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- was originally published between 1901-1906
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- . SOUTH AFRICA
- By : Joseph Jacobs Joseph Hermann Hertz
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Jewish concern with South Africa began, indirectly, some time before the
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by the participation of certain astronomers
and cartographers in the Portuguese discovery of the sea-route to lndia. There
were Jews among the directors of the Dutch East India Company, which for 150
years administered the colony at the Cape of Good Hope. During the seventeenth
and the greater part of the eighteenth century the state religion alone was
allowed to be publicly observed; but on July 25, 1804, the Dutch
commissioner-general Jacob Abraham de Mist, by a proclamation whose provisions
were annulled at the English occupation of 1806 and were not reestablished till
1820, instituted in the colony religious equality for all persons, irrespective
of creed. Introduce the Mohair Industry. Jews did not arrive in any numbers at
Cape Town previous to the twenties of the nineteenth century. Benjamin Norden,
Simeon Markus, together with a score of others arriving in the early thirties,
were commercial pioneers, to whom is due the industrial awakening of almost the
whole interior of Cape Colony; thus, the development of the wool and hide trades
will always be associated with the names of Julius, Adolph, and James Mosenthal.
By their enterprise in going to Asia and returning with thirty Angora goats in
1856 they became the originators of the mohair industry; Cape Colony yields now
more than one-half of the world's supply of mohair. Aaron and Daniel de Pass
were the first to open up Namaqualand, and for many years (1849-86) were the
largest shipowners in Cape Town, and leaders of the sealing, whaling, and
fishing industries. Jews were among the first to take to ostrich-farming (e.g.,
Joel Myers, in the Aberdeen district); and the first rough diamonddiscovered on
the Kimberley Diamond Fields was bought by Lilienfeld of Hopetown. Jews are
among the directors of the De Beers Consolidated Diamond Mines, which controls a
great part of the world's diamond output to-day. The Solomons. These pioneers
did not, however, confine their activity to trade. Capt. Joshua Norden was shot
at the head of his Mounted Burghers in the Kafir war of 1846; Lieut. Elias de
Pass fought in the Kafir war of 1849. Julius Mosenthal (1818-80), brother of the
poet S. Mosenthal of Vienna, was a member of the Cape Parliament in the fifties.
Simeon Jacobs, C.M.G. (1832-83), who was judge in the Supreme Court of the Cape
of Good Hope, as the acting attorney-general of Cape Colony introduced and
carried in 1872 the Cape Colony Responsible Government Bill and the Voluntary
Bill (abolishing state aid to the Anglican Church), for both of which bills Saul
Solomon, the member for Cape Town, had fought for decades. Saul Solomon (b. St.
Helena May 25, 1817; d. Oct. 16, 1892), the leader of the Liberal party, has
been called the "Cape Disraeli." He several times declined the premiership and
was invited into the first responsible ministry, formed by Sir John Molteno.
