What is there in common between the first Prime Minister of South Africa, Louis Botha, and a Jewish South African boy who fought on the side of the British in the Anglo Boer war and was killed? The boys name was Meyer Joseph Rosen and after his death, and after the war, his father approached the Council and offered a sum of money if they could remember his son so they named three roads, in Highlands North, after the boy. Meyer Joseph and Rosen are named after him. Louis Botha Avenue also in Highlands North, was named after the Prime Minister.

I have been studying and reading various histories of the Witwatersrand and what I find very interesting is that this area from Nigel to Carletonville was developed to a large extent by Jewish developers. In addition, Jews were involved in the various councils and were rewarded in part by having roads and parks named after them. In no other area in the world have such a large proportion of Jews had so much to do with the development of three metropolitan areas. Not Cape Town, not Durban, not San Francisco and not Sydney, have this boast.

In preparing this talk, I have decided to divide the talk into three areas: those streets with Hebrew names or origins; those streets or parks with Jewish names; and those streets, which were named by Jews because they were the developers.

First let’s talk about Hebrew words. Foremost is Benoni. Benoni is a Hebrew word taken direct from Genesis, meaning son of my suffering. It was the alternative name given to Benjamin by his mother Rachel. When the East Rand was set up, there was an inconveniently shaped piece of land and the developer called it Benoni, son of my suffering because he thought that it would cause him grief as he tried to sell it.

Then on the West is a street called Ruhama. Ruhama again is straight from the bible and means compassion. It is in Hosea Chapter2 verse 1.

There is a Jordan Street, and a Sharon Street, which are biblical words.

Berea, the suburb in Johannesburg and incidentally in Durban, is a post biblical word used in the Christian bible as the name of a mountain It features in Acts chapter 17 verse 10. And in Sandton there is a Chabad Street, which was so named because there is a Chabad shul there.

A few years ago I was lent a book by a relative of mine, Isaac Lew, and the name of the book is the Street names of Johannesburg by Dr Anna Smith. Dr Smith was for many years the Librarian at Johannesburg Library. She wrote this book as her doctoral thesis and as I read it I was fascinated because in addition to the history in general, specifically I was intrigued by the many times that Jewish names appeared. Unfortunately the book was published in 1968 so many areas are not covered but many areas are covered very well.

Let’s look at the names on my borderline. In Germiston there is a Cachet Road. In South African history there is strong influence by the family Lion Cachet. In fact Potchefstroom University was founded by members of the family and the emblem of the University is a menorah. Now is Cachet Road a Jewish Road or not, seeing as the Lion Cachet family were originally Jewish but converted to Christianity in South Africa? Then I thought that Eckstein, he of the Zoo and the Zoo Lake, were of our ilk but Herman Eckstein was a pastor. The Beit family, the very rich ones, was not Jewish.

There can be confusion. When Isaac Lew encouraged me to write this talk, he said that I had to start with Max Langerman, after whom the HOD Lodge is named. True, Max Langerman was honoured with having the main road in Kensington named after him, because he was the Chairman of Kensington estates, the group that set up that township. But in Mayfair there is a Langerman street named after Sir Jan Willem Stuckeris Langerman who was not related or Jewish.

In Newclare there is a Ruben Road named for a Mr Ruben who was awarded the Royal Humane Society Medal and honoured by the City Council having a road named after him. In those days Newclare was an up and coming township and it was an honour. Jacobs Avenue in Fairways was named for Mr Jacobs who had owned the land and his widow insisted that the name be retained when the area was subdivided.

In Sandton there is a Fredman Drive, named after the developer, who was also a councilor. I was lucky enough to spend time in December with Isse Kramer who now lives in Israel. Issie was on the Council of Boksburg for thirty years and he was able to list some of the Jewish names in his omgewing. Myers Street is named for Emilie Myers, a Mayor of Boksburg and a councilor there for 15 years. Melman Street in Jansen Park in the North of Boksburg is named for B Melman, the Mayor of Boksburg in 1920. A.J. Saretsky was the Mayor in 1932 and 1934 and has his road. Issie Kramer was Mayor from 1972 to 1974 and has a road and a park named after him. Talking about parks I must say proudly that there a MJ Plen Park in Nigel, named after my grandfather. When he died in 1955, Nigel was in such a recession that you could not give away land, and my grandfather had left several pieces of land to my dad and his uncles. They gave one piece to the Nigel Council for use as a park. For interest sake, the land was valued in those bad times at two pounds to four pounds per erf. While we are in Nigel, there is a David Wolf Street, in Jansen Park. David Wolf was a Nigel businessman and a councilor for many years.

Nestadt Industrial Town on the west side of Benoni is named for a remarkable man who realized that the gold mines would cease being a major source of revenue and that industry was needed. Before than any other town on the Rand, Nestadt had gone out and solicited industry. He was a developer and he made money from this but also he made Benoni. His wife Cecelia Nestadt had a road named after her in Rynfield.

I was chatting about my pet subject to another visitor last year. Asher Brand was a Germiston businessman who now lives in Sydney. He said, ”Show me the map and I’ll show you the road named after me…” A developer called Riley Schachat (yes there is a Jew with the name Riley, somehow) built up an area called Dinwiddie near Wadeville in the North of Germiston. He named streets after the various co-directors of his and one was named Riley for himself and Asher Brand got a road named Asher after him because they were close friends. Massel Road in Harmelia was named for another Boksburg developer and councillor.

In Witfield in Boksburg there is a Mendelsohn Road named after a councillor in Boksburg, not to be confused with Mendelsohnn Road in Roosevelt Park Johannesburg. That Mendelsohnn was a mining magnate, also Jewish. Actually I was quite surprised that Anna Smith said that he was a mining magnate because Roosevelt Park is full of names like Amshewitz and other artistic type people so I though that the Mendelsohnn that it was named after was the composer, but she said not.

While we are in Roosevelt Park, Amshewitz was a British artist who lived in South Africa until 1942. He was a cartoonist on the Rand Daily Mail, after having been quite a well know painter and artist in Britain.

Germiston has a street named Baker Street, for Councillor Mannie Baker. In Mindalore Township in Krugersdorp, there are streets named Geffin, Ruben and Saul Jacobs but without Anna Smith being there to guide me about the areas outside of Johannesburg, I was unable to find out more. In fact I nearly made a very silly mistake. Looking through the map, and having spotted Geffin and Rubin, I saw Diamant. I know there are Jewish Diamants and I was going to include that in my list to research when I noticed that bordering on Diamant are Goud, Kool , Perel and Beril.

The main road of Roodepoort is Goldman Street after a gold miner and a councillor. Schlapo Road is named after a Mayor of the town.

In Roseacres in the South of Johannesburg there is an Aschman Street.

Written and Contributed by Colin Plen