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By

David Sandler

Opinion

Appeal for descendants of Ochberg’s Orphans

June 1, 2010 13:00
1 min read

I am appealing for the descendants of Ochberg’s Orphans to get in contact.

In 1921 Isaac Ochberg, representative of the South African Jewish Community, travelled to Poland and the Ukraine and brought back with him to Cape Town 181 Russian, Ukraine and Polish War and Pogrom Orphans.

These children were placed either in the care of The Cape Jewish Orphanage (later called Oranjia) or in Johannesburg’s South African Jewish Orphanage (later called Arcadia). Many were then adopted by members the Jewish community.

I am collecting the life stories of these children to be publiched in book in their memory. So far I have contacted the families of 120 of these orphans, but I am still looking for information on the others. There could be more than 2,000 descendants out there, likely to be spread around the world in Israel, the UK and beyond.