Accession Number
2019-7-4
Source
Archival Accessions
Accession Number
2019-7-4
Material Format
textual record
Physical Description
5 cm textual records
2 photographs : b&w, sepia toned (tiff)
Date
1959-1962, predominant 1961
Scope and Content
Accession consists of correspondence between members of the Teper family. Included are letters that Wilfred Teper sent from Tsumeb (Namibia), Lausanne, and Barcelona, to his mother Seina Teper (née Grossman) in Cape Town. Also included are letters from Seina to Wilfred’s sister Rita Burton, brother-in-law David Burton, and niece Oriane Falkenstein . Seina forwarded Wilfred’s letters to Rita and David, and requested that they forward his letters to her as well.
001: Claremont Talmudic Society tenth anniversary, Nov. 1955, Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph by Bridge Studio, Salt River. Identified in photo back row, left to right, M. Marks, H. Kagan, M. Polliack, A. Wasserman, M. Katz, S. Yutar, Y. Teper. Middle row, A. L. Resnick, M. Fletcher, B. Stein (Secretary), W. Rubin, Jack Levin, J. Levin. Front row, Menashe Ben-Dov, M. Stone, Rabbi Romm, B. Margolis (Chairman), Rev. Ch. Gordon, Rev. A. Kramer, Mr. N. Tobias.
002: Wilfred (right) standing with unidentified friend, Cape Town, South Africa [1946?].
Custodial History
Seina Teper sent all the letters she received from her son Wilfred Teper to her daughter Rita Burton (née Teper) in Johannesburg. Rita's daughter Oriane Falkenstein (née Burton), gave the letters to Wilfred in 2013.
Administrative History
Wilfred Teper (b. 1939) is the son of Edel Teper (d. 1958) and Seina (Grossman) Teper (d. 1963), both immigrants from Lithuania to South Africa. After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a degree in chemical engineering, Wilfred spent a year working at a Germanium extraction plant in Tsumeb, Namibia (then known as South West Africa and administered by the South African government) from 1961-1962. While there he bought a motor bike (which he traded for a radio and a bicycle) and on a weekend off he went to Etosha Game Reserve (now Etosha National Park). His mother sent him parcels of food, which Wilfred shared with his housemate. During this time, pieces of mail went astray.
Having saved enough money for his European travel, Wilfred left Tsumeb in January 1962, returning to Cape Town briefly before departing for Europe for three months with two long-time friends. In 1963 he married Anna Cvi of Kimberley, South Africa. They had four children and lived in Waterkloof, a suburb of Pretoria, before immigrating to Toronto in 1976, where they became members of Beth Tikvah Synagogue.
Use Conditions
Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
Subjects
Jews--South Africa
Letters
Places
Namibia
South Africa
Source
Archival Accessions