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14 HASHALOM November
2016
November 2016
HASHALOM
15
Club must indeed be a great boon. I desire to thank you, your Committee
of Management and all members of the Jewish Community of Durban for
your excellent services on behalf of our boys.
Yours sincerely,
(signed) J.C. SMUTS F.M.”
Thereafter followed a report of the activities of the Culture, Library,
Hashalom, Entertainment, Dramatic, Stage and Music Sections of the
DJC as well as the sporting sections and of the Club’s co-operation with a
number of Communal organisations.
LOOKING BACK
- Roy Fenhalls continued his report, accompanied by
interesting illustrations, of the Army’s progress through Africa and readers
were informed that the series was to be concluded in the next issue.
IN TOWN AND OUT
Congratulated:
• Lieut. Phillip Sweidan and Miss Sylvia Friedman, Mr. Willie Kahn and
Miss Goldina Jacobsen,
• Mr. Sonny Weir and Miss Bessie Finn, and Capt. Polokow and Miss Lily
Hackner on their
• recent marriages.
• Mr. L.S. Ditz on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, and a few
items later, on receiving his second “pip”.
• Mr. and Mrs. Alf Brook on their Silver Wedding.
• Sgt. Ernest Lurie and Miss Hylda Golding and Miss Gertie Wessek and
2nd Lieut. Arthur Sarif on their respective engagements.
• Captain and Mrs. Harry Jacobson on the birth of a daughter
• Mr. and Mrs. Sonny Rubin and Mr. and Mrs. George Kahn on the birth
of sons.
And now for HASHALOM November 1966 – Extracts.
The first nineteen pages of the issue were taken up with the Editorial and
the Council and Executive reports for the previous year which were to be
presented at the AGM to be held on 6th December 1966. They all speak
enthusiastically of the new brooms (and the air-conditioning) that were
going to sweep the Club clean and make it active in the future.
SOCIAL ROUND-UP
- “Your Friendly Reporter” asked whether anyone
would identify the “spruced-up gentlemen and elegant ladies” depicted in the
photograph of a glamorous Succah prepared by the Durban Ladies Guild in
days long past. The Reporter asked if any old Durbanite could fix the date
or identify the people. Pundit can assure you that even 50 years ago nobody
responded (I’ve checked HASHALOM through to April 1967) so there’s not
much point in publishing the picture now, attractive though it certainly is.
Tribute was paid to
WOMAN OF THE YEAR
– Mildred Lavoipierre.
The
Youth Personality of the Month
wasWILFREDBREWER, the tribute
to whom was written by Raymond Friedman. What losses to Durban they
both were!
There were reports of:
• The celebration of the 80th birthday of Mr. A.J. Cohen
• The receipt by Professor Phillip Tobias of an Award by the Johannesburg
Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the four outstanding South
Africans between 21 and 40 years of age.
• The Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Yosef Agnon and Nellie
Sachs.
But no
IN TOWN AND OUT.
What was wrong? Weren’t we getting
married and having babies or even Bar Mitzvahs in 1966?
HASHOLOM November 1941 - Extracts
EDITORIAL
-Titled“Annual Report of theDurban JewishClub”, itmentioned,
which was obvious to anyone who read the report which was published in full
in this issue, that it contained two distinct parts, “the first a record of the Club’s
normal activities, the second its war effort during the past year”.
FAULTS JUDAIC II – SELF IGNORANCE -
Readers will no doubt
remember that in the September 2016 issue of HASHALOM, this column
reported on the first article by NEAS under the title “Faults Judaic” which
appeared in the October 1941 issue of HASHOLOM. Pundit believes that
this article deserves to be published in full in a modern issue of HASHALOM.
It is a plea to Jews to know their heritage and ends with this clarion call:
‘Back to your Faith!’ must be the call. Know your religion, your heritage, your
history. Strengthen your spirit and fortify yourselves for the days ahead.”
TRANSFER OF MONEY TO PERSONS OUT OF UNION
- Under
this heading the Board of Deputies conveyed to all its constituent bodies
an authoritative quotation of the relevant Regulations relating to this
interesting topic.
RELATIVES IN SOVIET RUSSIA
- This article reported on steps being
taken by the Board of Deputies, in consultation with the British Board, to
communicate with and assist Jewish war victims in Russia. This, it will be
remembered, was only a few months after the Nazis invaded Russia.