Like Disraeli, too, he early left the ranks of Judaism, but always remained a
lover of his people. He went to Cape Town when a lad, where, with his brother
Henry, he started a printing-office and, later, founded and edited the "Cape
Argus." Descendants of these two brothers, Justice Solomon, Sir Richard Solomon
(attorney-general of the Transvaal), and E. P. Solomon, are to-day among the
most eminent men in South Africa. The few other St. Helena Jews who settled
there during Napoleon's banishment, the Gideon, the Moss, and the Isaacs
families, were all related to the Solomons, and, like the members of the
last-named family, most of them drifted from Judaism. Synagogues and
Congregations. The first congregation in South Africa was founded in Cape Town
in Nov., 1841, and the initial service was held in the house of Benjamin Norden,
at the corner of Weltevreden and Hof streets. Later a room was hired at the
corner of Bouquet and St. John streets, S. Rudolph, a German merchant,
conducting the services. He was succeeded by a minister of the name of Pulver,
who soon left for Australia. In 1859 the congregation, consisting then of about
fifteen families, extended a call to Joel Rabbinowitz (1829-1902), who for
twenty-three years worked indefatigably for his congregation, and for the
scattered Jewish families in the coast towns and the interior of Cape Colony and
the Orange Free State. Through his efforts the first synagogue in South Africa
was erected in "The Gardens," in 1862. His successor was A. P. Ornstein
(1836-1896) of Melbourne. In 1895 A. P. Bender (b. 1863; M.A. Cambridge) became
the minister of the congregation. Bender, as did Rabbinowitz, takes a leading
part in every humanitarian endeavor in Cape Town. There are now (1905) three
other synagogues in Cape Town—the Beth Hamidrash, the New Hebrew Synagogue, and
the Wynberg Synagogue; there are also a Zionist hall, a Hebrew public school,
and various social, philanthropic, and literary societies. The present president
of the Old Hebrew Congregation, H. Liberman, is mayor of Cape Town. There are
synagogues in Worcester Road, Robertson, and Steytlersville; Graaf Reinet (with
a congregation since 1861) and Grahamstown (seventy years ago an important
Jewish settlement) have no synagogues. Oudtshorn, with a Jewish population of
400, has a congregation (founded 1883), a synagogue (built 1890; M. Woolfson,
minister), a bet ha-midrash, and a Jewish public school. Port Elizabeth (Jewish
population 600) has had a congregation since 1862 and a synagogue since 1870,
the rabbinate having been filled by S. Rappaport, D. Wasserzug, and J. Philips.
Jewish services were begun in Kimberley in 1869, a regular congregation being
formed in 1873, with Col. David Harris, C.M.G. (served under General Warren in
1885, and in various native wars; prominent in the defense of Kimberley in
1899-1900), and G. H. Bonas, J.P., for many years alternate presidents. In the
new synagogue (1901), to which Cecil Rhodes was a large donor, is a memorial
tablet to all Jewish officers and soldiers who fell in the late Anglo-Boer war;
its ministers were M. Mendelsohn, A. Ornstein (who died very young and was given
a public funeral), M. L. Harris, and E. Joffe; the present incumbent is H.
Isaacs. Alfred Mosely, C.M.G., of Koffyfontein and Kimberley, established the
Princess Christian Hospital at Pinetown, Natal, in 1900, and equipped and
conducted the Mosely Industrial and Educational Commissions which were sent to
the United States in 1902 and 1903. Natal.
In Natal, Nathaniel Isaacs, in 1825, was among the first to venture into the
realms of Tchaka, the Attila of South Africa. Dr. Theal, the eminent historian
of South Africa, pronounces Isaacs' "Travels in Eastern Africa" indispensable to
a student of early events in Natal. Isaacs left Natal in 1831, when Tchaka's
successor had prepared to massacre the few whites living there; and he spent the
remainder of a long life in Gambia and on an island in the Gulf of Guinea. But
seventeen years before the formal annexation of Natal by the British, and ten
years before it was reached by the Boers, Nathaniel Isaacs was its "Principal
Chief." The importance of the following document warrants its reproduction in
full.
"At Tchaka's Principal Residence, Toogooso, near the River Magatee. Sept. 17,
1828. "I, Tchaka, King and Protector of the Zooloos, do hereby create, in
presence of my principal chiefs and strangers assembled, my friend, Mr.
Nathaniel Isaacs, Induna Incoola, or Principal Chief of Natal, and do grant and
make over to him, his heirs or executors, a free and full possession of my
territory from the Umlass River westwards of Natal to the Umshloti eastwards of
Natal, with 100 miles inland from the sea, including the Bay of Natal, the
islands in the bay, the forests and the rivers between the boundaries here
enumerated. I also make over to him the people he now has in his service
together with the Maluban tribe. I also grant him a free and exclusive right to
traffic with my nation and all people tributary to the Zooloos. So does the
powerful King Tchaka of the Zooloos recompense Mr. Nathaniel Isaacs for the
services rendered to him to subdue 'Batia en Goma,' for presents received from
him and for thegreat attention to my people in the mission sent with him and
Captain King to conclude an alliance with his Britannic Majesty. All this and my
former gifts I do confirm, and, wishing peace and friendship, I sign myself,
(see image) Later Jewish events in Natal merely reproduce, on a smaller scale,
those in Cape Colony. Daniel de Pass was among the first sugar-planters in
Natal, and Jonas Bergthal (1820-1902) took his seat in the Natal legislative
assembly years before Jews were admitted to Parliament in England. In the
nineties A. Fass was member of Parliament and M. G. Levy mayor of Maritzburg.
