J EEWISHW I S H A FFFAIRSFA I R S RoshRosh HashanahHashanah 20122012 Price R50,00 incl. VAT Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper " To a fruitful New Year Shana tova umetukah 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 70528 Jewish Affairs 270x180.indd 1 2012/07/25 12:46 PM J EWISH A FFAIRS 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 variety David Saks SA Jewish Board of Deputies of interests in the community. The journal will be a vehicle for the publication of articles of significant thought and opinion on contemporary Jewish issues, and will aim to ACADEMIC ADVISORY BOARD encourage constructive debate, in the form of Professor Marcus Arkin South African Zionist Federation reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Suzanne Belling Journalist and editor of Jewish and general interest. Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies JEWISH AFFAIRS aims also to publish essays Cedric Ginsberg University of South Africa of scholarly research on all subjects of Jewish interest, with special emphasis on aspects of Dr Elaine Katz University of the Witwatersrand South African Jewish life and thought. Professor Marcia Leveson University of the Witwatersrand Scholarly research papers that make an original Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer contribution to their chosen field of enquiry Professor Reuben Musiker University of the Witwatersrand will be submitted to the normal processes of Gwynne Schrire SA Jewish Board of Deputies academic refereeing before being accepted for Dr Gabriel A Sivan World Jewish Bible Centre publication. Professor Gideon Shimoni Hebrew University of Jerusalem JEWISH AFFAIRS will promote Jewish Professor Milton Shain University of Cape Town cultural and creative achievement in South John Simon University of Cape Town Africa, and consider Jewish traditions and The Hon. Mr Justice Ralph Zulman Appeal Court of South Africa heritage within the modern context. It aims to provide future researchers with a window on the community’s reaction to societal SECRETARY – Golde Goldsmith challenges. In this way the journal hopes TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg critically to explore, and honestly to confront, problems facing the Jewish community both in South Africa and abroad, by examining FRONT COVER IMAGE: national and international affairs and their 110th Anniversary of the Kimberley Synagogue, August 2012 impact on South Africa. The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2011 human rights and to strive for better relations Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds applied for from in South Africa. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will Annual subscription R180 including VAT and postage therefore be open to all shades of opinion. The Overseas: Surface Mail US$30 or BPS25 views expressed by the contributors will be Air Mail US$70 or BPS50 their own, and do not necessarily reflect the Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 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. The Editorial Board reserves the right to cut the length of articles In all such matters, the Editor’s decision is accepted for publication, and to make any stylistic changes which it final. may deem necessary. J EWISH A FFAIRS VOL. 67 b NO. 2 b ROSH HASHANAH 2012 Editor: David Saks JEWISH ARTS FOCUS: A TALE OF THREE GOLDBLATTS A South African Jewish Sculptor Looks Back Naomi Jacobson ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 David Goldblatt – Photographer Extraordinaire Frank Startz ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 Sidney Goldblatt – Select Works ...................................................................................................................... 14 ISSUES AND ANGLES Remembering Phillip Tobias Reuben Musiker .................................................................................................................................................... 17 A Brief Journey through Turkish Jewish History Bernard Katz ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 Observations on Serbs, Jews and Israelis: A Plea for Understanding Richard Burns ....................................................................................................................................................... 26 Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII): Was He Complicit in the Holocaust? Leon Reich ............................................................................................................................................................ 31 Some Holocaust and Judaica artefacts and the stories behind them Jeff Fine ................................................................................................................................................................ 40 FICTION Rifka Bernard Levinson ................................................................................................................................................. 45 BOOK REVIEWS My Right Hand’s Cunning: A Jerusalem Story Tamar Saks ........................................................................................................................................................... 46 Drastic Dislocations Roy Robins ............................................................................................................................................................ 47 The Arab Lobby Gary Selikow ........................................................................................................................................................ 48 The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership Ralph Zulman ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 NEW POETRY Charlotte Cohen, Jeff Fine, Israel Silberhaft ....................................................................................................... 51 READER’S LETTER .............................................................................................................................................................................. 52 JEWISH AFFAIRS N ROSH HASHANAH 2012 A SOUTH AFRICAN SCULPTOR LOOKS BACK * Naomi Jacobson My grandfather was the famed Yiddish writer in a car crash, and very little was told to us about and scholar David Goldblatt, who is best him. Sarah, a die-hard Afrikaner nationalist, felt remembered today for his two-volume Yiddish alienated from her more liberally-inclined family Encyclopaedia, written (amongst other members and, being a rather hard, sometimes publications) after his relocation to New York in aggressive personality, was difficult to get close 1915. He remained in South Africa long enough, to. however, to make his mark on the Jewish cultural My father arrived in Windhoek, South West and intellectual scene. With the help of his wife, Africa, in 1918, starting out as a public prosecutor. Fanny Esther, he founded and ran Der Yiddisher Later, he was admitted to the bar, where he had a Advokaat, a Cape Town-based Yiddish weekly long and distinguished career. My maternal that lasted from 1904 to 1914. He was amongst grandparents, Reverend Mordecai Leib Cohen those centrally involved in the delegation to the and his wife Sarah, arrived in Windhoek in 1924. Cape Parliament that was successful in getting Reverend Cohen was the first rabbi and opened Yiddish recognised as a European language. the shul there shortly after his arrival. They had David’s oldest child, Sarah (‘Saartjie’), nine children, including my mother, Janet Ida. likewise helped in getting a new language She met and married Israel that same year and established in South Africa. At a very young age, they became an influential, dynamic couple, she became the secretary of the famed C.J. cultured, intellectual, sporty and fun. Israel was a Langenhoven, the poet, writer and advocate who brilliant lawyer, philosopher and writer. He started authored Die Stem van Suid Afrika and is regarded Windhoek’s first chess club and, with Janet, played