Old Synagogue, Pretoria

Last updated
The Pretoria Hebrew Congregation
Old Synagogue Paul Kruger Street Pretoria 003.jpg
Religion
Affiliation Orthodox Judaism
Rite Ashkenazi
Year consecrated 1898
StatusClosed (1952)
Location
LocationPaul Kruger Street, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
OpenStreetMap Central Pretoria.png
Red pog.svg
Shown within Pretoria
Pretoria Metro OpenStreetMap small.svg
Red pog.svg
Old Synagogue, Pretoria (Pretoria Metro)
South Africa adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Old Synagogue, Pretoria (South Africa)
Geographic coordinates 25°44′33″S28°11′17″E / 25.742589°S 28.188022°E / -25.742589; 28.188022
Architecture
Architect(s) Beardwood and Ibler Architects
Type Synagogue
Style Neo-Byzantine
Completed1898

The Old Synagogue is a former synagogue and apartheid-era court on Paul Kruger Street in Pretoria. It was consecrated in 1898 and closed as a synagogue in 1952, when the congregation moved to a larger site. [1] It was subsequently expropriated and sold to the State for use as a Special Annex of the Supreme Court of South Africa between 1956–1977. [2] In this period, Nelson Mandela was a defendant at the court in both the 1956 and the Rivonia treason trials. [3] [1] In 1977, it was the setting for an inquest into the death of Steve Biko. [2] It is now a Grade II Provincial Heritage Resource and protected under the National Heritage Resources Act (25 of 1999). [4] [5] The building and site remains under the control of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. [2]

Contents

History

1897–1952 synagogue and architecture

Paul Kruger gave the land to the local Jewish community to build a synagogue. [6] It was the first permanent synagogue established in Pretoria, with the first stone laid in 1897, followed by consecration in 1898. [1] The building was designed by Beardwood and Ibler Architects, a Johannesburg architecture practice. [1] It originally had a polychromatic façade in an oriental style. [1] It was based on the basilican plan that was common among European synagogues, with elements of the Western facade ranging from the central Gothic style stained glass rose window to alternating horizontal bands of red and white brickwork, including the arched windows' surroundings, evocative of a Moorish style. [2] The flanking onion-shaped domes give the building its Byzantine style. The architects drew on influences from Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest and the Central Synagogue in Manhattan. [2] The building also conformed with a stylistic vernacular of the time, "Victorian eclecticism and ZAR (Zuid-Afrikaans Republiek) style." [2]

The construction was beset by a lack of financial resources and in 1906, Sammy Marks rescued the congregation by settling its mortgage on the building. [1] As the congregation increased in size, it was apparent that a larger site would be needed. [1] In 1952, the congregation relocated to a new, larger synagogue, the Great Synagogue on Pretorius Street. [1] [2] The candelabra, cornerstone and stained glass window of the main facade of the original synagogue were transferred to the new site. [1]

1952–1977 apartheid-era courtroom

After the relocation, the original site was expropriated and transferred to the ownership of the State. [1] The state paid the community £35, 000 for the synagogue building and the site. [2] The state had plans to redevelop the site as a new Supreme Court complex. [1] The state intended to "adapt the Synagogue into a special Supreme Court" which would cater to "cases related to the security situation, the activities of the black opposition movements and socialist-communist alliances". [2] In objection to plans for a court segregated on racial lines, a senior judge convinced Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd to abandon the plans. [2] The building instead functioned as a special annex of the Supreme Court for security-related cases. [2] [1]

The elaborate brick façade was painted with "a coating of Public Works cream", typical of government buildings. [2] Additional utility buildings were constructed for police accommodation, holding cells and witness waiting rooms. [1] The interior of the synagogue was reconfigured for a law court, converting the altar into judicial benches, removing some of the stained glass windows and bricking up other windows. [2] A display of the Ten Commandments was also boarded up. [2] In 1958, the Chief Rabbi Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, wrote to the Department of Justice, objecting to the new court being referred to as "the Old Synagogue", and also by the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation. [2] Rabinowitz was dismayed at any association being made between the Treason Trial and a synagogue. He also requested that the Star of David symbol be removed from the building. [2]

The 1956 Treason Trial was transferred to the site on 1 August 1958 and lasted until 29 March 1961. Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu were among the defendants and all were acquitted. [1] Mandela returned for a second trial on 5 August 1962, in which he was received a five-year prison sentence with hard labour. [1] While in custody, Mandela, Sisulu, Denis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, and Andrew Mlangeni, returned to the Old Synagogue for the hearings of the Rivonia Trial. [1] They were sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island. This sentence was passed from the Palace of Justice and not the former synagogue. Mandela's first televised interview was also filmed in the synagogue and broadcast on January 31, 1961 by a Dutch television broadcaster, AVRO. [7] Mandela later recalled that "the synagogue was like a second home to me after four years of the Treason Trial." [2]

In 1971, Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, was tried and convicted in the building on treason and terrorism charges that were later appealed. [2] The final legal proceedings took place between 14 November to 2 December 1977, with an inquest into the death of Steve Biko. [1] Sydney Kentridge represented ffrench-Beytagh and the Biko family in both proceedings. [2]

1977–present (storage and vacant state)

The building was then used as storage for the National Museum of Cultural History. [1] It has been vacant since 1994 and fallen into a dilapidated state. Madeleine Hicklin, shadow deputy minister: department of public works and infrastructure, and niece of former defendant, Denis Goldberg, has called for the building's restoration. [8] [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Sisulu</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1912–2003)

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place in Pretoria at the Palace of Justice and the Old Synagogue and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni. Many were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life.

Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba OMSG was an anti-apartheid activist, Communist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) also as well the first premier of the Eastern Cape. Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well known for being sentenced, along with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potchefstroom</span> Place in North West, South Africa

Potchefstroom, colloquially known as Potch, is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooirivier, roughly 120 km (75 mi) west-southwest of Johannesburg and 45 km (28 mi) east-northeast of Klerksdorp.

Abraham Louis Fischer was a South African Communist lawyer of Afrikaner descent with partial Anglo-African ancestry from his paternal grandmother, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela, at the Rivonia Trial. Following the trial, he was himself put on trial accused of furthering communism. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and diagnosed with cancer while in prison. The South African Prisons Act was extended to include his brother's house in Bloemfontein where he died two months later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Bizos</span> Greek-South African lawyer (1927–2020)

George Bizos was a Greek-South African human rights lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. He was noted for representing Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia Trial. He instructed Mandela to add the qualification "if needs be" to his trial address, which is credited with sparing him from a sentence of death. Bizos also represented the families of anti-apartheid activists killed by the government, throughout the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Kathrada</span> South African politician (1929–2017)

Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada OMSG, sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy", was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution Hill, Johannesburg</span> Building in South Africa

The Constitution Hill precinct is located at 11 Kotze Street in Braamfontein, Johannesburg near the western end of the suburb of Hillbrow. Constitution Hill is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956.

Harold Joseph Hanson was an eminent South African advocate (QC) and Senior Member of the Johannesburg Bar Council.

Percy Yutar was a lawyer who became South Africa's first Jewish attorney-general. He was the state prosecutor in the Rivonia trial in which anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and seven others were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Quartus de Wet was a South African judge who served as Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa.

The Little Rivonia Trial was a South African apartheid-era court case in which several members of the armed resistance organization Umkhonto we Sizwe faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Laloo Chiba, Dave Kitson, Mac Maharaj, John Matthews and Wilton Mkwayi. A confederate of theirs, Lionel Gay turned state witness, and in return, the prosecution dropped the charges against him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liliesleaf Farm</span> 1960s safe house for African National Congress activitists

Liliesleaf Farm, also spelt Lilliesleaf and also known simply as Liliesleaf, is a location in northern Johannesburg, South Africa, which is most noted for its use as a safe house for African National Congress (ANC) activists during the apartheid years in the 1960s. In 1963, the South African police raided the farm, arresting more than a dozen ANC leaders and activists, who were then tried and prosecuted during the Rivonia Trial.

Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane in South Africa. It is operated by the South African Department of Correctional Services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Berrangé</span> South African activist and lawyer (1900–1983)

Vernon Celliers Berrangé SCOT "Defender of the People" was an eminent South African human rights advocate (QC)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palace of Justice, Pretoria</span> Historic courthouse in Pretoria, South Africa

The Palace of Justice forms part of the northern façade of Church Square in Pretoria. The building dates to the nineteenth century and was designed by the Dutch architect Sytze Wierda. It is currently the headquarters of the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa.

The Very Revd Gonville Aubie ffrench-Beytagh was an Anglican priest who served as the Dean of Johannesburg. He was also an anti-apartheid activist and was held in solitary confinement before going on trial for his activism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilton Mkwayi</span> African National Congress veteran

Wilton Zimasile Mkwayi OMSG was an African National Congress veteran and one of the first six members of Umkonto weSizwe to be sent for military training.

The Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial was heard in the Supreme Court of South Africa from 21 October 1985 to 23 June 1986. In the largest political trial since the Rivonia Trial, the apartheid state pursued charges of high treason against 16 leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and four affiliated organisations. State v Ramgobin and Others was generally regarded as a failure in both legal and political terms: the charges against 12 defendants were dropped in December 1985 and the remaining four were freed in June 1986, while the South African state received international criticism for having instituted the charges in the first place.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Church Square, the Old Synagogue and the Old Government Printing Work, Three historic places for testing strategic intervention University of Pretoria. 2015
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Fran Buntman & Barbara Buntman (2010) ‘Old Synagogue’ and Apartheid Court: Constructing a South African Heritage Site, South African Historical Journal, 62:1, 183-201, DOI: 10.1080/02582471003778441
  3. ↑ Memories of Nelson Mandela from Zionist Childhood The Forward. 6 December 2013
  4. ↑ The Pretoria Synagogue South African History Online. 18 April 2019
  5. ↑ Pretoria residents want Old Synagogue, a historical heritage promoted SABC News. 2016
  6. ↑ Mandela's footsteps - The Old Synagogue Tshwane Economic Development Agency. 2020
  7. ↑ WATCH: First Nelson Mandela Television Interview Surfaces — Filmed in Old Synagogue Building The Forward. Retrieved on 2 December 2023
  8. ↑ Pretoria’s Old Synagogue: from simcha to shande South African Jewish Report. 25 March 2021
  9. ↑ Failure to restore the old Pretoria Synagogue: Lack of political will or complete indifference? Democratic Alliance. 5 July 2023
  10. ↑ Old Pretoria Shul’s revamp meets ‘thundering silence’ South African Jewish Report. 6 July 2023
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.