Leo Meyerovitz
Leo Meyerovitz was born in 1915 and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a devoutly Orthodox Jewish home. His mother was a gifted organizer who taught neighborhood children about Palestine and Hebrew songs, founded a women's Mizrachi society, and served for many years as chairman of the house committee of a Jewish orphanage. Enrolled in school at age five, Leo completed his matriculation and began studying toward a degree in engineering, but dropped out after nine months because of the Depression and a desire to earn a living. He joined a wholesale clothing firm as a costing clerk before moving to a South African chain store where a relative was managing director.
Leo undertook compulsory army training beginning in 1936 with a regiment noted for its marksmanship, and he became an expert shot. When war broke out, he remained in the army, motivated by a determination to fight against Germany. His regiment was sent to North Africa as part of the Eighth Army under Montgomery, where Leo commanded mortar sections. Ordered to eliminate a machine gun position, he refused to use bombs that would endanger his own troops, found another way to accomplish the mission, and was wounded by bullets to the hand and chest. Discharged in 1943 after long rehabilitation, he was awarded the Military Medal, gazetted in March 1942.
After the war Leo returned to business, eventually becoming a partner in a suburban soft goods shop that he built up over 40 years, specializing in school uniforms. He married in 1939, and his son was born in 1944. His son later moved to the United States and settled in Dallas in the late 1970s. Leo's wife died in 1996, and he remained in South Africa until 2006, when, at his son's urging, he moved to Dallas at an advanced age. He found American education and culture very different from South Africa's, but reflected warmly on his life, his memory, his love of Greek learning, and his admiration for Maimonides.
Full Transcript
I my mother got made me go to school at a very early age I was only five there was no such thing as in those days there was no such thing as kindergarten or preschool or something like that but the uh the government uh rules were that children were enrolled in school in the year which they turned six uh but my mother worked at some and I was enrolled in in in the primary school in the year that I turned five and whether it set me back or not I don't know but I wasn't that good a student I never loved school and anyway I
went right through to uh to the call matrick and uh I and this was right until the beginning of the depression in 1933 and I it's going to become an electrical or mechanical engineer be a Bachelor of Science in electrical or mechanical engineer uh I enrolled in University at the VW FR University a and I dropped out after 9 months because of because of the depression and I wasn't that much in love with school as I said before H and I knew that my brother was very keen and we both couldn't go to university at the time on account of the depression so I was
very keen to go and earn a living which which was one which was the reason why I dropped out and I joined a firm of uh in the wholesale business in this in the center of the important part of the wholesale section of Johannesburg where I was very lucky to get a a a job as and I was the main costing clock for the factory a very large men's clothing Factory which was around the corner of the of the big business in in the center of Johannesburg uh I was there for about 3 years and uh one of the large firms chain store woor a
South African chain store wwor which had nothing to do with any overseas wers uh and had branches in Cape Town and Durban opened up in Johannesburg and I was offered a job to to join the firm because the managing director and the the main managing director and builder of wers was a relation of of our family and he and he realized he would like to get some of the uh family into the business and I was offered much much larger salary that I was earning in the wholesale and the clothing Factory uh so I joined the wers and I was there for three years until
the war broke out and I I was I was a member of the South African Army a regiment called the uh ran light infantry but I I was a remember in 1936 to do my Army trading which was compulsory for 3 years uh uh uh that it in that meant a year a monthly Camp an annual monthly camp and uh once a week on a on on on a particular night every week there was regimental drill and so on in Johannesburg at the end of the three years I was asked by the commanding officer to please stay on in the regiment because the regiment was
a very famous regiment from a point of view of uh bxm and shooting both machine gun rifle Etc and I for the first three years that I was with the regiment I spent every Sunday every Sunday morning at an army shooting range perfecting my shooting I became an expert shoest so I was asked to stay on for another for another year this is before the war in in the uh towards the end of that year war out and I stayed on with the regiment and uh I I was a corporate at the time and eventually I remained in the Army who had because of the
the war and the uh and the fact remains that Germany was was the uh the opposition many many Jews joined joined up to fight the enemy I personally remained to fight or to stay in the Army and to fight against Germany but not for England it was purely in my point of you are fought against Germany and that's why I was still in the Army we the regiment was eventually sent to North Africa where we joined um um f Mar Montgomery and the E Army we were part of the E Army and uh in one of the battles uh I was in charge of uh
two mortar sections 4 in mortars for which expel a 20b bomb for at least almost a mile and we were quite expert on it and the orent had 9% Jews uh when when the the uh uh 9% J they were all whites uh where the rest of South Africa the Jews were only about 3% of the whites so the Jews were very patriotic in that respect as regards fighting at Germany during one of the campaigns I was ordered by by messenger from the commanding officer to eradicate eradicate a machine onist which is holding up an attack and uh I refus I told the messenger to
