Email [email protected] with Pg 1 J U N E E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1 - T A M M U Z 5 7 8 1 “Join” as subject to M U I Z E N B E R G H E B R E W C O N G R E G A T I O N be added to either whatsapp group or email list. MUIZZIES MEGILLA Jews with views Remembering Muizenberg SERIES part 5/5 not to be missed. First 100 Zoom participants receive entry. Email [email protected] with J U N E E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1 - T A M M U Z 5 7 8 1 “Join” as subject to M U I Z E N B E R G H E B R E W C O N G R E G A T I O N be added to either whatsapp group or email list. MUIZZIES MEGILLA Jews with views
With Life in South Africa Shabbes times Ruth Carneson Times for Cape Town From Hebcal.com Jerusalem, City of peace, my heart breaks as I watch the news.
It must be a complete nightmare to live in the middle of bombs falling around one and the fear and the chaos. I am sure we all have friends and relatives in Israel. My friend Shimon watsapps me “There were alarms in Taibe and Klansuwa 2 Arab villages near us. I heard a huge boom ....shrapnel pieces are falling down.”
I worry about my family in Ashkelon. Obsessively I watch the news and read as much as I can to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I am horrified by the rising death toll both of Palestinians and Israelis. I am shaken to the core watching the relentless bombing of Gaza and the immeasurable suffering of the people of Gaza. There must be another way instead of this endless cycle of violence.
Mira Awad and Achinoam Nini,(known as Noa) when they represented Israel at the Eurovision song contest sang “There must be another way.” Last week Mira Awad wrote on Facebook “ Digital platforms have been flooded with words of hate that are then translated into acts of hate.” She asks for people to instead write words of love and hope, compassion and kindness.
Instead of an iron fist we need an outstretched palm, talking, negotiation, dialogue, co- operation. Co- operation denotes taking positive action toward a shared goal. Our shared goal needs to be peace based on justice and human rights for all people.
Perhaps the artists, the musicians and the writers are better at finding solutions than our politicians. Yossi Klein Halevi, the Israeli scholar and writer, in his best selling book “Letters to my Palestinian Neighbour writes “I never lost my love for the Jewish return home .... which I cherish as a story of persistence and courage. But I could no longer ignore your counter story of invasion, occupation and expulsion. Our two narratives now exist within me, opposing versions of the same story.” For peace to succeed, Yossi Klein Halevi writes, it must speak in some way to our hearts and our deep rooted ethical Jewish values.
As I watch the unfolding events on the news I try to hold onto hope and my deep seated To contribute either an belief that at the end of the day human beings want to live in peace. That we care enough about each other because we are human beings and not because we are a particular religion obituary dedication or a guest or ethnicity. column, please email [email protected] It was a huge relief when the cease fire was declared and for now that is a start. J U N E E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1 - T A M M U Z 5 7 8 1 M U I Z E N B E R G H E B R E W C O N G R E G A T I O N
SEICHELReflections with Rabbi Ryan
A family of Schmohawk Indians was sitting around the shtetl one night: The papa, Geronowitz, the mama, Pocayenta, and the beautiful young daughter, Minihorwitz. Shalom everyone, "So, nu," says the daughter, "You'll never." What?" says the mama. "Today, at high noon, I was pro p os ed to in m a rr iag e. " I am astonished as to what has occurred through the Remember "Yes?" says the mama. "So what did you say?" "I said, Yes." Muizenberg Series. "You said, Yes?" "I said, Yes." Not only did we close out some events with over 100 participants, but the most extra ordinary things happened. I received emails from "Mazel tov!" says the mama. "She said Yes! Did you hear that Geronowitz? Minihorwitz is getting married!" people telling me they have not seen or heard about people in over
"I heard," says the papa, "I'm kvelling. So who's the lucky brave?" 50 years. Others asked if anyone knows where other people are "Sittin' Bagel." "Sittin' Bagel?" says the mama, "of the SoSiouxMe tribe?" living? One of our speakers even had Covid during the talk and still "That's the one," says Minihorowitz. battled away. I received emails from New Zealand to Vancouver and
"Oy, Geronowitz! The SoSiouxMe's! There are so many of them! How can we feed them? How everywhere in between. Muizenbergers came out the woodwork and can we get them all in our teepee for the wedding?" showed their love. "We'll think of something," replies Geronowitz. "Geronowitz! Get me a buffalo!" commands the mama. "What, at this hour?" As we get older from birth and closer to death, time feels like it travels
"No, Geronowitz, for the wedding! I can make buffalo tzimmes from the meat and we can quicker. When we children it feels like life will go on forever and when make an extra teepee from the hide. Go on, get me a buffalo!" we are old we savor the moments as we know how life flies before us. So Geronowitz goes out to hunt a buffalo. A day goes by and a night and Geronowitz has not Remembering makes us realize how precious is the blessing of life. It come back. Another day and another night and still no sign of him. Another day and half the night and Geronowitz finally comes home: exhausted, staggering and empty-handed. is also a tool for healing, as all life’s worries can be forgotten if we
"Geronowitz! I've been worried sick. Where have you been? And where's my buffalo?!" know how to hold onto good memories.
