Beverley Katz
Beverley was born in 1950, the eldest of three children. Her mother was born in Cape Town to a Lithuanian family, and her father was born in South Africa to a father from Lithuania and a mother whose family traced roots through Belgium and Spain, possibly leaving Spain during the Inquisition. Her parents married in 1949, and Beverley grew up in Sea Point in a very close extended family that gathered every Friday night for Shabbat. She attended an all-girls public school and went to Hebrew school several times a week. Her brother Alan lives in Houston and her sister Jill remains in Cape Town. She met her husband Rick at an engagement party, and they married about a year later.
After marrying, Beverley and Rick lived in Durban, where their eldest son Gregory was born during the Soweto unrest, prompting Beverley's determination that her children would not serve in the army and that the family would eventually leave the country. They moved back to Cape Town and had two more children before immigrating to Dallas in 1986. Rick came first through a job transfer, and Beverley followed with the children. The family settled in the Hillcrest area, where many South Africans lived, and enrolled the children at Solomon Schechter so they could attend a Jewish day school. Beverley made lasting friendships through her children, including American and Canadian friends, while also connecting with the South African community.
In Dallas, Beverley worked as a bookkeeper for Toby Stone's home-based business for several years, drawing on training from Cape Town. Around 1998 the family moved to Atlanta for Rick's work, a move she resisted because it meant leaving her adult children in Dallas. In Atlanta she worked for interior decorators, sold a jewelry line, and became active at the Chabad congregation, doing flowers and table settings for community events and volunteering at the Chabad school. She became deeply involved in tahara through the chevra kadisha after a friend's death, noting differences between Chabad and other practices. Beverley remains close to South Africa, returning often, while feeling at home in America.
She and Rick have three children: Gregory, married to Lauren; Nicholas; and Samantha.
Full Transcript
good morning good morning which this morning we're interviewing Beverly Katz for the ribs to boots project for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society thank you so much Beverly you come all the way from Atlanta yeah for this interview having lived in dallas previously so we're very thankful that you're spending the time with us this morning the way I'd like to start these interviews is to ask you to please give me some background about your family both maternal and paternal having come from Europe prior to the South African experience so to start with that please my mother was born in Cape Town and her mother came from
Lithuania and she was met at the docks of the harbour by her cousin who fell in love with her and they got married and that's why we say we're all a little but not a hundred percent because there were cousins which was quite often in Lithuania twas luck pepper in South Africa and sickly in America turnover and my mother was the youngest of four children she died two years ago and my father came he was also born in South Africa in a place called Kanaka Norvin his parents were his father came from Lithuania and his mother came from Belgium but originally they must have come
from North Africa and then Spain and then from Spain two Belgian so that's why some of us are a lot darker than others you think they came in tune up north africa from the during the time of the of the Spanish Inquisition they must have left Spain during that time and eventually came to Belgium aha and then from Belgium to kept on that funnily enough left in muizenberg in a different street away from Rick's grandparents and my father was the eldest of four children there is only one sibling left and that smart fans who lives here in Dallas and my parents met when my mother
was working for accountants and she went to a wedding that met my father because it was his sister getting married to somebody that my mother worked with he actually died after a short about a year of marriage and then she remarried somebody else but that's how my parents met and um they got married and with three children I'm the eldest where did they marry in 49 i was born in 50 they I have a brother who lives in houston now and my sister is still in South Africa and what are the names of your siblings my brother is Alan he and Alan Bloomberg that was
my maid oh no and he married Bonita halperin who went right through school with my sister my sister is Jill and she's married to a twin Hilton stir Ellen and Bonnie in Houston had three children two boys twin boys and another son Stuart and unfortunately the one twin died after getting married in Argentina and he died in Israel five weeks after they were married the other son Justin now has two children a boy Owen named after my father I never gave me my parents names Oscar and roeder and then I have a little girl Shayna Ruby name after an aunt and my mother my sister
in cape town has two children Bradley and Jared Bradley is married to me care and they have two sons Alexander and medics and Jared married Nikki a march of the skill wonderful and i think rick is told you we have three children gregory married to lauren llevaba here in Dallas Nicholas is not married and Samantha's not married and we don't have any bread too little bit we're the elders every 30 once they don't have children and the brick Tony he has a brother in Houston and a brother nguyen opaque and date older the law Varma family is that from a restaurant yes what is Lauren
converted through sheriff even though with chabad and sir she is now Lauren lubov against her parents used to live right down the street here yeah but then living Fleming yeah calm and Denise anyway um okay so you grew up in in South Africa I grew up on the nice side of the mountain I grew up in seafront in fact I by the beach oh well tell me about sea point because I haven't really heard about some point when I was first born we left in an apartment which was really really near the beach and in fact and as we I think we're after through all
