In regard to the Stransky family there are two records, one is a burial record for Joel Stransky’s mother, Isabel.  This provides her father’s first name, although not his last.  The other record only has a last name. 
• National Archives of South Africa - This has quite a number of records for the Stransky family.  Actually, there are twelve which cover estate records, immigration, and business transactions. 
• Ancestry.com 
• Findmypast.com - The emigration database which allows the researcher to plug in the family name as well as the destination was of great help as it listed four Stransky entries.  For instance, one of these was Dr. Theodore Stransky, born 1902, who left Southampton, England, in 1933, for South Africa.
• The Jewish Chronicle - Here, there are listings for the Stransky family name back to 1888.  Most of the listings are for Jews of Czechoslovakian origins such as Rabbi Hugo Stransky, who first came to England in 1938.  Another Stransky mentioned was Josef Stransky (1872-1936).
  

Apparently, Josef Stransky was born in Humpolec, Czechoslovakia, the son of Herman Stransky.  The family later moved to Prague, and then Josef moved to Berlin for his musical career.  Shortly after, he went to New York where he succeeded the great Gustav Mahler as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  Later, he became an art dealer.  

Josef Stransky

An interesting aside about Josef Stransky which is found in The New York Times issues of June 15 and 25, 1912, is that he married Norwegian-born Marie Johanna Doxrud, the daughter of Hans Doxrud, Captain of the Red Star Liner “Lapland”.  Captain Doxrud was one of the individuals who warned of the icebergs in the shipping lanes during the crossing of the Titanic as his ship was heading for New York.  He was later Vice-President and Director of the Norwegian American Line Agency, Inc. 

Two weeks after he had arrived in New York to take over the reins of the New York orchestra, Stransky met Marie, fell in love, and they became engaged six months later.  They married in the German Church in Kensington, London, England, with only an aunt of the bride, Mrs. Adela L. Loomis, attending the ceremony.  Captain Doxrud was commanding his ship, at the time of the wedding, and sent a congratulatory telegram to the happy couple before the ceremony.

Enough of Josef Stransky, back to rugby . . .

South African Jews and Rugby

Another aspect of researching a sports figure such as Joel Stransky, apart from his specific family genealogy, is that the country he represented, South Africa, has a disproportionate share of great Jewish rugby players.  This is in comparison to the percentage of Jews in the population.  This accomplishment was celebrated with a recent exhibition supported by the late Mendel Kaplan entitled “The Glory of the Game-Rugby and the Jewish Springbok Minyan” at the South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town, South Africa.  The “Springbok Minyan” refers to the ten Jews who were on the South African Springbok Team.

Four out of ten (From left to right): Jewish Boks; Joe Kaminer, Syd Nomis, Professor Alan Menter and Doctor Cecil Moss, 2009

SPRINGBOK MINYAN

• Morris Zimerman (four Tests)
• Louis Babrow (five Tests)
• Fred Smollan (three Tests)
• Dr Cecil Moss (four Tests)
• Professor Alan Menter (two tour matches)
• Joseph 'Joe' Kaminer (one Test)
• Okey Geffin (seven Tests)
• Syd Nomis (25 Tests)
• Dr Wilf Rosenberg (five Tests)
• Joel Stransky (22 Tests)

Utilizing various on-line newspaper resources can be quite helpful in filling out the particulars of these “minyan” members.

Researching the sports activities of one’s relatives is an important facet of their history and that of their communities.  Very often, connecting with the other players (or their families) who participated on the same team(s) as your relatives can be a means of learning more about your family.  This is particularly true of small communities or those where there were few Jews.

I learned this myself when I set out to find more information on the basketball and soccer/rugby teams my father had played on in high school in Plainfield, New Jersey.  It all started when I attended a meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Palm Beach County, Inc.  There, I met Dorothy Lurie who asked me where my family was from in that time-honored “Jewish geography” conversational opener.  It turned out that she was from Plainfield, NJ, as was my father’s family.  As we continued chatting, I mentioned that my father, William, had played sports and it turned out that her father, William, had also played sports.  In fact, they had been classmates, although her father had been two years ahead of mine.

After further discussion, we determined that they had played together and had both served as captains of the team in different years.  I was able to learn too that one of my father’s relatives, who I had not known about previously, had also played on the team and been a captain, but some years before.
We exchanged photos of the teams, newspaper articles, and discussed various aspects about the participation of Jews in the 1920’s who had played in various sports.  It was very enlightening and I learned a lot more about my father’s activities whilst in high school.  Who would have thought that such an initially commonplace conversation would have turned out to be a genealogical goldmine?

CONCLUSION
Remember that when you are researching your ancestors don’t forget to look into their sports activities.  This can provide you with an entirely new viewpoint on their personalities and accomplishments.  Don’t forget to look at the JewishGen shtetlink sites as many of these include photographs of Maccabi and other sporting events which your relatives may have participated in.