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Graaff's Pool

Tourist attractions in Cape Town
Graaf's Pool, Sea Point, Cape Town
Graaf's Pool, Sea Point, Cape Town

Graaff's Pool is a public bathing area, tidal pool and notable landmark in the Cape Town neighbourhood of Sea Point, South Africa. The pool was built by Pieter Marais in 1910. Marais, a businessman in the wine trade, built the pool for his paralysed wife who was bathed in the ocean daily. A tunnel was built from Marais' manner house, Bordeaux, under the public road to the pool so that his wife might be brought to the pool unseen by the public. The pool got its name when it was acquired by the business man and politician Jacobus Arnoldus Graaff who bequeathed the pool to the City of Cape Town.For most of its history it was a mens only nude swimming pool. In the late 1980s through to the early 2000s the pool was know as a popular hangout for the city's gay community. Due to concerns with the location becoming a crime hot spot in the 1990s it was closed at sunset every night.Prior to 2005, although publicly accessible the pool was walled off with only is western side open to the ocean thereby allowing bathers to swim in the nude. The high walls were demolished due to public concerns with the site being frequently used by prostitutes and their clients as well as for the sale of illicit street drugs.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Graaff's Pool (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Graaff's Pool
Sea Point Promenade, Cape Town Sea Point

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -33.9124294 ° E 18.3873675 °
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Graaf's Pool

Sea Point Promenade
8005 Cape Town, Sea Point
Western Cape, South Africa
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Graaf's Pool, Sea Point, Cape Town
Graaf's Pool, Sea Point, Cape Town
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Yeshiva of Cape Town

The Yeshiva of Cape Town is a kollel and yeshiva established in 1994. Its full title is "The Rabbi Cyril and Ann Harris Yeshiva of Cape Town", named for the late Chief Rabbi. It is based in the Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation, in the suburb of Sea Point, Cape Town. The Yeshiva's ideology is Religious Zionist / Centrist Orthodox. It was previously headed by Rabbi Sam Thurgood, Rabbi Eitan Bendavid, Rabbi Moshe Ordman, Rabbi Nachum Romm, Rabbi Yossi Slotnik and Rabbi Ori Einhorn, and originally by Rabbi Jonathan Glass [1] and Moshe Kornblum [2]. It served as the blueprint for the Torah MiTzion global Kollel initiative, now operating in some 40 cities. The Bachurim (students) of the Yeshiva come from Israel for a period of 11 months, mainly from hesder yeshivot. The Yeshiva provides "a depth and breadth of Torah study for the entire Cape Town community" [3]. It operates a chavruta programme (partnered study) at various synagogues in the city; it participates in and initiates programs throughout Cape Town and has a learning program in a different community every night. It also participates in Shabbat activities in various communities each week. Over 400 people participate weekly in the yeshiva's various activities [4]. The Yeshiva has also partnered with United Herzlia Schools, the local day schools, to enhance Torah education throughout the system. The bochrim also work as madrichim ("counselors") at the Bnei Akiva South Africa summer camp.

Dutch Reformed Church, Rondebosch
Dutch Reformed Church, Rondebosch

The Dutch Reformed Church in Rondebosch is a historically important congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in the eponymous, southern suburb of Cape Town. The congregation boundaries, after the incorporation of part of Die Vlakte in 1989 and of the whole of Keurboom in December 1990, encompass Rondebosch's only two daughter congregations, the suburbs of Rondebosch, Newlands, Rosebank, Claremont, Mowbray and Rondebosch East – a huge area for a suburban congregation. Rondebosch began in 1891 as a very small and mainly English-speaking congregation, but over the years the membership increased sharply as more and more Afrikaans speakers came to live in the Southern Suburbs. The membership peaked at around 1,700 around 1965 and then, despite the incorporation of both daughter congregations, decreased more than sevenfold until 2015. Many reasons can be given for this decline. The southern suburbs have always been a non-Afrikaans environment in which Afrikaans speakers have always been a small minority. People who want to live in an Afrikaans environment among Afrikaans speakers will therefore prefer to settle in the northern suburbs. Rondebosch and the surrounding area are also a sought-after residential area with expensive property, which makes it difficult for young families to settle here. This has led to the Anglicization of the two Afrikaans and one bilingual school within the municipality boundaries, which serves as an additional deterrent to younger members who would like to have their children educated in Afrikaans. Also, the small but important source of income from the Groote Schuur estate, where cabinet ministers live, was lost to Rondebosch around 1994 when the composition of parliament changed drastically.