Congregational life began at the time of the Zulu war. Services were held in
Maritzburg, J. Kram ministering to the religious requirements of the few Jews in
the entire colony. Services were held in Durban in 1874, a cemetery was laid out
in 1878, and a synagogue was dedicated on Jan. 1, 1884. The ministers have been
Feinstock, J. Kram, and the present incumbents, A. Levy and S. Pincus. The
Durban Jewish population, which before the late Anglo-Boer war was only about
200, now numbers 1,250; a new synagogue was dedicated there in June, 1904.
Durban has a Zionist hall and various subsidiary communal organizations. Through
the annexation of the Vryheid district to Natal in 1902, that colony has at
Vryheid a second synagogue, which was dedicated in April, 1904.
Orange River Colony. Jews settled in what was formerly the Orange River
Sovereignty, when its white population did not exceed 4,000. Isaac Baumann, born
in 1813, arrived at Graaf Reinet in 1837 and moved to Bloemfontein in 1847. He
and Martin Pincus were for a long time the principal merchants in the Orange
Free State. For forty years after the establishment of the Orange Free State in
1855, one or two German Jewish families, many of them from Hesse-Cassel, were to
be found in nearly every hamlet, together controlling the larger portion of the
trade of the Free State. An annual Yom Kippur service was instituted in Isaac
Baumann's house in 1871, in which year the first Jewish funeral occurred. The
Bloemfontein congregation was established in 1887; a beautiful synagogue was
consecrated in March, 1904, in the presence of the lieutenant-governor; the
executive council, and the justices of the colony.
(see image) Synagogue of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation,
Johannesburg; Oldest Synagogue in the Transvaal.(From a photograph.)
Despite their small number Jews have from the first occupied an enviable
position in the Orange Free State. Isaac Baumann was twice mayor of Bloemfontein
and also director of the national bank. M. Leviseur, a veteran of the Basuto war
(1864-66), has been connected with the State Museum, the Volkshospital, and
nearly all other-state institutions since their respective foundations; and W.
Ehrlich, the president of the congregation, is also deputy-mayor of
Bloemfontein, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and member of the
Inter-Colonial Railway Conference. The Jewish population of Bloemfontein is
nearly 800.
Transvaal. A few Jews lived in the territory across the Vaal even before the
seventies. M. de Vries, a Dutch Jew, was public prosecutor of the Transvaal in
1868 and chairman of the Volksraad in 1872, and participated in the
Potchefstroom convention of 1870. Daniel F. Kisch (1840-98) held Yom Kippur
services in Pretoria after 1876; he was justice of the peace and auditor-general
of the Transvaal from 1877 to 1881. Largely through the influence of Alois
Nelmapius, a Magyar Jewish friend of Krüger, Rhodes, and Beit, a Jewish cemetery
was consecrated at Pilgrimsrest in 1878, and a congregation established on the
Barberton Goldfields in 1883. In the following year Samuel Marks (born in
Neustadt-Sugind, Russia) went to the Transvaal, and through his coal-, copper-,
gold-, and diamond-mines, model farms, and glass, jam, brick, and spirits
factories, accumulated great wealth. An intimate friend of President Krüger, and
enjoying the confidence of Generals Botha, De Wett, and Delarey, and the respect
of Earl Roberts, Lord Kitchener, and Lord Milner, he played no inconsiderable
part in the negotiations for the cessation of Anglo-Boer hostilities at
Vereeniging, May 29, 1902. Of the big mining-houses which, since the discovery
of gold, control the output in the Transvaal, the Barnatos (see Barnato, Barnett
Isaacs), Neumann, Albu, and several members of the firm of H. Eckstein & Co.,
are Jews. For the rise and history of Jewish life on the Witwatersrand
Goldfields see Johannesburg. The Pretoria community, numbering over 1,000, has a
synagogue (erected 1898) and a Jewish public school (opened 1905), the former
largely maintained by, and the latter the gift of, Samuel Marks. M. Rosenberg is
minister and head master. There are synagogues in Heidelberg and Volksrust
(since 1901), Krügersdorp, Klerksdorp, and Germiston (1903), and Roodepoort
(1905). A dramatic interest attaches to the struggle, continued during a decade,
for the removal of the special Jewish disabilities which existed beside those to
which the other Uitlanders were subject. Though freedom of worship was granted
to all residents in 1870, the revised "Grondwet" of 1894 still debarred Jews and
Catholics from military posts, from the positions of president, state secretary,
or magistrate, from membership in the First and Second Volksraad, and from
superintendencies of natives and mines. All instruction was to be given in a
Christian and Protestant spirit, and Jewish and Catholic teachers and children
were to be excluded from state-subsidized schools. Though there were servile
flatterers and concession-hunters who thought lightly of these restrictions,
there were seven Jews among the sixty-four "Reformers" imprisoned at Pretoria in
1896: Lionel Phillips (sentenced to death), Captain Bettelheim, Karri Davies, A.
