There are three Catzel brothers in Maccabi
- and one of them sings, too.
Through the years, brothers, Lionel, Louis and Hymie,
together with their other brothers, Willie and Jack
have collected an impressive sporting record.
At one stage three of them, Lionel, Hymie and Willie
were all refereeing soccer.
All the brothers are keen bowlers.

In 1957 Hymie represented South Africa
at the Maccabi Games and skipped the winning rink.
He also skipped the team which included brother Louis,
to win the Western Province
Maccabi Rinks Competition in 1958.
In order to foster Maccabi sports in the
Western Province, Hymie presented a floating trophy
for the men's pairs two years ago.

In the Maccabi Festival held in the Cape
last April, Louis played in one of the winning rinks
in the bowls section.

Lionel and Hymie were kept busy
on the administrative side.
Lionel is the chairman of the bowls section
and vice-president of the Province Maccabi Association.
He has won the singles championship and men's pairs
three times, and last year reached the quarter finals
in the Western Province singles - his first attempt.

Hymie is an hon.vice-president of the
South African Maccabi Council and a past chairman
of the Western Province Maccabi Association.
Both Hymie and Lionel are past chairmen
of the Keurboom Sports Club bowling section,
and Lionel is a past president of the club.

Lionel Catzel is also a prominent member
of the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society,
and has been producing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas
for the past 20 years.
He is the present chairman of the society, and last year
Lionel played the Grand Inquisitor of Spain
(Don Alhambra del Bolero) in "The Gondoliers",
staged at Cape Town's Labia Theatre.

"Most people, once they have heard Gilbert and Sullivan,
are infected by it, and then they never get tired of it",
Lionel told me. He confessed that he knew just about
everybody's part in most of the operettas off by heart.
Last year he hardly opened the book to study the part,
which he last played seven years ago.

Lionel has a bass baritone voice, and has sung
in the Temple Choir since its inception.

Many years ago the five Catzel brothers all sang
in the old Roeland Street Synagogue Choir.

In addition to the brothers, there are two sister,
Becky and Mary.

My EMAIL: joancatzel_AT_yahoo_DOT_com