JEWISH FFAIRS AFFAIRS JEWISH AFFAIRS JEWISH Chanukah 2017
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J EEWISHW I S H A FFFAIRSFA I R S Chanukah 2017 Price R50,00 incl. VAT Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper ISSN 0021 • 6313 Chanukah 2017 = FRONT Cover.indd 1 2017/11/26 08:28:57 AM JHB 61401/OJ Fine financial form Planning ahead can set you up for a financially secure future, especially when you have a trusted partner by your side. At Investec, we continuously explore Out of the Ordinary ways to help create and manage your wealth through Specialist Banking, Asset Management and Wealth & Investment. www.investec.com Specialist Banking Asset Management Wealth & Investment Investec Limited and its subsidiaries, including Investec Bank Limited - 1969/004763/06, registered credit providers and authorised financial service providers. Johannesburg 011 286 7000 Cape Town 021 416 1000 Durban 031 575 4000 Pretoria 012 427 8300 Port Elizabeth 041 396 6700. Chanukah 2017 = FRONT Cover.indd 2 2017/11/26 08:28:57 AM Pg 1 - 5 = Chanukah - Contents 2017.indd 1 2017/11/26 09:20:09 AM 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 Suzanne Belling Author and Journalist contemporary Jewish issues, and will aim to Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem encourage constructive debate, in the form of Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Cedric Ginsberg University of South Africa of Jewish and general interest. Professor Marcia Leveson JEWISH AFFAIRS aims also to publish essays Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer of scholarly research on all subjects of Jewish Isaac Reznik interest, with special emphasis on aspects Gwynne Schrire SA Jewish Board of Deputies of South African Jewish life and thought. Dr Gabriel A Sivan World Jewish Bible Centre Scholarly research papers that make an original Professor Gideon Shimoni Hebrew University of Jerusalem contribution to their chosen field of enquiry Professor Milton Shain University of Cape Town will be submitted to the normal processes of academic refereeing before being accepted The Hon. Mr Justice Ralph Zulman for publication. ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS – Shirley Beagle ENQUIRIES [email protected] JEWISH AFFAIRS will promote Jewish 011 645 2583 cultural and creative achievement in South TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg Africa, and consider Jewish traditions and heritage within the modern context. It aims to provide future researchers with a window on the community’s reaction to societal © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2017 challenges. In this way the journal hopes Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be critically to explore, and honestly to confront, applied for from problems facing the Jewish community both The South African Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa and abroad, by examining JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually national and international affairs and their impact on South Africa. Annual subscription R150 including VAT and postage Overseas Subscriptions R300 The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect [email protected] human rights and to strive for better relations among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds Original, unpublished essays of between 1 000 and 6 000 words on in South Africa. all subjects are invited, and should be sent to: The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will The Editor, JEWISH AFFAIRS, PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041, therefore be open to all shades of opinion. [email protected] The views expressed by the contributors will be their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the Publishers. However, in keeping with the provisions of COVER IMAGE the National Constitution, the freedom of speech exercised in this journal will exclude “A discussion of the Talmud” by Carl Schleicher. the dissemination of hate propaganda, personal (See pp 41-44 in this issue) attacks or invective, or any material which may be regarded as defamatory or malicious. In all such matters, the Editor’s decision is final. Pg 1 - 5 = Chanukah - Contents 2017.indd 2 2017/11/26 09:20:10 AM WE WISH OUR JEWISH CUSTOMERS A HAPPY CHANUKKAH FILLED WITH LIGHT. www.picknpay.co.za. Customer Care 0800 11 22 88. Toll free landline only. Cellphone rates apply. Pg 1 - 5 = Chanukah - Contents 2017.indd 3 2017/11/26 09:20:10 AM VOL. 72 NO. 3 CHANUKAH 2017 Editor: David Saks ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS Can Jewish civilisation save the West? Chuck Volpe .................................................................................................................................................6 Beyond Religious Tolerance David Nossel ..............................................................................................................................................15 Child of the Concentration Camp (Part II) Don Krausz ................................................................................................................................................18 Indian Jewry and the First World War Anthony N Pamm .......................................................................................................................................25 Philanthropists Extraordinaire: The Legacy of the Wolfson and Wohl Families David Sher .................................................................................................................................................28 ARTS AND CULTURE The Jewish role in the visual arts and cultural history of South Africa Stephan Welz ..............................................................................................................................................32 A mysterious painting in a Cape Town synagogue and the story behind it Ute ben Yosef and Gwynne Robins .............................................................................................................41 The Dybbuk and George Gershwin Cecil Bloom ...............................................................................................................................................47 MEMOIR My Other Father Maurice Skikne ..........................................................................................................................................49 BOOK REVIEWS Denial - Holocaust History on Trial Ralph Zulman .............................................................................................................................................51 NEW POETRY Abigail Sarah Bagraim, Charlotte Cohen, Denis Herbstein, Pamela Heller-Stern .....................................53 Pg 1 - 5 = Chanukah - Contents 2017.indd 4 2017/11/26 09:20:10 AM TM Pg 1 - 5 = Chanukah - Contents 2017.indd 5 2017/11/26 09:20:11 AM JEWISH AFFAIRS CHANUKAH 2017 CAN JEWISH CIVILIZATION SAVE THE WEST? * Chuck Volpe Abstract This paper is an attempt to answer these two questions. In view of how big the The West is in retreat, if not in decline. subject is, it is intended as being a tentative, The free and democratic world so dearly exploratory essay aimed at promoting further achieved, can no longer be taken for granted. thinking and discussion. If hope lies anywhere, it lies with the people I will start with a few comments about the who despite the fact that they suffered more assimilating Jew before looking at Western than any other group in the Second World civilisation and some of its problems. Then, War, today hold the flag of freedom and by way of contrast, I will present a view of hope highest. Call it what you will – God, Jewish civilisation in the hope of convincing fate or chance – the Jewish people have an the reader that not only is it “a light unto unrivalled prescription for individual and the nations”, but a light unto Jews too. Too collective flourishing. Can Jewish civilisation often, Jews themselves are blind to this light. save the West? I myself am not a religious Jew in the conventional sense of going to shul regularly Introduction or laying tefillin, but I am deeply aware of my Jewish heritage and with the passing of In November 2015, the American Jewish time, this awareness continues to deepen. magazine Commentary devoted an entire When I think of its span across almost edition to the subject of The Jewish Future. all of recorded history, its survival and They asked 69 prominent Jews from every phenomenal achievements, it seemed to me walk of life – religion, politics, academia, that the assimilating Jew in his quest for the arts, even then world chess champion greener pastures is giving up gold bullion Garry Kasparov – to write a page on how for ‘piepkes’. It makes no sense. they saw the Jewish world fifty years on, in I can understand, with a push, how 2065. I read through the magazine carefully, Jews, having been cloistered in ghettos for and while I found no consensus (could there centuries and wishing to take advantage possibly have been amongst Jews?), there of the opportunities during the Haskalah, were three points of substantial agreement: crossed the bridge to foreign cultures in the a) Israel would be okay (there where many belief that their lives would be improved. threats, but Israel would face them down), But today, that bridge leads to a wilderness b) religious Jews in the Diaspora would devoid