2013-Namibia-Mishpacha.Pdf

I PRESENT AR D N A I R A HORNS Questmesor ah AND THORNS IN We were bumping our way in a Jeep over the wild African terrain, while a daredevil helicopter following THE us overhead, herding the game into a quarter-mile long blind. We’d never shechted antelope before, and this AFRICAN would certainly be an authentic way to feel what it’s like to be Jewish in Namibia TEXT AND PHOTOS BY Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Ari Greenspan BUSH46 MISHPACHA there are direct flights to Germany a few times a week. Southern Africa was actually a distant, safe haven with fresh opportunities for persecuted Eastern Eu- ropean Jews in the early 1900s. Zvi’s father, Samuel, was 16 years old when he arrived in South Africa in We were i n South Africa for what were 1925 from a village near Minsk in the Pale of Settle- supposed to be a few relatively quiet days ment. He was a saddle stitcher, but the age of horses — giving a few lectures, visiting some old was pretty much over, and he soon found employ- synagogues, and shechting cows and sheep. But as we’ve already learned time and ment fixing car seats. But then the Depression hit again, on our halachic adventures, things can turn interesting in unexpected ways. and many local Jews found themselves out of work, Several hours before Shabbos we heard the phone chirp, indicating an SMS: “Would spending their days in Cape Town drinking tea and you like to shecht buck in Namibia?” Well, an opportunity like that is irresistible to a eyeing the future. Presently two Persians by the name pair of halachic adventurers like ourselves, and so Erev Shabbos we were busy book- of Azizolohoff (whose South African descendants we ing flights to South Africa’s neighboring country. serendipitously know) showed up WeW got the last two seats on a Sunday morning flight to Wind- transporting Persian lamb, Kar- hoek, the capital of Namibia. Formerly known as South West Af- akul, which they planned to raise rica, Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990, “Would you like in the country. They were looking and is blessed with extensive game and African wildlife. We were for opportunities in South West being sent by Rabbi Desmond Maizels, a kindred spirit and friend to shecht buck in Africa and Samuel decided to as well as a rabbi in Cape Town who periodically shechts for the Namibia?” Well, join them. few Jews in Namibia. He told us that we would have an adven- ture as well as enjoy the hospitality of the central Jew in town, an opportunity Refuge in the Bush Zvi Gorelick, and he was correct on both counts. like that is Namibia is one of the least populated (2.1 million) and Jews in Namibia? Zvi Gorelick, our warm and wel- irresistible to a least densely populated (6.6 coming host, is the man who single-handedly keeps this pair of halachic per square mile) countries in community going. He told us how the first Jews came to the world, and the capital and Namibia in the 1880s looking for business opportunities in adventurers like largest city Windhoek has guano, a widely used fertilizer from the feces of sea birds, ourselves only 240,000 people. But the bats, and seals, found in great unadulterated quantities country is blessed with fauna, off ocean coasts. These Jewish entrepreneurs were given a communal boost when the region came under German rule in 1884: Jewish soldiers numbered among the occupying German army. In a 1915 side battle of World War I, South Africa defeated the Germans and occupied what they called South West Africa, yet even today, close to a hundred years later, there is a distinct Ger- man character to the town of Windhoek. Many of the stores and restaurants have German names and even write their menus in that language. Many of the whites we saw spoke German, and KOSHER FOREVER Windhoek’s cemetery is the most accurate witness to the city’s Jewish citizens; (right) Walter Zvi Gorelick is Namibia’s gabbai, Galler’s wife paid tribute to her Jewish husband by cutting melamed, kashrus supervisor, the Hebrew words off a matzoh box, even though they and chevra kadisha wound up upside down on the tombstone 48 MISHPACHA 17 Av 5773 | July 24, 2013 MISHPACHA 49 including much big game, which contributes to its tourism industry. At the time, though, Sam Gore- lick and his new friends weren’t interested in the herds of zebra or giraffe; they were just fortunate they could build a community free of persecution. Together with other pioneers, Sam built a kehillah that reached its heyday in the early 1960s with about 150 families. It included a Talmud Torah a dairy. There are still