"It's like this," he says. "On my first day out, I hunted high and I hunted low. I finally found a In the Torah we are told several times to remember things. It is not buffalo but this buffalo, he made Mickey Rooney look strong! It was a tiny, scrawny little about just remembering history. We remember to make our lives buffalo with no meat on his bones for buffalo tzimmes and barely enough hide for a rain hat. So I settled in for the night to try again the next day. richer in the present, and to make sure that we learn from history and
The second day, I looked high and I looked low from this way and that way and I finally found appreciate who we are. a buffalo. He was a big buffalo with lots of meat and lots of hide, but, I tell you, Pocayenta, this was the ugliest buffalo I ever saw in my life. This, I thought to myself, is not the buffalo for MY I thank everyone who contributed and participated in this last series daughter's wedding. So again, I settled in for the night to try again the next day. and helped share their memories which warmed everyone’s hearts.
The third day I got up early and I looked high and I looked low, from this way and that way, May we always be so blessed to hold onto the things that make our going up hills and down hills and, suddenly, there it was: A magnificent buffalo! It was a big buffalo. It was, as buffalos go, a beautiful buffalo. It was, if I say so myself, the perfect buffalo. lives meaningful. And there will soon be more opportunities to This, I say to myself, is the buffalo Pocayenta wants for Minihorowitz's wedding. remember when I launch a new Series called : “Remembering Our
So I reach into my backpack quietly for my tomahawk and, as I tiptoe over to the buffalo, I Loved Ones” which will be once a month and be dedicated to raise my tomahawk slowly over the buffalo's neck, when suddenly, like a bolt of lightning from the sky, I see it!" remembering people that we loved, their lessons, their lives and their
"See what?" asks Pocayenta. legacy. Will keep you updated.
"I've brought the milchedik tomahawk!"
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ORCHIM - GUEST COLUMN by Ivan Rabinowitz A PASSAGE TO MUIZENBERG Emeritus Professor, Dept of English Studies, University of South Africa
Our heroes were purse-lipped bigots regurgitated from the sunless maw of England. Our school prefects were jug-eared perverts, scions of parvenues posing as aristocrats in the short-lived, make-believe colony we called home. For us, a family of five with five servants – cook, nanny, scullery lackey, gardener, house-valet – Muizenberg was a refuge from the barbarous customs of a venal and competitive society – a haven of wonderment conjured up by the sea. Bliss it was to be alive that dawn, but to be pubescent was very heaven. On our annual pilgrimage, with Watson the house-valet perched on the dicky-seat at the back of the station wagon, and nanny Gladys between us, we were a rollicking crew, ready and waiting for a sojourn at the Rio, the Balmoral, the Sharon or the Imperial.
In nuggets of retrogenesis, memories return: benches despoiled with the significations of arrogance; the otherness of ‘Christian beach’ beyond the estuary; roving photographers touting their wares; the bopping pavilion; the snake pit; the strutters on the promenade; games of klaberjass on tables outside the Rio, hamburgers at the Maccabi; bioscopes at the Empire; and, above all, a lingering, aphrodisiacal allure, a stirring of possibility.
In a reciprocal intersection of myth and memory, Muizenberg took possession of us, just as we took possession of Muizenberg. Now, as I walk the backstreets, a small-town flaneur suborned by the tactics of remembrance, I recall not the place itself but its representation in the architecture of desire. It seems fitting that Cecil John Rhodes, the colonizer of Mashonaland, spent his last days in Muizenberg. Perhaps he too felt the need to seek refuge from the barbarous customs of the land renamed ‘Rhodesia’.
Melanie's Chocolate Brownies These delicious chocolate brownies can be adapted for Pesach by substituting potato flour for wheat flour.
Enjoy! 4 eggs Melanie Shirk favorite 2 cups sugar or less depending on your taste Choc Brownies 1 cup oil 1 cup cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla essence one cup flour (you can substitute potato flour) pinch of salt Beat eggs and sugar Add oil, cocoa, vanilla essence, flour and salt. Bake at 180 C for 25 minutes And hey presto you have delicious chocolate brownies. J U N E E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1 - T A M M U Z 5 7 8 1 M U I Z E N B E R G H E B R E W C O N G R E G A T I O N
This month we interview Alphonso Slinger
What is your background? Capetonian by birth. Born and bred in Steenberg. Went to school there. by Abe Casper And professionally? I have been a community activist and social entrepreneur for the last fifteen years. I have been involved with various NGOs.
