Isaac Ochberg Hall

Location: Hanover St, District Six, Cape Town

Architect: Unknown

Date: c1911

Status: Demolished (late 1960's)

Isaac Ochberg Hall in Hanover Street, District Six

(Unidentified photographer, n.d.)

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Approximate map location

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Notes

The Isaac Ochberg Hall was a community hall located in District Six, Cape Town, on Hanover Street. The hall itself served as an important community venue in the vibrant, multicultural District Six (a historically mixed-race area later destroyed under apartheid's Group Areas Act in the 1960s–1970s, leading to forced removals and demolition). It was an early base and performance/rehearsal space for the EOAN Group (a non-profit cultural organization focused on opera, drama, music, and arts, primarily serving the Coloured community). The EOAN Group started using it around the 1930s–1940s, with their central offices there. In 1938, the hall was donated to EOAN via Ochberg's bequest after his death. They held rehearsals, community performances, and early productions there until the mid-1960s, before relocating (e.g., to the Joseph Stone Theatre in Athlone) due to apartheid demolitions in District Six.

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Isaac Ochberg

(1878 Ukraine - 1937 at sea)

(Unidentified photographer)

Ochberg donated the Isaac Ochberg Hall in District Six. A South African philanthropist and Zionist, Ochberg was born in the Ukraine and came to South Africa in 1895. A successful Cape Town businessman, he was best known for his humanitarian project in bringing about 200 Jewish pogrom orphans from the Ukraine and Poland to South Africa after in 1921 - earning him the affectionate nickname "Daddy Ochberg".

The overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 led to a total breakdown of the Russian Empire which resulted in thousands of deaths. Many Jewish children were orphaned as a consequence.

Ochberg served on the Cape executive of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and was the president of the South African Jewish orpahnage in Cape Town.

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Sources

• SA-SIG, March 2007.