Goldring, S. B. Joel, Max Langerman, and Fritz Mosenthal. The mass of Jews
especially felt the educational disability very grievously. President Krüger and
the executive council were frequently petitioned in every possible manner. A
blunt non possumus, or at best an admonition to trust to God and the good-will
of the president, was the usual reply. During the franchise discussions
consequent upon the Bloemfontein conference, a mass-meeting of the Jewish
inhabitants was called, June 28, 1899, to protest against the exclusion of
Russian and Rumanian Jews from the benefits of the franchise which was about to
be extended. For addressing that meeting, as well as the Uitlander meeting of
July 26, 1899, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz was expelled from the Transvaal, Dec.,
1899. Some weeks before the outbreak of hostilities, in the middle of August,
when the "Grondwet" was again being revised, the president urged the
substitution of the words "those who believe in the revelation of God through
His Word in the Bible" for the word "Protestant" in all the above-mentioned
articles of the "Grondwet," which change would have largely modified the
illiberal provisions; but the Volksraad, both in secret and in open session,
rejected his proposals.
Some of the most heroic deeds of the three years' Boer war—as the Gun Hill
incident before Lady-smith—were due to the dash and daring of Jewish soldiers
like Major Karri Davies. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought on the British side, and,
according to careful enumeration, the London "Spectator" declared that the
percentage of Jewish soldiers killed (125) in the war was relatively the largest
of all. Within the Boer ranks the story of the Jew is much the same. They were
with the "Vierkleur" on every battle-field; Jewish "Irreconcilables" fought to
the bitter end, and several Jewish prisoners were to be found at St. Helena,
Bermuda, and Ceylon. Rhodesia and Non-British Territories. Among the most ardent
supporters of Cecil Rhodes' "Cape to Cairo all-British Route" were Jews like
Alfred Beit and, later, the Weil family at Mafeking. Jews lived with Lobengula
about 1865, and D. F. Kisch, later of Pretoria, was his chief adviser from 1868
to 1873, and immediately after his fall in 1893 Jewish congregations were
established in Buluwayo and even as far north as Salisbury. The former has now a
Jewish population of 330, with a synagogue (I. Cohen, B.A., minister), a Zionist
society, and charitable organizations. In the Matabele rebellion of 1896
fourteen Jews fought, and their proportion among the defenders of Mafeking was
exceptionally large. Annual services are held in a few places in Bechuanaland
and the Kalabari Desert. In Portuguese territory, some Sephardic Jews in
Lourenço Marques are attempting the formation of a permanent congregation, with
synagogue, bet ?ayyim, and ?azzan.
