Ray Harmel

Ray Harmel (1 December 1905 – 11 March 1998) was a Lithuanian-born South African anti-apartheid activist. She was a member of the South African Communist Party, the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa and the African National Congress.

Early life and family Harmel was born Ruchel “Teibke” Adler in Raseiniai, a shtetl in Lithuania. Her father, Moise Adler ran a cartage business before going into trade. Her mother, Fagamilla, was the daughter of a Talmud scholar and was herself a strict Orthodox Jew. Ray was one of seven children and the family spoke Yiddish at home. The family lived in poverty and Ray began working to contribute to the household after five years of schooling.

In the early 1930s, she became a member of the South African Communist Party. Among her tasks were both fundraising and selling the party newspaper, Umsebenzi. She was also Treasurer of the Johannesburg District Committee of the party.

After ten years as a factory worker, Harmel took on a new venture to sell clothes to Africans living in Sophiatown.

Harmel and her husband were friends with Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie. Glamorous photographs of the couple in their wedding attire, including the wedding dress designed and sewn by Ray, were taken at the Harmel home in Johannesburg.

Harmel spent her final years living in Hammerson House, a Jewish nursing home in Hampstead Garden Suburb in London.