There are many tens of Jewish cemeteries in South Africa and other countries in Southern Africa – Namibia, Mauritius, Zambia, Mozambique etc. With the notable exception of South Africa, today these countries have very small Jewish communities, if at all. Even Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, which used to have many thousands of Jewish inhabitants, currently counts probably less than 150 Jewish citizens. All over a vast area there are Jewish cemeteries that today are not visited but by the very few. Even in South Africa, there are many Jewish cemeteries scattered over numerous small settlements that once harbored Jewish communities. Since most Jews that used to live in those places have long ago moved to larger cities in South Africa or emigrated to other continents and that regrettably some tombstones are being constantly damaged by acts of vandalism, it is important to make sure that there would be a full documentation of all Jewish graves in that areas.

The project aims to create a searchable database of the inscriptions – Hebrew, English, other languages - along with all available photographs of those gravestones. This new information will complete the data already available at SA Jewish Rootsbank. The database will be eventually published over the Internet.

Members of the public who wish to contribute with additional information about Jewish Cemeteries in Southern African are kindly invited to contact the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center at Beth Hatefutsoth – bhgnlgy@post.tau.ac.il

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