Stein, Isaac (Itskok)

STEIN, Isaac (Itskok). Born Ponovez, Lithuania, 1st November 1899, son of Abe and Fruma Stein. Came to South Africa 1925. Educated in Ponovez. Served as Corporal in Russian Army in 1916; wounded twice. Served on Russian-Austrian Front after Revolution. Fought against pogroms in E Katrinaslav in Ukraine. In 1922, won Russian title of heavy-weight champion wrestler and weightlifter. Dealt in cattle and horses whilst in Russia. In 1935 won S.A. Title of Heavy-Weight Wrestling (against Jim McMurdo). Proprietor I. Stein, Mining Material Merchant. Chairman for last 10 years of Ponovez Society; President Ponovez Synagogue for 10 years. Chairman Ponevez Gmilis Chesed and Distress Fund. Married Bluma Solomon 1918; one daughter, three sons. Add.: 59, Charlton Terrace, Doornfontein, Johannesburg.

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There was also this advert on pages 462-3

Colourful Career of Founder of Leading Mining Material Supply House. Was S.A. Heavyweight Wrestling Champion

Mr. Isaac (Itskok) Stein, who founded the leading mining material supply and scrap metal business of I. STEIN in Denver, on the Reef in 1940, has had a romantic career, not only in South Africa, to which he immigrated in 1925, but in Russia and Lithuania as a young man.

His personal life story would make exciting reading as fiction. As fact, it is remarkable, not only for the colourful light it throws on his ability, tenacity, generosity, courage and physical prowess, but also on the vicissitudes which faced young Jews born in Eastern Europe at the turn of the century.

Itskok Stein was a cavalry corporal in the Russian Army in the first World War. He also had to take up physical arms against Russians who brutally assaulted fellow Jews in a pogrom in the Ukraine.

This biography reads like a blurb for an exciting adventure story.

STEIN, Isaac (Itskok), born 1899 in Ponevez, Lithuania. Cavalry Corporal in Russian Army, 1916, Twice wounded in 1917. Fought on the Russian Austrian Front after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,

Fought against pogroms in Ye Katrinaslav in Ukraine Started wrestling in his teens. Returned to Lithuania, and in 1922, won the Russian heavyweight wrestling title and was recognised weightlifter champion

In 1925, emigrated to South Africa, arriving in Cape Town. His family followed some months later- mother, wife and three children. Dealt in horses, trolleys and cattle. Moved to Johannesburg in 1927 and first worked in the abattoirs. He was a cattle dealer until the outbreak of the Second World War.

In 1935. Itakok Stein, at the age of 36, won the South African Heavyweight Wrestling title in a great match against Jim McMurdo.

In 1940, he started a mining material business in Marshall Street and later moved to Denver.

He has two sons, Abe and Arthur, and a daughter Leah Raik

One son died during the War, after discharge from the LL.H.

Mr. L. Stein has also been active in Communal Affairs and has been Chairman for the past ten years of the Ponevez Society, as well as President of the Ponevez Hebrew Congregation, and also Chairman of the Ponevez Gmilis Chesed. He has frequently visited Israel, and, in fact, in November and December, 1967, paid his most recent visit.