By David Solly Sandler
PERTH, Australia — It all started in 1999 on a holiday to London, Israel and South Africa where I met up with many of my brothers and sisters from Arcadia, The South African Jewish Orphanage, where I had spent my childhood from age 3 to 17 (1956-1969). They entrusted me with their photos of our stay in Arcadia and on my return to Perth, Western Australia, I compiled a cut and paste photo album which I photocopied and distributed widely.
This got the ball rolling and soon Ex Arcadians from around the world were writing to me to thank me for the album and sharing their memories. The older generation asked “What about us?” and I encourages them to send in their photos and to share their memories too. I compiled further cut and paste and photocopied albums and Arcadia Memory booklets and each publication generated more interest.
2006, the centenary of Arcadia was approaching, and I announced that I would be compiling an Arc (Arcadian) Centenary Book and more memories flowed in, partly through the internet.
100 Years of Arc Memories, a 530 page book with many photos, and containing the memories of over 100 children, was published in 2006 and this stimulated another large inflow of memories. Perhaps the skeptics were impressed and now wanted to be part of this coming out.
In 2007 I retired and in 2008 More Arc Memories with almost 600 pages was published. It contained the memories of 96 children and also the details of 17 Ochberg Orphans.
The Ochberg Orphans were a group of 177 rescued from the horrors of the Pale of Settlement and brought out to South Africa in 1921 by Isaac Ochberg, the representative of The South African Jewish Community. They were originally known as the Ukrainian War and Pogrom Orphans and half were placed in the care of Arcadia (the South African Jewish Orphanage) and half in Oranjia (The Cape Jewish Orphanage).
I realized the Ochberg Orphans deserved their own book and I devoted the next three years gathering their stories, mainly from their children and grandchildren.
I also discovered and learnt of the horrors that Jews faced in the Pale from 1914 to 1922, namely: WWI; the Spanish Influenza Pandemic; The Russian Revolution; The Polish fight for independence; Wholesale Pogroms perpetrated by the troupes of White Russian General Denikin, Ukrainian hero Symon Petlura and Belarusian short time president Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz; Man-made famine in the Ukraine and hunger and starvation and diseases.
This period and the horrors suffered by the Jews is a forgotten part of Jewish history, is completely over shadowed by the Holocaust and has been called the holocaust before the Holocaust. Much of its details were covered up and are unknown and so capturing this history is important.
Details of these horrors were in the Jewish press around the world, together with appeals for help, and the Jewish Communities aided their suffering brethren:
– The American Jewish Joint distribution Committee (JDC) entered into an agreement with the American Relief Administration and with their feeding programs fed almost two million Ukrainians on a non-sectarian basis. The JDC also supported many Jewish communities in the Pale.
– Canada rescued 150 orphans, mainly from the Rovno area. They examined over 8,000 to find healthy ones that were transported to Toronto for adoption.
– South Africa sent funds and supplies to Poland and the Ukraine, transported children to Kfar Yeladim in Israel and supporting them there. They also rescued the 177 orphans, collecting them mainly from orphanages supported by the JDC.
These horrors mentioned above are listed as the causes of death of the parents of the Ochberg Orphans and are related in The Ochberg Orphans and the Horrors from whence they came – published in 2011. This compilation of 650 pages includes memories of over 130 of the 177 children rescued and also tells of the help given by Jews around the world to their suffering brethren: the JDC with their feeding programs and support of communities, Canada rescuing 150 orphans, and South Africa sending funds and supplies, transporting children to Kfar Yeladim in Israel and supporting them and rescuing the 177 orphans.
I included all memories sent in and these ranged from a to z in all respects. Generally I sought more information to properly complete each memory and at times it required many exchanges of correspondence. Some memories I gathered spending hours on the phone typing and questioning. Many times I had information from the records of the Ochberg Orphans that their children who were writing their memories were unaware of and I also had numerous group photos to share.
After completing The Ochberg Orphans I once again had unfinished business, 120 letters in Hebrew and Yiddish, written by the children remaining behind at the three Pinsker Orphanages to Alter Bobrow, their teacher and the man who had saved them in 1917 (WWI) and who together with his colleagues helped establish the three Pinsker Orphanages. Alter assisted Isaac Ochberg and accompanied 44 orphans from Pinsk to South Africa in 1921 as part of the Ochberg Orphans group.