tell the commanding officer that we can't do that because the bombs that we sent out are devastating in and was with we were too close to the to the enemy and it would kill many too many of our own troops so I refus to do that and I said I would see what we could do without sending bombs uh I uh I managed to get rid of the Machine Gun Nest and in theing participation or action I was wounded I had a bullet through the hand and a bullet in the chest and I was rushed off to a hospital a field Hospital we and I
was then flown in a plane to uh to a South African entt Hospital a few miles away and I eventually was eventually sent home uh I had to go for a physical therapy for Disabilities and so on for about 18 months afterwards and until I was discharged in 1943 the the the the original mobilization to going outside outside of Johannesburg to the to North was uh in 1940 in June 1940 s TR okay go ahead uh let me just think about know what happens all right I when she came back as I say I was sent back by ship to Johannesburg and uh I I
was attending phys therapy Rehabilitation for for almost 18 months and during that time it only took an hour or hour and a half attention every day but I remained in I was still in the Army and I remained doing phys therapy and helping helping the Army in the in the hospital so I became quite an expert as physiotherapist uh when I was charge in June strangely enough exactly the same day in June 1943 I rejoined wers who were paying part of my salary to the wife while while I was in the Army and they sort of made up the difference between the army pay and
my pay which is very magnificent to them I remained with him for about 6 or seven months and uh somebody came to me a member of uh and told suggested to me that we go into business because with my the war was still on and with my Army uh career I would get a license to purchase machinery and whatever which would which was denied the general public because of the war the shortage of the wall and uh we would uh do manufacture Goods which were not available on account of the war I so I land up for uh for a couple of years until the
war ended with with a with a couple of Partners and a factory uh when the war ended the government just allowed Goods to come from overseas ignoring the uh local people the local factories and they and the fact that we're going to have opposition from overseas so we gave up the factory and I went back to work but not for wwor it wouldn't be fair to go to wwor so I joined with our mother firm eventually I was offered a position one of was other with other f I was offered a position to become a partner in a business in a suburb where they needed
somebody who who was knowledgeable of that kind of business and uh the uh the partner would just Supply the finances for it so I joined this uh little shop in a subb and I built it up and until I was there for 40 years in a sub the the shop was a soft goods business which specialized mainly or didn't specialize but I made it a specialty of supplying school uniforms for the schools in the area of the suburb the whole point is is that in just Africa all the schools wear different uniforms it's a sort of it's a wonderful thing because it gives a chance
for parents who can't afford a change of clothing for everything that there's there's then for there is equality for everybody if they were school uniform and besides it was sort of option and and an adaption from the English way of doing doing education which was the South Africa way of doing education which is very very good uh I was there for 40 years very successful it was small business but successful in that time in 1940 in 1945 I purchased a house in a suburb called emerentia and uh it was about 12 mil from the center of town a very nice suburb and my son was
born uh uh in 1944 I got married in 1939 by the way just before the war and the reason at least just before the war was declared oh not sorry it was 3 months or four months after war was declared I got married but the arrangements had been uh arranged 6 months before war was declared so we couldn't we didn't put off the wedding and it means that that I actually went to Camp from my honeymoon I went for mon camp and and it's only when I came back from the army that my that I had a son born in 1944 name of Dar Lester
and uh I remained in South Africa for 90 years for my for for my 90 years until I was 19 and uh with son went to America he he was very successful in South Africa he he went he went to the 1960s he with one he was on the very first plane from South Africa to help Israel in 1967 the 1967 war and they remained overseas he remained in in Israel for 9 months or so then he went via England where he spent some time and he eventually landed up in Canada there's quite a thing which he will probably tell in in his uh taping
or something and he got married in Canada where he and his wife then came to South Africa almost immediately uh we didn't go my my wife and I did not go to the wedding because we thought he was coming to sou Africa in any case and we would rather give him the money we would spend for the trip when he comes to South Africa he's got a start in life so they arrived from South Africa and uh it was very very successful in South Africa and a a firm a a director of a large firm there connected with the business that he was in he
was in Insurance mainly uh offered him a position in America in 1978 and in Dallas which he accept with the with the offer that he would get a green card in immediately and that he would be uh recompensed for his traveling expenses Etc so that's how he landed up in America by 19 B 1979 and uh I I I didn't visit him I visit I did not visit him until 1990 I must when I was 75 and uh uh you I I came almost regularly to to America to Dallas and my wife died in 19 in 1996 but I remained in the house until 2006
