SHMUKLER SHINES IN
‘MAMMA MIA’ / 12
LEVINSOHN - THE KING
OF IMPROV / 13
LYNDALL
GORDON’S
LOADED GUNS /
13, 16
The Jewish Report wishes our readers and
advertisers Shana Tova and well over the Fast
www.sajewishreport.co.za
Friday, 17 September 2010 / 9 Tishrei 5771
Volume 14 Number 34
ME peace talks - settlement
freeze one of main obstacles
PAGE 10
A CROSS-SECTION
OF HISTORY
Commemorating the 33rd anniversary of Black Consciousness Movement leader activist Steve Bantu Biko’s death, Tali
Nates, director of the Holocaust Centre in Joburg, spoke about medical ethics during the Holocaust under the auspices
of the Biko Foundation for Bio-Ethics. In the picture, she is flanked by (from left) palaeoanthropologist Professor Philip
Tobias, known for his work in medical ethics; Nkosinathi Biko, son of the late Steve; and human rights advocate,
George Bizos who vigorously fought apartheid. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ILAN OSSENDRYVER) SEE STORY ON PAGE 16
SAJBD challenges
SAKS: Did Arabs flee or ChaiFM radiothon: R3m INSIDE FEATURE:
Motlanthe on Israel / 3 were they pushed? / 11 pledged for Hatzolah / 4 KOSHERWORLD / 8-9
YOUTH / 18-19
SPORTS / 24
LETTERS / 14-15
CROSSWORD & BRIDGE / 20
COMMUNITY BUZZ / 7 WHAT’S ON / 20
2
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
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SHABBAT AND
FAST TIMES
September 17/9 Tishrei
Yom Kippur: Anything to declare?
AFTER A long journey, you are
finally home. As you collect your
suitcases from the carousel, you
reflect on their contents. That was
quite a shopping spree overseas...
Now you must make a decision.
You can take a chance on the green
channel and try to walk through,
looking innocent. It is, however,
quite likely one of the officers in
the SARS uniforms will call you
aside and demand to inspect the
contents of your bags - there will
then be a heavy price to pay, possibly including severe penalties.
The other option is the red channel. There you will need to fill in a
declaration, be truthful about what
you carry in your luggage and offer
to settle the appropriate duties.
During the actual voyage, the
travellers were in different classes.
Some travelled first class and look
totally refreshed, having spent the
last hours in the lap of luxury; others could only afford business but
still had a fairly comfortable trip.
Most were crammed in economy
seats, with no space to move. Yet
now, as the passengers converge
toward the exit, there is no distinction: all have to cross the same controls and are subject to the same
laws. If anything, the expensive
valises with the “Priority Handling”
tags are more likely to invite the
scrutiny of the authorities.
PARSHAT
ACHAREI
Rabbi Yossi Chaikin,
Oxford Synagogue
Yom Kippur is essentially a border crossing in time. As the Asseret
Yemei Teshuva come to a close,
Hashem places His final seal on our
judgement for the year ahead. We
approach the control post with
some trepidation. We scan our baggage mentally.
During our journey of the past
year, have we picked up any forbidden items, contraband or restricted
goods? Have we exceeded the dutyfree allowance? We reflect on everything we did, thought of or spoke
about. Is it all legal?
Some will attempt to sail through
Yom Kippur in the green line, failing to engage in the process of systematic soul-searching required.
They may do so in arrogance, foolishness or total ignorance.
Most of us are fully aware that
there is no tricking the customs
agent on High; he can see right
through our bags and knows exactly what we are carrying.
We will spend the Day of
Atonement in the red zone, contemplating the “shopping” of the last 12
months. We will read the “manual”
thoroughly and in the Machzor will
find lists of what we should not be
carrying across the boundary line.
Over and over, we will recite the
viduy, the alphabetical confession
list, from Alef to Tav, of what is
deemed contraband.
Of course there are duties to pay.
These can be found in that same
Machzor: Teshuva, Tefila and
Tzedaka. You will not get very far
trying to say sorry to the officers at
Oliver Tambo; Hashem, however,
accepts our sincere regret and our
commitment not to repeat the same
behaviour. It also helps to pray (that
might work at the airport too!).
And then there is charity, lots of it:
before Yom Kippur, on Yom Kippur
(monetary pledges and acts of kindness) and after Yom Kippur. All
three have the power of changing
the outcome of Hashem’s decree for
us in the year ahead.
I have never worked out why one
would choose a career as a customs
agent - there must be some deeprooted sadistic tendency. On Yom
Kippur, Hashem is not waiting to
catch us out. He is waiting for us with
open arms, to perform the required
formalities and to cross the Neila line
with the ultimate gift - Divine pardon
and complete atonement.
Shabbat Shalom and Gmar
Chatima Tova.
Yom Kippur - time of repentance
RITA LEWIS
YOM KIPPUR is the day described
by one of our greatest sages,
Maimonides as “the universal time
of repentance” (z’man teshuva
lakol) and is spent fasting and praying for atonement and forgiveness.
It marks the culmination of the 10
days known as the Days of Awe,
which is the period between Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
As with most of the Jewish festivals, many unusual customs are
observed by different communities.
Some of these customs have developed over the years from local practices and over time they have become
“traditional” and “accepted”.
Eating in Jewish life has always
been an important matter perhaps
based on the concept of “Ein
Kemach, ein Torah” - where there is
no flour/bread, there is no Torah.
So, for some Jews it is the custom
to feast on the day before Yom
Kippur. The feasting on this particular day is so the person should have
the strength to fast and pray correctly on Yom Kippur.
At the final meal before the fast,
some communities dip their bread
in honey as on Rosh Hashanah.
It is believed that only food which
is easily digested, such as chicken,
should be eaten prior to the fast,
although there is the custom not to
eat fish at this meal.
Foods which do not generate body
heat such as garlic, eggs, etc and
very salty foods which make a person thirsty, should be avoided.
Generally, children under the age
of bar- or batmitzvah, do not fast - or
they fast for just as long as they can.
In many communities it is tradi-
tional for parents to bless their children before they go to the synagogue, imploring G-d to grant them a
year of good life, health, prosperity
and peace and for the children to get
through their school curriculum.
Other parents have the custom of
going to their rabbis to ask them for
a blessing for themselves and their
children for the coming year.
Some have the custom to ask
their neighbours for “food”, representing the idea of begging. The
reason being that if it had been
declared in heaven that the person
was to become a beggar, through
this request for “food”, the decree
would become fulfilled and therefore annulled.
By the same token, there is also
the custom of requesting a friend to
flagellate them. This is done, not
with any force or to inflict pain, but
like the food begging concept, the
purpose is that if a decree was made
in heaven for the person to be
flogged, he would already have
received the punishment and therefore it could be annulled.
Clothing is also an important
aspect of all festivals and as Yom
Kippur is a very serious day, frivolous attire is frowned upon.
Women traditionally do not wear
ostentatious jewellery on this day
and traditionally wear white as a
sign of purity.
Men, too, generally change their
yarmulkes and kittles, (if they wear
one) to white ones. Although they
traditionally wear their taleisim,
prayer shawls, in the daytime, on
this day it is also worn at night for
the Kol Nidre service.
On Yom Kippur it is not just the
things we do, but the things we may
Acharei
Kol Nidrei Night
Starts
17:44
18:21
17:32
17:51
17:53
17:44
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
September 18/10 Tishrei
Yom Kippur
Fast ends
18:33
19:13
18:22
18:41
18:44
18:35
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
September 22/14 Tishrei
Erev Succot
Candle lighting
17:46
18:10
17:34
17:54
17:56
17:47
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
September 23/15 Tishrei
First Day Succot
Candle lighting
18:35
Blowing the shofar in shul to mark 19:17
the end of Yom Kippur.
18:25
18:44
not do, that are important.
18:48
On this day, five things are forbidden to us: eating, drinking,
18:38
wearing leather shoes (or other
apparel made of leather), cohabiting and anointing with oil. As this
last one is no longer enacted in
modern times, women should not
use creams, hair gels etc.
Washing should be kept to a minimum and with cold water only.
If a person is ill, he or she should
consult a rabbi regarding his or
her specific needs.
Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement for our sins - all sins - not just
those between man and G-d. Those
are up to G-d to deal with.
The sins between man and man
are a different matter. To attain forgiveness for these sins, it is imperative that we ask the person whom
we have harmed (or think we have
harmed) for his/her forgiveness.
Sometimes this in itself is the hardest part of being forgiven - no-one
wants to admit to being wrong.
But this is the time to ask for
“mechillah” - forgiveness - so that
(hopefully) we will be forgiven and
everyone can feel cleansed and
resume their friendly relations
once again.
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
September 24/16 Tishrei
Second Day Succot
Candle lighting
17:47
18:10
17:35
17:55
17:57
17:48
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
September 25/17 Tishrei
Chol Hamoed Succot
Shabbat ends
18:36
19:18
18:26
18:45
18:49
18:40
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Port Elizabeth
East London
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
3
SAJBD and government clear
the air
DAVID SAKS
PHOTOGRAPH: ILAN OSSENDRYVER
SOUTH AFRICA’S temporary recall
of its ambassador to Tel Aviv, headed the agenda at Monday’s meeting
between Deputy President Kgalema
Motlanthe and the SAJBD.
The Board requested a meeting
with Motlanthe following Ambassador Ismael Coovadia’s recall, for
what turned out to be a seven-week
period, in protest over Israel’s handling of the Gaza flotilla affair at the
beginning of June, during which
nine Turkish citizens died.
Prior to this, there were a number
of meetings and communications
between the Board and the Department of International Relations and
Co-operation over the issue, including with Foreign Relations Deputy
Minister Sue van der Merwe,
Director Public Diplomacy Saul
Molobi and Deputy Director
General, Asia and the Middle East,
Ambassador Sisa Ngombane.
Van der Merwe was also present at
Monday’s meeting. The SAJBD delegation comprised National Chairman Zev Krengel, Vice-Chairmen
Mary Kluk and Doron Joffe,
National Director Wendy Kahn and
SAZF Chairman Avrom Krengel.
Zev Krengel used the occasion to
express the Jewish community’s
deep unhappiness over Coovadia’s
Deputy
President
Kgalema
Motlanthe,
with Zev
Krengel,
national
director,
SAJBD.
recall. While it was a reality that
South Africa would sometimes be
deeply critical of Israel’s actions, it
was crucial from the Jewish community’s point of view that full
diplomatic ties between the countries were maintained. Any move to
break off, or weaken, those ties
crossed a red line.
Krengel likened the South
African Jewry to the “children”
who suffered when their “parents” South Africa and Israel - fought
with one another.
Avrom Krengel described the
decision to withdraw Coovadia as
jarring and premature and as having gone against South Africa’s policy of constructive engagement.
Members of the delegation next
raised the question of the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas, Gilad
Shalit and any role South Africa
might be able to play, whether in
helping secure his release or at least
ensure that the conditions of his
imprisonment be addressed, such as
in his being allowed regular Red
Cross visits. Motlanthe undertook to
see what might be done in this area.
A third item discussed was a proposed project to document the antiapartheid struggle, through recording oral testimonies in a similar way
to the project carried out, with the
support of Steven Spielberg, by the
Shoah Foundation Institute for
Visual History and Education at the
University of Southern California.
Krengel first raised the idea at the
SAJBD’s
meeting
with
then
President Thabo Mbeki in 2006, since
which a number of further exploratory meetings have been held.
Motlanthe said that he was encouraged by the resumption of peace
talks between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority and expressed
his government’s strong support for
these initiatives.
Israel gaining in percentage of
world Jewish population
JERUSALEM - The trend towards larger
Jewish families in Israel, as compared to the
birthrate among Jews in the Diaspora, is
seen as a continuing pattern in the latest
population figures, according to demographer Sergio DellaPergola, the Shlomo Argov
Professor of Israel-Diaspora Relations at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)
has released figures showing that the total
population of Israel, on the eve of the Jewish
new year of 5771, stood at 7 645 000, 75,5 per
cent of whom are Jews.
In Israel, the Jewish birthrate averages
just under three children (2,9) per family, the
highest in many years. This stands in comparison to an average of under two children
per Jewish family in other developed countries, noted Prof DellaPergola..
This differential is due to more than one
factor, DellaPergola explained. One is the
very high birthrate among Haredi families.
Another is an overall feeling of well-being
among the general population.
Another element is an upswing in immigration to Israel. “Although the number of
immigrants is relatively low compared to
earlier years in the 62-year history of the
state” said DellaPergola, “it is still higher
than in the previous year and shows the
influence of the problematic economic situation in the world and the uncomfortable feeling due to trends towards anti-Semitism and
anti-Israel feelings.”
As opposed to the increases in Israel, the
trend of a declining Jewish population continues elsewhere, noted DellaPergola, due to
such factors as intermarriage and a rapidly
ageing population with its attendant rise in
the number of deaths over births.
“While the Jewish population in Israel
grew by 1,7 per cent in the past year, in the
Diaspora it declined by 0,2 per cent,” said
DellaPergola.
After Israel, the country with the largest
Jewish population is the United States,
according to DellaPergola, with 5,3 million
Jews, though this number is subject as to
how one defines who is a Jew.
Other Jewish population figures, he said,
were: France, 485 000; Canada, 375 000;
Britain, 292 000; Russia, 205 000; Argentina,
182 000; Germany, 119 000; Australia, 108 000;
and Brazil, 96 000.
4
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
‘Demographic representivity’
a no-no, says FW de Klerk
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY
MOIRA SCHNEIDER
CAPE TOWN
Reuvain Jacks; Bernard Siegal; Lance Abramson; Eli Lewenstein;
and Shaun Spruch.
Community,
through ChaiFM,
opens its heart
for Hatzolah
ALISON GOLDBERG
PHOTOGRAPHER:
JOE YUDELOWITZ
HATZOLAH and ChaiFM’s radiothon on September 2 to raise
funds for the ambulance service
drew an outstanding response
from the local community Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
Over R3 million was pledged the equivalent of over half of
Hatzolah’s annual running costs,
according to Hatzolah volunteer
CEO Lance Abramson, a lawyer
by profession.
“The funds are still coming in
and we’re still trying to work out
the exact amount. We have another week to get the figures correct.
There have been some duplications. So far we have already collected R2 million. It was an amazing day and couldn’t have been
achieved without ChaiFM.”
Sponsor of the day was Bidvest
while Legal & Tax, headed by
Benjy Porter, ran the call centre.
ChaiFM did the broadcasting
and provided the channel to the
community. People tuned into the
station and watched the total,
urging it on... and on.
Hatzolah has its bookkeepers
finalising the pledges to see
which have come in and then
phoning back those who have
pledged.
The 11-year-old Hatzolah has
never done a radiothon before
and Abramson found it “unbelievable” to collect such an
amount in one day. The organisation is funded by the community
through individual donations.
Ninety per cent of its 50-strong
team of volunteers consists of
paramedics (qualified to different
levels) and doctors (six in all).
Altogether it has six ambulances
- three of which are operational
at any one time and the ambulance service receives some 200
emergency calls a month. The
service is free to the community.
ChaiFM GM Maayan Steele
told of being inundated with calls
from people who wanted to share
their experiences with Hatzolah
and to challenge others to meet
or beat their pledges. Although
Chai’s listenership is only
around 44 500 according to Radio
Advertising Bureau figure, the
radiothon proved the benefit of
having the community pull
together for one cause.
The radiothon ran from 06:00 to
22:45, breaking all South African
records at the R3m mark in the
words of ChaiFM founder and
programme manager, Kathy
Kaler, who broadcasted the show.
The previous record was by Radio
702 at R2,2 million for an educational institution a few years ago.
ChaiFM’s last and only radiothon so far, for Yad Aharon on
April 2, 2009, raised R1,1 million.
Some of the calls to the station
were very moving. Even domestic
workers called in, with one pledging R100. Another call came from
an 11-year-old, mentally handicapped child, Chaim, who
pledged R4 plus R1 for his brother who could not speak and he
challenged others who have siblings who could not speak.
It was difficult at times to distinguish whether the calls were
from children themselves or from
their parents. One young girl
pledged R40, taking from her own
savings for art supplies. Children
from Arcadia (orphanage) collectively pledged R219. Calls also
came in from the elderly.
“We had three different hot
spots where people could go to
make their contributions. One
was at Michello’s , a second at the
Sandringham Strip and the third
at Norwood Mall. Speaking to the
women who were volunteering
there, they reported that a lot of
non-Jewish people went to those
places to donate,” Kaler said.
• Taking the opportunity to
inform Jewish Report readers of
the latest news at ChaiFM, Kaler
announced that the radio station
had just appointed a new CEO,
Kevin Fine, who will take up his
position on October 1 and who,
with his extensive experience in
South African radio, is expected
to take the radio station “to a new
level”. It will be the station’s second birthday on November 8.
FORMER PRESIDENT FW de
Klerk has praised the South
African Jewish community for
its social commitment, at a
breakfast hosted by the Herzlia
Interact
Committee
as
a
fundraiser for the SAJBD’s
Refugee Relief Fund to combat
xenophobia. He also slammed
what he called “demographic
representivity”.
“From my experience of the
hospitality, generosity and deep
social commitment of Jewish
South Africans, your community
- while proudly preserving its
own traditions and religion practices ubuntu in an exemplary fashion,” he said.
Interact is a youth division of
Rotary and the Herzlia Interact
Club falls under the Rotary Club
of Sea Point.
Speaking on the rights of
minorities, including the Jewish
community, De Klerk said the
Constitution made adequate provision for all communities to
practise their religion and
express their culture. “The
Jewish community has a right to
education at excellent institutions like Herzlia - where it can
lay the foundation for the preservation of its culture and religion.
“It has the right to establish
and run family businesses without undue interference by the
state; it has a right to pursue its
interests with the help of nongovernmental organisations that
share its values.
“It has a right to old-age homes
where its members can continue
to practise their religion and use
their culture in their twilight
years,” he said.
Slating the tendency towards
“demographic representivity”,
De Klerk said it threatened the
Constitutional protection of
minority rights and cultural
diversity and would result in
minorities being controlled by
the majority in every area of
their lives.
“We now have the situation
where social welfare organisations run by the Dutch Reformed
Church have been informed that
SAJBD President Michael
Bagraim with former President
FW de Klerk at the Herzlia
Interact breakfast.
their state subsidies will be cut
off if their management boards
and staff are not transformed to
promote demographic representivity,” he noted.
“But how can the Afrikaanse
Christelike Vrouevereniging possibly become demographically
representative - and why should
it?” he posited. “Everywhere, old
age homes in predominantly
‘white suburbs’ are being
informed that they will no longer
receive state subsidies because
they have not ‘transformed’,”
despite the fact that they were
open to all races.
“How would these old people
be able to exercise their constitutional right to ‘enjoy their culture, practise their religion and
use their language’ in circumstances where they were reduced
to a demographically representative nine per cent of the residents?” he asked.
“It would be hard enough to
decide which TV channel to
watch - and it would be quite
impossible for Jewish old-age
residents
whose
religion
requires a kosher kitchen.”
The Nobel peace laureate
pointed out that the country was
not alone when basic rights were
threatened. “The rest of the
world is looking on,” he said.
“Standard and Poor (credit rating agency) is involved - if media
freedom is threatened, our rating
will go down, investments will
stop coming into South Africa
and I think this realisation that
we need to keep in step, is beginning to permeate reasonable elements among the decision-makers of today.”
