Long-time Hermanus resident Freda Auerbach will have been especially delighted to have been present at last week’s groundbreaking ceremony for the town’s new Jewish shul and community centre. Now in her nineties, she is the only surviving member of the original Hermanus Jewish community which ceased to function in the mid-1970s. Few would have anticipated back then that Hermanus Jewry, in defiance of countrywide trends, would one day grow to the point that it could re-establish itself on an organised basis. By the late 1990s, thanks to a renewed influx of permanent residents together with those who have holiday homes in the town, Jewish life in Hermanus was again up and running.

Last year, the congregation sold its 75 year-old shul in the town centre and purchased another property, located on the corner of Roberts Road and Jose Berman Avenue in the Eastwood neighbourhood, on which to erect a smaller community centre. The new centre will comprise a shul, succah, communal hall and rabbi’s house.

Amongst those in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony last Tuesday were Overstrand Mayor Theo Beyleveldt, representatives of the Nederlandse Gereformeerde, Anglican and Catholic churches and the Baha’i faith community as well as from the Overstrand Municipality and Lions Club. Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, Spiritual Leader to the Country Communities, officiated while Hermanus Hebrew Congregation president Jonathan Lipman welcomed the speakers and guests.

In his address, Rabbi Silberhaft referred to the most recent weekly Parshas dealing with the erection if the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert. There the Jewish people, rich and poor alike, responded so enthusiastically to the call for donations that a proclamation was needed to inform them to stop.

“I am hoping to see the same spirit duplicated here, but not by bringing monetary offerings, but rather personal involvement and regular attendance to services and activities which will, please G-d, take place here in this new synagogue” Rabbi Silberhaft said.

It is expected that the building will be completed in time to hold full Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services this year.