when my son said I should come to America and I landed up in America and that's that was my story okay Leo would you like to U elaborate about your Jewish affiliations in South Africa did you belong to a synagogue Orthodox now I tell you as I say I should have waited until you were asking good I can tell you about my mothers my my affiliations as regards jewishness my mother was very very my family was Orthodox and uh my mother particularly was a wonderful organizer she used to have children's classes at home teaching us about Israel before about Palestine before it was Israel she
taught us other children as well she taught us Hebrew songs so on and so forth she was a Founder member she actually founded the society for women of the mrai society in Johannesburg she was an organizer and uh she helped to organize the formation of a Jewish orphanage in South Africa which was a very very elaborate business it was a wonderful home in a very post suburb and she became chairman of the house Committee of the orphanage for very many years she helped to form uh committees in different subbs half a dozen different committees which were responsible for for getting members membership to support the
orphanage and for these committees to organize faiths and uh and meetings for for the charity part of the orphanage uh so you were raised Orthodox then right sorry they were I said orthodox oberved all holidays everything you observed all the Jewish holidays in your home oh yes very o Society South African Jews were Orthodox there were only two kinds of of Jews in South Africa uh there was a reform which is very mild form of Orthodoxy and they they were the total uh at its height the reformed section was probably uh about 10% sent to the Jewish population uh the Jewish population of Johannesburg uh
the average before before The Exodus of from South Africa all the Jews because of the aparte business and uh uh they concerned about the future of South Africa for their children the young young people left sou Africa in in hordes all went for all over the world and that's probably one of the reasons why my son went to America and uh the reformed Cong said was at the most 10% the Orthodox the Jewish population in the main were all observant Orthodox either satic or askanazi mostly asazi very much so did you go to Hebrew school as a child they had Hebrew schools they didn't have
in those days they didn't have yeshivas or anything they they were they were Hebrew schools but not and they were not co-educational they were 90% he boys only and as the years went on as today they got famous Yas and seminars for girls and so on and so forth but as far as I know now there was never co-educational whereas in the Engish the uh as regards the English teaching of of children normally Gentiles and so on and so forth over the years they eventually became coeducational otherwise it was as far as Johannesburg was concerned it were five or six high schools entirely boys or
entirely girls and as the years went on towards uh towards 1960 or so they gradually became they they as a new school started they became educ co-educational I see Leo I am sure that what you're did you come to Dallas I came to Dallas in n in 2006 six you're new here then relatively speaking did you find a great cultural difference here in Dallas as compared to Johannesburg Jewish Community yes from a point of view of schools the schools of Co the education was terrible MH here in Dallas is Con compar to South Africa but America's got that most of America not all the states
some states have super education I've discovered but in the main the general setup is it it isn't set up to have good education because each state is is a is a country on its own that's right whereas in South Africa all the provinces are governed by the single government and they the the laws and rules and so on apply to the whole country there's no no uh they have no separate selection of what to do they have the same curriculum the same education the same uh uh exams Etc complete difference complete difference so coming here from South Africa was a complete cultural difference here absolutely
yes in many ways in many ways it's very uh comparatively uh inferior much inferior well the results are there I mean the fact reminds that there are so wonderful things happening in America but that's because of the large population there has to be large PE people Texas in particular is very good that way it has a wonderful reputation for uh inventions and so on especially industrially I mean the invention of uh of the microchip which which which is revolutionized the world was was invented in TAS in deas by by a man named Jack Kilby and um so Deus has a reputation for uh for that
sort of thing okay okay in concluding questions uh throughout your life have you had I'd like to mention earlier on that if ever you visit South Africa anybody visits South Africa especially about great grandchildren and so on I was born in the address was five clear Road Fords and uh it's still there as far as I know it was there until I left South Africa so I presume the house is still there and uh we lived in that I lived in that house until 1938 when we moved to emiria to greenside and then the war broke out as I say and I moved on okay
you have had a great life Leo and I'm very honored to do your interview with you and in concluding question uh who are your role models or what are you most proud of in your life what any any particular person that was a significant role model for you growing up in Africa not really not really okay the only thing is is that as I grew up I became I I somehow I didn't realize at the time but as the years went on after about 50 years I realized that I developing a fantastic memory which I never used or or realized I had I I could
never remember names or anything like that so much so that when I went to high school they they uh the high school had an offer they offered they wanted the the uh the students to become to learn a lot about classics and uh they suggested or made an offer that if you took Greek for five years that you're at supposed to be at a middle school or High School you could drop two subjects and the two subjects that you could drop were history and geography which being Jewish are dropped immediately into Greek Greek has been very useful to me in that it improved my Engish