De Klerk predicted that the
ANC would split, though he said
he could not specify the nature or
timing of that split.
“You cannot have under the
same umbrella people who
believe in communism, people
who are far less socialist, people
who are pragmatists, people who
believe in the free market” he
argued, adding that apartheid
had been the cement holding
them together.
Turning his attention to the
ANC Youth League, he said it was
demonstrating tendencies that
gave reason for “grave concern”
and expressed the wish that the
ANC would find the strength and
the guts to put Julius Malema in
his place.
Responding to a member of the
audience who expressed doubts
as to the ability of the Human
Rights Commission to stop the
proliferation of hate speech, De
Klerk said that the Commission
“unfortunately has been a great
disappointment, as have been
some other institutions which
were created in terms of the
negotiations, such as the Public
Protector.
“The ANC has a tendency of
using some of these institutions
which were supposed to be totally independent - somehow they
succeeded in putting people in
place who are not independent
enough.”
Despite the “semi-turbulent”
times in which we found ourselves, the former state president
said the country had “tremendous potential” and could show
the rest of the world how to manage diversity.
“I’m concerned about a few
issues, deeply concerned, but I’m
not pessimistic,” he stated, listing the “good” Constitution and
an independent Constitutional
Court, as some of the positive
aspects.
SAJBD President Michael
Bagraim introduced and thanked
De Klerk, describing him as “a
giant in both South Africa and
many other countries”.
Festival display will show
vibrancy of SA community
DAVID SAKS
FOR MANY of those viewing the
displays at the forthcoming “One
Family Many Faces Festival” in
Tel Aviv over Succot, the South
African installation is bound to
come as quite a surprise.
It has become commonplace
abroad for South African Jewry
to be viewed as a nebach community, shrinking, ageing and
embattled. What the display will
show instead, is a dynamic,
active and forward-looking community, with a remarkably
youthful communal leadership
and an outstanding network of
Jewish communal organisations
that is admired and envied
throughout the Diaspora.
The festival is taking place
under the joint auspices of the
Ministry of Public Affairs and
the Beit Hatefutsoth Museum of
the Jewish People (formerly
known as the Nahum Goldmann
Museum
of
the
Jewish
Diaspora). It will be held from
September 26 - 28 on the Tel Aviv
University Campus and is the
first of what is hoped will
become an annual Succot event
at Beit Hatefutsoth. Every exhibition has been allocated its own
succah booth.
The South African display
(which appears in this issue of
Jewish Report as a special insert)
was put together by the SAJBD
following an invitation to participate from the Ministry of Public
Affairs and Diaspora’s Yuli
Edelstein.
It purposefully does not deal
with the community’s past, even
in potted history form, but rather
seeks to depict it as it is today.
The panels, placed on walls with
South African-themed shweshwe
designs, feature such themes as
Jewish social outreach in the
wider community, Zionist activity, interesting statistical information on Jewish identity, demographics and communal organi-
sations and Jewish participation
in the World Cup.
The section entitled “40 Years
Young” shows the unusually
youthful age profile of much of
the senior Jewish communal
leadership, by showing six leaders who will be turning 40 in
2011. They are SAJBD Chairman
Zev Krengel and Director Wendy
Kahn, Chief Rabbi Warren
Goldstein, Union of Orthodox
Synagogues Director Darren
Sevitz, Chevrah Kadisha Group
CEO Michael Sieff and SA Board
of Jewish Education Director
Rabbi Craig Kacev.
The display further features
beaded vuvuzelas, “Amajuda”
makarapas commissioned by the
SAJBD for the World Cup and
wire artwork.
Daily raffles will be held to win
a vuvuzela and a makarapa. On
hand to guide people around the
display will be Robyn Smookler,
herself a South African and now
residing in Israel.
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
Li Boiskin, chairman
of SAJBD’s Cape
Council, hands the
Isaac Ochberg
plaque to Lauren
Snitcher. The plaque
will be placed on his
memorial in Israel
at the 90th anniversary of the rescue of
the Ochberg
orphans, due to
take place there
next year.
The Ochberg orphans are
remembered - 90 years on
MOIRA SCHNEIDER
CAPE TOWN
PHOTOGRAPH: LINDY DIAMOND
A VERY special reunion is to take place in
Israel next year, marking the 90th anniversary of Isaac Ochberg’s journey to the
Ukraine in 1921 to rescue Jewish children
who had been orphaned in the wake of the
chaos following the collapse of Tsarist
Russia.
After reading an appeal from the British
chief rabbi for “Jewish hearts” to come to
their rescue, Ochberg, community leader,
philanthropist and successful entrepreneur,
obtained permission from South African
Prime Minister Jannie Smuts to bring the
orphans to this country.
The Oranjia Jewish Orphanage mounted a
huge fundraising campaign, enabling the
children - each handpicked by Ochberg in
line with the government’s strict stipulations
- to be saved.
Lauren Snitcher, a descendant of the
Ochberg orphans through her maternal
grandmother, who is local co-organiser of
the reunion, has spent the past 15 years collecting information and videotaping as many
of the survivors of the original group as she
could find.
The result was a 20-minute DVD, titled
“Ochberg’s Orphans”, that Rainmaker
Production Company embroidered on, producing an hour-long documentary that made
the Oscars shortlist in 2008 and was screened
at festivals and on DStv in this country and
elsewhere.
“We realised that people wanted more they didn’t want the story to end, so we’ve got
a website in the pipeline that will be the official Ochberg website and will be interactive,”
she says.
Rainmaker in fact uncovered another
orphan, Haifa resident Cissy Harris, a 91year-old who got married for the first time
this year. And as recently as two weeks ago, a
Johannesburg attorney discovered that his
father and uncle had been Ochberg orphans,
after an article on the subject appeared in the
Cape Jewish Chronicle.
Snitcher has traced approximately 3 000
descendants of the original Ochberg orphans
around the world, mainly in Israel and the
English-speaking countries. Of the original
approximately 180 orphans, around 56 still
need to be identified.
For the last 15 years, Snitcher has also
been collating a database beginning with the
original orphans and including as many of
their descendants as she is able to trace, with
all their contact details.
When Ochberg died in Cape Town in 1937,
he left what was then the single largest pri-
vate donation (today amounting to around 80
million dollars) to the Jewish National Fund.
That money was used to redeem land
between Haifa and Zichron Ya’akov, which
today constitutes Kibbutz Dalia and Kibbutz
Gal-Ed.
“We wanted to have a reunion in Israel
which was so dear to his heart and which
would provide a focal point for people coming from all over the world,” she explains,
adding that Ochberg’s family will also be
present. Tentative dates are July 12 and 13
and she says the programme will be “tightly
packed” with presentations and will include
a trip to Kibbutz Dalia.
Snitcher has “no idea” how many people to
expect. “I’m getting enquiries every day,” she
adds. The last such reunion was the 50th,
held in 1971 at the Oranjia Orphanage in this
city.
A large bronze plaque of Ochberg, then
president of the Dorshei Zion Association,
that had been stored by the SAJBD, has been
donated to the Ochberg descendants. It will
at the same time be placed at a memorial
erected in his memory at Kibbutz Dalia in a
room that was originally referred to as The
Ochberg Recreation Hall.
• If readers would like details on the
reunion or have any information about the
following Ochberg orphans and their descendants, contact Lauren Snitcher at (021) 4343322 or 082-880-2257 or [email protected]
The Ochsberg names:
Baruch Leya, Cwengel Saul, Engelman
Jakob, Fremd/Friend Max, Garbus/
Goldstein Shmul, Gayer Chawa, Gebencolc/
Golz Rochel, Gerynshtein Abram, Ginsburg
Mintcha, Guber/Geiber/Gruber Tcharna
(Charlotte Odes), H/Gurwitz Rosa, Israelson
Chaim, Judes Rubin, Kahan Channe, Kahan
Golda, Kahan Morduch/Mordche, Kahan
Shachna, Kailer Rywka, Kaufman Cypora,
Kaufman Soloman/Shlama, Kawerberg
Mayer, Kawerberg Mees/Moshe, Kigielman
Jacob, Knuboviz Zlata, Kreindel Rejsel,
Kruger Rejsel, Kruger Abram, Kruger Jacob,
Lipshis Moishe, Lipshytz Perel, Margolin
Sara, Miler Braindel, Mordochowitch Gutro,
Mordochowitch Estel, Nudeman Gdalia,
Ochshtein Salomon, Orliansky Abram,
Reichman Abram, Reichman Chaim,
Reisender Rubin, Rekler Leya, Rinsler/
Rinzler Chaskiel/Chaykel, Rosenbaum Leon,
Rosenblit Gedalia, Rosenblit Szamay,
Y/J/Sagotkowsky Jacob/Jacov, Schtern/
Shtern Szlema/ Solomon, Schwarz Josef,
Shteiner/Steiner Chaskel, Shteiner/Steiner
Hersh, Shteiner/ Szteiner/Steiner Isaac,
Smith Morduch/ Mordche, Shtrasner Feyga,
Stillerman Hersh/Harry, Treppel Jacob and
Weidman Sheindel.
5
6
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
SOCIAL SCENE
Rita Lewis [email protected]
Guest
speaker
Rabbi
Kenneth
Brander
with his
wife,
Ruthie.
Mizrachi
fundraiser is
the real thing
RITA LEWIS
PHOTOGRAPHS: JOE YUDELOWITZ
FOR THE 450 or so people who
congregated at the Maroela Room
at the Sandton Sun Hotel recently,
the annual Mizrachi dinner was
an event not to be forgotten as it
had a revitalised sense of mission
and energy - to raise funds for the
beleaguered city of Sderot in
Israel which, over the past 10
years, has been hit by over 10 000
rockets.
Mizrachi is a fast growing community, centred in the Johannesburg suburb of Glenhazel. It is
a Torah-fuelled, leadership development and educational organisation, committed to a Torah,
Zionist and centrist philosophy
and is the flagship Zionist,
Modern Orthodox organisation in
South Africa.
The keynote speaker at the
event was Rabbi Kenneth Brander
who outlined the vital role that
Modern-Orthodoxy plays in the
world today - ensuring that Jews
worldwide are umbilically connected to the destiny of the people
and State of Israel.
He said a developed, synthesised approach to Torah and secular subjects, had been created,
making halachic educational
roles for women within shuls and
schools, extremely viable.
He added that a relevant, modern perspective on the Torah was
also being presented to Jews who
presently viewed their traditions
and heritage as outdated.
Rabbi Brander is the inaugural
dean of Yeshiva University’s
Centre for the Jewish Future
(CJF) which serves as Yeshiva
University’s catalyst to build, cul-
Eva and Roland Sassoon.
tivate, and support Jewish communities as well as their lay and
rabbinic leaders.
He is also the rabbi emeritus of
the Boca Raton Synagogue in
Florida and during his 14 years
there, he has seen the community
grow from 60 families to some 600.
Rabbi Laurence Perez of
Mizrachi, thanked Rabbi Brander
for his words and presence at the
fundraiser. He said he had
watched Rabbi Brander’s progress over the past 10 years or so
and congratulated him on what he
had achieved in that time - especially in the area of the North
American Jewish communities.
The entertainer for the evening
was renowned mentalist and illusionist, Lior Suchard. On the one
hand he was side-splittingly funny
and jaw-droppingly astonishing,
while on the other hand he performed unbelievable “mind-reading” tricks. His mathematical
gymnastics, hypnosis, spoon
bending and a host of other illusions, were just incredible and left
guests astounded and with just
one unanswered question: “Is this
for real?”
Wayne Merris from Chivas Regal with Rabbi
Laurence Perez and Avrom Krengel.
Selwyn and Ros Smith.
Dean of
Yeshiva
College Girls’
HighSchool,
Rabbi Ilan
Ra’anan with
Rav Gigi
Rabbi of Beit
Mordechai
Campus
Kollel.
Ben and Sarajulie Swartz.
Stanley and
Ingrid Seeff
with entertainer, Lior
Suchard.
Martin and Judy Moritz.
Rabbi Hylton and Justine Herring.
Shirley Weil under Lior Suchard’s spell.
17 - 27 September 2010
COMMUNITY BUZZ
LIONEL SLIER
082-444-9832, fax: 011-440-0448,
[email protected]
JOHANNESBURG.
George Cohen, 95, the oldest member of the Wanderers Club in
Johannesburg, continues:
“After leaving school at the age of
17, I so wished to continue playing
football and I was accepted by the
coach of the under-18 side. I continued to play by moving to the
under-20, but I also realised that
the over 20-year-olds had outstripped me by miles both in size
and in temperament.
“My soccer days were over, but I
was able to watch from the grandstand the Saturday afternoon
Transvaal First Division league
games with the famous teams
completing:
Rangers,
Marist
Brothers, Germiston Callies,
JSAR, PSAR etc. Then came the
touring Scottish league teams
such as Aberdeen, Motherwell
and then an England team. (This
was in the 1930s).
“During the ensuing years, I
watched test cricket from the
grandstand and in December 1935,
I watched Dudley Nourse score a
double century against the mighty
Australians.
“What a thrill it was for me
when the MCC came to play South
Africa and I obtained the autographs of world famous cricketers, such as the great Wally
Hammond (the England captain)
ebullient wicket keeper George
Duckworth, Maurice Tate, Bill
Voce and Percy Chapman, the first
batsman ever to hit a six over the
long ‘A’ ground boundary almost
to the tennis courts. I still have
their signatures.”
• MCC stands for Marylebone
Cricket Club and was the name
under which test cricket teams
from England went on tour. A few
years ago this was dropped and
the teams were called simply
“England”.
KIMBERLEY
Errol Rosenberg continues with
the story of Elias Gross, his
maternal grandfather:
“Elias relates how the fact that
he kept kosher saved his life. He
and his gentile (smous) partner
were returning to Kimberley
when they ran out of food. The
partner decided to shoot a hare for
the pot. The smell of the grilling
meat and his hunger was almost
too much for Elias but his faith
prevailed and he did not eat it.
That night the partner died of
food poisoning.
SA JEWISH REPORT
“Elias eventually accumulated
sufficient funds to buy a business
in Kimberley— Sussman Jacobs.
He married Leah Stone. Her
brother was a member of the
Hebrew community in Kimberley
and he was awarded a silver salver
on which his name and a message
of thanks from the congregation,
was engraved. The SAJBD has his
records. My daughter in London
has the prized salver.
“Elias Gross passed away in
Wellington, Cape at the age of 93.
He lived from the days of the oxwagon to the jet age.”
RHODESIA (ZIMBABWE)
In 1919 Lord Edmund Allenby visited Rhodesia. As a First World
War hero who only two years earlier had conquered Jerusalem
from the Ottoman Turks, he was
welcomed by the local Zionist
leadership.
Asked what he thought lay ahead
for the national home in Palestine
for the Jewish people, he responded emphatically: “Hard work and
increased immigration.” History
records that in the 1930s, the per
capita financial contribution of
Rhodesian Jewry to Palestine was
the highest in the Diaspora. This
continued into the 1970s.
Rhodesian-born David Bloom
(of Telfed) describes his erstwhile
community as a “shtetl in Africa”.
• From “The Jerusalem Post”,
June 2008, written by David
Kaplan.
A LETTER OF
APPRECIATION
From Tally
Berman:
Kartun
to
Mona
“The Kartun family will always be
grateful to your family, Richard
and Freda, Liebl and Shura
Feldman, who paid our passage
from New Zealand to South
Africa.
“Our family of six arrived by
ship in Durban, mid-February
1935, but our landing papers were
not in order and we were threatened to be returned to New
Zealand.
“Once again your family came
to our rescue. My father,
Schleime, had been a member of
the Yiddisher Cultural Society
before he left for New Zealand,
hence this friendship existed. The
Feldmans
contacted
Morris
Alexander, MP, who managed to
get the necessary clearance for us
to disembark.
“When we reached Johannesburg,
your families were fantastic with
their generosity and hospitality. We
enjoyed many happy days at your
Houghton home.
“Thanks. This tribute is 75 years
late and should be told.”
TEL AVIV
It was the usual practice in hotels
in South Africa until the 1960s (I
think) that guests stopping
overnight could leave their shoes
in the passage outside their
rooms. In the morning they would
find them brightly polished.
The story is told of Barney
Kaplan, a commercial traveller
(now known as reps) who visited
Israel in 1958 and booked into a
hotel in Tel Aviv. Before going off
to bed he asked the male receptionist at the hotel if it was alright
to leave his shoes in the passage
outside the door. “Beseder,” said
the receptionist. “if you want to.
It’s okay.”
The next morning Kaplan was
surprised to see that his shoes
had not been touched. He went to
the receptionist and complained
that his shoes hadn’t been polished. “Who said anything about
polishing shoes?” asked the
receptionist, puzzled. “You asked
if you could leave your shoes outside the room, for whatever reason, I did not ask, but it was okay
with me.”
PRETORIA
From Solly Chait:
“I was third in a family of four
boys and first saw the light of day
in a working class area of
Pretoria known as Goede Hoop
and I reckon that its name was the
only good thing about the place. I
cannot recall any instances of
anti-Semitism up to the time of
starting school.
“Looking back now I think that
the main reason for this was that
we were fortunate in landing up
as having as our next door neighbours the large and tough
Rademeyer family. The father
was a house painter, but mostly
was out of work as the Depression
years were on, work was scarce
and painting walls was not a high
priority for most families.
“There were five sons, all much
older than us and most already
out on their own, so I hardly knew
any of them.
“The youngest son was Ronnie,
13, who was the leader of
the gang in that area who took
us under his wing and so you
could call us ‘protected Jews’. He
was my hero and often used to
give me a ride on his clapped-out
old bicycle while I sat on the
frame.
“We used to accompany him to
the Salvation Army food kitchen
to collect a container of food and
a loaf of bread for the family. Our
father had his own one-man
plumbing business, complete with
a black assistant and he was kept
fairly busy, so we were considered
to be fairly well off.”
AROUND THE WORLD
NEWS IN BRIEF
POLICE INVESTIGATING ATTACK ON KYRGYZ SYNAGOGUE
BISHKEK - Police are investigating
an attack on a synagogue in the
capital of Kyrgyzstan.
A bomb packed with nails blew
up after it was thrown in the courtyard of the synagogue in Bishkek
an hour before the start of Rosh
Hashanah services on September
9, Radio Free Europe reported. The
bomb landed in a small pool of
water, which minimised the damage, according to the report.
7
There are at least 1 300 Jews in
Kyrgyzstan, the majority in
Bishkek. The synagogue was firebombed in April after the government was overthrown in a coup.
(JTA)
8
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
KosherWorld
Glenhazel will never be the same again
Glenhazel
Centre is a fully
redeveloped and
modernised
multi-tenanted
commercial centre
located at 1 Long
Avenue on the
corner of Ridge
and Summerway
Roads, in the heart
of Glenhazel.
The Shop Upstairs blending body shape
and age
After a lifetime in fashion, Denise is one
of the few who understands and blends
body shape and age.
THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects that make the difference between just looking alright and
looking and feeling elegant, is not just what you wear, but how you combine your clothes.
If you are slim and trim or pleasantly plump, Denise will help find the right garments and
accessories for you. She will guide you to be a bit more daring by adding colour, sparkle and
something fashionably new to uplift and add some glamour and style to your wardrobe, and
to your sense of well-being.