three of us were born my father would come home from work and the dinner would be prepared and he actually used to bring it to the beeps that those are like my fondest memories after school having to do our homework and then we went down to the beach and we would have supper on the beach even in fact we I think it was my brother's bomb it sir just before my brother are 22 months apart and just before he vomits where we moved into a house of the top of the mountain and even then we still go to the beach every afternoon after school and
we would have to learn on the beach we still try and do it so every time hearings in South Africa we still have to have our dinner on the beach now you must have said something about the schools being boys separate from girls to know what did you go to an all-girls schools because you did yeah my brother actually went to shoot two heads Leah and my sister went to vitamin with it was the Jewish school and then she also went to Italy I went to an all-girls school it was it a public school or was a public schools yeah yes and what types of
afterschool activities were you involved in i played netball did you know what there's an ass of our like with vulnerable hmm between Nick Poland and and basketball i would say but I was adapt dr. fellow code your valet don't remember and then of course our because I went to a public school I had to go to Hebrew school my heart three times a week and after me I think it was three times a week I can't even remember I'm too long after my bat mitzvah it was just something we all did when you signers does it use why are we just all went to harp on him it was just part of what you did you know sometimes you know it was difficult we because we weren't allowed out on the Friday not sure but we're going to show we had
big it was my mother and her sisters and brother we were all very close so we had Shabbat every Friday night this big huge family and we weren't allowed to do anything but play chess on the fried or not and then as we got a bit old and we went to hop on in we had to like it major permission to something like that how boring I think we were younger was on a Sunday and then there were some activities on a Friday night I think as we got older did you find the Jewish community in South Africa more Zionists or less I honest than
the community here in the States South Africa twas very not scientistic you know my mother and my mother-in-law were both very big in burnet side and after I got married and I lived in Captain we all you know we all did stuff open the Pandava factories here we stomach tiger that was a big rosh hashanah market is to make toddler do things like that how did you meet your husband we met at offerings engagement party he was with Johnny at University and I was with I derived from school from when we were little we were best friends and we met at engagement party was it
love at first sight I guess so they say yeah well I guess because we were engaged within six months and married another seven months later I think we knew each other just over a year would be when we actually got married having seen South African weddings and then having seen perhaps weddings here in the states that are not South African is there any major difference between the weddings in terms of the types of ceremonies are the types of just the weddings in general and even if well there's a big difference if you all the docs or if you reform or conservative and we sub F
Ricans like to bring our tape of the music from South Africa we in Atlanta there's an error South African choir and here i think there is something similar as well at our son's wedding it was just a music yeah so once you got married and had children did you did you work outside of the home or were you not in South Africa yeah America did yes what was the impetus to move from from South Africa from your standpoint when gritter was born in Durban it was the so Asia rice and I'd had a few surgeries so that I could have children and I just sit
there is no way that this child was going to the army or and I said we're leaving the country and then it took another 10 years before we actually left and two other children we moved back from Dylan to Cape Town and then we had another two children and then we only left 10 years of very was nearly 10 before we came to dance was it 10 years by choice or 10 years to it was just circumstances it was job regular week one leaf that was just different things well they were you know they were good they were good years after the Soviet arrives we
lived a wonderful life in South Africa huh I think we always had this idea that we will eventually leave that the kids would not go to school universities in South Africa when you left was were you able to take your assets with you or did you have to leave the room we took our furniture and stuff but and there we will love to bring very very little money at that stage in fact um when we used to travel to America we hardly ever left money here because at that stage Rick was in a position where we were going to get a transfer and moved to
New York but that didn't work out and eventually we came on our so were you transferring money during that period of time we don't you should know sweet doing at that stage we didn't need to because we were going to get a train that would have took magic dress business loss nope so you had to leave money in South Africa yeah well you are only allowed to bring a certain amount were you ever able to get that money out we just used it when we went back to South Africa didn't last very long I mean he wasn't you know we sold our house for so
much less eventually then you know like a couple of years later we could have got so much more and stuff like that so how did you pick Dallas as a place to live because Rick had met somebody here and said that if he wanted to move that she should contact her and you know he came in he met only met a couple of people in Dallas I remained in South Africa with the children and when he got this job I sold up and okay okay with the children it was just before pay stuff and he came on visitors visas and then eventually transferred it before
