Berea, Gauteng
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Berea is an
inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...
neighbourhood of
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
, in the
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
n
province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...
. It is east and adjacent to the
Johannesburg CBD The Johannesburg Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the densest collection of skyscrapers in Africa, however, due to white flight and urban blight, ...
. It is located in Region F of the
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality () is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite se ...
. It is located in between
Yeoville Yeoville is an inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg, in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. It is located in Region F (previously Region 8). Originally intended as a "well-to-do" neighbourhood, it instead developed into a white working ...
and
Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. It had a large and active Jewish commun ...
to the east and west respectively. It was designated as a "white" area during
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
, under the
Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a syste ...
. For much of the twentieth century it was a middle-class
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
area. In the years preceding and after the repeal of the Group Areas Act in 1991, white residents had begun to migrate to the northern suburbs. The neighbourhood has been home to mostly black Africans since the 1990s. It became notorious for high levels of crime and population density. There have, however, been attempts to regenerate the area in recent years.


History

The suburb is situated on part of an old
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, w ...
farm called ''Doornfontein''. It was established in 1893 and is named after Berea, Durban. Harold Le Roith was one of several architects that contributed to the neighbourhood's urban landscape. He built the
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
apartment buildings, Mount Sheridan, Anlar and Marlene Mansions. Marlene was featured in Britain's influential '' The Architectural Review'' magazine in 1953. The Johannesburg High School for Girls opened in Berea in 1897, serving white girls. The school faced closure in 1989 due to falling enrollment amid white applicants and the government’s continued support for segregated education. However, the school re-opened in 1990 as Barnato Park High School, a non-racial school. In 1975,
Ponte City Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Berea, Gauteng, Berea district of Johannesburg, South Africa, just next to Hillbrow. It was built in 1975 to a height of , and was the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa for 48 years, until overtaken in 2 ...
was built in Berea, making it the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. At the time it was a very sought after address in Johannesburg. Amid migration trends of
white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
and the arrival of undocumented African immigrants, the building became prone to gangs and violent crime.Ponte City: An Apartheid-Era High Rise Mired in Myth
''Time''. 20 May 2013
In recent years the building has been regenerated, tours are held and students and middle-class city workers are among the tenants.Ponte City: A tour of Johannesburg's most terrifying building demonstrates change
''Stuff''. 8 December 2019


Jewish community

For much of the twentieth century, the area was home to a significant
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
community.The Jewish Community of Johannesburg, 1886-1939: Landscapes of Reality and Imagination
University of Pretoria. December 2004
Berea Shul was consecrated in 1968. A year earlier, the shul commissioned Herman Wald to design and create a sculpture. From sheet copper, Wald designed a large pair of wings. They were installed above the ark and surrounded a plaque of the
Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...
.Biblical celebration in old Berea Shul
''South African Jewish Report''. 23 January 2020
The late Rabbi Morris Swift, a prominent champion of '' halachic'' law, also served the congregation for a time. Colin Tatz, who would later become a prominent public intellectual in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, was born and raised in Berea. He had his
Bar Mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...
at Berea Shul, and later married his wife there.Remembering Professor Colin Tatz
ABC Radio National. 20 November 2019
Tatz had lived on Honey Street, where the doctor Sydney Cohen, father of writer Roger Cohen, was born and raised.The Battle to Belong
The New York Times. 9 January 2015
The neighbourhood was also home to the Etz Chaim Shul. As most Jewish residents eventually migrated to the northern suburbs, the synagogues were de-consecrated and the old Berea Shul building now houses a church. Barney Barnato, the Jewish diamond magnate, built an impressive mansion in Barnato Park in Berea. The mansion was later used by Johannesburg School for Girls, before being demolished in 1963. The Jewish photographer
David Goldblatt David Goldblatt HonFRPS (29 November 1930 – 25 June 2018) was a South African documentary Photographer noted for his dedicated portrayal of the South African peoples within the political landscape of the apartheid era.Weinberg, Paul.David ...
, also took apartheid-era photos in Berea.3 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now
The New York Times. 17 March 2021
In 1902, Corona Lodge was built as a
Masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
Society Lodge. The Lodge later fell out of use and was then used by the local Jewish community.The Bnei Akiva Yeshiva and the founding of Johannesburg's Yeshiva College
''Jewish Affairs''. Rosh Hashanah 2011
The lodge was used by the precursor to the Yeshiva College of South Africa, which was established in 1953. The Yeshiva Katanah divided classes between Corona Lodge and the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in Doornfontein. Afternoon classes were held at the lodge under the supervision of Rabbi Michel Kossowsky, an
Eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...
Talmudic The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...
scholar who had settled in South Africa during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
, and Rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz. The subjects the rabbis taught classes around Talmud,
Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
,
Prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the ...
, Laws and Customs and Ethics of Judaism.


References

{{Greater Johannesburg, communities Johannesburg Region F Jews and Judaism in Johannesburg