Don’t miss The Shop Upstairs, where you will find terrific value and style!
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
KosherWorld
ON THE GROUND floor is the much talked
about supermarket, - KosherWorld - which
opened its doors to trade at the beginning
of July. KosherWorld has already become a
routine shopping spot for many residents and
visitors to and in the area.
The unique aspect of it, of course, is that
if a product is treif (not kosher)
kosher), it will not be
stocked. Shoppers can go into KosherWorld
and with absolute confidence purchase any
foodstuffs without the need to check its kashrut
status. The entire supermarket is under the
auspices of the Johannesburg Beth Din.
Apart from the kashrut issue, it is a customerfriendly store from every point of view. It is located in the most strategic point of Jewish Johannesburg, with convenient parking facilities.
The project was the brainchild of three partners, Joel Back, Arnold Garber, and Shaul
Daniels. They teamed up with the OK franchise division, part of the massive Shoprite
group. This has enabled them to source and
stock a wide range of products at extremely
competitive prices.
KosherWorld is a medium-sized supermarket, where you can buy everything that
you need in the home, from stationery to
baby products, pet foods, specially imported
kosher sweets and foods from around the
globe, as well as a full range of South Afri-
can foods, bakery and deli products, to small
electrical appliances.
OK-branded goods are a welcome value
range of products recently introduced and
stocked. This range of high-quality and extremely well-priced goods, will be extended
in due course into a comprehensive offering
across food and non-food items
items.
On the drawing-board and now under development, is a unique and convenient charge
card for the whole family, as well as a delivery
service for home shopping.
KosherWorld is the only totally kosher supermarket in South Africa; in fact in the entire
African continent.
Apart from Israel, similar supermarkets only
exist in the US, Canada, and the UK. The
community and friends of the community,
have welcomed the opportunity to shop at
this speciality, well-priced, fully-stocked and
convenient supermarket
In order to continually improve its service
levels and product offering to the public, the
management of KosherWorld encourages and
welcomes feedback from all its customers. A
suggestion desk and box is prominently positioned where shoppers can complete a suggestion card relating to their in-store experience, or
request that additional products be stocked.
Unique to Glenhazel Centre, is that in the
very near future they will open a keilim (cutlery,
crockery, pots and pans) mikvah to the public
for keilim purchased at KosherWorld and any
other store, or for anyone in the community
wishing to make their kitchen kosher.
It is a service to the community where people can come and toivel at any time, including
sunset irrespective of where they have
after sunset,
purchased their keilim. The entire concept is
to provide a service to the community. Johannesburg Jewry can now claim to have a beautiful all kosher supermarket fully observant of
Shabbat (Sabbath) and Yomtov (Jewish Holy
Days and festivals) in its heartland.
KosherWorld is the anchor tenant of Glenhazel Centre and is located on the ground
floor. At the entrance to KosherWorld, Seattle
Coffee will be opening a takeaway kiosk in the
very near future.
The first and second floor tenants include
Zman Li which is a hairdresser, beautician
and nail bar, Gil-Adi which is a speciality
Judaica gift shop, corporate promotional gifts
and specialised embroidery.
The Shop Upstairs is a ladies clothing and
accessory store and Howard Joel and Company is a firm of accountants and auditors. All
these businesses comply with the halachah
(religious law) of not trading or being present
in the business during shabbos or Yomtov.
Photographs: Ilan Ossendryver. Compiled by Manuela Bernstein. Cell 082-951-3838, (011) 023-8160 or e-mail: [email protected]
9
10
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
OPINION AND ANALYSIS
FORUM FOR DIVERSE VIEWS
On September 12,
Israelis protesting
an extension of the
settlement construction freeze,
warn that Benjamin
Netanyahu should
not repeat the policies of the Sharon
government, which
removed settlements. Similar campaigns have not
appeared in the
United States.
PHOTOGRAPH:
ABIR SULTAN /
FLASH 90 / JTA
September then
and now
SEPTEMBER EVOKES some bad images, like the attack
by Islamic fundamentalists on the World Trade Centre in
New York on September 11, 2001, in which some 3 000
died. Less widely remembered is the September 5, 1972
attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics by
Palestinian terrorists known as “Black September”.
Since Munich, numerous Israeli and Palestinian leaders proclaiming to want peace have come and gone, as
well as US presidents and Middle East “mediators”. The
phrase “peace process” has been bandied around glibly,
sometimes as a smokescreen for other agendas; today it
frequently evokes more of a yawn than excitement.
As Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas engage
in a new round of talks (see story on this page), peace
between their peoples remains elusive.
The current round has started with a healthy cynicism
about what is possible, compared with the fanfare and
hype of previous ones, like the 1993 Oslo Process and the
2000 Camp David talks facilitated by the likes of Jimmy
Carter, Bill Clinton, etc. Barack Obama is far less effusive about ME peace than his predecessors.
Time magazine recently evoked outrage among Jews
when it ran an image of a Magen David on its front page
captioned: “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace”.
The accompanying article quoted a March poll asking
Israeli Jews to name the “most urgent problem” facing
Israel. Only eight per cent cited the conflict with the
Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime,
national security and poverty.
The sobering underlying reality is that Israelis desperately want peace and would make serious sacrifices for
it, but many don’t believe it will happen anytime soon,
perhaps not in their lifetime; they must continue sending
their children to the army for the foreseeable future to
defend the country. And in the meantime, they must get
on with their lives.
A watershed in the decline of Israelis’ optimism was
Yasser Arafat’s (in)famous “no” at Camp David in 2000
to Ehud Barak, who offered over 95 per cent of the West
Bank and Gaza for a Palestinian state.
When Arafat rejected it without making a counteroffer and the violent Intifada began soon afterwards, the
Israeli peace movement - which had long argued that if
Israel gave the Palestinians a viable state, they
would end the conflict - was devastated. It has yet to fully
recover.
So, how do the two Septembers - the Munich massacre
and today - compare?
Israel is stronger and more developed now, a First
World country and a hi-tech global player whose population (see story on page 3) has just passed 7 645 000 and is,
according
to
respected
demographer
Sergio
DellaPergola, imbued with “an overall feeling of wellbeing”.
Some 75,5 per cent are Jews, the largest Jewish community in the world, constituting 43 per cent of the world
Jewish population.
The threat against Israel, however, has morphed from
terrorist groups into a global media and diplomatic campaign to delegitimise Israel - and this is gathering
strength.
And militarily, its enemies’ weapons are more sophisticated - with long-range rockets, there is no place to
hide. A complicating factor for peace is that the Jewish
settler movement in the Palestinian territories, which in
1972 consisted of only a relative handful of people, now
numbers 300 000, and raises questions about the twostate solution’s viability, even if the Palestinians were to
accept it.
For South Africans, the most obvious difference
between Munich and today is the change in the relationship between South Africa and Israel - from friendly and
warm in 1972, to “correct”, but very “cold” in 2010 under
the ANC government.
On the ground, many ordinary Israelis and
Palestinians just want to carry on with their lives peacefully. But they have never been able to face down the
extremists among them. Could the “peace process”,
which has gone on for 38 years since Munich, go on for
another few decades without achieving peace?
Probably not, for reasons external to Israelis’ and
Palestinians’ specific conflict. New global developments,
such as an aggressive, nuclear Iran, might be the thing
that breaks the deadlock. Well-worn sayings like “politics makes strange bedfellows” and “my enemy’s enemy
is my friend” come to mind. Israelis and Palestinians and perhaps even Arab countries like Saudi Arabia? might find they have more to gain by being allies than
enemies. And who knows what new relationships might
develop out of that.
The peace talks - and their obstacles
RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON
DIRECT TALKS between Palestinians and Israelis have barely
begun and already the sides are facing their first major hurdle - the end
of Israel’s partial moratorium on
settlement building.
Several issues might beset the
sides as they aim to meet the yearlong deadline suggested by
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and endorsed (with
considerable enthusiasm) by
President Barack Obama and
(with
less
enthusiasm)
by
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas.
The hard questions — the status of
Palestinian refugees and the sharing of
Jerusalem - promise to vex the negotiators, as they have for years. Even before
that point, however, a number of issues
already are creating anxieties among
negotiators in Jerusalem, Ramallah and
Washington.
That moratorium:
Netanyahu placed a partial moratorium
on settlement building to entice Abbas to
the negotiating table. It lapses on
September 26 - although not effectively
until September 30, because of the
Succot holiday - and Netanyahu has said
he will not renew it. Abbas says he will
not be able to continue talks without it.
US officials are pressing the sides to
come up with a way out before the next
meeting of the leaders, on September 14
in Egypt. Michael Oren, the Israeli
ambassador to Washington, has spoken
of “incentivising” the Palestinians with
other gestures.
Oren did not elaborate, but Netanyahu
has made a point of talking up economic
incentives for the Palestinians, including
increased commerce by reducing regulations and pulling away roadblocks.
Another way out would be for both
sides to avoid questions about the deadline as it approaches and for the moratorium to continue, unofficially, without
comment from either the Israelis or
Palestinians. Most Israelis living within
Israel’s pre-1967 borders - the area
known as the Green Line - wouldn’t
notice whether or not building was continuing in settlements, but the impact
would be immediately noticeable to
Palestinians.
Supporters of the settlement movement, however, say the current restrictions create burdens for the 300 000
Israeli Jews living in the West Bank. The
settler community has vowed to protest
unless settlement building returns to
2008 levels.
That deadline:
Netanyahu wants an agreement within a
year, and before that an interim agreement outlining the parameters of a final
status deal. He has made clear, however,
in private conversations with US officials that the agreement will be on paper
until the Israeli leader is sure that he can
secure his country’s borders - in other
words, Israelis are saying nothing goes
Iranian President
Mahmoud
Ahamadinejad, seen
here speaking at
Columbia University
in 2007, is expected
to deliver more
broadsides against
Israel in his address
to the opening session of the 2010 UN
General Assembly.
(PHOTOGRAPH: DANIELLA ZALCMAN / CREATIVE
COMMONS)
into effect for five, perhaps 10 years.
The Israeli expectation is that Abbas
will be able to sell the Palestinian public
a peace deal based on clearly detailed
outlines of what they will get down the
line - sort of like showing Junior the catalogue photo of the BB rifle he’ll get for
his 15th birthday when he’s 10.
Abbas wants more tangible results,
and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad,
has suggested that a state could be in
place by 2011. Fayyad later qualified this
to say that he was referring to the infrastructure of a state, much the way that
the Zionist movement had the instruments of statehood ready to go for years
before Israel’s founding in 1948.
Abbas and the Palestinian Authority
are seeking a patina of inevitability to
fend off a challenge to their legitimacy
by the Hamas terrorist group, which
routed them from the Gaza Strip in 2007
and poses a challenge to them in the
West Bank. What remains to be seen
is whether state institutions - short
of statehood - grants them that
inevitability.
That border:
Netanyahu wants a demilitarised
Palestinian state, which the Palestinians
effectively conceded in the 1990s. But
like his predecessors, he also wants a
long-term, if not permanent, presence in
the Jordan Valley, along the border with
Jordan, to contain the threat from the
east that for generations has exercised
Israelis.
The Palestinians (and the Jordanians)
counter: What threat from the east? The
prospect of having to secure Israel’s
longest border once may have been a
concern, in terms of its drain on Israel’s
military, but there is a peace treaty with
Jordan and the United States has neutralised Iraq. And for the Palestinians,
the point of the peace is to rid themselves of any continued notion of Israeli
military occupation.
Iraq may be neutralised for now, the
Israelis counter, but the region is inherently unstable and Iran is sinking its
claims into Iraq.
That territory:
So within a year there is peace with the
Palestinian Authority and mutual
recognition, an end to all claims.
Well, except for Gaza, which is ruled
by Hamas, which does not recognise
Israel or any prospects for peace - and
barely recognises Abbas.
What does peace mean without the
territory Israel referred to between 1949
and 1967 as a “dagger aimed at Tel
Aviv” and the acquiescence of its 1,3
million Palestinians?
Just pretend and hope, Oren says.
“We are negotiating, we, the United
States and the Palestinians are all three
of us negotiating - throw the Egyptians
and the Jordanians in there for good
measure, too - as if the West Bank and
Gaza are together when in fact we know
they’re not,” the envoy said recently.
“The assumption is, if we cut a deal
with the PA, and someday the people of
Gaza throw off the Hamas yoke, they’ll
join the peace arrangement.”
That word:
Netanyahu has made clear he wants the
Palestinians to recognise Israel as a
Jewish state, and in this he has the
Obama administration’s backing. The
Israeli prime minister did not invent
this formulation - Tzipi Livni introduced it in 2006 when she was foreign
minister.
The rationale was that the PLO’s
absolute recognition of Israel - extracted in excruciating negotiations by
Netanyahu during his previous prime
ministership, in 1998 - added up to not
much.
In the 2000 Camp David talks, the
Palestinians insisted on a Palestinian
right of return, which Israel believed
added up to a peaceful plan for removing the Jewish State. The Palestinians
also denied any Jewish claim to
Jerusalem.
That was followed by the bloodshed
of the second intifada, and for Israelis
the failure to accept the Jews as a natural presence in the region became
inextricably linked to the trauma of
those years. The algebra was simple:
Failure to recognise the Jewish claim,
equals anti-Jewish incitement, equals
violence.
Netanyahu has said that demilitarisation and recognition of the Jewish
claim are the keys to reaching a true
peace deal.
The Palestinian Authority rejects this
analysis. Its reasons for avoiding the
Jewish claim is the responsibility that
the Palestinian leadership feels for the
20 per cent of Israelis who are Arab - it
does not want to cut them out of their
rights, although Netanyahu has said
they will always be upheld.
There is also the sense among
Palestinians that they have ceded
enough by settling for “only” the West
Bank and Gaza, 22 per cent of British
Mandate Palestine.
Nonetheless, there have been signs in
recent months of movement here: In a
meeting with US Jewish leaders in
June, Abbas recognised the ancient
Jewish history in the area.
When Palestinian Diaspora intellectuals challenged this as capitulation last
month, the PA mission in Washington
pushed back not by parsing Abbas’
statement, but by repeating it and saying that it did not undermine the
Palestinian claim. (JTA)
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
11
OPINION AND ANALYSIS
FORUM FOR DIVERSE VIEWS
The truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth...
ONE OF the biggest challenges
for any historian, must be coming up with a reasonably objective and accurate overview of the
1948 Israel War of Independence.
All too often, questions of partisanship serve to cloud the
issue. For my own part, I confess
that knee-jerk denialism is invariably my first reaction to any
allegation of Jewish/Israeli
wrongdoing.
In part, it is a justifiable
response given the myriad falsehoods that have been levelled
against the Jewish people over
the ages and to this day, but it is
not the whole story. Acknowledging that Jews, too, have
sometimes behaved badly is not
easy.
In fact, the problem of achieving a clear-sighted understanding of those tumultuous times
goes much further than that of
bias. There are few areas of historical research where the fundamental facts are so much in dispute.
Those seeking to gain a reliable understanding of the war,
should not place much reliance
on historians from the Arab side,
beyond establishing the basics of
what that position is. Arab societies are overwhelmingly totalitarian in nature, as a matter of
BARBARIC
YAWP
David Saks
course suppressing view points
that differ from that of the establishment’s. It is therefore pointless to expect objective, critical
re-examinations into the events
of 1948 to come out of institutions of higher learning in
Damascus, Ramallah or Cairo.
In Israel, by contrast, academic
freedom is scrupulously upheld,
even when the system throws up
maverick ultra-revisionists who
seek quite openly to demolish the
very ideological foundations on
which the State is founded.
Consequently, it is not really
even necessary to go to Palestinian Arab historians to get
“their side of the story”, since
there are more than a few
Jewish-born Israelis who are
enthusiastically doing the job for
them.
Involvement in the great 1948
debate is not for the thinskinned. Whether on the right,
left or centre, the big name historians of the period weigh into
one another with alarming ferocity.
How is a mere layman to arrive
at some kind of reasoned understanding amidst all the accusations of intellectual charlatanism, academic sloppiness,
bias, dishonesty and rank incompetence that the supposed
experts are continually hurling
at one another?
The hardcore leftist portrayal
of the war pretty much parrots
the standard Manichean narrative of the defeated Arabs, namely one in which a hapless, helpless Palestinian peasantry were
brutally ethnically cleansed by
criminal Zionist marauders.
On the right, some persist in
propagating the traditional Israeli
standpoint that the population
displacement came about as a
byproduct of an illegal war of
aggression started by the Arabs
themselves.
I am inclined to side with
Benny Morris, one of the original “New Historians” who documented the significant role
Jewish attacks on Arab villages
played in bringing about the
Arab flight, but was clear-sighted
enough not to overstate his conclusions.
A strong point in Morris’
favour is that, unlike the risible
Ilan Pappe on the far left and, it
must be acknowledged, Ephraim
Karsh on the right, he is scrupulously careful about getting his
facts correct.
Once the darling of the antiZionist left, Morris has since
become persona non grata in
those circles. While maintaining
his position that the 1947-’48
Arab exodus was in the main
instigated by Jewish militant
action, he has strongly qualified
this by stressing a host of other
critical realities.
One is that, far from being passive victims of marauding
Zionist aggression, the Arabs,
both within and without Israel,
were indeed the ones who provoked the war that ultimately
turned out so disastrously for
them. This in turn was directly
related to their fundamentally
rejectionist attitudes towards
any kind of Jewish sovereignty
in the region, a rejectionism that
persists to this day.
I have not myself waded
through the primary documentation, but even from a non-specialist’s perspective, certain conclusions seem obvious. One is that
650 000 Jews, at that early stage
still poorly armed, equipped,
funded and trained, could hardly
have driven an equivalent number
of Arabs out of the country while
simultaneously taking on invading armies from Transjordan,
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq in
addition to local Arab militia
groups.
That isolated cases of forced
displacement took place, is
undeniable (they were probably
also inevitable in the context of
those chaotic, fear-ridden times)
but conflating these into a deliberate, co-ordinated campaign of
ethnic cleansing, is absurd.
A second little-stressed aspect
of the war is the Jewish civilian
death toll. This amounted to
more than a third of the
6 500 Jews killed and was some
three times greater than the
estimated number of Arab civilian fatalities. Thousands more
were forcibly displaced. Despite
this, no mass Jewish exodus
parallel to the Arab flight, took
place.
In 1948, after two millennia of
foreign occupation, Israel was
on the verge of becoming an
independent state once more. It
was at this critical juncture that
hundreds of thousands of
Arabs, seized by a collective
mass panic, fled over the border.
By contrast the Jews, who
faced at least the same degree of
physical threat, stood their
ground and successfully fought
back. Perhaps it is the need to
avoid confronting this shameful
reality that lies at the heart of the
subsequent cult of Palestinian
victimhood.
By fostering a national narrative so relentlessly self-exculpatory, self-pitying and fingerpointing, the Palestinians may at
bottom be seeking to suppress
the painful question: “Were our
forebears really forcibly expelled
- or, when the moment of truth
arrived, were they simply found
wanting?”
12
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
TAPESTRY
ART, BOOKS, DANCE, FILM, THEATRE
ARTS MATTERS
COMPILED BY
ROBYN SASSEN
Call 084-319-7844 or
[email protected] at least one
week prior to publication
Artscape, Cape Town:
“Mamma Mia”, with an allstar local cast, including Gina
Shmukler, until end
September, (021) 410-9800.
