Joseph Stone Lodge

Consecrated 3 September 1977

All the Cape Town Lodges assisted in establishing the new Lodge. Although this was a small lodge it was felt it had a great deal of potential. Wor Bro Tony Horwitz was appointed Consecration President.

Cape Town

Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa, colloquially named the Mother City. It is the legislative capital of South Africa and primate city of the Western Cape province.It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. Read more....

History of the Jews in Cape Town

The history of the Jews in South Africa mainly began under the British Empire, following a general pattern of increased European settlement in the 19th century. The early patterns of Jewish South African history are almost identical to the history of the Jews in the United States but on a much smaller scale, including the period of early discovery and settlement from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. The community grew tenfold between 1880 and 1914, from 4,000 to over 40,000. Jews were instrumental in promoting the extension of diplomatic military ties between Israel and South Africa.[5] South Africa's Jewish community differs from its counterparts in other African countries in that the majority have remained on the continent rather than emigrating to Israel. Among potential Jewish emigrants, many were likelier to select a destination popular among other South Africans, such as Australia. Read more...

Naming of the Lodge

The Lodge is named in honour of Joseph Stone, Baron Stone.  Stone was born in Llanelli in Wales, and after qualifying as a doctor at Cardiff University and Westminster Hospital Medical School worked as a GP in and around Hendon. He took on a number of patients from Hampstead Garden Suburb, at the time an area popular with left-wing politicians, one of whom was Harold Wilson, who went on to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

During World War II, as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Stone was in the British Army force that liberated Belsen concentration camp. He became heavily involved as a doctor in the initial army reaction to the situation they found in Belsen, and to the rehabilitation of the prisoners there. He was possibly the first British Jewish doctor to enter Belsen after its liberation. His brother-in-law, Sidney Bernstein, was then commissioned by the British Government to make a documentary about the liberation of Belsen and the concentration camps, which may have been influenced by the letters Stone sent home to his wife, Beryl. Read more