About Cape Town
Cape Town is a port city on South Africa’s southwest coast, on a peninsula located on the shore of Table Bay which contains Robben Island the notorious prison that once held Nelson Mandela and is now a living museum. Cape Town is located at latitude 33.55° S (approx. the same as Sydney and Buenos Aires and equivalent to Casablanca and Los Angeles in the northern hemisphere) and longitude 18.15° E. Table Mountain, with its near vertical cliffs and flat-topped summit over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) high, and with Devil's Peak and Lion's Head on either side, together form a dramatic mountainous backdrop enclosing the central area of Cape Town, the so-called City Bowl. Cape Town has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. According to the South African National Census of 2011, the population of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality is 3,740,016 people. Cape Town is not only the most popular international tourist destination in South Africa, but Africa as a whole. This is due to its good climate, natural setting, and well-developed infrastructure. The most popular areas for visitors to stay include Camps Bay, Sea Point, the V&A Waterfront, the City Bowl, Hout Bay, Constantia, Rondebosch, Newlands, Somerset West, Hermanus and Stellenbosch. In November 2013, Cape Town was voted the best global city in The Daily Telegraph's annual Travel Awards.
Jewish History, POI & Kosher Establishments in Cape Town
Cape Town has a 16,000-strong Jewish community. As the oldest Jewish community in South Africa, Cape Town’s organized communal life provided the pattern for the future development of South African Jewry. The Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, the first in South Africa, dates back to 1841. The first synagogue, which still stands, was built in 1849. It was called Tikvath Israel (“Hope of Israel”), a reference to “good hope”. From a high of 15,000 population in the 1970s it has been slowly reducing. The Campus named after Mendel Kaplan, contains a museum, showcasing the history of South Africa’s Jews, the Great Synagogue, affectionately known as “The Gardens Shul,” alongside the country’s first synagogue, and a Holocaust museum. The South African Jewish Museum tells the story of an immigrant community, almost entirely from Lithuania, who arrived as peddlers working the mining towns, and grew into a prosperous, vibrant, and strongly Zionist, population. The museum also addresses the moral and political issues faced by South African Jews during the apartheid era.