Brenthurst Library,
Parktown: “Portuguese
Presence in Africa and the
East: Early Exploration to
Colonial Empire”, extended
until October 29, by appointment only, (011) 544-5400.
Goodman Gallery,
Rosebank, Johannesburg:
“Kind of Blue”, an exhibition
of drawings, collages and original prints by Sam
Nhlengethwa, celebrating 50
years of the eponymous Miles
Davis sextet album, until
September 29, (011) 788-1113.
Joburg Theatre,
Braamfontein: In the Nelson
Mandela, Deon Opperman’s
“Jock of the Bushveld”, until
October 10, (011) 877-6800. In
the People’s Theatre,
“Sleeping Beauty and Other
Fabulous Tales”, until October
10, (011) 403-1563.
Johannesburg Art Gallery,
Joubert Park:
“Transformations: Women’s
Art from the late 19th Century
to 2010”, curated by Nessa
Leibhammer, Reshma Chhiba
and Musha Nehuleni, until
January 31, 2011, tel (011)
725-3130.
Kim Sacks Gallery,
Rosebank Johannesburg:
An exhibition of ceramics by
Clementina van der Walt,
opens September 16, features
a walkabout by the artist on
September 19, and closes
October 6, (011) 447-5804.
Petersburg Quartet
to arrive soon in SA
PAUL BOEKKOOI
ANDRE AND Elsabé du Toit, a
Pretoria couple, visited Russia last
year and experienced such a unique
musical event that they, without any
doubt or even hesitation, wanted to
share it with all South Africans.
Under the banner “The Russians
are Coming”, they’ve contracted the
Petersburg Quartet, an all-male a
capella ensemble, to tour the country between September 29 and
October 21, giving 14 concerts.
For Andre, a businessman, this
new venture is a daunting task. The
planning and organising of it has
been going for the best part of a
year; they can’t wait for the foursome to arrive on September 27.
South Africans have been exposed
over the years to Russian musicians,
operatic singers, ballet companies
and folk groups, but an all-male a
capella ensemble we’ve never ever
experienced. What was the core
motivation to bring the Petersburg
Quartet here?
Andre explained: “For me personally this private initiative is an
investment in South Africa’s cultural life. We haven’t had the chance to
hear this kind of Russian authenticity and flair, nor voices which harmonise in multiple genres like their
own folk music, classical, opera,
gospel and some pop arrangements
which they’ve done themselves.
“Another leg of this project it to
share this event with our local communities in more than just a cultural way. We’ve earmarked three charities which are involved with special
projects and we’ll be donating a portion of the ticket sales to them.”
They are Heaven’s Nest; the children’s home in Cape Town; the
Oeboentoe Home in Pretoria; and
Reinhardt’s Place in Pumula, on the
Natal South Coast.
“They will also engage in community development,” Andre added.
MOIRA SCHNEIDER
CAPE TOWN
GETTING TO know her character,
Donna Sheridan, caught Gina
Shmukler, cast in the lead role of
the musical Mamma Mia, off-guard.
“I really thought it was just going to
be like a lot of bubblegum, but she’s
quite dark,” she confides over coffee
at a beachfront café.
“The second act is where she
grapples with her loss and regrets,
which took me completely by surprise, because I thought: ‘I’m signing up to do one big, joyous musical.’
It is joyous, but I think the brilliance
of writer Catherine Johnson is that
it’s completely constructed within
contrast, so you’ve got brilliant
comedy numbers amidst these pensive and quite dark songs.
“The audience gets a ride - it’s not
just syrup,” she says, adding that
the UK’s Steven Paling reinforces
this with his direction.
Inspired by Abba’s songs, the tale
of family and friendship unfolds on
a Greek island. On the eve of her
wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father
brings three men from her mother’s
Gina Shmukler,
flanked by Kate
Normington
(left) and Ilse
Klink, in a
scene from
“Mamma
Mia”. (PHOTOGRAPH BY PAT
BROMILOWDOWNING)
Montecasino, Fourways: In
the Main Theatre, “Evita”, by
Andrew Lloyd-Webber, until
October 17, (011) 511-1988.
Old Mutual Theatre on the
Square, Sandton: “Tuesdays
with Morrie”, by Mitch Albom
and directed by Alan
Swerdlow, starring Asher
Stoltz and Graham Hopkins,
until October 2. The Friday
lunch concert features ‘cellists
Polina Burdukova and Carel
Henn accompanied by pianist
Kerryn Wisniewski, on
September 17, (011) 883-8606.
Wits Theatre Complex,
Braamfontein: In the
Downstairs Theatre,
September 21 - 25, “Kaput!”
from the Wits 969 Festival, featuring Dorian Burstein, Helen
Iskander and Tarryn Bennett,
(011) 717-1380.
(PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY DUO MARKETING COMMUNICATION)
“On October 7, when they perform
in Mpumalanga, they will be
involved with the Casterbridge
Music Development Programme,
which believes that music can
change children of different backgrounds’ lives.”
The Quartet comprises Anatoly
Lomunov (first tenor), Arseny
Garibjan (second tenor) Igor
Krushelnitsky (bass) and Pawel
Napalkov (baritone), all of whom
boast a wide musical education,
including diplomas in conducting
opera and lead roles in renowned
overseas opera houses.
Krushelnitsky, conductor of the
Shmukler shines in ‘Mamma Mia’
Market, Newtown: In the
Barney Simon, Ronnie
Govender’s “At the Edge and
Other Cato Manor Stories”,
until September 26; in the
Main Theatre, “Nothing But
The Truth”, by John Kani,
until October 10. (011) 832-1641.
National Children’s
Theatre, Parktown: “African
Tapestry”, directed by Joyce
Levinsohn and Francois
Theron, until October 9, (011)
484-1584.
In traditional costume, the St Petersburg Quarter, from left Pawel
Napalkov, Anatoly Lomunov, Igor Krushelnitsky and Arseny Garibjan.
FELDMAN
ON FILM
Peter Feldman
PICK OF THE WEEK
Salt
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Andre Braugher
Director: Phillip Noyce
It is amazing how much publicity one person
can generate for a film and how everything else
pales into insignificance.
The person in question just happens to be
Angelina Jolie and whatever she says or does
or is perceived to be doing, manages to garner
headlines around the globe. I feel sorry for anybody who has to share the screen honours with
her because they are onto a hiding to nothing.
past to the island last visited 20
years ago.
As for the musical and acting
challenges in the script, Shmukler,
who plays mother-of-the-bride, says
Abba’s music, though “very hummable” can be demanding to perform. “The score of ‘Winner takes it
all’, for example, is 16 pages and it’s
a big, large-stamina song which is
written on the break vocally - it was
an absolute challenge.
“Acting-wise, I underestimated
what was going to be required of me
for Donna,” she admits. “I thought
she was a frothy, musical theatre
character - she certainly isn’t!
“It’s a really tough, meaty, challenging role, but I also am working
with a phenomenal cast.”
Shmukler first encountered
Mamma Mia “in a real sense”
when she was invited to audition
by co-producer Hazel Feldman a
year ago. She had never seen the
stage show and had seen the movie,
which she stresses is “very different”, once.
“I made a conscious decision not
to study the film,” she explains.
“The reality is that the movie connected another generation to Abba,
we have a lot of kids coming - the
matinees are almost sold out.”
Shmukler has done a lot of musical theatre in an international
career that includes a six-year stint
in New York - she came back here
three years ago to get married to
In her latest action offering she portrays a CIA
officer, Evelyn Salt, whose loyalty to her country
is severely tested after a Russian defector accuses
her of being a Russian spy.
From that moment on the film goes into overdrive, and all logic - and the laws of physics - are
jettisoned as Salt goes on the run. But then there’s
an argument over who goes to an all-out action
movie for cast-iron logic?
Well trained, and using all her skills and years
of experience as a top covert operative to elude
capture, Salt proves the perfect vehicle for Jolie’s
special talents.
The premise of Philip Noyce’s extravagant hunt
is gloriously absurd and if you can put your mind
into neutral and allow the action to take over, then
you may just enjoy this romp.
The character keeps pushing the revs with
more elaborate stunts at every turn and at one
stage you cannot ignore thinking that we are
almost watching the antics of a cartoon character
like Road Runner, a positive little chap who never
allows a few setbacks to hinder his progress.
The film is lean and muscular. It seeks out
Quartet, explains: “One of our
main aspirations is to bring the
sound of old Russian traditional
music closer to an international
audience.”
But not all is serious: “Our concerts are like a carnival of different
cultures from around the world. We
also sing other renowned music,
including melodies by Andrew
Lloyd Webber and the Beatles.”
• The Petersburg Quartet’s gala
concert which kicks off their tour is
at Brooklyn Theatre, Pretoria on
September 29, (012) 460-6033. For
further tour information, see
www.petersburgquartet.co.za
Paul Choritz after a three-year longdistance
relationship.
The
Johannesburg-based actress is a
graduate of King David Linksfield,
where she starred in school productions before studying drama at Wits.
Shmukler has many strings to
her bow. Besides being an actorsinger-dancer, she co-runs the
Musical Theatre course at Wits,
directs and writes. To top it all, she
is currently completing a Master’s
degree in drama.
“If I don’t perform, I miss it, so I
couldn’t bale out of being on the
stage myself, but I really do love
directing and teaching,” she says. “I
wouldn’t want to solely rely on
musical theatre, although there is
an enormous amount of it being
produced in South Africa.
“For me personally, as I’ve got
older, there’s other stuff that I’ve
wanted to do.”
She finds her teaching incredibly
inspiring, experiencing the greatest
joy seeing her students grow and
gain in confidence.” ìAnd because
I’m imparting stuff all the time, I
stay incredibly oiled, so it’s really
such a reciprocal relationship.
“I try to give the students knowledge on how to go forward in the
industry. I get them to understand
that you’ve just got to be smart,
industrious, dedicated and disciplined - and it’s not always the most
talented (who succeed).”
• Mamma Mia is at the Artscape
Opera House until September 19. It
opens at Teatro, Montecasino,
Fourways, October 5.
action when the situation may have called for a
more elegant sleight of hand, but this does not
happen.
The point here is that Noyce, a distinguished
director, believes wholeheartedly in what he is
putting up on the screen and one should never
confuse confidence with arrogance, which he
shows here in abundance.
The convoluted story, which brings in a host of
equally bad people, has more twists and turns
than a corkscrew. It’s a fun ride if you stick with
it.
A cautionary warning, however, is that there
is not much depth to the enterprise and there’s
an emptiness surrounding both the key character and the film itself.
The strong supporting cast, which also features the considerable talents of Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Liev Schreiber and Andre Braugher, is
never fully exploited.
It’s Angelina Jolie’s film alright and she hardly misses a beat, showing that she’s worth her
salt as an action heroine. The question is
whether “Salt” is worthy of Angelina Jolie.
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
Meet the slightly offcentre ‘king of improv’
TAPESTRY
ART, BOOKS, DANCE, FILM, THEATRE
She lived a thousand lives
in silence of her bedroom
Lives Like Loaded Guns by Lyndall
Gordon (Virago, R344)
REVIEWED BY GWEN PODBREY
MENTION Emily Dickinson, and
the first association that comes to
mind is of a reclusive, eccentric
woman who dressed only in white,
never left her bedroom in Amherst,
Massachusetts, for years and who
penned and secreted poems away
in cupboard drawers.
Lyndall Gordon’s biography
blasts away a good deal of this
myth, though much of it is grounded in fact.
Born to a monied, socially prominent family in 1830, Dickinson
received a sound college education
at
Mount
Holyoke
Female
Seminary, where her innately
rebellious nature - which manifested in things like refusing to be
counted with fellow Christians eventually marked her as a wayward, albeit gifted student.
Given to intense (though frequently unrequited) attachments
to select peers, Dickinson was
aware at an early age of both
her talent and her social awkwardness.
At home, tensions were equally
evident, though well hidden
behind a façade of rectitude.
Intriguingly, while her family
regarded her as a domesticated,
supremely modest and reticent
figure (her niece Mattie described
her as one who “trembled beneath
her little dimity apron”), there
was much that was volcanic in the
household.
Her older brother Austin’s wife,
Susan - a lifelong admirer of
Dickinson’s work and one of her
closest confidantes - found herself
ousted from her husband’s affections by the vibrant and colourful
Mabel Loomis Todd, who conducted a long affair with him.
This became an open secret in the
family.
Humiliated, but unable to relinquish her position as spurned and
wronged wife, Susan engaged in a
rivalry with Todd which - after
Emily Dickinson’s death in 1886 would explode in a second round of
hostilities, as the women vied for
custody of her literary estate.
Dickinson herself had enjoyed
cordial - indeed, deeply affectionate
- ties with both disputants. Now,
lamentably, both of them attempted
to romanticise and distort Dickinson’s circumstances and, in so
doing, claim vicarious
ownership of her legacy.
The lies and deceptions which had so long
punctuated Susan and
Todd’s relationship and which had festered
around adultery and
betrayal - now regenerated around a third,
deceased - and dispassionate - party.
These rifts, however
volatile, revolved around the poet in
the family, using her as a touchstone
of contention, rather than eliciting
her active participation.
A spectator rather than a combatant, she used demotic language
as an intimate springboard into
divine realms which she visualised
as clearly as the view outside her
window (interestingly, a view - like
the Brontes’ - of tombstones).
As Dickinson wrote in the poem
from which the book’s title is
taken: “My Life had stood - a
Loaded Gun - / In Corners - till a
Day / The Owner passed - identified - / And carried me away.”
Besides, there were other reasons which necessitated her passivity in the family feuds. Based on
compelling evidence, Gordon suggests that she probably suffered
from severe epilepsy - then considered a socially unacceptable illness
- and that this was why she
remained behind doors as much as
possible.
Dickinson’s grand mal fits were
neither predictable nor controllable, and since no treatment was
known to cure the condition, her
only option was to live a solitary
life. Moreover, since dirt was
thought to exacerbate epilepsy, her
white clothes were likely chosen as
the most reliable indicators of dust
in the room.
What Gordon superbly achieves
in this biography is the sense of
theatricality which characterised
Emily Dickinson and her family,
both during their own lifetimes
and in the context of history.
While Dickinson’s early death
sees her personally quit the stage
after a brief while, those grasping
for her ghost maintain the momentum of the play admirably.
Melodramatic alliances, tempestu-
13
ous conflicts, exits and
entrances
marked
these kinsfolks’ and
their circle’s existence:
the Rev Charles Wadsworth, one of Dickinson’s muses, once sank
out of view of his congregation via a trapdoor after delivering a
stirring sermon. This
was an age of props,
sensationalism
and
affectation.
Dickinson - who
published only 10
poems before her
death, but left 1 789 others stitched
into books or scribbled on scraps of
paper - lived a thousand lives in the
seclusion and silence of her bedroom.
Now hailed as one of the greatest
poets of the 20th century and still
unmatched in the acuity of her perceptive brilliance, she not only
developed her own distinctive
genre of verse - the elliptal,
“inspired brevity”, erratic (or nonexistent) punctuation, using dashes
and capital letters as she saw fit but installed within it a beckoning
stairway to a level of consciousness
few other artists have reached.
“Hope is the thing with feathers,” she wrote.
Gordon’s book, as befits the spectacle of the Dickinson saga, raises
and lowers the curtain on the poet
and her family like those in a grand
opera.
Her writing requires some work
before yielding admission, for it
encompasses both past and present, and is liberally infused with
insights of her own, rather than a
straight narrative.
Yet one cannot help but thrill,
standing with her in the wings as
the dramatis personae hurry past,
made up and ready to play their
parts around the elusive, Elysian
central character of Emily.
Through Gordon’s prodigious
productive
powers,
we
see
Dickinson surveying the comitragedy of men, women and herself, sending poems through her
slightly opened door to one or two
select recipients - “letters to the
world” - knowing they would blaze
in a time other than her own.
A life like a loaded gun, indeed.
• See the interview with Lyndall
Gordon on page 16.
CHRISTINA KENNEDY
THE WORLD’S really good
comedians are fearless, refusing
to pander to audiences and
spurning the familiar for the outthere and unconventional.
Perhaps this aversion to justadd-water ready-mix comedy, is
why Dave Levinsohn flies lower
under the radar than many of his
fellow laughter merchants - to
paraphrase Ol’ Blue Eyes, he
does it his way.
It’s therefore not surprising
that one of this non-conformist’s
comedy idols is Ricky Gervais,
who pioneered “The Office” - and
who, love him or loathe him,
commands a loyal following.
Similarly, for Levinsohn, he’d
rather carry on doing his quirky
comedy for the core of people
who “get” him than water down
his material to cast his net wider.
It was this bracing approach
that led to him being chosen to
open for Irish comedian Jimoein
on the main programme of the
National Arts Festival in
Grahamstown last year, prompting many to say: “Who is this
guy?” “Where has he come
from?” And: “Where can I go to
see more of him?”
Levinsohn, who recently
moved from Cape Town to
Johannesburg with his wife and
baby to work as a fulltime funnyman in the Big Smoke, has a
number of gigs coming up, and
audiences who enjoy their laughter left of centre will get a kick
out of the man dubbed “the king
of improv”.
You see, he sees the funny in
the mundane. Sitting in a Hyde
Park coffee shop, he spots northern-suburbs kugels mincing
along in their stilettos and starts
imagining them wiping out.
“Someone tripping and falling is
still funny,” he remarks. “If you
think about it, when you’re a
baby your first emotion is laughing - it’s the basest human emotion; we lose it as we age.”
Dave Levinsohn. (PHOTOGRAPH
SUPPLIED)
In the game for 13 years,
Levinsohn was among the pioneers of the Cape comedy scene
that was at the forefront of the
genre exploding beyond dingy
pubs and into theatres and casino venues.
He’s not one to mine laughter
by commenting on familiar situations: “Comedy is not a strategy,
it’s an instinct. You should not
just go for the laughter of recognition. Something that’s true is
not funny - that’s just lecturing
your audience. I make observations that aren’t generally covered by others. My comedy is
about looking at something
slightly off-centre.”
Be warned if you’re attending
his gigs, though: In true
“improv” style, he thrives on
finding out who’s in the audience, why they’re there and what
makes them tick. “I’ll decide
what’s part of the show - and
part of the show is you!”
Not one to sugar-coat his
words in polite, politically-correct twaddle, what you’ll get is a
refreshingly funny night out - but
don’t expect paint-by-numbers
comedy from this true original.
• Dave Levinsohn is at Carnival
City on September 24 and 25;
Ratanga Junction, Cape Town
September 30 - October 2; and
Rocking the Daisies in Darling
and Rocking the Gardens,
Emmarentia, October 8 - 10. See
parkerscomedy.com
14
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
LETTERS
Guidelines for letters: Letters up to 400 words will get preference. Please provide your full first name
and surname, place of residence, and a daytime contact telephone or cell number. We do not publish letters under noms de plume. Letters should preferably be e-mailed. Letters may be edited or shortened.
The Editor, Suite 175, Postnet X10039, Randburg, 2125 email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: The letters page is intended to provide opportunity for a range of views on any
given topic to be expressed. Opinions articulated in the letters are those of the writers and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the editor, staff or directors of the Jewish Report
AND THAT FOR A SIMPLE BREAD BUN WITH A MEAT FILLING...
