Editing Pretoria (section)

===Jewish community===
{{further|Afrikaner-Jews|Lithuanian Jews}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=November 2019}}
Pretoria has a small Jewish community of around 3,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Support Association for Zionism – South African Jewry: History of Pretoria Jewry |url=http://www.sazionism.co.za/history-of-pretoria-jewry.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721043724/http://www.sazionism.co.za/history-of-pretoria-jewry.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 July 2015 |access-date=16 November 2019}}</ref> Jewish citizens have been in Pretoria since its foundation in the 19th century and played an important role in its industrial and economic growth. A Mr. De Vries, the first Jewish inhabitant of Pretoria, was a prominent citizen and prosecutor, a member of the [[Volksraad of the South African Republic|Volksraad]] and a pioneer of the [[Afrikaans language]]. Another famed Jewish Pretorian was [[Sammy Marks]].

Other early Jewish settlers, many of them immigrants from [[Lithuania]], were not as educated as De Vries and often did not speak Dutch, Afrikaans, or English. Many of them spoke only [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] and made a living as shopkeepers in the local retail industry. Most Jewish residents stayed neutral in the [[Second Boer War]], though some joined the [[South African Republic]] army.

The first congregation was founded between 1890 and 1895, and in 1898 the first synagogue, [[The Old Synagogue, Pretoria|The Old Synagogue]] opened on Paul Kruger Street.<ref name=up>[https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/49734/Clarke_Chapter7_2015.pdf?sequence=24&isAllowed=y Church Square, the Old Synagogue and the Old Government Printing Work, Three historic places for testing strategic intervention] University of Pretoria. 2015</ref> A second synagogue, known as the Great Synagogue, opened in 1922. Both synagogues are no longer in operation, but a [[Reformed Judaism|Reformed]] synagogue, Temple Menorah, opened in the early 1950s.

The Jewish community of Pretoria's golden age was in the early 20th century, when many Jewish sports clubs, charities, and youth groups flourished. After 1948, many Jews left for Cape Town or Johannesburg.

The Old Synagogue on Paul Kruger Street was purchased by the government in 1952 to become the new home of the High Court where prominent opposition figures in the [[Anti-Apartheid Movement]] were tried, including [[Nelson Mandela]], [[Walter Sisulu]], and 26 others were prosecuted for treason from 1 August 1958 to 29 March 1961; the [[Rivonia Trial]] was held there in 1963–1964.<ref name=up/>

Two Jewish schools arose in Pretoria, the Miriam Marks School, which was founded in 1905, and the Carmel School, which opened in 1959. Only the second, currently also operating as a synagogue, remains. Pretoria's Reformed congregation shares a rabbi with the Johannesburg one, though the synagogue no longer operates and services take place in worshippers' private homes.