The Oranjia Jewish Children’s Home was established in 1911 as an orphanage. Since then thousands of Jewish children from Cape Town (most of them orphans) have been cared for at Oranjia And brought up in an environment sensitive to Jewish traditions and values.

One of the most remarkable events during Oranjia’s history (which today few people know of) is that of the “Ochberg children” also referred to as the “Immigration of the Ukranian Orphans”.   In the wake of the collapse of the old Czarist regime in Russian and the ensuing civil war, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children were orphaned in brutal pogroms which terrorised the Jewish communities of Russia and the Ukraine. Epidemics of typhoid and other diseases caused even more deaths and increased the number of orphans. A desperate cry for help went forth from Jews who were suffering terribly in the affected areas. And the call was heeded, initially by Cape Town Jewry and later by South African Jewry as a whole.   The idea of rescuing Jewish orphans from these areas quickly took form and gained support.

Isaac Ochberg, a philanthropist who had been involved with Oranjia for some time, took the initiative and proved to be a key participant in the rescue of 200 Jewish orphans from the Ukraine. At great personal danger he visited towns and cities, which included Minsk, Pinsk, Stanislav, Lodz, Lemberg, Vladowo and Brest-Litovsk and filled his quota of 200 Jewish orphans. In 1921 they were brought to Cape Town (via England) where they were cared for at Oranjia while awaiting suitable adoption placements with Cape Town Jewish families. The quantity of children was so great that some had to be send to Arcadia (the Johannesburg equivalent of Oranjia) where they too were cared for while awaiting adoption. The Ochberg children represent a proud period in the history of both South African Jewry and Oranjia.

With the passage of time and with advances in medical science the number of Jewish orphans decreased. However, a new need arose; children who were in need of care and who had at least one biological parent alive. Ant it is this type of child who Oranjia currently cares for. Indeed, not a single child at Oranjia today is an orphan – each have at lease one biological parents alive. All the children at Oranjia have been removed from their families by Order of Court in terms of the Child Care Act of 1983 having been found in need of care; some of these children have suffered severe emotional, physical and even sexual abuse. Others have parents who due to psychiatric illness have an inability (be it temporary or permanent) in coping with and caring for their children. We also have children with severe behavioural and emotional difficulties as a result of dysfunctional family functioning. Often, a child presents with a combination of these factors, which contributed, to their placements.

In the 1980’s with increased research and understanding in the field of childcare, it became abundantly clear that that institutional settings epitomized by large impersonal buildings were counter-indicated for the objectives that had been set, namely to provide an alternative specialised, professional context to remediate the consequences of removal to the children placed in our care.   It has always been Oranjia’s objective to construct a context within which such children can continue to grow and develop physically, psychologically, spiritually and emotionally.

In 1986, Oranjia laid the foundations for a shift into a new model of childcare, away from custodial principles. A group home was opened. The success of this group house living experience lead to the old institution closing and two more group homes being opened in January 1992.

From 1996 the number of residential admissions decreased resulting in the closure of first our Gorge Rd unit and then our Gardenia Avenue Unit. Currently in 2009, we are only operating one residential unit at Frank Ave.