A "mitzvah mission" inspired by an aging German-Jewish
refugee's wish to replace the missing tombstone on his mother-
in-law's grave has led to the unexpected discovery of a
hitherto almost forgotten Jewish cemetery in the north-
eastern Zambian town of Mufulira.
The story began in late 1999, when Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft,
Spiritual Leader to the Country Communities, was officiating
at a bar mitzvah in Umtentweni on the South Coast of Kwazulu
Natal, South Africa. Among those helping to make up a
minyan for the occasion was David Messerer, who was
out from Israel visiting his daughter.
Following the shul service, Mr. Messerer told Rabbi
Silberhaft that he had lived in Mufulira, on the copper belt
of what was then known as Northern Rhodesia, having arrived
there from Frankfurt, Germany, in 1939. He had lived there
until 1982, and was the last Jew to leave, eventually making
aliyah after a short stay in South Africa. Since his leaving,
he had heard that the headstone of his late mother- in-law,
Sara Mohrer, had reportedly been stolen and that he would
very much like to have a new headstone erected before his
life on this earth came to an end.
Rabbi Silberhaft told Mr. Messerer that while he had known of
the existence of a synagogue in Mufulira, which Messerer
himself and Barry Epstein had built in 1948, he had never
heard of a Jewish cemetery there. Messerer then drew a map
showing where the cemetery could be found. All this
information Rabbi Silberhaft sent to Michael Galaun,
President of the Zambian Jewish Community in Lusaka, with a
request that he try to locate the cemetery before his next
visit to the country.
In 2005, following much research, a row of twelve Jewish
graves was found, totally overgrown and surrounded by non-
Jewish graves. Gus Liebowitz of Kitwe and Dennis Figiv of
Luanshya had the area cleared in time for Rabbi Silberhaft's
visit, in his other capacity of Spiritual Leader to the
African Jewish Congress, in May 2006. Sara Mohrer's grave was
located, and the headstone was indeed found to be missing.
In July, while he was in Israel, Rabbi Silberhaft met with
Mr. Messerer, now 96 years of age, to inform him of the
discovery. The latter gave him a photograph of the original
headstone and asked that a new one be made and erected.
At the end of October, Rabbi Silberhaft travelled again to
Mufulira to carry out Messerer's request, bringing with him a
new headstone made in South Africa. With him was Gerald
Kollenberg, a member of a prominent Jewish family once active
in commerce in the area. Once there, they were met by Dennis
Figov and Gus Leibowitz. Mohrer's new headstone was set flat
in a bed of concrete next to the grave of her late husband,
Markus Mohrer, with Rabbi Silberhaft reciting the relevant
chapters of Tehillim associated with the setting of a
gravestone.
The mission occasioned two other important discoveries.
During the visit, a visit was paid to Kitwe, where
Kollenberg's parents once owned a hotel and butchery. While
touring the Kitwe Jewish cemetery, Kollenberg came across the
grave of his uncle, David Kollenberg, who until then had been
thought to have been buried in Cape Town. Then, as the group
was leaving the cemetery, Rabbi Silberhaft noticed a piece of
white stone protruding from what at first glance seemed to be
an unmarked grave. Further investigation and digging
uncovered the headstone of Max Melamed, who passed away in
1971. The headstone was dug up and, like Sara Mohrer's new
stone, relaid in a bed of concrete.
