Oral Histories: Jewish life in Southern Africa
Vivian Rakoff
FROM:
Cape Town, South Africa
ARRIVED:
1961
Vivian was born in 1928 in Cape Town, but was quickly whisked off to Port Nolloth, a small town on the northwest coast of South Africa, where he spent his earliest years. And while Port Nolloth was home to less than a dozen Jewish families, his mother would still braid challah every Friday night.
"We were Jewish and observant, but we were not Orthodox."