Brenda & Godfrey Traub
Brenda's grandfather arrived in South Africa in the early 1900s, and her family were founding members of the Jewish community in Pretoria. Her father was born in Pretoria and schooled in Germany, while her mother immigrated from Germany in 1938, leaving a once-wealthy family behind and later making a living sewing children's dresses in Johannesburg. Godfrey's father came from Lithuania as a young teenager and settled in East London, where he and his brothers built a successful wholesale merchant business. Godfrey was born in East London, the middle of three children, later moving to Johannesburg and attending university there for six years. He met Brenda when he was in his mid-twenties, and they married and had three children.
Unable to abide apartheid and seeing no future for their children, the Traubs emigrated in 1976. Told it would be difficult to enter the United States, they first settled in Toronto, where they found the city cold and unwelcoming, including a Jewish community that turned them away over synagogue membership fees. After seven years they obtained a green card and arrived in Dallas in July 1983, drawn by the strong economy and a few acquaintances. Their early days were marked by hardship, including a serious car accident that badly injured their daughter and a theft of carpets from their new home, but friends such as Lorraine and Shirley Roth helped them settle in.
In South Africa, Godfrey practiced as an attorney for 15 years before turning to real estate in Canada and developing small shopping centers. In Dallas, he and Brenda worked together, with Brenda contributing her talents as an interior designer. They joined Shearith Israel and hosted family gatherings for the Jewish holidays. Their children built lives of their own: daughter Gina became a psychotherapist in Palm Springs, son Lawrence worked in the family's apartment business, and son Andrew became an attorney in Austin. Godfrey also wrote a book, North, South, North, telling his father's story and the family's journey. Though they miss the informal family closeness of South Africa, the Traubs are glad they made a fresh start.
Full Transcript
Thank you. Jewish Historical Society. Let's start talking about your life in South Africa. Talk about when and why your family originally came to South Africa, where they came from, and what can you share about their lives and early years in South Africa. Godfrey, do you want to start? Yes, well, Brenda's grandfather arrived in South Africa in the very early 1900s, even before, 1880, something like that. And they were the founding Jewish family in Pretoria. Her maiden name was Gandolfinger. And her father was born in Pretoria, but went to school in Germany. And her mother was an immigrant to South Africa who virtually got on the last boat out of Germany before they closed the borders in 1938.
So her family is German in origin. My father was from Lithuania, and he left there as a young boy who was about 14 or 15. Came to South Africa. My mother was born in Lady Grand in the Orange Free State. And they met. They had three children, of which I was the middle child. And I was born in East London. Went to school there. Got to Joburg when I just turned 16. Went to Witsi University for six years. and we were lucky to meet Brenda when I was about 26 or 27 years old. Brenda didn know anybody in Johannesburg because she been at boarding school and then got a job and just hadn met anybody so I was lucky And we got married, had three children, and we emigrated in 1976.
Okay, so how and why did you make the decision to leave South Africa? Would you like to know? No? Okay. So basically it was, we couldn't stand apartheid. We felt there was no future for the children, and we thought it better to make a fresh start somewhere else. And we first emigrated to Canada because we were told it would be too difficult to get into the States. And we lived in Toronto for seven years. We didn't like Toronto. The weather was horrible and we left there and we applied for a green card and we eventually got one. It took us two to three years and we arrived in Dallas in July of 1983.
Tell us about your family. How did they feel when you made their decision to leave? Were they supportive? I think Brenda's parents were supportive. Her mother especially had been born of quite a wealthy family. They were in the golden business, but she left with nothing. And so when she got to Johannesburg, she actually made a living by sewing dresses for children's dresses. For greater ones. Yes, a department store. So she knew that life is dangerous, and so she thought we were doing the right thing by leaving. My father, on the other hand, thought I was crazy. I was quite a successful attorney in Johannesburg. Had a nice house in Victor Park right across the street from the King David School, and made a good living.
and go Sorry So my father loved South Africa It gave him such a good life compared to what he had come from in Lithuania and he thought I was crazy My mother saw that things were going to be very difficult in South Africa. Nevertheless, she was sorry to see us go. But we made up our minds and went to Canada, which was a bad choice, but life took us in that direction, so that was that. And how come you chose Dallas as your home after that? We travelled around quite a bit, and we were due to leave from Dallas and go, I think, to Atlanta, and we decided there was so much construction going on when we first came to and I had by then gone into real estate.
And we also knew a few people here. The late Merle Cumming, if you remember her. Her name was Elman. If you remember that, Merle Elman. And we knew David Strett, who was living here. So we knew two people and the economy looked good. And so we said, what the hell? We'll take a chance here when you're coming to Dallas. So let's talk about your adjustment and your early years in Dallas. In what ways were others helpful when you first arrived? And how did the community in general help you? We bought a house here. Our first house was on Blunt Point Drive. and an old acquaintance of Godfrey's, Lorraine A.