we got green cards how did you choose the schools for the children well we because we wanted them to go to Jewish day school solomon schecter was the was the school and how did you choose your neighborhood how did you choose where to live my guess because that's where the South Africans all left where was that in we were just all Phil crest hill Kristin Campbell and I think we were there for 23 years until we bought our house and just SAT the Frankfurt and hillcrest tell me about your experience integrating into the community both from the standpoint of integrating in with the South Africans
and integrating in with the Jewish community we knew a couple of people that were from Cape Town not that we were friendly with him from before but somehow you kind of blend you you go for because it's more familiar and the South Africans do stick together and then I guess I that's how we became most of her I wet my son and Gregory the elders the first day that he went to school and Solomon chapter he met Carrie Mandel and when he came home his mom deddi chef called me and said you know their net and can you come over and will you come to
play baseball and really that's where I met two American friend three American friends they were Canadian and they were living in Dallas two and one American and we are still friends today and that was the base of our friendship and we're all still friendly today and I guess I met most of my friends through my kids both Gregory and Nicholas playing sport and Gregory and Nicholas were great swimmers but I didn't to see that because when I landed here they told me I would have to take them to the contrary ver when it was cool i don't if it was the wire dead stage or
somewhere at four o'clock in the morning and i've never heard that that's I I said that so I never pursued their swimming Samantha was young she was three going on four I didn't really make friends through her her friendships but I made friends through Gregory and Nicholas that's how I got into this South African community but I always had these American friends as well and then um I wasn't really I wasn't allowed to work obviously but we knew Michael and Maureen Wallace and I called Michael wonder and I said you better find me a job or something to do before I go totally crazy and
he did he found me I'm I was a bookkeeper I did exactly what the guys did it but I never went to university I had done that in cape town so that's what I decided to do here and i worked for Toby stone she had a business in her home selling her samples and I was her bookkeeper how long did you work for God I went for Tony for years even when she had the stall on campbell and in fact i had her 50th or 60th birthday at my house so this before she went to work for Neiman oh yes this is wonderful me like
this yeah yes and at some point you obviously got a green card and you were able to work yeah officially yeah better now I kind of dipped odd things my kids were at school I was very involved I worked wherever I could in the mornings did you do volunteer work of any kind for the school itself um he has to do some stuff but I wasn't really um I did stuff on the shul which will they love others when when they opened that was worthwhile they moved it was here for a sonic oh yeah um I didn't really do much community with one I lived
here in South Africa was very involved with alt with the word that in envelopes on but not in death I have done in Atlanta involved what point did you move to Atlanta 15 years ago I didn't want to move obviously but I had to leave my children here and Rick had moved because of a jar and I didn't work straight away because I was between Atlanta and Dallas all the time and then I work for interior decorators in Atlanta and I kind of had a jewelry line that's what I do mostly that i saw jewelry and i do i work for the shul and i
do some stuff a wheat sir and I do Tyra how did you get involved with with tomorrow I mean did you start learning that here when did you learn we have very good friends in Atlanta and he got pancreatic cancer and after he died I approached the rabbi at our show at the Habad in Atlanta and I we were young community and I said these motohiro and but and they told me to call somebody else another South African who had been in who also wanted to do it and eventually we started at ahora group there's a main section of women section and it's become quite
a big thing and what we do we do an affiliate's that's what we did in the beginning so that we could learn and it is very different how bad is very different to any other tahara it is done differently and I pic i just know because in South Africa after my mother-in-law died and my mother I was present at that to her but you are not allowed to do the actual washing there and you're only allowed to do the final dressing if you're a daughter channel and we have different things for wheat so like I have to do a flower demonstration for them I'd like
to ask you a little bit about the tahara I'm I'm involved i've been involved with over 30 years and doing tartar oh and i never knew there was a difference between the way the Habad do it and the way the orthodox do it so I'd like to know from your perspective tell me what's the difference between what you saw it in south and what you what's different with the Habad in south africa it's a much shorter prison it is done on a wooden slat ered board and there is not all the lot of these are not as much prayer of the prayers in between like
we do with a hobbit how about I mean they both very it's all that you know it's very quiet you of course we never pass anything across the body and the carbide is far more involved they do extra a lot of extra I personally think a lot of unnecessary things but such as um there is a lot that the process is is a much slower and much more involved I mean besides the fact of the buckets and the water met chitara it's the the washing of the body is it's all done by hand and not with a shower and thinking like that the Habad is