Jewish congregational life throughout South Africa is growing not only
extensively, but intensively. The Zionists have established seventy-four
societies, forming the South-African Zionist Federation (S. Goldreich,
president, to whom Lord Milner entrusted the gradual readmission, after the war,
of nearly the whole alien Jewish population of the Rand). Intermarriage,
alarmingly prevalent in former years, is diminishing, and Jewish religious
education, at present seriously neglected, is the most insistent topic of
discussion in every Jewishcenter. When it was found that the war had left behind
it a spirit of prejudice against the poorer Russian Jew, the Jewish Board of
Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal was formed in order successfully to
vindicate him from false and imaginary charges (Jews furnish but 5 per cent of
the offenders against the illicit liquor laws in such a large Jewish center as
Johannesburg). The other objects of the board are to Anglicize and naturalize
the poorer alien immigrant and to prove to the coast authorities that
Judæo-German is a European language (one of the requisites for immigration). The
inaugural public meeting of the board was held July 28, 1903, at which the high
commissioner delivered a memorable address. A similar board for Cape Colony was
established the following year in Cape Town.
Statistics. No complete and reliable data as to the exact size of the Jewish
population in the various colonies are available, as the answer to the
denominational question on the census enumeration paper is not compulsory.
Approximately, Cape Colony has 20,000 Jews; Natal, 1,700; Rhodesia, 600; the
Orange River Colony, 1,500; Portuguese territory, 200; and the Transvaal, 25,000
(7,988 males over 21): a total for South Africa of 47,000 in a white population
of 1,100,000.
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Bibliography: Joel Rabbinowitz, in Jew.
Chron. May-Aug., 1895;
idem, Early History of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation, Cape Town,
1899;
S. Cronwright-Schreiner, The Angora, Goat, 1898;
Julius Mosenthal, in Cape Monthly Magazine, 1857;
A. Wilmot, History of Our Own Times in South Africa, vol. i.;
N. Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, 2 vols., London, 1836;
John Bird, Annals of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1888;
J. Forsyth Ingram, The Story of an African Seaport, Durban, 1899;
G. M. Theal, History of South Africa, 1834-1854;
J. H. Hertz, The Synagogue, Bloemfontein, 1899;
idem, The Uitlander Agitation, in Menorah Monthly, Sept., 1899;
idem, The Jews and the Uitlander, in American Hebrew, Sept. 29, 1899;
idem, The Boers and Religious Toleration, in Jew. Chron. Feb. 9, 1900;
idem, The Inaugural Public Meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the
Transvaal and Natal, July 28, 1903, and The First Annual Report of the Board;
The Jewish Year Book (English ed.), 5651 (1890-91), 5653 (1892-93), 5665
(1904-5).J. J. H. H
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Synagogue of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation, Johannesburg; Oldest Synagogue in the Transvaal.
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JOHANNESBURG
By : Joseph Jacobs Joseph Hermann Hertz
Largest city in the Transvaal and principal center of Jewish life in South
Africa. The Jewish community there is estimated at 12,000 in a total population
of 120,000—the largest relative number, outside of Aden and Gibraltar, in the
entire British empire. From its foundation, immediately upon the discovery of
the Witwatersrand gold-fields at the end of 1885, Jews have formed about 10 per
cent of the white population. The first attempts at religious organization took
place July 10, 1887, when about eighty-eight pioneers, mostly from the Barberton
gold-fields, the Kimberley diamond-fields, the coast towns, England, and
Australia, formed the Witwatersrand Gold-Fields' Jewish Association. A death
having occurred as early as May 12, 1887, the Boer government made a grant of
the present Jewish cemetery, in which, up to the end of 1903, 829 burials had
taken place. During the greater festivals of 1887 the Rev. Joel Rabbinowitz of
Cape Town conducted the services. On Jan. 29, 1888, the association bought two
building-plots on President street for a synagogue, and at the same time changed
its name to "Witwatersrand Hebrew Congregation." The Rev. Mark L. Harris of
Kimberley, who preached at the laying of the foundation-stone (Nov. 9, 1888),
was elected rabbi, retaining that post till March 31, 1898. He was succeeded by
the Rev. W. Wolf (reader) and Dr. J. H. Hertz (rabbi).