The Pinsker Orphans – the life and time of the children from the three Pinsk Jewish Orphanages in the 1920s was published in 2013. This compilation tells of the establishment of the three orphanages in Pinsk, includes the translation of the 120 letters, gives more details of the 44 children who went to South Africa in 1921 and details the work of The Pinsker Orphan Relief Fund of London who brought out 29 children in 1924 and 34 in 1926 to London for adoption. I made contact with some of the descendants of the orphans saved in London and their memories are included and so too are the memories of some of the committee of the Fund. This book tells of the assistance given to the orphanages by the JDC and reveals more of our forgotten history, the horrors of Jewish life in Poland in the 1920s. It also tells of Beis Aharon, a school and orphanage in Pinsk, currently run by Yad Yisroel from Brooklyn.
2011 was the centenary of Oranjia (The Cape Jewish Orphanage) and I knew there were plans afoot to compile a centenary book but it got bogged down. I offered to help the Oranjia Committee, but this was declined, and for a short time I worked with their author, to produce a book jointly, but this hit problems and so I took it upon myself to collect the memories of the children of Oranjia and in 2014 published Memories of Oranjia which included the memories of another 75 children.
Also in 2014 This was a Man – the life story of Isaac Ochberg – by his daughter Bertha Epstein was reprinted. It tells of his rise from rags to riches and his enormous bequests to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and Hebrew University.
In March 2017 I published The Ochberg Orphans – volume two with the memories or further memories of 20 orphans, further information gathered on the Ochberg Orphans and details of modern day events remembering Isaac Ochberg and the children he saved.
At Ramat Menashe in Israel there is now a new tourist destination, a park with a monument to Isaac Ochberg and a large limestone mound with plaques to each of the children saved. This was built by the JNF to honour Isaac Ochberg who left the largest donation of his time and Kibbutz Dalia and Kibbutz Gal Ed were established on the land acquired with this donation. Bennie Penzik, whose parents were Ochberg Orphans, urged the JNF to establish the park and founded The Ochberg Heritage Committee in Israel.
I had not set out initially to compile these books and it seemed like an unknown force had drawn me along a path with each compilation creating the momentum for the next compilation.
Many of those that shared their memories have passed away and I am pleased that they left this legacy for their children and granchildren.
Now I am focused on the history of South African Jewry
Like most South African Jews, all my ancestors came from Lithuania and for many years I had been the family historian, collecting details and memories and photos from my older relatives. I was asked by a cousin to write our family history but because I did not have enough detailed history about my family and because I am not a writer, I decided instead to compile the history of South African Jews in general.
After many years of research in February 2016 Our Litvak Inheritance, the Jewish History of Lithuania, was published. This history in general is in fact the history of all Lithuanian Jews. This was followed in August 2016 by Our South African Jewish Inheritance, that relates South African history and the Jewish contribution.
South Africa’s 800 -The Story of South African Volunteers in Israel’s War of Birth in 1948-1949 by Henry Katzew was reprinted in 2016 at the request of Joe Woolf one of its editors.
I am currently working towards republishing in English South African Yizkor (Memorial) books and Landsleid (Benefit Society) booklets and articles in Yiddish or Hebrew need translating into English. These books mainly of Eastern European Jewish history, are now 50-60 years old and would be hardly used as they are not fully in English and generally they cannot be removed from libraries.
Towards this end I published The Memorial Section of the Rakishok Memorial Book in 2014 and Krakenowo ~ a town in Lithuania ~ the story of a world that has passed – in 2017, a similar fate of many small towns in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust.
There are also memories of Jewish communities in the larger towns and cities in South Africa to be collected and published and my own family history.
The full (gross) proceeds of all my compilations go to Arcadia or Oranjia, who still take care of Jewish children in need in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and all royalties for online purchases go to the JDC.
For any publications mentioned above please contact me and also let me know if you have any publications of Landsleid (Benefit Society) or of communities in South Africa.
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After being orphaned in 1956 at the age of four, Sandler was raise in Arcadia, the South African Jewish Orphanage, where he remained for 13 years. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1976, married in 1979, and migrated to Perth, Australia, in 1981. He is the father of two daughters. Sandler may be contacted via sedsand@iinet.net.au