Fanny Klenerman

Updated: 7 Jan 2020

Fanny Klenerman Founder and Director of Vanguard Bookshop

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Summary

Fanny Klenerman was born in Lutzin in Latvia in 1897. They immigrated to South Africa just after 1900. She joined the CPSA but was expelled in 1935. She became a lifelong Trotskyist. She was active in a number of worker organizations such as the SA Workers Party, the ICU, Jewish Workers Club and help to co-found the SA Women Workers Union. Her central contribution was the establishment of the leftwing Vanguard Bookshop which played a huge role in the political education of generations of activists. The bookshop was opened in 1931 and was forced to close in 1974. Fanny Klenerman died in 1983.

The details of the life of Fanny Klenerman in the attached article were written by Veronica Belling.

How we know this

011. Jewish Affairs, Pesach 2017 2. Edward Roux: Time longer than rope: a history of the the black man's struggle in South Africa, Victor Gollancz, London 1948. 3. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/timeline-labour-and-trade-union-movement-south-africa-1920-1939 4. https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/emil-sachs 5. https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files2/slsep88.4.pdf 6. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/industrial-and-commercial-workers-union-icu 7. http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/more-shop-fanny-klenerman-and-vanguard-bookshop-johannesburg

Last updated · 7 Jan 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2020, January 7). Fanny Klenerman. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0149848

South African History Online (2020) 'Fanny Klenerman', South African History Online, 7 January. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0149848 (Accessed: 28 August 2026).

South African History Online, Fanny Klenerman [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0149848, (accessed 28 August 2026).

"Fanny Klenerman." South African History Online, 7 Jan. 2020, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0149848. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Fanny Klenerman." South African History Online. January 7, 2020. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0149848.