South African Jewish Museum, Jewish heritage museum in City Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.

The South African Jewish Museum is located in Cape Town's city center and documents the history of Jewish communities in the country. The building contains exhibitions with artifacts, documents, and reconstructions that illustrate how these communities lived and where they came from.

In 1996 philanthropist Mendel Kaplan decided to create a national museum of South African Jewish life, funded through the Kaplan Kushlick Foundation. A purpose-built building was commissioned, while the Old Shul, the oldest synagogue in Southern Africa and home to a smaller Jewish museum since 1958, became the entrance. President Nelson Mandela opened the museum in 2000, accompanied by Helen Suzman and Kaplan. The Old Shul reopened in 2023 after renovation supported by the US State Department's Ambassadorial Fund for Cultural Preservation.

The museum explores how Jewish communities established themselves in South Africa and adapted to their new surroundings over generations. Visitors can see how immigrant traditions merged with local life through personal stories and everyday objects.

The museum occupies the grounds of Gardens Shul in the Gardens neighbourhood, in the same complex as the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Gardens Jewish Community Centre, which houses the Jacob Gitlin Library. Visitors enter through the Old Shul, the oldest synagogue in Southern Africa. The Iziko South African National Gallery and the Houses of Parliament are a short walk away.

The museum entrance is the Old Shul, the oldest synagogue in Southern Africa, which housed a smaller Jewish museum from 1958. A US State Department Ambassadorial Fund for Cultural Preservation grant paid for its renovation, and it reopened in 2023 in a ceremony attended by US ambassador Reuben Brigety.