Jewish Affairs

EEWISHW I S H J Rosh Hashanah A FFFAIRSFA I R S 2013 Price R50,00 incl. VAT Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper ISSN 0021 • 6313 Specialist Banking Asset Management Wealth & Investment INSIDE FRONT COVER FRONT INSIDE MISSION EDITORIAL BOARD In publishing JEWISH AFFAIRS, the SA EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jewish Board of Deputies aims to produce a cultural forum which caters for a wide David Saks SA Jewish Board of Deputies variety of interests in the community. The journal will be a vehicle for the publication of ACADEMIC ADVISORY BOARD articles of significant thought and opinion on Professor Marcus Arkin contemporary Jewish issues, and will aim to encourage constructive debate, in the form of Suzanne Belling reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Jewish and general interest. Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies Cedric Ginsberg University of South Africa JEWISH AFFAIRS aims also to publish essays Dr Elaine Katz of scholarly research on all subjects of Jewish Professor Marcia Leveson interest, with special emphasis on aspects of South African Jewish life and thought. Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer Scholarly research papers that make an original Professor Reuben Musiker SAJBD Library Consultant contribution to their chosen field of enquiry Gwynne Schrire SA Jewish Board of Deputies will be submitted to the normal processes of Dr Gabriel A Sivan World Jewish Bible Centre academic refereeing before being accepted Professor Gideon Shimoni Hebrew University of Jerusalem for publication. Professor Milton Shain University of Cape Town JEWISH AFFAIRS will promote Jewish John Simon cultural and creative achievement in South Mervyn Smith Africa, and consider Jewish traditions and The Hon. Mr Justice Ralph Zulman heritage within the modern context. It aims to provide future researchers with a window on the community’s reaction to societal ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS – Shirley Beagle challenges. In this way the journal hopes ENQUIRIES [email protected] critically to explore, and honestly to confront, 011 645 2583 problems facing the Jewish community both TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg in South Africa and abroad, by examining national and international affairs and their impact on South Africa. The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2011 to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be human rights and to strive for better relations applied for from among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds The South African Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa. JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually Annual subscription R140 including VAT and postage The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will Overseas Subscriptions R300 therefore be open to all shades of opinion. Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 The views expressed by the contributors will be their own, and do not necessarily reflect [email protected] the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the Publishers. Original, unpublished essays of between 1 000 and 6 000 words on However, in keeping with the provisions of all subjects are invited, and should be sent to: the National Constitution, the freedom of speech exercised in this journal will exclude The Editor, JEWISH AFFAIRS, PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041, the dissemination of hate propaganda, personal [email protected] attacks or invective, or any material which may be regarded as defamatory or malicious. In all The Editorial Board reserves the right to cut the length of articles such matters, the Editor’s decision is final. accepted for publication, and to make any stylistic changes which it may deem necessary. VOL. 68 NO. 2 ROSH HASHANAH 2013 Editor: David Saks SA JEWRY: CONTEMPORARY The Trial in Dubai: The Saga of Professor Cyril Karabus Michael Bagraim .........................................................................................................................................5 Contemporary Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Perspectives from the South African Experience David Saks .................................................................................................................................................12 Domestic Abuse – A Jewish View Matthew Liebenberg ..................................................................................................................................19 The Jewish Passion for Mandela Lana Jacobson ...........................................................................................................................................23 SA JEWRY: HISTORICAL Zionist Record Rosh Hashanah 1953: One Shilling and Sixpence Gwynne Schrire..........................................................................................................................................27 Johannesburg’s Mother Synagogue – 126 Years Young David Sher ..............................................................................................................................................34 Johannesburg’s Beth Hamedrash Hagodol and its Legacy Rose Norwich .............................................................................................................................................43 ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS Mommy’s Story Riva Morgenstern.......................................................................................................................................48 The Ten Questions Charlotte Cohen .........................................................................................................................................51 BOOK REVIEWS The Accidental Ambassador: From Parliament to Patagonia Ralph Zulman .............................................................................................................................................54 A Quiet Kind of Courage Marcia Leveson..........................................................................................................................................55 What’s Left? Gary Selikow ..............................................................................................................................................56 READERS LETTERS Hazel Frankel, Cedric Ginsberg, David Lloyd Klepper .............................................................................57 THE TRIAL IN DUBAI: THE SAGA OF PROF CYRIL KARABUS * Michael Bagraim “Someone must have slandered Josef K., cell, told he was under arrest and spent the night for one morning, without having done sleeping on a steel bench in an adjoining room. anything truly wrong, he was arrested.” “We are keeping you because you are a murderer,” Franz Kafka, The Trial a customs official told him curtly. He was “totally bloody shocked” and bewildered, too. Cyril “The freeing of captives takes precedence Karabus, after all, is a highly respected doctor over feeding and clothing the poor” wrote the with an international reputation. He is a professor 12th Century sage Maimonides. Indeed, he wrote Emeritus of paediatrics at UCT and former head five letters to Jewish communities in Lower of the Oncology and Haematology unit at the Red Egypt asking them to pool money to ransom Cross Children’s Hospital. As a specialist in both Jews captured by a Christian king besieging an paediatrics and medical oncology, he had taught Egyptian town. Yet who would have expected a generation of medical students at Red Cross. that in the 21st Century, Jews would again have Devoted to caring for children with cancer, he to collect money to free a Jewish captive, one had spent almost his whole life saving young held in an autocratic Muslim country in defiance lives, although inevitably and heartbreakingly, of accepted rules of justice and human rights? nothing could be done in some cases. It took far more than five letters to free this Who would have thought that it would take nine particular captive. Twenty-four fat files of letters months, an international campaign, protests and and media reports, to be exact. support from a large number of people - Jewish, When I was first phoned at three in the morning Muslim and Christian - before we would be able on 18 August 2012 to learn that my wife’s cousin, to get him home? The best description of what he Prof Cyril Karabus, had been arrested in Dubai, went through can be found in Franz Kafka’s book, I thought it was probably a visa problem that I The Trial, about an innocent man arrested and could quickly fix up. His family were in shock and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority. highly traumatised, but being a positive person, It took days before we discovered that Prof I tried to calm them down, saying that it would Karabus had been arrested for murder and forgery. all be sorted out within a few hours after which Retired, he had been augmenting his pension by he would be on the next plane home. doing locums overseas. Twelve years previously, Cyril, his wife Jenny, daughter, son in law and he had worked at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical two grandchildren were returning to Cape Town Centre (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab from Canada after attending his son Matthew’s Emirates (UAE). There, he had taken over the wedding. When checking in at Toronto airport, a care of three year-old Sara Al Ajaily, terminally staff member told him that there was a ‘security ill with acute myeloid leukaemia. He had no alert’ against his name. After checking with a idea that in October 2002 he had been charged superior, she

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