What drew you to Judaism? First and foremost, I am technically Jewish. My great grandmother was Jewish. Her surname was Hoffman. She had two daughters. One was my grandmother. So halachically I am Jewish. I am a Ba’al Teshuva, I am returning to the fold. It is a slow and arduous process; not difficult in itself, but people make it so.
What do you find attractive about Judaism? I was brought up to believe that God created the world. I am not an evolutionist but a creationist. God is real. That was the beginning of the journey. My grandmother’s sister always used to remind us that we were descended from Jewish people. That ignited the spark. I began my research. I visited shuls, keen to learn as much as I could. I was like a moth drawn to a flame.
Wasn’t it enough to be a good Christian? From my Bible studies it became clear to me that Jesus never said he was God. Nor did he do away with any of the Commandments. I saw how the Catholic Church moved things away from the Jewish way. After all, the early Christians were a Jewish sect.
Currently, what are you doing? Currently, I have started my own enterprise. It is modestly post-revenue, although not yet profitable. There is still room for growth.
What brought you to Muizenberg? Muizenberg was the nearest shul. Initially, I wanted to convert to Sephardi, but that would have meant going all the way to Sea Point. That was eight years ago. I put down roots in Muizenberg. I think it’s a place with potential. A parting word for Muizenberg: Stay the way you are, don’t change for anybody. Rav Isaac Jacob (Yaacov) Frank Dedicated by MHC for his pioneer efforts and work for Muizenberg community. Source from Basil Frank of Jerusalem, artist grandson of Rav Frank, wrote in April 2004: Rav Isaac Jacob (Yaacov) Frank. Born Kovno, 1878. died Cape Town, 1965. Married Beila D. Rabinowitz in 1909. Bobba Beila Jewishgen.org bore 5 children, 2 died in the Spainish flu pandemic in Bakhmach 1917, Ukraine arriving in Cape Town with Solly, Issy and Nathan. Beila passed away in 1958. Rav Frank practised as mohel, schochat, chazan, Hebrew teacher at the Muizenberg cheder, ex-talmid Yeshiva Telsz, Lithuania, and authority in Cape Town. On arrival in Cape Town 1921 he landed a job inland in Port Nolloth with his wife's brother Louis Rabinowitz for a year as a shochat, and returned to Cape Town to join his family selling eggs in the streets in Simonstown 1922 were he conducted shul services in his rented house. My father recollects hiding his coins in the Aron Kodesh. Rev Frank was the Chazan of the Muizenberg Frank family Synagogue from its founding in 1933 to 1965.
My late father Solly stressed the fact the late Rabbi Abrahams consulted him on matters of halacha and officiated as a chazan at weddings in the Gardens Synagogue with Rabbi Abrahams.
Rev Frank was a folkhero in the Jewish Community of Cape Town A gymnast, he jogged every morning to the Muizenberg beach, sometimes with his umbrella in the rain, daily sporting his striped dressing gown. The old infirm Yiddisher Litvak folks on the balcony clapped. In the summer months I ran behind him! He would stand on his head and do his Yoga exercises. My zaida inhaled methane gas to declare himself medically unfit for conscription-prizve to the Russian army and arrived in Cape Yizkor - Town coughing blood .We believe the Muizenberg air and exercise cured his lungs. In the fifties he managed to buy a row of houses in Cromer road Muizenberg and rented to holiday makers. we remember
In his later years when aged 75-88 he had diabetes and refused insulin as it was then non-kosher T H E M E M O R I E S A L W A Y S L I V E W I T H U S being extracted from pigs. My zaida made speeches in Cape Town at various simchas in Yiddish which seemed to take hours. To dedicate to someone you Throughout my childhood I witnessed the kashering of poultry in his backyard with a cruel miss for a yartzheit or in fascination. It was indeed an almost 'surrealist' performance! Throats cut at the jugular and headless general, please email chickens wandering around, and then being turned upside down to drain the blood! Sometimes clients would come 5-10 minutes before shabbat, although fuming he still performed the ritual. Rav [email protected] Frank stressed regarding his 'shoors' from Telsz that it was more important to visit the sick (bikkur with your dedication cholim) than to observe the sabbath. J U N E E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1 - T A M M U Z 5 7 8 1 M U I Z E N B E R G H E B R E W C O N G R E G A T I O N
ALMOST A CENTURY OF MEMORIES - WHERE THE MAY PAST MEETS THE PRESENT 2021
Zoom Lectures this April: Zoom details: Every Tues 3pm Hebrew Class ID: 5064227253 Every Wed 4pm Series lectures Password:6JsVHr Every Friday 4pm Shabbat Service text Contact Shul