TRIBUTE TO DR SCHNEIR LEVIN Z’L
A “KOSHER” hamburger at R73 does not an
“anti-Semite” make
This may sound true, but on the other hand,
if kichel and herring brought more Jews back
to shul, I say: Roll out the barrels!
Unfortunately, Charmaine must be made
aware, that the spread of anti-Semitism is a far
more serious situation. Our people have been
massacred for centuries. She just has to refer to
the history of our people; the pages are full of
Jewish blood.
Her letter has a few alarming factors: I am
surprised that the editor published it.
We are all aware that “kosher” is more
expensive, (so) why offer a very hungry nonJewish locum a “kosher” hamburger? I am
I REMEMBER Dr Schneir Levin z”l (of
blessed memory) on his second yahrtzeit.
As Erev Yom Kippur approaches, I
would like to share a few words about a
very special person and doctor-Schneir
Levin. He was our family’s paediatrician
for over 30 years.
His utmost dedication to our children
and his many other patients, surpassed
all expectations. His kindness and caring
for all human beings is well known. He
always went the extra mile for his
patients. His patients were his life. He was
sure, surrounding her pharmacy, there are many a
“non-kosher” hamburgers to be had that could
have been delivered quicker and fresher at a far
more acceptable cost.
I am most surprised at the severity of the letter.
Her readiness to abandon the Jewish people all for
the sake of a simple bread bun with a meat filling...
As stated, the letter was written from a pharmacy. I am sure that to counteract the arrival of the
“kosher” hamburger, she and a local pharmacist
administered sufficient valiums to counter the
anger.
PS: How was the hamburger?
Jack Shapiro
Fairvale, Johannesburg
JEWISH ‘ACTIVISM’: SAKS DOESN’T TELL WHOLE STORY
DAVID SAKS writes: “A closer look at what actually happened under apartheid shows that not
only did Jewish anti-apartheid activists represent
a small minority of the Jewish population, but
that they were hardly embraced at the time by
their fellow Jews for their actions.”
He concludes that we should acknowledge “this
community’s poor collective record when a real
apartheid situation prevailed”.
In such circumstances, should not the South
African Jewish community extend its fasting over
Yom Kippur until Passover? Well, I would argue
against it, and not only on nutritional grounds.
My reasons are as follows...
Didn’t Helen Suzman have wide support among
SA Jewry? If I remember correctly, she was a parliamentarian, and she dedicated her life to confronting and destroying the evil apartheid regime.
Wasn’t Helen an “anti-apartheid activist”, when
she fearlessly condemned the abuses of a racist
government, both in parliament and on the international stage? (Chambers defines “activist” as
“someone who is very active, especially as a member of a political group”.)
Although my mission is not to defend the
anti-apartheid credentials of South African
Jewry, I would imagine that many did, in fact,
support Helen. Unfortunately, David Saks
ignores this and, as a result, fails to tell the
whole story. It is, in my view, a serious distortion, and Saks would be well advised to set the
record straighter.
Moreover, when one analyses what is happening in the post-apartheid era, I can understand
why many South African Jews might have had
some concerns about supporting the ANC.
For example, Ronnie Kasrils was not only a
Communist, but also an anti-zionist “activist”,
and it is, perhaps not all that surprising, that
many South African Jews were reluctant to
embrace him.
After all, his ideology and that of many other
Jewish radicals, might not have brought this
country quite as much freedom as one was, at
the time, supposed to believe it would.
Anthony Posner
Johannesburg
‘CORRUPT’ GOVERNMENT OF THE DAY CANNOT BE SUPPORTED
I READ with your interest the speech of Israel’s
Ambassador to South Africa Dov SegevSteinberg (Jewish Report September 3). It was
indeed a speech of integrity and courage.
Is it not high time that we let the government
know how we feel about their constant, biased
and unfair battering of Israel?
I was then quite astounded to read further
down the page that Mr Zev Krengel states that
they (SAJBD) “support” the government of the
day. Is this is not utter cowardice as well as aiding and abetting the bully?
I am a South African Jew and in no way support the government of the day who many others and I feel are blatantly anti-Semitic, corrupt
and dishonest; a government who would obviously want to align itself with terrorist organisations rather than a country that is constantly
battered by these organisations.
How can Mr Krengel have the audacity to
represent the Jewish people of this country and
make such blanket, false and cowardly statements about whom we support?
The SAJBD would like to have a good relationship with government, but fail to see that a
relationship is a two-way road and despite us
being bullied constantly and unnecessarily by
government tactics, they carry on praising
the abuser, thus enabling the further destruction and abuse of the relationship.
When our government asks the Board to
jump, please will they stop asking “how
high”?
I certainly both appreciate and understand
that the main function of the Board is to
maintain a positive and working relationship
with government for the benefit of all South
African Jewish citizens and applaud the
Board for its endeavours.
I also feel that this should be done, representing the true feelings of the Jewish people
and without compromising the true picture
which remains Pro-Palestinian - therefore
that of an anti-Semitic nature.
Well done to Mr Segev-Steinberg for the
courage shown, remembering that the opposite
of courage is not cowardice, but conformity.
Wishing you all a Shana Tova - and a peaceful new year.
Carol-Lesley Brown
Dunkeld
ANOTHER APPEAL TO KEEP BEYACHAD LIBRARY OPEN
HERE’S ANOTHER motivation for keeping the
Beyachad Library open:
Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon (12th century):
“Make books your companions; let your shelves
be your gardens. Bask in their beauty, gather
their fruit, pluck their roses, take their spices
and myrrh and, when your soul be weary,
change from garden to garden and from
prospect to prospect.”
Leslie Herring
Port Elizabeth
OPEN SHUHADA STREET NOTHING MORE THAN GLIB STATEMENTS
IN A recent e-mail to the directors of Wellness
Warehouse calling for a boycott of Ahava products, the steering committee of Open Shuhada
Street stated: “Open Shuhada Street stands for
non-violence, the mutual respect of human
rights, and equality of life for all people living
in Israel and Palestine.”
On Tuesday, August 31, the South African
Jewish community embarked on a peaceful
protest in an attempt to bring the plight of
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped from
Israeli territory (by Hamas) in a cross-border
raid four years ago, to the eyes and ears of
South Africans.
The members of the steering committee of
Open Shuhada Street, among them, Doron
Isaacs, Nathan Geffen and Ilan Strauss, were
conspicuous by their absence.
Why, gentlemen? Is the suffering of a
young Israeli, taken hostage and held in
confinement, with access to nobody, not
even the Red Cross, not of concern to you,
who believe (or so you say) in “the mutual
respect of human rights and equality of life
for all people living in Israel and Palestine?”
Could it possibly be that your glib statement is nothing more than that; that actually, when push comes to shove you don’t care
one iota about the human rights abuses suffered by an Israeli? You have, by your
action, or inaction, proven exactly where
you stand.
Monessa Shapiro
Glenhazel
Johannesburg
on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. He
was genuinely there for them.
My father Rabbi Leib Baron Shlita on
meeting Schneir Levin, commented that
Dr Levin was a “tzaddik bein odom
lechaveiro”- Dr Levin is righteous in
interpersonal relations. Schneir Levin
truly deserved this appelation.
Fondly remembered and truly missed
by all who knew him.
Chaya Sternstein
Johannesburg
POOR ATTENDANCE AT JEWISH EX-SERVICE LEAGUE SERVICE
LAST SUNDAY, September 12, the SA
Jewish Ex-Service League held its Annual
Act of Homage and Memorial Service to
those soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice for their county.
We honour those who fell during the
First and Second World Wars, Israeli
wars, and in defence of SA. There are
plaques with names of those who fell, a
plaque for the unknown soldiers, and a
plaque to the victims of the Holocaust,
whom we consider soldiers who gave their
lives in the name of Hashem.
This year’s service had the smallest
attendance in the 60 and more years that
the service has been held. The service has
since 1948 always been held on the Sunday
between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Have we forgotten those who fell in the
First World War, a war which saw the
worst trench warfare ever? And those who
fell in the Second World War, a war
against the worst tyrants and mass murderers? Have we forgotten those who fell
in the Second World War so that their
comrades-at-arms could liberate the survivors of the death camps?
Have we forgotten those soldiers who
fought for a Jewish homeland and those
who subsequently fell in protecting their
G-d given land?
Have we forgotten those soldiers who
died while on active service while serving
in the South African Defence Force, more
so, in that they did their duty for their
country when called upon to do so as conscripted members?
The League has made a commitment to
honour and remember our fallen Jewish
brethren each year as we have done since
1948. We will honour them and say
Kaddish for them every year for as long as
we have members.
Perhaps, this year, the League did not
advertise the service vigorously enough.
However, in our defence, letters and emails were sent to various shuls, youth
movements, Jewish organisations and
Jewish day schools.
We received a few replies and even
received acknowledgement to our e-mail.
But in most cases these organisations did
not bother to RSVP. Next year we will definitely make a greater effort to bring the
memorial service to the notice of the
Johannesburg Jewish community.
However, we were grateful for the attendance of learners from King David High
School and members of Betar, who assisted us in conducting the service this year.
We look to Jewish youth, whom we hope
will carry on the tradition in the future
when most of our member has passed on,
to honour and remember our Jewish men
and women who gave their lives.
We also thank Rabbi Ron Hendler for
assisting with the service and for his very
moving address. Hopefully we will see
more Jewish religious leaders at our service in the years to come.
Lt Col (Rtd) W J Bergman
Chairman: Johannesburg and Reef
Branch : SA Jewish Ex-Service League
TO CLOSE BEYACHAD LIBRARY WILL BE SHAMEFUL
A JEWISH library is the repository of
the soul of the community it serves their history, their culture, their heritage, beliefs and traditions. Sever their
connection to their library and you
undermine their sense of identity.
The Nazis understood this so well. That
is why one of the first things they did
when they invaded Vilna in 1941, was to
attack its famous Strashun Library on the
courtyard of the shul of the Vilna Gaon,
with its thousands of rare and precious
volumes of Hebraica and Judaica and
priceless documents and manuscripts.
They hauled books into the courtyard
and made a bonfire. The famous Yiddish
poet Avrom Sutzkever wrote:
Azure blue the ancient pages
Purple now the silvery hairs ;
On this parchment wrote our sages
Through the tears of endless years.
For every page desecrated
I weep as it curls in the flame ;
I choke with songs consecrated,
O hide them and save them from shame.
(Translation by Amelia Levy)
If the Beyachad Library is closed, it
will be a shameful and disgraceful thing.
Joshua Levy
Emmarentia
Johannesburg
FOR THE RECORD
Absa Achiever Awards caption corrections
ON PAGES 10 and 11 of our Rosh
Hashanah edition (September 3), some
mistakes crept into some of the captions
of the photographs of the Absa Jewish
Achiever Awards.
The photograph on page 10 should have
been captioned: Guests and representatives of sponsor Johnnie Walker, from
left, Rino Giacommozzi; Alan Bulatkin;
Solly Kramer; Rene Heitner;
Myron Pollack; and Charles
Kramer.
On page 11, we omitted to
mention that Aviad Eyal, the
recipient of the Johnnie
Walker Entrepreneur Award,
is CEO of Cura Software
Solutions.
Jeffrey Zidel, the Absa Business
Achiever Award recipient for a listed
company, also pictured on page 11, is in
fact chairman of Fortress Income Fund
Limited and of Property Index Tracker
Ltd. He's non-executive director of
Resilient Property Income Fund Ltd and
director of New Europe Property
Investments Plc.
Shawn Benjamin took the photograph
IN
OUR
Rosh
Hashanah
issue
(September 3), on page 5, the photograph
illustrating the story about the Cape
Town tribute to the late Chief Rabbi Cyril
Harris, was incorrectly attributed to
Moira Schneider. Schneider wrote the
article but the photograph was taken by
Shawn Benjamin.
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
LETTERS
SOME PRACTICAL WAYS TO SAVE BEYACHAD LIBRARIES
IMAGINE NOT being able to read a bedtime story to
your child because there has been a power failure or
the e-book battery wasn’t charged!
What would losing your heritage and identity mean
if there were no facilities to preserve the past?
Within the walls of the Beyachad Libraries is your
modus vivendi, your family tree and the history of
South African Jewry, as well as its impact on the State
of Israel, that is not found on the Internet.
There are few individuals still able to recall what
happened in the past; the wonderful DVDs in “Mama
Loshen”, as well as many other classic and historic
films; books and archival material that are out of print
and unavailable anywhere else. Without this heritage
we would again be wandering in the wilderness.
At the Gauteng SAJBD Conference, a statement was
made that it was not the intention to close the library
but downsize it, and it was Beyachad’s responsibility to
fund it. When the Jewish organisations moved into
Beyachad, SAJBD and SAZF had libraries they funded,
each with a full complement of staff. It was decided the
two should merge into the Beyachad Libraries with
financial support from both organisations.
This arrangement lasted until August 31 of this year,
when all funding was withdrawn, and the library committee was informed that to keep the doors open it had
to resort to self-funding. The libraries and archives
belong to the whole community who should come forward to support these irreplaceable treasures.
Libraries and museums are inherently not expected to
be self-funding or profit-generating.
“Beyachad” is the administrative arm of the building, responsible for the management and maintenance
of the premises, staff, supplies, security etc. There is a
financial department which handles the financial matters of the tenants in the building.
Its income is derived from rental of tenants occupying space, thus without the income previously received
from SAJBD and SAZF, it cannot fulfil the role of funding the library without traditional communal support.
Without money to fund the libraries, it’s tantamount to
closing it down. There have been no alternate premises
or funding offered. The largest part of the Jewish community and users reside in the north-eastern suburbs,
it therefore makes no sense to leave its present “home”.
This incredible facility is used by scholars, writers
and theologians of all races both locally and interna-
tionally. It is integral to the work of Beth Hatefusoth.
We should like to thank the Jewish Report for being
so supportive of the Beyachad Libraries and printing
the letters, and for your poignant and thought provoking editorial on August 20. We should also like to thank
the members of the public for verbally showing their
support; all advice has been considered and we will
implement those ideas that are able to be carried out.
The Library committee has a dream, which can only
become a reality with your tangible support. Our
responsibility is to upgrade the facilities into the
“Johannesburg Jewish Resource Centre”, where we
would combine our history, heritage and treasures
with a modern hi-tech facility linked to other Jewish
libraries and genealogical sites, while still having novels and DVDs available. Dreams only become realities
when others share them - Herzl had a dream!!
Cape Town has 18 per cent of the Jewish community,
and the Gitlin Library has its full support. Surely
Gauteng with 80 per cent can be expected to tangibly
show their support for this incredible communal
resource, which does not belong to a committee or a
single person, but to all of you.
You can empower this and future generations by
ensuring the survival of the JJRC through:
a) Becoming a paid-up member for much less than
the cost per day of a newspaper
b) Volunteering to phone people and make them
members; if you’re a librarian and can assist with time
so we could open for the working public on a Sunday or
evening. We need help sorting the Hebrew collection.
c) Informing everyone you know that the library can
give them hours of pleasure
d) Organisations and shuls - encourage your committees and members to join
e) Helping to sell our dream to potential corporate or
private supporters.
f) Expats - come forward and save the history of your
community or shtetl - with your help we can eventually make the information in the libraries and archives
accessible to you wherever you may be living now.
g) Sharing your positive feedback and ideas
We need your help and your commitment to save history for future generations.
Marcia Parness
Chairman Beyachad Libraries
BURGER BOX JUSTIFIES PRICE OF A KOSHER BURGER
IN REPLY to a letter in the Jewish Report of
September 3, regarding the price of a burger and delivery to a shop in Lyndhurst, we wish to say the following:
1. Should the person involved from the pharmacy
want a kosher meal he/she has to pay kosher prices.
2. Should he/she prefer a Steers burger, please enjoy.
Petrol costs money, cars used by delivery people
don’t go on water. If after being quoted a price for the
burger and a delivery charge, and the person concerned did not want the burger, why order it and make
a fuss in the newspaper afterwards?
Before this goes further, I suggest the person concerned contact the shop where he/she made this purchase and discuss it with the owners.
Remarks of this nature in a newspaper are derogatory and can be taken further.
When comparing prices, please use Spur not Steers
‘SELF-RIGHTEOUS SCORN’ DOES
MORE HARM THAN GOOD TO
JEWISH CAUSE
I AM a gentile so you may be surprised to
learn that I read the SA Jewish Report. The
reason is that my step-daughter has converted to Judaism, is married to an Israeli
and lives in Israel. I am somewhat diffidently interested in getting the Jewish perspective.
In your edition of August 27, you had, on
page 14 under “Letters to the Editor”, a letter headed: “Like vultures, Israel’s detractors sit and wait”.
Perhaps among your readers this sort of
“self-righteous scorn” may appeal. Yet to
my mind, it does more harm than good to
the Jewish cause.
The letter writer - Allan Wolman - first
slams the BBC, then CNN, then the whole of
the international media. Wolman concludes: “There seems to be no end to the
lengths that Israel’s detractors will go in
order to vilify her.”
Au contraire, it seems to me that there
seems to be no end to the lengths that some
Jewish folk will go to support their own
prejudices. And it is rather insulting to
imply, as this letter writer seems to, that we
are all so dumb, that we immediately
believe everything we read, including the
diatribes of people who send “Letters to the
Editor”.
Arthur G Clarke
Tokai, Cape Town
as a benchmark.
We are a restaurant, not only a takeaway establishment.
Shawn and Warren Lazarus
Owners of Burger Box
We specifically didn’t mention the name of the “establishment” and stated our reasons. Messrs Lazarus have
now done so of their own accord. The client wasn’t complaining about paying more for a kosher product, but
thought the price charged and R15 for delivery, to be
“outrageous”. I see Burger Box doesn’t dispute the figure of R73, so I take it they agree with it. As a newspaper we obviously cannot (and will not) get involved in
client-establishment issues and disputes, unless it
impacts on the community. The price of kosher products
has been - and is - one of those sensitive issues. - Editor
15
COMMUNITY COLUMNS
ABOVE
BOARD
Zev Krengel,
National Chairman
A column of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies
5770 - looking back on
the year that was
WITH THE Jewish New Year still just a few days old, we can reflect, in the
spirit of stock-taking and introspection that characterises this time on the
Jewish calendar, on the year that has passed.
Taken as a whole, I believe, it was a time where we successfully met our
challenges and seized the opportunities available to emerge much the
stronger.
In pursuing our core mission of combating anti-Semitism, the Board
made full use of its legal, media and diplomatic resources to deal with all
incidents that came to its attention. One of the most high-profile of these
cases was the complaint we lodged with the Human Rights Commission
against Cosatu International Spokesperson Bongani Masuku for his
threatening and offensive rhetoric against Jews who supported Israel.
The HRC upheld the complaint, ruling that such statements constituted
hate speech.
The strong relationships we have built up both with international
Jewry, were much in evidence at our 2009 National Conference, where former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and World Jewish Congress
President Ronald Lauder, were just some of those in attendance.
In February, we did much to build on this when we hosted a group of 65,
representing the Congress of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organisations and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
The packed itinerary we put together, gave the group - the most highlevel international Jewish delegation ever to visit this continent - a thorough grounding in Jewish communal life and in South African politics,
history, and legal infrastructure.
