02/10/2021
JEWISH HERITAGE TOUR PROFILES
A. JOHANNESBURG
1) JOHANNESBURG CITY TOUR:
The men who built Johannesburg.
(Half day)
This special 'Jewish content' tour highlights the many fascinating leading Jewish personalities in the diamond & gold mining story & on who's legacies the prosperity of Johannesburg (& South Africa) was built.
Stop-offs: Hollard Street: Financial District &
A visit to the LIONS SHUL, the only operational synagogue in the old Jewish quarter off the JHB CBD.
* Please note!
This tour can also be conducted as a Johannesburg WALKING TOUR with Jewish content. It takes 3 - 3.5 hours, starts & ends @ The Park Station @ the GAUTRAIN entrance. (excludes Lions Shul as it's not on the walking route)
For this tour, you can also be picked up/dropped off by the guide for an extra charge.
See also below: Pretoria City Centre Walking Tour.
PARKTOWN (extention to JHB city centre driving tour).
Looking out towards the Magaliesberg Mountains from the ridge, one stands on the soil of Parktown, the mining industry’s first 'elite' suburb just north of the city centre. It is still associated today with great wealth & progress, mixed with history & heritage gems. Viewing of some heritage buildings & homes.
2) LILIESLEAF FARM: The Jews in the Struggle (Half day)
Almost all the white activists in the resistance elite, were Jewish. Their story & that of Nelson Mandela & the resistance movement's capture @ Liliesleaf & imprisonment, are closely intertwined. This is their inspiring journey.
Please note: Resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, this venue has been closed & content of this tour will now be transferred to the Apartheid Museum, where people in this tour are featured.
3) HERITAGE SYNAGOGUES TOUR OF JOHANNESBURG. Jewish Congregations, then & now. EXTENSION OF THE JHB CITY TOUR
(Full day: Including the JHB City Centre tour & a lunch stop)
Johannesburg in it's pioneering years, became home to many different Jewish Congregations mainly from Lithuania & Germany.. Many of the synagogues have since been demolished, become derelict or reconstituted into other institutions today. This driving tour, (a run-on from the city tour) tells the story of these historic congregations & how the Jewish community has changed over the decades to what it is today (includes drive through present day 'Jewish Quarter')
B. PRETORIA
4) SAMMY MARKS: The 1st leading South African industrialist
(A little less then a half day, but takes +/- 45 mins from JHB to get there by car, depending on the day/traffic)
This is an interesting House Museum tour & introduces you to the history of Pretoria & shows how a landed Jewish family lived in South Africa (in the bush), in the late 19th & early 20th centuries.
Sammy was a Lithuanian Jewish Immigrant whose rise began with the discovery of the 1st diamond in 1867, & was tightly woven into the fabric with which Pretoria & the Transvaal was developed.
5) PRETORIA CITY CENTRE TOUR:. (Half day - Including travel from JHB)
The 1st Jews to the Transvaal contributed greatly to the development of Pretoria, especially Sammy Marks. Many also played a leading role in the JHB mining story that followed. This tour also focusses on the Voortrekkers.
Taking in the sites: The Voortrekker Monument, Kruger House, Melrose House, The Old Synagogue, Church Square (stop-off), Union Buildings (stop-off to view the new Nelson Mandela Statue)
* Please note!
- This tour can also be conducted as a Pretoria WALKING TOUR of the City Centre, with Jewish content.
- Tour takes +/-2.5 - 3 hours, starts & ends @ The Pretoria Station @ the GAUTRAIN entrance.
- Clients can also find their own way to a relevant JHB Gautrain station to meet the guide & be escorted to PTA for the tour & back.
- Travel time on the Gautrain between JHB & PTA is 1 hour (half hour each way)
- Total tour duration is 3.5 hours (9.30am - 1pm or 12 noon - 3.30pm)
- As JHB, you can be picked up/dropped off by the guide (from JHB).
(Excludes: The Voortrekker Monument & The Union Buildings)