Jewish cemeteries in Swakopmund, with around 150 kids, a rabbi/shochet/mohel, and Keetmanshoop, and Lüderitz. a community hall. The area was under South Af- The Windhoek shul, which still has a charity fund that sup- rican rule at the time, and many Jewish South Af- ports four widows, was originally constructed in 1924 and rican soldiers were stationed there — often more modeled on the style of German synagogues, with the bimah than a hundred of them came for davening on Yom next to the aron kodesh on a raised platform, and women seated Tov. The community slowly dwindled, and today upstairs. The building, originally erected in a quiet, open area, only a few dozen remain, mostly transient Israeli is now surrounded by commercial buildings, including an ele- businessmen. vated pedestrian mall. As we entered the locked gate of the shul Meeting Zvi, an authentic shomer mitzvos who opened — which was repainted in 2009 — Zvi noticed that the securi- his home and his heart to us, was a pleasant surprise. As ty wall, topped with an kosher meat is not available unless somebody shechts electric fence to keep out locally or gets a special delivery, we brought him pack- prowlers (such fences are aged meat from Johannesburg to supplement the “With 150 ubiquitous in South Af- shipment of chickens he received from Cape Town families one rican Jewish communi- for Pesach. And our second surprise was the bounty ties), had been tampered of Johannesburg Beis Din–endorsed products found shul was good with. Then he pointed in the local supermarket. We joked with him that we enough. Now out the heavy metal had not seen so many kosher products since our trip screens on all the win- to the supermarket in Bahrain (reported in Mishpacha that we have 10 dows and explained that issue #279), where the mass of imported products in- families, they were put in place af- cluded a plethora of kosher items from the US and UK. ter rumors surfaced of a Zvi holds the tiny community together — he runs the we need a planned grenade attack prayer services, arranges for Kaddish, teaches Torah second shul” on the shul in about 1978; to whomever is interested, and gives occasional bar the screens would deflect mitzvah or bas mitzvah lessons. curtains around it for privacy, but it capsized the grenades. The Gorelicks were pillars of the community, and on the first person to use it. It’s been years Over the years, Zvi has Zvi learned early on about responsibility — when he since Namibia had a resident rabbi, the last planted many trees on was little he’d often stay late Shabbos morning and one being Rabbi Isaac Menashi, who left in the property, yet we no- help clean up the shul. In Talmud Torah, they would 1994. Some of the previous rabbis and reli- ticed that there was no esrog tree. We suggested that he plant say the Shema out loud together, but one day when the gious leaders were Rabbi Zalman Rachman, one, but he adamantly refused, answering, “my father said de- teacher asked each one to recite it individually, it was Rabbi Chaim Perez, and Rabbi Phillip Krein. finitively thatesrogim must come from Eretz Yisrael.” obvious that the kids were just mumbling along and no Mrs. Elana Rachamim taught Talmud Torah With such a dwindling community, we naturally asked Zvi one knew more than the first two lines. Zvi felt bad and here for 17 years. about the chevra kadisha, and not surprisingly, he is the chevra came back to the teacher two days later, having proudly WHERE THE ANTELOPE PLAY At the game farm, ani- We asked Zvi if there ever was a second shul kadisha — although he wistfully admitted that he worries, “Who memorized the entire text. As a reward he was given mals are herded into a long, funnel-shaped blind that closes in on in Windhoek; he smiled and said that “with will do my taharah and levayah?” the privilege of closing the shul windows after daven- them from behind, until they’re contained in a small metal pen, 150 families one shul was good enough. Now ing on Shabbos morning, a job he still performs with ready for slaughter. (Inset) Ari G. is ready with his chalaf, while that we have 10 families, we need a second Finally Kosher As we walked through the well-kept devotion all these decades later. (right) Ari Z. bids farewell to the second gemsbok shul.” There had been two more shuls in the Jewish cemetery, we couldn’t help noticing many graves The community never did build a mikveh, but mem- country years back, one in Swakopmund that of young children and babies. In the early years of the bers would go to a nearby dam on a river.

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