On a regular basis, the Board assists Jewish university students when
examinations are set on Yomtov. Our most important work this year was
done on behalf of Unisa students whose exams had been set on Shavuot.
An important project of our Communications Department was to partner with the Israeli Embassy and SA-Israel Forum, in bringing eight journalists to Israel to learn about the country, its achievements and challenges.
The year 2010 was, of course, par excellence the year of the Fifa World
Cup. This occasioned our Jewish 2010 World Cup project for our Jewish
visitors, of which the centrepiece was www.Jewish2010.com. An online
directory, it provided visitors with all they needed to know about what
South African Jewry has to offer them, and was much utilised.
Inevitably, 5770 included a few lows as well. Top of the list was probably
the temporary recall of the South African Ambassador to Israel in protest
over the Gaza flotilla incident.
Through the various channels of communication we have with
Government, we registered our strongest protest against the decision.
Another challenging time was during the Goldstone barmitzvah affair,
where the Board was fortunately able to play a key role in arriving at a
compromise arrangement that all parties were comfortable with.
Whatever the future holds, it is an ongoing source of encouragement to
know that despite the often difficult and testing nature of the challenges
to which we have been subjected in the past, we have ultimately been
equal to them. As we move further into the New Year, we can draw on the
lessons of the past year with true confidence.
This column is paid for by the SAJBD
16
SA JEWISH REPORT
AROUND
THE WORLD
NEWS IN BRIEF
JEWISH CENTRE
UNDAMAGED IN QUAKE
CHRISTCHURCH - A Jewish
centre in the earthquake-ravaged New Zealand city of
Christchurch, was discovered
undamaged.
The Chabad House in New
Zealand's second-largest city
was not damaged by the earthquakes that ravaged much of
the central business district.
Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, the
US-born director of Chabad in
New Zealand, spent Rosh
Hashanah unable to ascertain
whether the building, which
houses New Zealand's only
kosher restaurant on the
ground floor, was destroyed
after the September 4 quake
because of a state of emergency imposed by the government.
Downtown
Christchurch
was under curfew following
several powerful aftershocks.
Goldstein and Shemi Tzur,
Israel's new ambassador to
Wellington, visited the site
Monday afternoon.
"Thank G-d the Chabad
House survived the quake
completely intact," Goldstein
said. "Even the books on the
shelves were still exactly in
place as if nothing had happened. It's nothing short of a
miracle."
The Torah scroll was in his
house because he had lent it to
the Chabad House in Dunedin,
the rabbi said.
The ceiling in Goldstein's
dining room collapsed amid
the tremor that registered 7,1
on the Richter scale.
The Chabad House, which
opened 18 months ago, is
located only a few hundred
metres from the building that
had housed the former centre;
it was badly damaged by the
earthquake and was condemned.
About 2 000 Jews live in
Christchurch, on the south
island. The city's one synagogue also was undamaged by
the quake. (JTA)
JEWISH FUNDERS
NETWORK CHIEF TO
STEP DOWN
NEW YORK - The president of
the Jewish Funders Network
will step down at the end of
this year, according to a letter
sent by the organisation's
chairman to members.
Mark Charendoff has led
JFN, an organisation for those
who give $25 000 or more per
year to Jewish charities, for
nine years.
Always a proponent of
change, Mark wants to take
some time off to consider his
next career move," Murray
Galinson wrote in the letter
sent before Rosh Hashanah.
According to the letter, the
JFN’s vice chair, Steve
Geringer, will lead a search
committee to find Charendoff’s replacement.
The announcement came
the day after Charendoff
wrote an op-ed piece in The
New York Jewish Week saying
that he felt no CEO of a
Jewish organisation should
stay in office for longer than
10 years.
"How long is too long at the
top? I’m not dogmatic, but
eight to 10 years feels like it's
enough." (JTA)
17 - 27 September 2010
Holocaust medical ethics: All about
‘upstanders’ and ‘bystanders’
ROBYN SASSEN
IN A talk commemorating the
33rd anniversary of the death of
black activist Steve Bantu Biko,
hosted by the Biko Centre for BioEthics at the Adler Museum in
Parktown, Johannesburg, this
week, Tali Nates, daughter of
Holocaust survivors and director
of the Johannesburg Holocaust
and Genocide Centre, spoke of
medical ethics.
Entitled “Health and Human
Rights: Perpetrators, Bystanders
and Rescuers”, her capacitypacked lecture painted the portraits of these three types of indi-
viduals with particular reference
to the medical fraternity at the
time of the Holocaust.
“Biko’s death followed assaults
and torture by the apartheid
security police. It highlighted
how far the apartheid regime was
prepared to go to uphold its policies,” Professor Yosuf “Joe”
Veriava, chairman of the Biko
Foundation’s advisory board,
said when he introduced the talk.
“Lessons are learned from the
medical care Biko received.”
Continuing this thread, Nates
cited the then Minister of Police
Jimmy Kruger, who rationalised
Biko’s maltreatment, comment-
Tali Nates, director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide
Centre, in conversation with Nkosinathi Biko, son of the late Steve
Bantu Biko, at the talk at the Adler Museum, earlier this week.
(PHOTOGRAPH BY ILAN OSSENDRYVER)
ing that between September 5 and
his death a week later, “district
surgeons” couldn’t find anything
wrong with him. He added: “I am
not glad and I am not sorry;
Biko’s death leaves me cold.”
Kruger has long passed on, but
his infamous, callous words still
linger on.
“What was the doctors’ role in
Biko’s death?” Nates asked
rhetorically. “Perhaps we expect
less from officials, but what of
the doctors, who pledge support
of the Hippocratic Oath? In the
case of the Holocaust, who is a
perpetrator?
What
about
bystanders?”
She showed the audience a 1944
photograph of the ramp in
Auschwitz-Birkenau, in which
Hungarian Jews were being dispatched and sorted by Nazi doctors. She remarked that the
bystander here was behind the
lens.
“Some 30 SS doctors performed
selections - sending Jews to death
immediately - with a flick of a finger.”
Speaking of doctors like Josef
Mengele, notorious for his experimentation with twins; Arnold
Dohmen, responsible for the
death of thousands under the
guise of experimenting with
pathogens for the jaundice infection; and Franz Stangl who killed
over 900 000 people, Nates set into
relief the medical legalism,
where doctors ignored ethics and
became killers.
Sachsenhausen’s
infirmary
housed the euthanasia programme, code-named T4, which
sanctioned the murder of thousands because they were not considered “perfect” and were
understood to be a burden to soci-
Gordon’s women are no stereotypes
GWEN PODBREY
CAPE TOWN-BORN and
raised Lyndall Gordon (pictured) has made her mark
not only as a distinguished
academic, but also as a
biographer of some of
English literature’s most revered and most enigmatic - names.
After graduating from the
University of Cape Town, Gordon
obtained
her
doctorate
at
Columbia University in the USA.
She is now a Senior Research
Fellow at St Hilda’s College,
Oxford and has just released her
latest work, “Lives Like Loaded
Guns”, an account of the extraordinary life and death of American
poet Emily Dickinson.
Her previous works include
“Eliot’s Early Years” (winner of
the British Academy’s Rose Mary
Crawshay Prize) and “Eliot’s New
Life” (published together as “TS
Eliot: An Imperfect Life”),
“Virginia Woolf: A Writer’s Life”
(winner of the James Tait Black
Memorial
Prize),
“Charlotte
Bronte: A Passionate Life” (winner of the Cheltenham Prize for
Literature), “Shared Lives” (about
her friendship with two other
Jewish girls in Cape Town during
her childhood) and “Vindication:
A Life of Mary Wollstonecroft”.
Gwen Podbrey: You’ve written a
lot about women writers who were
driven by intense emotion, which
many see as rage. But don’t you
think the powerlessness in women
like Charlotte Bronte was really
due more to economic deprivation?
Lyndall Gordon: It wasn’t rage
that drove these women, but
ambition. Charlotte Bronte,
for example, was aware of
her own genius long before
she ever published anything. In one of her devoirs
for “Monsieur” (Constantin
Heger, the headmaster she
fell in love with while studying at
his seminary in Brussels), she
wrote of being an artist.
In her poetry, also, she wrote of a
laurel wreath descending on her
head. Love for Heger followed his
recognition of her genius as well.
But economic deprivation certainly
played a big role. Unlike Emily
Dickinson, who was born into a
much more well-to-do family and
attended the first women’s college
in the USA in 1847, doing subjects
she enjoyed, Charlotte Bronte had
to make the very most of a very
mediocre school and the friendship
of a very conventional schoolmistress (Margaret Wooller) for
intellectual stimulus.
In the end, though, when you
have genius of that level, it’s not
going to change the work, economic factors notwithstanding.
GP: You depicted a side of Charlotte
Bronte as a somewhat manipulative
woman who was hugely resentful of
the role her younger sister, Anne,
played in claiming the affection of
her elder sister, Emily. Weren’t you
a little harsh on her?
LG: I’m not saying Charlotte’s jealousy was decisive, but there were
certainly tensions between the sisters in later years. And Charlotte
did tamper with her sisters’ work
after their deaths because she wanted to portray them as lady-like.
GP: When Charlotte Bronte had
the chance to tackle bigger issues
- like those explored by Elizabeth
Gaskell, Harriet Martineau and
Harriet Beecher Stowe - she didn’t use it. Why do you think this
was?
LG: People don’t need to write
about social issues. Literature is
about experience.
GP: As a Jewish girl growing up
in Cape Town, how did apartheid
impact your identity and, later,
your writing?
LG: That’s hard to answer:
apartheid was everywhere. I was
conscious of people living in
groups, not just racially, but also
in communities. South African
Jews formed a very closed group.
But I think it was fertile - I grew
up in a society perhaps a little like
the American South, where life
was so rigidly constrained by
social norms.
And I had a very thinking
mother, who read Nadine
Gordimer and who belonged to
Alan Paton’s political party,
while it existed, so that kind of
awareness was with me. As a
result, I feel I learnt to question
everything - and I write books
that don’t follow the established
conventions in terms of writers’
lives.
For example, I didn’t see
Charlotte Bronte as a mouse trembling in the shadow of tombstones: I saw her as rebellious. In
fact, I grew to like that in her
more and more while I was writing.
As another example: in the leg-
ety. They “disappeared” under
the handling of doctors and nurses. “Doctors are supposed to save,
not take lives,” she pointed out.
“Dohmen was granted a
request for eight Jews to be
experimented on; he took 11
youngsters, between the ages of
eight and 23. They all survived,
because of ‘upstanders’, the opposite of ‘bystanders’, people who
have the social conscience and
the courage to do something
about the situation.
“Those ‘upstanders’ were medical assistants, employed by the
Nazis who covertly supplied the
boys with food and water and protected them through the death
march, after the liberation of the
camps, by which time Dohmen
had vanished.”
She spoke of the Dutch lawyer
Jaap van Proosdij who forged
baptismal papers for Jews to save
them; and Oskar Schindler, who
was indoctrinated into Nazi culture, but who rebelled and saved
1 000 Jews, including Nates’
father and uncle, Moses and
Heinrich Turner.
“These people had the courage
to make choices that saved lives.”
Continuing her focus to
embrace the realities in genocides like that in Rwanda, and the
unbelievable miracles where the
humanity in ordinary soldiers
shone through, enabling women
and children to be saved based on
the premise that they have no
place in a war, Nates concluded
her lecture by citing the now
famous words of an anonymous
Sachsenhausen concentration
camp inmate to a new inmate: “I
have told you this story not to
weaken you, but to strengthen
you. Now it is up to you.”
ends that have followed Emily
Dickinson, her sister-in-law Susan
has come down to us as cruel - but
when you get down to details,
there’s really no evidence of that.
Dickinson wrote her very loving
notes. As a biographer, you have
to keep your mind open at all
times.
GP: Who’s next on your list? Can
we expect to see anything about
the likes of Olive Schreiner or
Ingrid Jonker?
LG: What I’d dearly like to do is
write a biography of memoir of
my mother. I’ve got a lot of her
unpublished poetry and other
material from her stories and
bible classes. She was an Emily
Dickinson-type character.
I’ve just been to Klawer in
Namaqualand, where she grew
up, and I saw the railway bridge
over the Olifants River which
spans two balconies. Back in
1920, she and her brothers always
dared each other to jump from
one balcony to another just
ahead of an approaching train.
She saw this as a test, in the same
way she saw life as a series of
tests.
GP: Which of your books do you
like best?
LG: “Shared Lives” - I wrote it
with the greatest happiness, even
though it was about the deaths of
two close friends. There was a lot
of laughter in it, among the three
of us, while we were all at school
together. I love thinking back to
childhood, youth and women’s
friendships.
• See the review of “Lives Like
Loaded Guns” on page 13.
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
17
18
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
YOUTH TALK
Alison Goldberg [email protected]
KDHL Matric Dance:
An array of fashion,
food and friendship
KEREN LUNTZ
PHOTOGRAPH: GARY BLOCK
Rosh Hashanah gifts
made with lots of love
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY HAILEY FOX
YEHUDA
SHNEIDERMAN;
Hannah
Camberg; Benjamin Levin; and Daniel
Waisman of Pine Street Playschool in
Johannesburg, get ready to give their
moms the Rosh Hashanah gifts they have
made.
The children listened to the blowing of
the shofar, learnt all about mitzvoth and
ate apples dipped in honey for a sweet new
year.
The KDLPS children
remember Gilad Shalit
YONIT WEIL
PHOTOGRAPH: RENE BUDD
EREV ROSH Hashanah, King David
Primary School Linksfield had a special
assembly in support of captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Children were asked to wear yellow as a
sign of freedom and to signify to the world
that we will not rest until Gilad Shalit captured in 2006 - is back with his family.
The children started off with davening,
followed by Rabbi Ari Shishler giving an
inspirational talk and linking freedom, and
Rosh Hashanah.
The Judaism Council then read the story
of the fish and the shark, written by Shalit,
followed by an assembly.
Pictured are the grade 7 Judaism Council
and Ros Bacher (who bought the ribbons
and balloons), and teachers Darryl
Frankel, Yonit Weil and Candice Smith.
Rosh Hashanah at Eden Prep
MAUREEN LEVY
PHOTOGRAPH: RENEE TOBIANSKY
ON TUESDAY, September 7, the Jewish
pupils at Eden Prep celebrated Rosh
Hashanah with a special concert. Many
parents attended and enjoyed it immensely.
The junior school sang at the concert
and the grade 7s gave a presentation,
“Watch your words”.
Rabbi Michael Katz blew the shofar and
addressed the pupils. Everybody enjoyed
apples dipped in honey. A fantastic funfilled morning was enjoyed by all.
FINALLY, AFTER all the excitement,
anxiety and pressure of the matric
year, the King David Linksfield High
School’s grade 12s saw the highlight
of their year, the matric dance, arrive
on Sunday September 5.
The event, held at the Sandton Shul
Hall, was a spectacular array of fashion, food and friendship. Organised
by Mrs Manette Jacobson, the Matric
Dance was, as always, a fantastic success.
The staff, learners and dates had a
ball and amidst the magnificent
venue and gorgeous dresses, the
sense of sadness at leaving KDHL,
seemed to underlie the joyous celebration of the Matric Dance.
The learners clearly saw the value
in their penultimate experience of the
KDHL ethos, values and vibe.
Jonathan Kadish; Carly Bassin; and Jarred
Gruzin
Bringing goodness and
cheer to Selwyn Segal
OWN CORRESPONDENT
PHOTOGRAPH SUPLLIED
THE GRADE Rs of the Yeshiva PrePrimary School, as a culmination of their
Elul Chesed programme, invited 25 residents from the Selwyn Segal Home for a
morning of singing and dancing.
All the residents and children were
given delicious refreshments and proceeded to make a Rosh Hashanah picture
which, after it’s been framed, will be
handed over to the residents as a gift from
our children.
Each Selwyn Segal resident went home
with a bag and T-shirt.
Two residents
of the Selwyn
Segal Home,
Gaby Katz and
Beverley
Kaganoff,
receive gifts
from two
Yeshiva
College PrePrimary School
learners Erin
Gottlieb and
Elijah
Ginsberg.
‘Special People’s Day’ at
YC Pre-Primary
OWN CORRESPONDENT
PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED
Jenna Baleta; Caitlyn Segal; and Shira
Miller enjoying apple and honey.
KDLPP tots make new friends
MIRIAM SCHIFF
PHOTOGRAPH: TZILLA TANNENBAUM
SPRING DAY was celebrated at King
David Pre-Primary school with a visit by
the children from the Masihambisane
Crèche in Alexandra township, our adoptive school.
The children had a wonderful day in the
garden and shared toys, songs and dances.
Pictured are Jenna Klitzner and Mira
Lipman with their new friend, Palesa
Mampshika.
“SPECIAL
PEOPLE’S
Day”
was
held
on
Wednesday September 1
at the Yeshiva College
Pre-Primary School to
formally welcome Spring.
A fun morning was
enjoyed by many grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and
caregivers.
The children davened
and sang their Rosh
Hashanah songs after
which each child did an
activity with their visitor.
Pictured are Aaron
Joffe with his “special
uncle”, Greg Isaacman.
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
YOUTH TALK
19
Alison Goldberg [email protected]
Gabi Geffen gets KDVP
2009 Dux Award
Learners
teaching their
parents.
MARGIE SOLOMONS
PHOTOGRAPH: YAEL GORDON
THE DUX Award assembly for the top King David
Victory Park learner in the 2009 IEB National
Senior Certificate examinations, had to be
delayed until now because the demands of her
studies in Cape Town kept the winner, Gabriella
Geffen, away from Johannesburg.
A student at the Cape Academy for the
Performing Arts, she has just returned from performing at the Edinburgh Festival.
Geffen’s results were outstanding. She achieved
eight distinctions, including marks of over 90 per
cent in five of her subjects and placed in the top
one per cent in the IEB in dramatic arts, English,
Hebrew and physical sciences.
She was named as one of the IEB Outstanding
Achievers and is a worthy winner of the school’s
Dux Award for 2009.
A night of knowledge
gained at KDHL
KEREN LUNTZ
PHOTOGRAPH: GARY BLOCK
Andrew Stead, headmaster and
Gabi Geffen.
Bagsful of
goodness
for the less
fortunate
OWN CORRESPONDENT
PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED
Noah Leibowitz; Gabriel Kahlberg; Jonathan
Hazi; and Ezra Bricker.
THE WOMEN’S Benevolent Society
each year sends black bags to the
Yeshiva Pre-Primary School to be
filled by the parents. At least 100 bags
were collected for distribution to those
less fortunate than ourselves.
Packing boxes for a good cause
SARAH BECKER
PHOTOGRAPH: KAREEN SANDLER
ON TUESDAY August 31, the
grade 6 girls from King David
Victory Park Primary School,
went to Sandringham Gardens
home for the aged.
We were privileged to carry out
the mitzvah of helping less fortunate people.
All the girls packed boxes of
food, to feed 750 people over
Yomtov.
Pictured packing boxes are
Melita
Kieser
and
Sarah
Stratford.
Hatzolah paramedics explain
workings to YC Pre-Primary
OWN CORRESPONDENT
PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED
AS A prelude to the Hatzolah Phone-a-thon
on Thursday September 2, Hatzolah
brought an ambulance to the Yeshiva
College Pre-Primary School and showed
the learners the inside of the ambulance,
as well as listening to the siren.