Brinson, took me around. Godfrey had to go back. His father passed away at the time and our youngest son, Andrew, was trying out for St. Mark's School. So when Andrew was writing entrance fees, she took me around and has remained one of our very best friends to this day. And so we got to meet people. MS. Okay. And so what were your feelings and impressions when you first arrived in the United States? MR. Well compared to Toronto it was like heaven as far as I was concerned Toronto was essentially an unfriendly city The Canadians are rather cold people And for five, six months of the year, the weather is just terrible.
We found people here so friendly in comparison to Canadians. So we liked it very much, but unfortunately we had been here for two weeks. My daughter was crossing at a pedestrian light in her favor, and a stupid young guy, aged 19 or 20, went straight into her at 60 miles an hour. hour. It was an absolute miracle that she wasn't killed, but she had to have tremendous surgery on her leg. And so that was two weeks after we arrived here. I thought this guy would be prosecuted. He was, however, the son of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. and they must have put a lot of strings because he was never prosecuted.
There were about eight or ten witnesses who saw exactly what he did. So that was the first bad thing to happen to us. In addition, our new house, someone who went in the house stole all the carpets, all the fitted carpets. And so we had to go live in a hotel for a week or so. So that was not a nice arrival. But we had some David Streberts and Lorraine was wonderful. And we met some other people like Nikki Hoyer. Shirley Roth. Shirley Roth became a very strong friend of ours. And we gradually settled in. Right? Okay. Godfrey, what kind of work have you done?
And Brenda, I'd like you to tell us too. And was it the same or different as what you did in South Africa or Canada? MR. Well, in South Africa I was an attorney. And I practiced at the sidebar, they called it, as an attorney, not an advocate, for 15 years. When I got to Toronto, I thought of going back to law school, but they didn't recognize anything, and they said I'd have to go back and do, I think it was four years full time. So that was out. And in any of the I didn't want to stay in Canada forever. So I gravitated into the world of real estate, and I started managing other people's properties for them.
And from that I started doing a little bit of development. I developed seven or eight small shopping centers. And then we left in 1983. and during that time Brenda worked with me. Since the time we got to Canada, Brenda worked with me. And when we got to Dallas, she sort of enlarged the scope of what she did, because she's a fabulous interior designer, and landscape and colour and that sort of thing is what is what she is very marvelous at. So we've been working together, I would say, since 1983. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about your introduction to the Dallas Jewish community. And how does it compare to your experiences in South Africa in part of the Jewish community?
And did your - I don't know how children were, but did they go to Jewish school? I know you mentioned St. Mark's. Well, in Canada, my son Andrew went to Crescent School, which was the school in Canada. He got in there. He was a clever kid and enjoyed it very much. The others went to public school. When we got here, Andrew got into St. Mark's. The other kids went to the Richardson School. The public schools? Yes, public schools. Okay. We joined Sheriff Israel. Okay. Toronto was not a receptive - it didn't have a receptive Jewish population there at all. When we first got there, there were three couples.
And we went to the conservative school to try and get ticket suffolk. It was for Rosh Hashanah. And they said, you have to become members. And that was about $15,000. We all came there with very little money. And we said well can we buy tickets for the high holidays And they said no We said can we stand at the back of the audience And they said there will be guards at the door you will not be allowed in and you cannot just buy tickets, you have to become members. So we joined the Reform School in Canada. They were more welcoming. They were much more welcoming.
When we got here, we joined Sheriff Israel. Okay. And what South African Jewish cultural traditions have you maintained? like the food and the holidays I mean observing the holidays well South African holidays no no Jewish Jewish holidays Jewish holidays we usually host and the families come to us Pesach or Shoshona breaking of the fest um Friday nights we don't really paid that much attention to minor holidays like Fruzhi, which was yesterday. Okay, but you knew it was yesterday, right? Yes, yes. And how important was Israel to you growing up in South Africa? And how do you feel about Israel today? My father always said we have to support Israel, and he never announced to us what he was doing, but he gave anonymously.
and any good year in business gave money. A certain portion always went to Israel. He also supported the very, very religious Jews. As a child, I remember them coming to my father's factory and sitting and waiting in the front for my father to find time to see them, and he always supported them. So it was always very important to us. Tell us about how your family has grown since you've been here. Well, our daughter, her name is Gina, went to a university in Austin. She had a couple of degrees there, and then she became a physiotherapist. Sorry, a psychotherapist. I've got a physiotherapist on the brain at the moment.
She became a psychotherapist and she met her husband Bill at one of the Jewish sororities He was at a Jewish sorority and he was at university at the same time They got married and eventually moved to California Palm Springs And her degrees, because they were Texas, were not recognized. So she basically had to go back and do a lot. It took her about a year to do certain things over again. So she's a psychotherapist in Palm Springs. And her husband works for basically the Democratic Party. They have two children, a son and a daughter. The son is second year at university in California. The daughter is finally a school, very brilliant kid.
