Cape Town, 2 January, 1901

To my dear wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well in happiness and good fortune. And to my dear children, sons David and Noah, and daughters Leah and Freda, to be well and grow up in wealth and comfort.

Dearest wife, this week I have not received any letter and therefore I did not want to write, but as a gentleman should not copy what an ‘Eidene’ (?) does, I am writing to you but only briefly. The most important thing is to inform you that TG I am well. May God give the same news from you. I thank you for sending me the tallis katan (tsitsit– only if you had sent me a woollen one, I would have been better pleased with it), but in this you are not to blame. It’s not your fault if you don’t know my taste. In the meanwhile, we have to wait until the times are quiet and when somebody else will go to Africa, you can send along a woollen tallis kattan. And further, I am asking for nothing more. I’m not asking for topboots and socks, everything is obtainable here and there is no need to bother to send anything and ask anyone for favours. There is nothing more to say. I close my writing this time without your letter – it will be enough what I write now, be well, your dear husband, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet cordially my dear parents, my father Yehuda Leib, my chaste and modest mother Beile, and my brothers and sisters Hinda and Chana – I greet them all and bless them. From me, your son and brother, who wishes you all the best, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet my brother-in-law, Moishe Schochet, and his wife, who is my sister, and the children – my brother-in-law Aaron, and my sister-in-law, Chana Reza. May you all live in good health and pleasure as is the wish of one who loves you, Tuvye Kretzmar