They also explained to the learners the
importance of the work that Hatzolah is
doing.
This exercise brought in a handsome
amount of money, which our Pre-Primary
challenged the other sections of the school
to meet or beat.
The learners
of the
Yeshiva
College PrePrimary
listen attentively to the
Hatzolah
paramedics
in the
school’s
parking lot.
CHIEF RABBI HARRIS’ Beit Midrash programme has been running at King David
Linksfield for close to two years now. The
programme offers grade 10 and 11 learners a choice in Jewish studies. At the Beit
Midrash an emphasis is placed on textual
learning from original sources like
Gemorah, Chumash and Pirkei Avot.
On the evening of Spring Day,
Wednesday September 1, the Beit Midrash
programme allowed for learners of the
programme to bring their parents with
them in order to relay what they have
been learning. The gathering was
enhanced by Chief Rabbi Warren
Goldstein who took part in the learning
with his son and daughter.
Once the learners taught their own parents, Chief Rabbi Goldstein delivered a
message to the group. With over 100 eager
audience members present, he gave an
inspirational message, mentioning how he
was witnessing the continuity of Torah, a
fundamental of our Jewish legacy and
heritage.
Chief Rabbi Goldstein showed how the
wisdom of our sages rang true and relevant, even in our modern and complicated lives. He spoke about the relevance on
time management and prioritising matters of importance over matters of
urgency.
Finally, he communicated the importance of greeting people with a smile and
trying to be amiable and pleasant to others.
Chief Rabbi Goldstein praised Rabbi
Ryan Goldstein, who heads the Beit
Midrash at the school, for organising the
event and his excellent leadership and
teaching in the Beit Midrash programme.
The Chief Rabbi also complemented
Marc Falconer, King David Linksfield’s
headmaster, on his continued active support of the Beit Midrash.
Subsequent to the Chief Rabbi’s words,
Falconer reiterated how apt the style of
chavruta learning was for developing critical learning and understanding.
After a night of knowledge gained,
Rabbi Ryan Goldstein ended the evening
by inviting parents and learners to join in
for a well-deserved tea.
20
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
WHAT’S ON
NOTE: Deadline for all entries is 12:00 on the Friday
prior to publication.
Key to organisations, venues, contact
details and cost:
• Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue, 38 Oxford
Road, Parktown.
• Beyachad Resource Centre/Library, 2 Elray St,
Raedene, 2192. Norma Shulman on (011) 645-2567.
e-mail:[email protected]
• Bikkur Cholim - Jewish Society for Visiting the Sick,
7A Chester Road, Greenside East, Johannesburg. Joy
Gafin (011) 447-6689.
• CAJE - College of Adult Jewish Education, Sydenham
Highlands North Shul (011)640-5021.
• CARE (Chabad Addiction Rehabilitation Centre) Cell:
079 882 6776 Fax: 086 551 4485 Email:
[email protected] Hotline: 0861 111 770
• CSO - Emergency phone number 086 18 000 18.
• ELBM - Emunah Ladies Beit Midrash. 60 Mejon St
Glenhazel. (011) 887-2910. “Lessons of our Lives”
course on Wednesdays at 10:00. R350 for the course
or R50 per shiur.
• FFHS - Friendship Forum for Holocaust Survivors,
Second Generation and Members of the Community
Affected by the Holocaust. Presentations held at the
Gerald Horwitz Lounge, Golden Acres, 85 George
Ave, Sandringham.
• HOD - Hebrew Order of David International. HOD
Centre Oaklands Road, Orchards. Office (011) 640
3017 - [email protected]
• JAFFA - Jewish Accommodation for Fellow Aged.
(012) 346-2007/8. 42 Mackie Street, Bailey’s
Muckleneuck.
• Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC):
(011)640-3100 or [email protected].
• KDSF - King David Schools’ Foundation. King David
Alumni [email protected] (011) 480-4723.
• Nechama Bereavement Counselling Centre - Room
A304, 3rd Floor, Hospital Wing, Sandringham
Gardens, 85 George Avenue, Sandringham. Contact
(011) 640-1322.
• New Friendship Ladies’ Group - A group for single
women - contact Lucille on (011) 791-5226 or 082927-5786.
• ORT and ORTJET South Africa - 44 Central Street,
Cnr 10th Ave, Houghton. Contact (011) 728-7154.
• Preview Theatre - 9 Valerie Crescent, Bagleyston,
(011) 640-1061.
• Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre (RCHCC) and
Great Park Shul, Johannesburg. Contact Hazel, (011)
728-8088 or Rene Sidley (011) 728-8378. Cost usually R50, including refreshments.
• SAIJE - Sandton Adult Institute of Jewish Education,
Sandton Shul. E-mail: [email protected].
(011) 883-4210.
• Second Innings, Johannesburg - Jewish Community
Services - Donald Gordon Centre, 85 George Avenue
Sandringham. Their group meets at the Gerald
Horwitz Lounge, Golden Acres, 85 George Avenue
Sandringham every Sunday morning for tea at 10:00
followed by the meeting at 10:30. Contact Grecia
Gabriel (011) 532-9718 for information. Cost R20 for
members, R40 for non-members.
• Society of Israel Philately (SIP) - [email protected].
Contact Maurice (011) 485-2293.
• SA Friends of Beit Halochem: Beyachad, 2 Elray
St,Raedene, 2192. Contact Leanne (011) 645 2553. email: [email protected]
• South African Jewish Board of Deputies
(Johannesburg) - Beyachad, 2 Elray Street, Raedene.
Contact (011) 645-2500 or (011) 645-2523.
• South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), Johannesburg
- Beyachad, 2 Elray Street, Raedene. Contact Froma,
(011) 645-2505.
• The Israel Centre. Contact Debbie (011) 645-2560.
• The Jewish National Fund (JNF) Choir, Beyachad, 2
Elray St, Raedene. Tel Crystal Kaplan. 083-376-5999.
• The Jewish Outlook Team. Contact Ryan
Cane; e-mail [email protected]; website
www.jewishoutlook.org.za or call the Support line:
27 76 215 8600.
• The Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society (JWBS) Sandringham Gardens, 85 George Avenue
Sandringham 2192. Contact Carolyn Sabbagh. (011)
485-5232.
• The Simcha Friendship and Cultural Circle (SFCC),
Johannesburg - Sandton Shul. Contact Sylvia Shull,
(011) 783-5600. Meetings on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Wednesday of every month at Sandton Shul at 10:00
unless stated otherwise.
• The United Sisterhood, 38 Oxford Road Parktown.
Website: www.unitedsisterhood.co.za. Contact Marian
(011) 646-2409.
• Tiyulim (Jewish Outdoor Club) - Contact Martin on
082-965-7419 or Greg 082-959-9026
• Union of Jewish Women (UJW), Johannesburg 1 Oak Street Houghton. Contact (011) 648-1053, fax 086
273-3044. Cost R15 for the Friendship Luncheon Club
and a R20 donation for lectures unless otherwise stated.
• Union of Jewish Women (UJW), Cape Town - (021)
434-9555, e-mail: [email protected].
• UJW Cape Town AED Programme - Venue: Stonehaven,
Albany Road, Sea Point. Time: 10:00 for 10:30.
Entrance: R15 (incl refreshments).
• United Zionist Luncheon Club (UZLC), Johannesburg Our Parents Home. Contact Gloria, (011) 485-4851 or
072-127-9421.
• UOS - Union of Orthodox Synagogues (011) 485-4865.
E-mail: [email protected]. Fax 086-610-3442.
• WIZO Johannesburg - Beyachad, 2 Elray Street
Raedene. [email protected]. Contact
Joyce Chodos (011) 645-2548 or Sandy Kramer (011)
645-2515.
West dealer, EW vul
NORTH
A652
964
A6
Q642
WEST
QJ
A73
KQ109832
J
SOUTH
K987
QJ52
5
AK85
Contract: 4S by North
EAST
1043
K108
J74
10973
Opening Lead: D4
The bidding was very similar in both
rooms: West opened 1D and after two
passes South doubled. West rebid diamonds after which both Norths reached
4S.
At table one, declarer won the lead,
played two high trumps finishing in
hand, followed by a heart towards
dummy. East might have played low but
he rose with the king to play the ten of
spades, followed by a second diamond,
ruffed in dummy. Now it was easy for
declarer. He crossed to the queen of
clubs and played another heart, and
with the suit splitting 3-3 he had 10
tricks without even having to pick up
Monday (September 27)
Friday (October 15)
• UJW Johannesburg invites you to celebrate the festival of “Succot - Interfaith, Intercultural” with Rabbi
Dovid Hazdan at Great Park Shul at 10:00 for 10:15.
RSVP Barbara (011) 645-2591, e-mail:
[email protected]
• UZLC presents Kimon Neophryte on “A Centenary
Tribute to Leo Tolstoy”.
Tuesday (September 28)
• WIZO Fortnightly Forum presents WIZO’s 90th birthday and Rebecca Sieff Awards. Venue: Linksfield Shul
succah at 09:30. To book, contact Joyce (011) 6452548 or Sandy (011) 645-2515.
Wednesday (September 29)
• Balfour Park Parkinson’s Disease Support Group
meets at 10:00 in the boardroom of Randjes Estate,
Randjeslaagte Road, Highlands North. Karyn Casey
will talk on using a new therapy to improve speech
and swallowing in people with Parkinson’s disease.
Contact Rosemary Burke on (011) 640-3919.
• UJW Cape Town presents Pamela Jooste on “Name
Dropping and a Little Gossip on the Side”.
Sunday (October 3)
• Second Innings presents Marion Hassall on “Breast
Cancer Awareness, A Second Chance”.
Tuesday (October 5)
• WIZO Film Club presents “The Counterfeiters” at
Beyachad at 09:30. Cost R20.
• SFCC presents David Batzofin on “Life is a Garden”.
Sunday (October 17)
• Second Innings presents Chazzan Ezra Sher, Chazzan
Barry Braun and Evelyn Green in “Kaleidoscope of
Songs for the Jewish Soul”. Cost: R50.
• FFHS presents Hugh Raichlin on “The Jews of India”
at 14:30.
Tuesday (October 19)
• WIZO Film Club presents “A Gentleman’s
Agreement” at Beyachad at 09:30. Cost: R20.
Wednesday (October 20)
• SFCC presents The Japanese Ladies Choir.
Wednesday (October 27)
• Second Innings outing to visit the Lipizzaner horses.
Bus leaves Oxford Shul parking at 08:30. Cost: R110
includes the bus, entrance and a full show. Bring
your own picnic lunch.
Sunday (October 31)
• Second Innings presents Lance Metz on “Reaching
the Summit of Everest”.
Tuesday (November 2)
• WIZO Film Club Presents: “Black Book” at Beyachad
at 09:30. Cost: R20.
Wednesday (November 3)
Wednesday (October 6)
• UJW Cape Town presents Rodney Mazinter on “The
Big Lie - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
• SFCC presents David Shapiro on “Outlook for the
World Economy in 2010”.
Sunday (November 7)
Friday (October 8)
• UZLC presents Wendy Kahn on “5770 the year that
was - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly”.
• Second Innings hosts Sally Williams in “The Sally
Williams Story”.
Sunday (November 14)
Sunday (October 10)
• Second Innings hosts Carol Penn, Gill Rodgers,
Solange Cziernicwicz and Phyllis Glass in “Get
Moving - Open Day Exercise Extravaganza”.
• Second Innings outing to see “Evita” at the
Montecasino Theatre. Bus leaves Oxford Shul parking
at 13:30. Showtime: 15:00. Cost: R50 for the bus and
R100 for the show.
• Second Innings presents the Linksfield Shul Choir
and Cantor Alan Miller in “A Potpourri of Traditional
Song and Nostalgia”.
Wednesday (November 17)
• Second Innings tour of FNB Stadium. Bus leaves
Oxford Shul parking at 08:30. Cost: R220 includes
the bus, entrance, guided tour and lunch.
• SFCC presents Isaac Reznik on “Down Memory
Lane”.
• UJW Johannesburg House & Garden Circle meets. For
further details call (011) 648-1053.
• WIZO Etgar branch presents its annual garden day.
See three of Johannesburg’s prettiest gardens.
Garden designer Elizabeth Steyn will give a talk, followed by a tea in the third garden. Tickets cost
R170. Contact Helen on 083-267-2607 or Sandy on
(011) 645-2515.
Sunday (September 26)
Wednesday (October 13)
Wednesday (December 1)
• Second Innings presents Prof Roger Gibson on “The
Vredefort Dome - a World Heritage Site”.
• UJW Cape Town presents Zola Shuman on “From
Silence to Celebration”.
• SFCC end-of-year party at 4a Harris Road,
Morningside at 10:30.
Monday (September 20)
THE BRIDGE LOUNGE by Jeff Sapire
IT'S COMFORTING to know that even
the best players occasionally mess up a
fairly straightforward hand. In an
international team of four match,
observe the different lines of play
adopted by two world-class declarers.
Barry Bilewitz [email protected]
the club suit for four tricks.
The contract was always makeable on
the line of play adopted, even if East had
ducked the first heart. West could win
and play a diamond to force dummy, but
declarer could then, as before, play a club
to the queen and another heart up – making three spades in hand, two hearts, one
high diamond, one diamond ruff, and
three clubs.
That this was not a straightforward
hand, was shown at the other table, where
this North had a blind spot. He won the
lead and immediately ruffed a diamond in
dummy, followed by two trumps, finishing in hand. Now, when he led a heart
towards dummy, East correctly went in
with the king, in order to cash the ten of
spades, removing dummy's last trump
(and declarer's third one), followed by
another diamond, taking out declarer’s
last trump.
Now, to avoid going plenty down
(another heart would allow West to win
and cash diamonds), all declarer could do
was try the clubs, but when they failed to
break, he was two off.
In a way it looks like an easy hand, but
it's the old story – don't shorten your own
trumps by ruffing early – it can wait until
later.
Every Tuesday (Intermediate) and
Wednesday (Advanced) I run bridge workshops from 10 - 12 at the Great Park Shul –
alternating play hands one week and a
bidding lecture on the other. Corner
Glenhove Road and 4th Avenue,
Houghton. For more information, call me
on 082-551-2526 or e-mail me at
[email protected].
Sunday (November 28)
• Second Innings presents Tony Bentel, Selwyn Klass
and Tony Antonier in “Frankly Sinatra, the Kosher
Nostra”. Cost: R40.
CROSSWORD NO 180
BY LEAH SIMON
ACROSS:
1. Right to cinders, but hastily done (4)
3. Popular 1940s vocal group (3, 5)
8. Trade leader gets vessel to rotate (4)
9. ———— Park, Steven Spielberg blockbuster (8)
11. Well, have some toast! (2, 4, 6)
13. Charge in vindictiveness (6)
14. Southern shabby dwelling gets the spade
(6)
17. Is there room for it in the orchestra? (7, 5)
20. Poignantly dissolving sugar in tea (8)
21. A pig’s pen in sight, we hear (4)
22. Raised around east, gets half a score to
intensify (8)
23. She’s found among fair
1
2
islands (4)
DOWN:
1. The end of the rodent! (4, 4)
2. Good man gave beam to editor
- and got lost (7)
4. Northerner should get nothing! (6)
5. Ma, oats they upset means
they don’t go out (4, 2, 4)
6. Start of making the movie? (5)
7. Religious group in vivisection
(4)
10. April seems to have arrived
very early for military movement (5, 5)
12. Vilifies need in Benjamin’s
brief (8)
15. Mask surrounds it for guest
(7)
16. He upsets brine in east (6)
18. Country hidden in Thai
timetable (5)
19. Sholem ——, Jewish novelist (4)
SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD NO 179
ACROSS:
1. Dope; 3. Plummets; 8. So-so 9. Candidly; 11.
Skipping rope; 13. Eyeing; 14. Strode; 17. John
F Kennedy; 20. Head band; 21. Else; 22.
Tuesdays; 23. Opal.
DOWN:
1. Desisted; 2. Passive; 4. Learns; 5.
Moderating; 5. End up; 8. Says; 10. Opening
bid; 12. Very well; 15. Overlap; 16. Skinny; 18.
Orate; 19. Chat.
3
5
4
6
7
9
8
10
11
12
14
13
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
17 - 27 September 2010
SA JEWISH REPORT
21
India - an ancient melting pot of Jewish culture
were taught Jewish ways by
the Cochin Jews. They moved
to Bombay in about 1750,
“IF THERE is a place on the
where many joined the army,
earth where all dreams of
rising to officer ranks.
the living men have found a
In later years some became
house from the most
involved in Bollywood - the
ancient times, where man
Indian version of Hollywood.
began the dream of exisThe females became teachtence, it is certainly India.” Dr Irving
ers, doctors and nurses.
Quoting the French novel- Lissoos.
Added Lissoos: “From 1948
ist, Romain Rolland, Dr
Irving Lissoos (pictured) kicked off to 1969 many emigrated to Israel.
an address to Second Innings in Some rabbis in Israel questioned
Johannesburg, on the Jews of India. their ‘legitimacy’ as Jews - however
This once thriving community, the Chief Rabbinate decided to progoing back to antiquity, has dwin- claim them legitimate Jews. DNA
tests showed that they shared the
dled to a mere pocketful.
Trade with India, he said, was same heredity as the Cohanim going
mentioned in the Talmud. In the back to Aaron. There were now
“Megilah Esther” the kingdom of some 60 000 of them living in Israel.
In the late 18th century, Jews from
Ahasuerus is described as stretching from Hodu - generally accepted Arab countries arrived in India and
they were collectively called the
as India - to Kush (Ethiopia).
“The first Jewish contact with Baghdadi. Most of them came from
India was established around 1 000 Baghdad, but there were besides
BCE in King Solomon’s time. Bnei Jews from Iraq, also Jews from
Israel claim that they left the Syria, Iran and Yemen.
They came to India because of reliGalilee in 170 BCE because of the
gious persecution and also for compersecution of Antiochus.
They were shipwrecked and mercial reasons. They were successseven males and seven females ful in business and while Arabic was
were cast ashore in a village about their mother tongue, they adopted
30 kilometres south of Bombay. English as their first language.
They started arriving in Bombay
Their descendants remained there
for centuries, isolated from Jewish in 1730. Adopting the caste system
life, but they clung to some funda- they thought of themselves as a
mentals of their faith, such as cir- higher cast. After the withdrawal of
cumcision, Shabbat and reciting the British in 1947 when India
became in dependent, most decided
the Shema.
There were oil presses and they to emigrate to England. The
were called “shanwar tais” - Sassoons are well-known Baghdadi
Shabbos oil men. Eventually they Jews.
LIONEL SLIER
Magen David Synagogue in
Mumbai.
Cochin Jews numbered some
24 000 in 1947; now there are only
10 left in Cochin and 29 in Ernakulum, in the state of Kerala in the
south of India.
They came to Crangalore, an
ancient port near Cochin, after the
destruction of the Second Temple
in 70 CE. These were the “Black
Jews”.
The Emperor of Kerala granted
Joseph Rabbin principality over
the Jews of Cochin.
In 1524 the Muslims attacked the
Jews of Crangalore on the pretext
that they had an advantage over
them in the pepper trade. The Jews
fled to Cochin and were under the
protection of the Hindu Rajah, who
gave them Jew Town.
