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J EEWISHW I S H A FFFAIRSFA I R S Pesach 2014 Jewish Lithuania: Memories & Legacy Price R50,00 incl. VAT Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper ,661 I/D 74839 Time four rejoicing Chag sameach Specialist Banking Asset Management Wealth & Investment Australia Botswana Canada Hong Kong India Ireland Mauritius Namibia South Africa Switzerland Taiwan United Kingdom & Channel Islands United States Investec Limited and its subsidiaries, including Investec Bank Limited - 1969/004763/06, registered credit providers and authorised financial service providers. Cape Town 021 416 1000 Durban 031 575 4000 Johannesburg 011 286 7000 Pretoria 012 427 8300 Chag Sameach 5774 to all our Jewish customers 1184706 www.picknpay.co.za. Customer Care 0800 11 22 88. Toll free landline only. Cellphone rates apply. 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 Suzanne Belling Author and Journalist encourage constructive debate, in the form of Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies of Jewish and general interest. 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 Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer of South African Jewish life and thought. 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In this way the journal hopes critically to explore, and honestly to confront, TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg problems facing the Jewish community both in South Africa and abroad, by examining © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2011 national and international affairs and their Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be impact on South Africa. applied for from The South African Jewish Board of Deputies The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect Annual subscription R140 including VAT and postage human rights and to strive for better relations Overseas Subscriptions R300 among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 in South Africa. [email protected] The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will therefore be open to all shades of opinion. Main front cover image The views expressed by the contributors will Telz Yeshiva, Cleveland, circa 1956: From left, Rabbi Chaim be their own, and do not necessarily reflect Mordecai Katz (Telz), Rabbi Aharon Kotler (Lakewood-Kletz), Rabbi the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board Yaakov Ruderman (Baltimore) and Telz students Avraham Tanzer or the Publishers. and Azriel Goldfein. Rabbi Tanzer went on to serve for over fifty years as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva College in Johannesburg while Rabbi Goldfein founded the Yeshiva Gedolah in Johannesburg. However, in keeping with the provisions of the National Constitution, the freedom of The accompanying front cover images also appear and are identified in the article by Veronica Belling and Natalie Ginsburg, in this issue. speech exercised in this journal will exclude the dissemination of hate propaganda, personal Original, unpublished essays of between 1 000 and 6 000 words on attacks or invective, or any material which may be regarded as defamatory or malicious. In all all subjects are invited, and should be sent to: such matters, the Editor’s decision is final. The Editor, JEWISH AFFAIRS, PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041, [email protected] VOL. 69 NO. 1 PESACH 2014 Editor: David Saks LITHUANIA – ECHOES AND MEMORIES Seeking Paths of Pleasantness Berel Wein ...................................................................................................................................................6 A Very Personal Journey Veronica Belling, Natalie Ginsburg ...........................................................................................................10 Landscapes of My Fathers Joseph Rabie ..............................................................................................................................................18 Soviet Slavery and how some Lithuanian Jews were saved by it David Saks .................................................................................................................................................26 A Lithuanian Boyhood Solly Per ....................................................................................................................................................31 RELIGION, CULTURE AND IDENTITY The Little Black Dress Bev May .....................................................................................................................................................37 Talmudic Norms: Use and Abuse Aryeh Newman ...........................................................................................................................................44 Gastronomic Judaism Gwynne Schrire..........................................................................................................................................46 Nusach Anglia in South Africa David Sher .................................................................................................................................................53 Interviews with Pioneers - The Work of the South African Jewish Sociological and Historical Society Naomi Musiker ...........................................................................................................................................60 BOOK REVIEWS From the Baltic to the Cape Sorrel Kerbel .............................................................................................................................................64 The Pinsker Orphans Veronica Belling ........................................................................................................................................65 The Grand Scam: How Barry Tannenbaum Conned South Africa’s Business Elite Ralph Zulman .............................................................................................................................................66 NEW POETRY Hazel Frankel ............................................................................................................................................68 JEWISH AFFAIRS PESACH 2014 SEEKING PATHS OF PLEASANTNESS * Berel Wein Editor’s Note: 2013 saw the appearance of The Legacy: Teachings for Life from the Great Lithuanian Rabbis, co-authored by South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein and the world- renowned historian and lecturer Rabbi Berel Wein. Both authors are students of rebbeim from the Lithuanian tradition. The primary focus of their book is to relay the mussar lessons – that area of Jewish law relating to moral conduct and ethics governing everyday behavior - taught by the Torah giants of Lithuania. In addition, it includes two chapters, both written by Rabbi Wein, relating the history of the Mussar and the Yeshiva movements in pre-war Lithuania and the disproportionate influence these had, and continue to have, throughout the Jewish world. The following article comprises Chapter One of The Legacy, which is hereby reprinted in its entirety with the kind permission of the authors. The book can be obtained at all Jewish bookshops in South Africa, via Amazon.com. or at www.korenpub.com/EN. The Torah’s goal, emphasized by many of the and ritual matters. Each of these values – in leading Lithuanian rabbis, is to create a deeply the abstract and isolated – is holy and true and sensitive, caring, modest, introspective and governing. Yet, sometimes they can conflict with pleasant person. Pleasantness is not a surface one another when applied in the real world of characteristic, for it is cultivated within the inner human and social life. recesses of each person. The primary example of this type of conflict It is generally accepted that concern for is the one of peace versus truth. The Talmud others is the key to being a good person. To the in Kesubos3 raises the question of praise for a Jew, however, true concern is not expressed in bride on her wedding day. The opinion of the random and sporadic acts of good – no matter House of Shammai was that the truth will be out: how individually noble those acts may be – but words of praise must be