In 1891 two secessions occurred: a small Russian section formed the Bet
ha-Midrash, with mi?weh, synagogue, and dayyan (Rabbi Dagutzky, succeeded by
Rev. M. Friedman); and a larger Anglo-German-Polish section constituted the
Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation. The senior body in consequence inserted the
word "Old" in its name. The new congregation obtained from the government a free
grant of ground on which it erected a synagogue, which President Kruger,
delivering bareheaded a speech in Dutch, declared open. There is no truth,
however, in the assertion that he did so "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The Rev. P. Wolfers became its rabbi, and was succeeded by the Revs. H. Isaacs,
David Wasserzug, S. Manne (reader since 1899), and Dr. J. L. Landau (since
1903). The membership of the two larger synagogues is about 450 each. There is
also a synagogue in the suburb of Jeppestown (1903), as well as the various
"?ebrot" in Fereiras Township and in the suburb of Fordsburg. The Rand Modern
(Reform) Hebrew congregation, formed in 1898, dissolved after a few months.
Johannesburg has a ladies' benevolent society; a flourishing Gemilut ?asadim
society for free loans to deserving poor; the Jewish Ladies' Communal League
(maintains the South-African Jewish Orphanage); the Jewish Guild, a young
people's charitable and literary society; a Talmud Torah; religious classes in
connection with the English congregations; a Jewish social club; several Yiddish
newspapers; and, intermittently, a Yiddish theater. The Witwatersrand Jewish
Helping Hand and Burial Society, founded in 1887, combines the functions of a
chebra caddisha with those of a "United Hebrew Charities," has a membership of
two thousand, and an income (July, 1902-June, 1903) of £4,801, with an
expenditure of £3,972. The Jewish School, with an attendance of 400, is
subsidized by the British government. Johannesburg is the seat of the executive
of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal, of the
South-African Zionist Federation, and of the Transvaal Zionist Association. The
Jewish population has always formed an integral portion of the business,
intellectual, social, and political life of the city. Since the British
occupation, Johannesburg Jews have sat in the Legislative Council of the
Transvaal. See South Africa.
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Bibliography: Souvenir of the Decennial Celebration of the Witwatersrand Old
Hebrew Congregation, 1898;
Joel Rabbinowitz, Early History of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation,
Cape Town, 1899;
Jew. Chron. (various dates).J. J. H. H.
JOHANNESBURG
1895
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COHEN,
ABNER:
By : Joseph Jacobs Goodman Lipkind
The pioneer of Krugersdorp, Transvaal Colony; born about 1860; emigrated to
South Africa in 1881; worked his way north, and fell in with the Boers, learning
their language and trading with them. On his way to Johannesburg in 1887, he
pitched his tent on a great heap of stones seventeen miles to the west of the
town, which became the site of the town of Krugersdorp. He was thus the first
English settler in the town, and has done much toward its development. Cohen has
also taken a share in the opening up of Bulawayo and Rhodesia. Though taking no
part in the conspiracy against the Boer government in 1895, he was intimate with
members of the Reform Committee, and owing to some indiscreet remarks was for
some time imprisoned.
As president of the Krugersdorp congregation, Cohen obtained from President
Kruger two valuable freehold sites for the Jewish community.
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Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle, Oct. 14, 1898.J. G
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MARKS,
SAMUEL
By : Joseph Jacobs Goodman Lipkind
South-African pioneer; born in Sheffield about 1850. He went to Cape Colony
about 1868 and commenced trading in the country. He entered the diamond trade,
and, gaining the confidence of the diggers, bought claims and worked them. He
was joined subsequently by his brothers; working harmoniously together, they
amassed an enormous fortune. In 1884 Marks left the diamond-fields for the
Transvaal, where he became acquainted with President Kruger, advanced the
government considerable sums of money, and acquired numerous farms in the
Transvaal. These farms turned out to be extensive and valuable coal-mines, and
the Cape government contracted with the firm of Lewis & Marks for the supply of
coal for its railway. The interests of the firm in South Africa at the end of
the century were almost colossal. It gave great impetus to the trade of the
country by its opening up of coal- and silver-mines and by its establishment of
glass, jam, and other factories. It furthermore held the monopoly of the
manufacture of spirits and possessed a distillery near Pretoria.
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Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle, June 28, 1895; March 17, 1899
SAMMY
MARKS
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