She's been accepted at about eight universities, so I'm not sure which one she's going to go to. She was also accepted at Grand Theis for a special program, but I'm not sure she'll be going there. Our middle son is Lawrence. Lawrence was married for 15 years, and no children. Last year, he and his wife divorced. and we're still waiting for his get which hopefully he'll get one of his days. No children and he works for us in one of the apartment complexes. And our youngest son is Andrew. He went to UT as well and got a communist degree and then he got his law degree and didn't want to work for anybody so he opened his own practice.
he's fairly successful and he lives where? in Austin, Texas has two children his daughter Dina is going on 16 and the younger daughter Amber is going on the beginning of 2017 his wife is very Jewish and his eldest daughter Dina is the head of a She's voted president of the - I don't know exactly which society it is, but she's one of the organizers who travels around going to seminars and all sorts of things So she very oriented towards Israel and Jewish I learned I like what you said earlier about the kids come here and take over the house Tell us about that. They usually come once a month there, on Jewish holidays.
They choose when they want to come. Sometimes they come for Thanksgiving. It's their choice and the door's always open. So they just let us know at the last minute who and which ones are coming. And all the grandkids get together. And it's lovely. So once we're here, did any other of your immediate family come and join you or any good friends come to Dallas? To visit? Yeah. Well, to live. To live. Yeah. Siblings. No, none of our family wanted to leave South Africa. And are they all still there? My brother died recently, about six months ago. He was younger than me. He visited us once or twice.
My sister still lives in Johannesburg. She's older than me. And when do your family? They're kind of scattered. I have a brother and a sister in London, in England, and I have a younger sister in South Africa. Okay. So what, anything, I know it's been a long time, but what, if anything, do you miss about life in South Africa? And have you gone back to visit? And how do you feel when you go back? Well, we've been back a few times. And at first I felt, you know, I was coming home. But as the years went by, I felt I was a stranger. It wasn't the South Africa Ironman.
I think what one misses is having more family around, having more friends around, more informal, getting together in South Africa. You just dropped in to see somebody. It doesn't happen in either Canada or the US. Just that sort of socializing family atmosphere. That's all of us. Nothing else. So you're glad you came, right? You're glad you left? Oh, yes. Glad we left. That country's in bad shape. So is there anything I didn't cover that you would like to tell us about? Well, unfortunately, Brenda can't find that book. It's a big, thick book. Tell us about it. About the founders of the Jewish society in South Africa.
It was her grandfather's brother, actually, was a friend of, not young smuts. He was the first, I don't know, very friendly. The first African was Kruger. Paul Kruger. Paul Kruger. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let me ask one other thing. Oh, Godfrey. How come you were in East London? How come your family went there? It's the same that happens always with immigration. You sort of go where you have some family offense. When my father got to South Africa, he already had two brothers in East London. They had come there because they had an uncle who was in the Transkei So the grew and at one stage my mother had two brothers and a sister living in East London.
My father had three brothers living in East London as well. So she had this huge family with all the children and cousins and so forth. Wonderful. Godfrey, let's hear about the book you've written. I wrote a book called North, South, North. And the reason I wrote it was I wanted to tell the story of my father and how his life was. So I reconstructed life in Lithuania and so forth. And that part of the book was quite good actually. I was going to stop and then I thought, what the hell. I write about our travail leaving South Africa going to Canada coming here all the things that happened to us And then the book became too long But my publisher said I wanted to divide it into two parts And she said, no, no, no, no.
And so it became one book. It's called North, South, North. It sold about 100 copies. And I tried to get East London to, because it's the history of East London as well, and a lot of detail. and I could not even get them to put it on the shelves even if I gave it to them as a present. They just wouldn't do it because everything was so structured with books in South Africa. So you should send it to the SA Jewish Museum in Cape Town. I could do that, I suppose. And what did your family do in East London? What did your father and his brothers do?
My father was a wholesale merchant. He started life as a traveling salesman, a smote, so they used to call him in South Africa. He did that for 18 years then he opened a little store and then from that they became wholesalers him and his brothers They did quite well They did very well They built a whole lot of buildings in East London. They had five or six nice buildings, and they lived well. And my father died. He had diabetes. He died in 1983. The year we got to death. And they stayed in East London all this time? they stayed there. It was a small Jewish community, right?
You know, at that time it was about 300 families. So it was quite a nice Jewish population. I'm told there are about 30 families today. It's so drindled. Everybody's gone to the big cities or Cape Town or Huntersburg. Alright, that was great. Thank you very much. Anything else to add? Well, thanks for doing this. It's a pleasure. Thank you.