much more slower process process and of course we are having a huge problem with people with their nails with nail polish with the gel polish because it's very difficult to clean the nails well I know you have to take off the nail polish is but I think it's probably not possible to take the gel off so huge bow yeah I don't think you can actually take off the gel well we've had to try we've had the way we've with take off as much as we can interesting it's very difficult and do the washing the people unfortunately we've had to do yet some young people yes
and the the cutter the hair you know if people died the hair it's it's a huge problem getting all the color thank you for sharing that ah don't really talk about it yeah i saw that i can tell you what her i didn't know i kept us a secret for ages but i do go to the ones to you we have somebody come in from you know if the forgotten where they have the big meeting yeah and she actually said it is something you supposed to talk about because how else are we gonna get the younger generations to do they will have that's absolutely and
it is such a big problem but in Atlanta we are very very fortunate they are people my age and the younger group any material mostly South Africans really the men the women yet the South Africans are not so much Federation fact at in wheat so and all done all those we have a lot of South Africans are very involved I used to help her but at the higher mr. school that's the Habad school just because I had a friendly there was a teacher so if there was anything as to help them with the art and stuff like that but mostly I do the flowers or table settings for things that we have we do quite a bit at the harbour house we do taste of the holidays before rosh hashanah and we've just had a big thing that was all about shabbat we had we asked the chem unity for people who had candlesticks especially from the Holocaust people who managed you know to bring stuff and of Germany or wherever and also we had another table
that was why it was all kiddush cups and they were amazing stories that came out of all these little kiddush cups and then we had a woman from New York who made dinner which was fantastic did you take photos of these items you lied to me of some photos of it is does does Atlanta have a historical society like we have here in Dallas Donna I'm sure they do I hope so helps okay so this is a friggin out of these okay um so are there any big differences did you see between the Dallas community in the Atlantic community I found in Dallas that a
lot more South Africans go to things like Federation meetings and things like that and they're doing Dallas and a lot more of the South Africans work during the day well they did not so much now they were all starting to retire and things like that in which sitting in in Atlanta I found that the South Africans went to a lotta things here and but we're very involved in bridge and a lot of us spend a lot of time at the bridge club now that's become you know as we get older and people are starting to leave their jobs and things like that yeah are there
any traditions or foods that you have brought with you from South Africa that you still incorporate into your daily life or your traditional life annual basis use the kit all of the Taylor I still make pesach worcestershire know every breath I'll make a big hello with icing and well that's an American thing not a sailor freakin thing just whenever there's an occasion luck tonight for Shabbat at my son's house I've made the Rutgers I made it all in Atlanta and this tag laughs there's chicken the usual first is there anything that you miss about South Africa um I go back often enough way that i
can get my South African influence and I love the beach I'm very fortunate that I can go and spend a lot of time there my sister has a home in fairport which is in George the golfing resort so we can't go there a lot and I could not lift back in South Africa I love to go they on holiday it's got the best beaches the best food the scenery is just magnificent but unfortunately the last song is just not for me I'm too Americanized after 28 years I'm are when they asked me if there's any place that you can learn if you and I mean
but what's going on in America I would I would love to go live our could live very happily in Israel if I could live on hoots lira butter I would be God my children would come with me but you know they're very much here working so it's not gonna happen so this is where you are this is it or you'll stay and don't you know if there's an opportunity for us to come back to Dallas that would be the answer to be with their children and if this stage I still have to be in atlanta and live on an aeroplane flash every six weeks and
two to two months well there was anything that I've perhaps forgotten or that you'd like to add about either your life in South Africa your family think that we were very fortunate and my children from what they remember Gregory necklace and Samantha that they had those first few years in South Africa we had a very privileged upbringing we were very lucky that we had both sets they had both sets of grandparents that they had the freedom the home that we had there the going to the beach the closed community here we they never had uncles and aunts of Elah in the same city that we
would always have to go to Houston or go back to South Africa to be with their family they can remember all that and they also still love to go back the beauty of the beauty of Cape Town is it's breathtaking and they do must bet even though they've lived here you know they really only know growing up in America but you know they're also went back often enough if they remember thank you so much it's been a pleasure speaking with you today and they really thank you for taking your time during this thanksgiving weekend to be with our third was our pleasure enjoy the rest
of your weekend and the rest of your visit to thank you we hope to see you often sure you have to say go Balto it's called global tour this goes double tongue yes this holiday is called total talk Oh gobble tov yeah okay because this once in eternity of Hanukkah and AH giving absolutely gobble tov forgot it instead I don't do not you gonna say cut off all right well gathered up everything thank you to thank you you