Synagogue
Cape Town Hebrew Congregation
Edwardian domed synagogue overlooking a centuries-old public garden fed by mountain springs.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation follows the small, struggling Jewish community that first worshipped here, starting with Isaac Pulver, the first rabbi hired in the eighteen-forties, who resigned in 1851 over conditions he found intolerable, including trouble finding kosher meat and gathering the ten men required for prayer. It traces the plot itself back further still, to 1652, when Dutch sailors planted a garden on this ground to keep scurvy-stricken crews alive on voyages to the Indies. Listen for the doves and geese still drinking from mountain streams piped down to the same plot.
This audio guide was created using AI.