ANNUAL REPORT – COUNCIL OF D.J.C
. - 75 years later the following
items appear to Pundit to be the high – or low – lights:-
BOND
– The Bond of £1000 having fallen due for payment, the Council
had repaid the amount due by raising ten debentures, each of £100, with
interest payable at 5% per annum.
JULY BALL
– “Due to the numerous war activities of the ladies it was found
impracticable to hold the Ball”.
RATES
– “It is with regret that the Council has to report that it has not met
with success in negotiations with the City Council for a reduction of rates”.
DJC’s FINE EFFORT – Report of Year’s Activities.
CANTEEN
some details:
For the 12 months ending September 1941, at least 60,000 meals had been
served. In September and October 1941, 10,000 men per month passed
through the canteen. One day “recently”, 2500 meals were served and on
that day 30,000 pieces of crockery, cutlery and glassware were handled.
“The canteen is financed by means of special funds to which over £5000
has been contributed since its inception. The cost of running the Canteen
is about £200 to £300 per month apart from the need to provide capital
funds for plant etc. A number of people have made donations in kind and
the Board of Deputies, appreciating the value of the work, has allocated a
sum of £600 to the cause of the canteen.”
On 15th September, 1941, the Right Honourable Field Marshall J.C. Smuts,
wrote to the Chairman of the D.J.C.:
“Dear Sir,
It has been most gratifying to me to learn of the excellent work that is being
done by your Club in the way of entertaining both our own and Imperial
soldiers in Durban. Especially to Imperial troops spending a few days on
shore after a long sea voyage, the many facilities afforded by the Jewish
PAST TENSE
By Pundit
PAST TENSE
We would like to thank our subscribers who have paid for their 2016 subscription
of Hashalom. If you have not yet paid for your 2016 subscription to Durban’s
finest Jewish Magazine, please kindly do so.
Thank you from the Hashalom team.
Banking details
Standard Bank
Account name:Council of KwaZulu Natal Jewry
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2 0 1 6
We tend to think that we have always had surnames but in fact Jews in Europe have only had surnames, as we know them now, since the
18th Century when many of the rulers of countries in Europe realised that the most efficient way to tax their citizens was to ensure that each
citizen was identifiable with a name and a surname. Surnames come in one of 4 ‘types’.
There is the trade name, where a person’s surname is his trade, such as Futerman, which meant ‘butter man’ that he sold butter. Blacher
was a sheet metal worker, and Kaminsky was a stone cutter. Then there is the place name which shows where the person came from, or
where he would have people think he came from, such as Goldberg or Horowitz which are both towns in Germany. Also Zingol is a small
town near Vilna in Lithuania. Then there is the patronymic where a person’s surname is a name, such as Cohen or Levy or Segal, which have
been names associated with their religious inheritance. A Segal was Segan Levy, a Deputy Segal who stood in for the main Levy if he was
indisposed. The name Kahn is exactly the same as Cohen but went through different language changes and there are very many variations
of these names. Levy can be recognised in Levitan, Levinson, and Levitt, to name only 3. But also a person with the name of Lazarus or
Nathan is a patronymic, having been named for a person’s first name originally. Nathan meaning Given and Lazarus is Aramaic for God has
helped me. Arkin appears to be derived from the name Aaron who was originally the High Priest. Mizrachi is a man who comes from the East,
a direct usage of the Hebrew word, and Nadel meaning needle implied that the original Nadel sold or made needles. Walter Schotter was a
forerunner in Durban of a range of ready to eat Kosher foods, and his name meant gravel in German. Maybe an ancestor had worked in or
sold gravel. As far as I can discover the name Kluk is a mispronunciation of the Yiddish word Klug meaning clever. Many names were altered
as the travellers from Eastern Europe went through a myriad of customs posts. My maternal grandfather travelled from Poland to England
in 1895 and only found out that he had to have a surname when he wanted to become a British citizen – he had never had one before that
simply having been Mordecai ben Shlomo all his life in Poland.
When surnames were adopted some people preferred descriptive names, like Shapiro which comes from a Hebrew word meaning beautiful,
Rosen, meaning roses, or Rosenberg. Oshry is derived from a Hebrew word meaning praiseworthy. Greenstein, green stone, Feigenbaum, a
fig tree, are descriptive names and, it is said, people had to pay bribes in order to select them.
If you know the meaning of your surname and I have not listed it here, or if you don’t know the meaning and you want assistance if finding it,
please write to me
evancol@iafrica.com
The probable origins of some Durban
Jewish names
JEWISH WORLD
By Colin Plen
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