there's so much of Engish and for that matter which is derived from Greek Greek is considered a holy language for the Torah in Orthodox circles from the time of uh from from the time of the Babylonian uh era because Greece was the cultural center of the world so much so that that every Roman who wanted to become uh knowledgeable went to Greece to study and that's how the Ram who is a wonderful follower of Aristotle's philosophy he didn't know Greek at all but he learned about at Aristotle's Philosophy from Arabic the the Arabians considered Aristotle a brilliant man too and he learned his Aristotle Philosophy
from his knowledge of Arabic and his knowledge of Arabic was RA Ram that's that's uh my Mones he he was brought up from the age of 13 to the age of 23 he was brought up in Morocco because he he and his father who was a brilliant man m one his his father's name was a rabbi of uh kordova and uh they had to leave Spain because either they had to convert or they would sentenced to death or they had to immigrate and he immigrated with his father of course when he was 13 to Morocco where he had a wonderful secular education which is the
wonderful thing about the lucky thing of us that made him so brilant is the secular education of the r my Mones my Mones is is one of your role models yes very very very significant person I must agree yes to a certain extent not so much a role model as I learned a great deal from his uh uh book uh which translated is um going to Blink the principles of Judaism no no okay uh it's minut okay it's it's all right it's okay um a guide for the for the perplexed perplexed I see and um there is one thing that's very important about Judaism my
my view of Judaism is very much different to the Sages of of yester year and the reason is not because I'm clever or anything like that but I have more uh more knowledge through the Sciences of things which they had no idea about for example until and until 400 years ago there world the entire universe no matter who it was the entire universe thought or uh realized or thought that the center of the universe was the planet Earth and that the Sun and the Moon orbited the the Earth and they had no and everybody who saw the sun the moon and stars were under the
impression even the great the very great Arabic astronomers who are very brilliant thought that every object in sky was a dis not a sphere not a ball although in in the uh in my Mon's uh for a text he talks about the sphere of the moon and stars but he only knew it as a disc so much so that they all me all wondered what the thickness was with with with the disc paper thin or miles thck or whatever and tookus who was a Hollander worked out let's see you e e not a dis but it was a sphere it was a wall and he
improved the telescope he didn't discover the telescope he improved the telescope and he also adopted and and uh explained that the sun was a center and that everybody else the whole system the planets all orbited the Sun and for that he he incidentally his his uncle was a an Archbishop of Rome and uh he was he he was condemned for heresy some much said that he was contempt to death for his heretic thoughts and and suggestions uh and eventually he was made to to retract his statements but in the end and he was confined to what they called house arrest and that's when he eventually
died but it was through Galileo that we got our knowledge now that's my point about the sages and nobody else knew about these things and that was 5 600 years ago subsequently to that the next great discovery which is only 250 260 years ago was a discovery of oxygen by Priestly who happened to be a priest as well although his name was Priestly but he was an amateur scientist an amateur astronomer and he wasn't the only one there was coincidentally there was a a swed by the name of schula who also discovered the same way by the heating of potassium oxide which gave off a
gas and they called the gas I don't know who came with this name but they called it fire air and they are both acknowledged as a discoveries of oxygen and why I mention oxygen is because and and the sages is because in Bible God breathe in nostril into the breathe something the into the nostril Adam so that must have been oxygen and my view is this that mankind is alive because there is a a life force which Hashem which God has given everything not only man a life force has given men everything and the life force is fueled kept Alive by oxygen right and it
applies to every single living thing on the planet that includes uh blood cells it includes everything but it has to have oxygen absolutely so life is three things the whole of the universe is three things it's the life force oxygen and friction nothing can exist without friction you couldn't be able to hold anything you wouldn't be able to right be anything with that friction and these are the three things and this is something which the sages no matter how brilliant they were couldn't know until oxygen was discovered and that's why my when I say that that science is a help not because these sages were
ignorant but they just didn't know that's right that's my view of okay yish okay Leo thank you so much you have given such invaluable information in your concluding part of your interview I'd like to take your picture okay hold on would you you look at me now okay thank you Leo okay there's something I didn't mention I don't doesn't have to be honored at all but because I uh go ahead disob disobeyed an army order of was given an award good and uh I I I've got the military medal which is which is uh given for uh for better field experience that's great that's right
very good and this was published sorry this was published in the uh it was an immediate award but was published officially in the in the London government Gazette of the 3rd of March 1942 I see okay thank you very much Leo okay was an honor to have you here