Synagogue and storefronts: One man's mark on Krugersdorp's past

The Citizen

04-07-2025

In the eighth edition of Echoes of Krugersdorp, which the Krugersdorp News partnered-up with the Krugersdorp Heritage Association (KHA), we explore the life of one of the town's earliest, and arguably most fascinating, pioneers, Abner Cohen, who helped transform a scattering of iron shanties into the Krugersdorp we know today.
Co-founder of the KHA, Jaco Mattheyse, shared Cohen's story with the News, which started in London. Cohen was born to Jewish parents around 1860, and like many others of his time, decided to immigrate to Southern Africa, arriving in 1881. He soon made his way north toward the diamond fields and, after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, travelled to the Transvaal Republic. Remarkably, he even took the time to learn the local 'Kitchen Dutch' (early Afrikaans) spoken by the Boers.
On his journey to Johannesburg, Cohen pitched his tent on a rocky outcrop about 30km west of the town, a spot that would later become the heart of Krugersdorp. In doing so, he became the first English settler in the area. Besides the Paardekraal Monument, he built a humble wattle-and-daub hut and opened his first business, the Monument Hotel and Store. Unfortunately, the conservative Boer government under Paul Kruger viewed this as an irreverent intrusion upon sacred ground.
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'He was swiftly ordered to vacate the site and was effectively cast down into the profane mining camp forming in the valley below,' Mattheyse said.
Cohen made a contrite journey on foot to Pretoria to plead with the authorities for forgiveness.
'Eventually, his efforts bore fruit. He was granted a commercial stand in the newly laid-out town, where he built his Court Bar and a second Monument Hotel. His was the only commercial stand in the entire government block, bounded by Monument, Ockerse, Kruger and Commissioner streets.
'Ironically, his new saloon stood right next to the courthouse, a symbol of secular Boer authority, where a commemorative plaque marking the location still survives today. Though displaced from the original monument site, he had re-established himself in the rough-and-tumble heart of Krugersdorp's early mining settlement.'
Years later, Mattheyse said, Cohen sold the Court Bar to make room for the expansion of the court buildings. He used the proceeds to purchase several erven, consolidating them into a small peri-urban estate that he proudly called Homelands.
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'Cohen felt welcome and secure enough to plant roots so close to the very monument from which he had once been evicted, which speaks volumes about the spirit of reconciliation in early Krugersdorp.
'The Monument Hotel passed through several hands, and in the 1930s, the present Majestic Hotel was constructed on the same corner. A foundation stone there still pays tribute to Cohen.'
Among his many contributions to the town, Mattheyse believed that Cohen helped establish the Krugersdorp Jewish community in 1894.
'As president of the congregation, he successfully petitioned President Kruger for two valuable freehold sites for communal use.
'Cohen was on friendly terms with President Paul Kruger, but he felt slighted when Kruger granted only two stands to the Jewish community. When Cohen questioned this decision, Kruger reportedly replied that the Jewish faith only followed half of the Bible [the Old Testament as found in the Torah] and they would receive only half the number of church stands typically allocated by the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.'
He pointed out that, in 1903, Cohen laid the foundation stone for Krugersdorp's first synagogue, right in the town centre.
'Cohen also played a role in the development of Bulawayo and Rhodesia. Though he was not involved in the 1895 conspiracy against the Boer government, he maintained close ties with members of the Reform Committee. Some indiscreet remarks he made led to a brief period of imprisonment, and he later passed away in 1937 at the age of 77. He is buried in the Jewish section of the Old Burgershoop Cemetery.'
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