Cape Town, 11 December, 1900

To my dearest wife, Taube Kretzmar, and my dear children, David and Noah, and my daughters Leah and Freda, Be well and live in wealth and comfort.

Dearest wife, I have received your letter of (???). I thank the Lord for His mercy granting you good health and I can inform you too that TG I am in good health – God grants that we may always hear good from each other. I send you out now £4 sterling. May God grant that you use it in good health. (Forty roubles.) Write me how you stand financially, and I apologise for not writing last week so that it may be that I may not get a letter this week. So I have not yet received a letter this week. It may be that the account may even out. In future we must write regularly. And from my side, I will do the same. I have no news to write now – I feel bad that I am writing such a poor letter with a few counted words, but what can I do as the writing won’t come. So this time it must remain so. Be well and stay well, as you are wished by your devoted husband, who wishes good fortune from the depths of his heart, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet cordially my dear parents, Mr Yehuda Leib, and my modest mother, Beile, and the scholarly young man Yaacov Kretzmar, and my sister Hinda Leah, and my brother Wolf, I greet you all heartily and wish you all good luck, from me, your son and brother, Tuvye Kretzmar

I also greet my dear mother-in-law, the worthy Mrs Neche, my brother-in-law, Moishe Schochet and his wife, my sister Sarah and their children. And to my brother-in-law, the scholar Aaron Morris. Shalom uvrachah ad blidah (unlimited greetings). And to my sister-in-law, Chana Reza, I bid shalom to all of you, may you be blessed by Him who provides peace. From me, your brother-in-law and son-in law who loves you, Tuvye Kretzmar