Shortly afterwards the Portuguese occupied Cochin and sup-
Sweet sounds - from Camps
Bay to Highlands House
NEIL GORE, CAPE TOWN
PHOTOGRAPH: RENEE GORE
THE NEWLY rejuvenated Camps
Bay Shul Choir recently performed
for the residents of Highlands
House and gave some wonderful
renditions of both Shabbat and
Yomtov melodies. A mixture of
youth and experience makes this
group of choristers fantastic to listen to.
Back : Merton Barrow; Richard Gore;
Charles Gurland; Clive Hartsman;
and Reuben Wagenheim. Front:
Selwyn Shandel (musical director);
Neil Gore (choirmaster); Gavin
Marsden; and Alfie Lewin.
pressed the Jews.
When Vasco Da Gama reached
Kerala, he told the local rulers:
“The Jews killed our Saviour, so
get rid of them.”
The ruler gave the Jews a nominal thrashing and told them:
“When this plague disappears, you
can come back.”
In 1660 the Dutch displaced the
Portuguese and they were more
tolerant to the Jews. Later “The
White Jews” called “Pardesi Jews”,
came from Holland and Spain.
Another group, the Meshuarim,
were slaves who converted to
Judaism.
There was strict apartheid
between these three groups. Many
Cochin Jews later emigrated to
Israel.
Lissoos then spoke about symbols which we accept as Jewish but
which in fact had been accepted in
India as well. He said: “If you see a
Magen Dovid on a building, it does
not mean that it is a shul. It is found
on ancient Hindu Temples built
thousands of years ago.”
The downward triangle symbolised “shakit” - sacred embodiment
of femininity.
The upward triangle symbolised
“shiva” - the aspect of masculinity.
The union symbolised creation.
“Not until the 17th century, in
Prague, do we encounter the Star of
David as a specifically Jewish
emblem. At that time it appeared as
the official seal of the community
on printed prayer books and documents of various kinds.
In 1897 the first Zionist congress
adopted it as its symbol and in 1948
it became the central figure of the
flag of the new State of Israel.”
On the swastika, which the Jews
regard with hatred and disgust,
Lissoos said: “On the same basis as
the Magen Dovid, you see a swastika and it is not a Nazi symbol; it is
derived from the Sanskrit word
meaning any lucky or auspicious
object.
This was associated with well
being. It was found near Neolithic
Europe as early as the fifth millennium BCE. It became a sacred symbol in three religions of India:
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
“It is considered extremely holy
and auspicious by all Hindus and is
used to decorate items related to
Hindu culture.”
On the Sassoon family, he said.
“The founder of the Indian branch
was David Sassoon, born in 1792 in
Baghdad into a family of traditional
leaders of the Jewish community.
“He fled with his wife and family,
with a small part of the family fortune and arrived in Bombay in 1833.
He started a business with a counting house and then went into silver
and gold, silks, gems and spices,
opium and cotton, wool and wheat.
The Sassoons made a killing during the American Civil War.
Cotton could not be imported
from America into England because
of the Civil War. The Sassoons were
able to corner the market and they
provided the cotton mills in
England with cotton.
AROUND THE WORLD
NEWS IN BRIEF
SARRAZIN RESIGNS FROM GERMAN CENTRAL BANK
BERLIN - A German official
has resigned from the country's
top bank board over remarks
about Jews and Muslims widely
condemned as racist.
Thilo Sarrazin asked German
President Christian Wulff on
September 10 to allow him to
resign, according to reports.
The German Central Bank
board already had asked Wulff
to dismiss Sarrazin from his
position. Sarrazin had threatened to fight the decision.
In
his
book
"Germany
Abolishes Itself", published on
August 30, and in public comments surrounding its release,
Sarrazin has blamed Muslim
immigrants for what he considers a decline in German culture.
He also has said that Jews
and others possess superior
genes.
Prominent Jews and Muslims
have blasted Sarrazin.
His political party, the left-ofcentre Social Democratic Party,
has begun proceedings to expel
him, the German news agency
Deutche Welle reported.
The far-right extremist National Democratic Party of
Germany has publicly supported Sarrazin's views on Muslims, though not on Jews. (JTA)
17 - 27 September 2010
22 SA JEWISH REPORT
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starting the first week of
Oct 2010.
The course will run over six
consecutive weeks at a set
time of 3 hours per session.
Selected applicants, who
wish to continue with the
bereavement counselling
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If you are interested
please contact Linda
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and back only R100 round trip.
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and transfer you safely and conveniently to your destination.
Modern spacious vehicle Pax 6
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BRIAN K LIFT
SERVICE & COURIER
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Call Brian on
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17 - 27 September 2010
LIFTS
SA JEWISH REPORT 23
FOR SALE
PROPERTY
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AGENTS
ISRAELI PRE-PAID SIM
CARDS
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NEWS IN BRIEF
BRANDEIS STUDENTS, ALUMNI DEMAND PERETZ APOLOGY
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Specialists in:
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plumbing & gutters.
Industrial and domestic.
Michael Fehler
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(011) 648-0375
www.repaint.co.za
HANDY GRAMPS
Household general repairs and
maintenance.
Mitch 072-196-1939
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CHAUFFEUR.
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Reasonable rates.
FOR A QUOTE CALL
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PROPERTY TO LET
ACCOMMODATION TO LET/SHARE
FAIRMOUNT
One bedroom garden flat to let
immediately.
Contact 073-522-2328
HAZELWOOD
One bedroom sunny flat available. Rental R4200.
Phone Alan on
082-465-5651
HAZELWOOD
Avail Nov 1 - 2 bed 2 bath, top
floor unit partly furnished (double bed, curtains, lounge, dining
room suite & dishwasher)
2 parkings. R6 850 neg.
084-580-5580
EX-ISRAELI SERVICEMAN
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JUNE – JULY
Avoid drinking and driving will
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HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION
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caring, and would love to help
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LIFTS AVAILABLE
For all age groups and to all
areas in Jhb, Sandton and
Airport.
Contact Johnny
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PART-TIME AU PAIR
Are you looking for a reliable
au pair?
20 year-old female, non-smoker,
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areas surrounding Sandringham
& Linksfield
Jennifer 082-467-6220
(011) 485-5911
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A reliable lift service.
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airports, shops, appointments,
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WASHINGTON - More than 350
students and alumni at Brandeis
University have called on columnist Martin Peretz to apologise for
saying Muslims do not value
human life or deserve free speech.
"Recently, in your September 4
column, you claimed that Muslims
don't value human life, that they
are soft on terrorism, and that you
wish to strip them of their First
Amendment Rights," said the letter
to the editor-in-chief of the New
Republic, initiated last Saturday by
Innermost Parts, a blog by students at the suburban Boston, nonsectarian Jewish university. "That
was unacceptable, irresponsible,
and wrong."
Peretz, a 1959 Jewish graduate of
the university, posted an item on
his TNR blog, the Spine, about the
recent controversy over an Islamic
centre planned for within three
blocks of the site of the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The post concluded: "Frankly,
Muslim life is cheap, most notably
to Muslims. And among those
Muslims led by Imam (Feisal
Abdul) Rauf," the centre's chief
planner, "there is hardly one who
has raised a fuss about the routine
and random bloodshed that defines
their brotherhood.
"So, yes, I wonder whether I need
honour these people and pretend
that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment
which I have in my gut the sense
that they will abuse."
By midday Monday, the protest
letter had 364 signatories. Among
its co-sponsors were J Street U, the
Brandeis affiliate of the dovish
pro-Israel lobby, and the Muslim
Student Association.
On Monday, he apologised for his
comments
on
the
First
Amendment, but would not retract
the statement about Muslim life
being cheap.
"I do not think that any group or
class of persons in the United
States should be denied the protections of the First Amendment, not
now, not ever," he said.
Of his contention that Muslim
life is cheap, he said: "This is a
statement of fact, not value." (JTA)
BRANDEIS AWARDS GITTLER PRIZE TO ISLAMIC SCHOLAR
WASHINGTON - Brandeis University awarded a social justice prize
to an Islamic scholar.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian
philosopher who has published 50
books and who has led Muslim delegations to interfaith dialogues, was
awarded the second $25 000 Joseph
B and Toby Gittler Prize, recognis-
ing "outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic
and/or religious relations".
Nasr, a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University who has lived in exile since
the theocratic revolution in Iran in
1979, will accept the prize on
November 20 with a lecture titled
"Re-evaluating the Meaning of the
Other in Our Lives".
The prize, which includes a
medal, is named for the late sociologist Joseph Gittler and his mother.
Brandeis, in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a nonsectarian university founded by the American Jewish
community. (JTA)
FLATS
Experienced, reliable driver
available to lift you
anywhere/anytime. 24 hrs.
Call Paul 083-542-6480
PROFESSIONAL & BUSINESS
AROUND THE WORLD
VEHICLES
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Please Contact
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082-922-3597
anytime
GHETTO LIQUIDATION RE-ENACTMENT CRITICIZED
BEDZIN - Children will not take
part in the reenactment of the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in
the Polish city of Bedzin, after criticism from Jewish groups.
The re-enactment of the August
1943 liquidation by German forces,
after which nearly all of Bedzin's
30 000 inhabitants died in
Auschwitz, is reportedly part of a
series of cultural events celebrating the town's Jewish past, the UK
Telegraph reported, citing event
organiser Adam Szydlowski.
In 1941, there was a little-known
uprising of the ghetto's Jews,
according to the newspaper.
Szydlowski said the reenactment
had the support of "Israeli groups",
the Telegraph reported.
"Re-enacting battles or the
march of armies is one thing but it
is completely different re-enacting
mass murder," Jaroslaw Szczepanksi, the president of Poland's
B'nai B'rith, told the newspaper.
(JTA)
IRVING: AUSCHWITZ IS 'DISNEY-STYLE' TOURIST SPOT
LONDON - Holocaust denier David
Irving has called Auschwitz a
"Disney-style" tourist site while
defending his own tour of Nazi sites.
Irving is scheduled to lead a tour
to important Nazi sites, including
Hitler's headquarters and the
Treblinka death camp, the British
Daily Mail reported over the weekend. The trip was fully booked with
British and American tourists, he
told the newspaper.
The trip, scheduled for the end of
September, is billed as an "unforgettable journey" for ''real history buffs"
the Daily Mail reported.
In an interview with the newspaper, Irving criticised Polish authorities for turning Auschwitz into a
"money-making machine", and
accused them of building fake
watchtowers. He said other death
camps had been neglected because
they were not as "marketable" and
"don't have a Holiday Inn down the
road".
Irving's trip would be under strict
observation of Polish authorities,
Britain's Polish Embassy told the
newspaper.
"For Holocaust survivors, the
planned visit by David Irving to the
sites of the Treblinka death camp
and the Warsaw Ghetto is a deliberate act of hate and contempt by this
notorious
racist,"
said
Elan
Steinberg, vice president of the
American Gathering of Holocaust
Survivors and their Descendants.
"His tour is an insult to all victims of
Nazi brutality, Jew and non-Jew."
Irving was jailed for Holocaust
denial in Austria in 2006 for a 1989
speech in which he said there were
no gas chambers at Auschwitz. (JTA)
JEWISH OFFICER WHO ARRESTED DRUNK GIBSON, SUES OVER HARASSMENT
LOS ANGELES - The Jewish sheriff's deputy who arrested actor Mel
Gibson for drunken driving, is suing
his department for harassment
since the July 2006 incident
Because he reported the requests
of superiors to remove Gibson's
anti-Semitic tirade from the initial
arrest report, the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department has
continuously passed him over for
deserved promotions and retaliated
in other ways, James Mee charged
in his suit, the Los Angeles Times
reported on September 8.
When Gibson was stopped on the
Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on
suspicion of driving under the influence, he asked Mee: "Are you a
Jew?" and then ranted that "The
Jews are responsible for all the wars
in the world".
Mee, 55, included Gibson's
remarks in his initial report to illustrate how drunk the actor was, but
said that superiors told him to put
the Gibson slurs in a separate
report not available to the public.
Yael Trock, Mee's attorney,
charged that the request by Mee's
superiors stemmed from Gibson's
celebrity status and friendship with
Sheriff Lee Baca.
Mee, who still works as a sheriff's
deputy, agreed to the separate
report, but its content was made
public immediately by a Hollywood
website.
Mee was suspected of leaking the
report, "because he is Jewish",
Trock allegedly said, but the deputy
has consistently denied the charge.
A department spokesman denied
Mee's allegations of retaliation and
ethnic discrimination.
After his 2006 arrest, Gibson apologised to the Jewish community for
his anti-Semitic outburst. (JTA)
POPE EXTENDS ROSH HASHANAH WISHES
ROME - Pope Benedict XVI has
wished Jews joy and blessings in
the new year.
In a Rosh Hashanah message to
Rome's Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di
Segni, the pontiff said he hoped
that High Holy Days celebrations
"will bring copious blessings from
the Eternal and be a source of profound joy" and that they "will grow
in us to promote justice and peace,
so needed by the world today".
The pope said he recalled his
visit to Rome's main synagogue on
January 17 "with feelings of gratitude and affection" and concluded
with the wish that "G-d, in his
goodness, may protect the whole
community and grant us to grow,
in Rome and in the world, in mutual friendship". (JTA)
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24
SA JEWISH REPORT
17 - 27 September 2010
Max Klinger leads
Redbacks in the
Twenty20 series
JACK MILNER
WE ARE always looking for Jewish
sportsmen and women who visit our
shores, so with the Champions League
Twenty20 cricket series currently on in
the country, we knew there had to be at
least one Jewish visitor.
Well, we found him. His name is
Michael (Max) Klinger; he hails from
Australia and he captains the South
Australia Redbacks. On Sunday he led
from the front and smashed a blistering
78 to set up an 11-run victory over
giantkillers Highveld Lions.
Klinger’s innings came from just 48
balls and included six fours and five sixes
to take his side to 178 for six after they
struggled on a lively SuperSport Park
pitch in Centurion.
He got an able ally in Callum Ferguson,
who scored a 27-ball 47 with seven fours
and the duo shared a 97-run partnership
from just 57 balls for the third wicket
after the Redbacks were put in to bat.
The pair were particularly severe on
pacers Zander de Bruyn and Ethan
O’Reilly, with Ferguson smashing the two
bowlers for three fours in the 16th and
17th overs respectively. He was run out in
the 18th over.
Klinger hit Robert Frylinck for two
consecutive sixes in the 18th over and
gave De Bruyn the same treatment in the
next over before being out.
Klinger was born on July 4, 1980 and
has played first-class cricket for South
Australia. Before the 2008 - ‘09 season,
Klinger played for Victoria and for St
Kilda Cricket Club in Premier Cricket.
His nickname is “Maxy” after the character in the TV series MASH, corporal
Maxwell Klinger.
Klinger grew up in Melbourne and
attended Mount Scopus Memorial
College, where he graduated in 1998. As a
young batsman, Klinger was named captain of the Australian under-19 team, his
deputy being Australia Vice Captain
Michael Clark.
In 2007 he was a member of the
Australian team at the Maccabi Games in
Israel where they came away with the
gold medal.
Klinger began as an 18-year old in the
1998 - ‘99 season. His career lowlight was
the 2000 - ‘01 season when he made a
famous 99 not out, with captain Paul
Reiffel declaring the innings closed, a
move which brought great controversy.
This move allegedly upset Klinger and
following it he had several less successful
years, but returned to contention for a
spot in the Victorian Bushrangers side
for the 2005 - ‘06 season. He quickly made
his first first-class cricket century, and
then followed it up with his first List A
one-day century.
But his first-class form soon dropped
and he was replaced in the side by Lloyd
Mash, not to return in the Pura Cup all
season.
He started the 2006 - ‘07 season in the
Ford Ranger Cup in style, nearly getting a
Michael (Max) Klinger is the captain of the
South Australia Redbacks in the
Champions League Twenty20 cricket series
currently being played in South Africa.
century early on, and then achieving his
ton in his next innings. He led the runs
scoring in the competition for much of
the season, eventually finishing third.
Klinger’s rise to the Pura Cup team
came only when Brad Hodge was called
up by Australia for their ODI Series, and
Klinger’s recent form had been wavy,
with his last game for the 2nd XI yielding
a first-innings duck, but a second-innings
century.
Klinger was soon to do the same for the
1st XI, but the century ensured that when
Hodge returned, Klinger survived.
He finished the season as a regular fixture of the Bushrangers side, and was
part of a great partnership with David
Hussey in a match against NSW, in which
the Vics defied all odds to chase down a
massive total of 360 on an extremely poor
fourth day pitch, scoring 102.
Klinger joined the South Australia
Redbacks for the 2008 - ‘09 season in order
to get more opportunities at state level,
where he began batting at number three
rather than opening, and achieved immediate success, scoring a maiden 150
against Victoria in his first game.
Then, against Western Australia on
November 11, Klinger scored his maiden
double century, finishing on 255, and he
continued to score heavily in both the
Sheffield Shield and the Ford Ranger
Cup, and hit his third century for the season against Queensland at the Gabba,
and his first away from the traditionally
batting-friendly Adelaide Oval.
On December 11, 2008, Klinger posted
his highest individual score in one-day
cricket, with an unbeaten 133 off just 128
balls. This guided South Australia to victory in their high-scoring match against
the Tasmania Tigers at the Adelaide
Oval. This was Klinger’s fourth one-day
century.
Israel faces Austria
in Davis Cup tie
LIKE SOUTH Africa this weekend,
younger players in,” Koubek said.
Israel will be hoping to claw its way
The team announced by captain
back into the top echelons of the
Gilbert Schaller is Jurgen Melzer,
Davis Cup competition when the
Martin Fischer, Alexander Peya and
team faces Austria in a World
Andreas Haider-Maurer.
Group playoff match at the Nokia
Israel and Austria have met on five
Arena in Tel Aviv.
previous occasions, with Austria
Because of Yom Kippur on
leading their head-to-head series 3-2.
Saturday, this tie will begin a day
Their most recent meeting came in
earlier on Thursday with the first Israeli tennis
2002 in the Europe/Africa Group I
two singles matches with only the star, Dudi Sela. first round. It has been 15 years since
doubles taking place on Friday. The
Austria last won a World Group first
tie will resume with the reverse singles on
round tie.
Sunday.
Israel reached the Davis Cup World
The Israeli team comprises Dudi Sela,
Group semifinals for the first time in histoHarel Levy, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram
ry last year, but suffered a 4-1 defeat to Chile
and will be captained by Eyal Ran.
in this year’s first round. Israel also played
Austria will have to do without their secat the Nokia Stadium for their quarterfinal
ond-highest ranked player, left-hander
defeat of Russia last year in front of a nearStefan Koubek, who retired from Davis Cup
capacity crowd. This is its first hard-court
play just two weeks before the tie. Koubek
tie since then.
said he had been considering retirement
A weakened South African team will face
from the team for several weeks and made
Germany on red clay in Stuttgart this weekthe decision five days ago after losing to
end. After finally convincing Kevin AnderSouth Africa’s Rik de Voest in the second
son to play for the first time in almost two
qualifying round of the US Open in New
years, the world No 77 ranked singles playYork.
er had to withdraw after it was discovered
“I think it’s about time I move on and let
he needed urgent surgery to a toe.