Chief Rabbi of Cape Town and Hebrew scholar Israel Abrahams was born in Vilna, Lithuania. He came to South Africa in 1937 and held the position of chief rabbi for more than thirty years. A year after his arrival he was appointed part-time professor of Hebrew at the University of Cape Town. Abrahams wrote extensively and also translated numerous Hebrew material into English. Upon his retirement in 1968, he settled in Jerusalem, Israel, where he died on 27 October 1973. Source: Kruger, D.W. (ed)(1972). Dictionary of South African Biography, Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, v. 5.