BC949 Kaplan Centre Interview Collection
In the 1980s the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies undertook a large oral history project designed to record the memories of Jews of European-origin who settled in South Africa before and after the First World War. At the time they represented the last living links to a lost world. Many South African Jews trace their familial origins to Lithuania, but Jewish life in that country was almost entirely erased by the Holocaust.
In all, 483 elderly members of the Jewish communities of Cape Town and Johannesburg were interviewed. The interviews capture their recollections of life in their countries of origin, of the passage from Europe to South Africa, of settlement in a new land, and of community and life within a racially divided society. Each interview was recorded and transcribed.
The Kaplan Centre is pleased to announce that all recordings and transcripts have been digitised, and detailed metadata has been created for each interview. The descriptive information for these interviews is available on AtoM (Kaplan Centre Interviews, collection number: BC949): https://atom.lib.uct.ac.za/index.php/kaplan-centre-interviews.
BC1609 Sephardi Oral History Project Collection
Beginning in 2024, the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies, in partnership with the Sephardi Heritage Trust, undertook an oral history project to capture the history and rich heritage of Rhodesli Sephardim in southern Africa. This small but growing collection of life history interviews records the memories and experiences of members of the Cape Town Sephardi community, descended from the island of Rhodes, with the aim to preserve this history, traditions, and cultural wealth for both current and future generations. The interview content is wide-ranging, and includes reflections on the interviewees’ family backgrounds in Rhodes; the migration journey (which often entailed sojourns in the Congo and/or Zimbabwe); the dynamics and features of religious observance; and Sephardi culture and communal life more broadly (with particular emphasis on the customs and celebrations around life cycle events and Jewish holidays and rituals, food, language, music, etc.).
To access the digitised interviews and transcripts contact the Kaplan Centre Archivist for further assistance (kcarchivist@uct.ac.za).