Hashalom May 2016 Established 1923 Volume 20 No. 8 CONTENTS EDITORIAL Out of Perspective WHAT MAKES THE HOLOCAUST Editorial 02 Out of Perspective 03 UNIQUE IN HUMAN HISTORY? 04 Prof Antony Arkin banned in Israel? Learning to Hate 04 There have been countless horrific acts of injustice perpetuated By David Arkin Real Rapprochement with Israel Requires Turkey to 05 throughout history. Though are no strangers to suffering, many Tackle Anti-Semitism others have also been victims of unspeakable cruelty. But the judgment Welcome to the greenest building in Israel 06 of Winston Churchill is almost certainly the definitive description of the This may seem strange to the reader as in all of Ian Fleming’s original Goldfinger was only the third 007 film, but is arguably today the all-time Jewish World 07 uniqueness of the Holocaust: “The Final solution is probably the greatest, books and the subsequent movie franchise based on his character, James favourite of Bond fans: it had a powerful theme song sung by Shirley most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world”. Daughter spots her teenaged survivor 07 Bond has actually never been in Israel. He has been close, having a tête- Bassey, an iconic image of a secondary covered in gold paint, a mother in YouTube video à-tête with a belly-dancer in Beirut in 19741, a year after the Yom Kippur deadly henchman in , the introduction of -Branch gadgets and the The philosopher Emil Fackenheim summarized what puts the Holocaust 2 Living Word From a Dead World 08 in a class by itself as an example of evil in his book ‘To Mend the World’. war, and then cavorting with the lovely “XXX”, in Cairo in 1977 , a year quintessential Bond car (an Aston Martin DB-5), and possibly the raciest 5 ‘Japanese Schindler’ Who Saved 6,000 Lives 10 It was the only time in recorded history that a state tried to destroy an before the signing of the Camp David Accords. In fact, the only Israeli of all the Bond lead women: . It also had the arch villain, During World War II Finally Gets A Movie entire people regardless of an individual’s age, sex, location, profession or he did meet up with briefly was in the Swiss Alps in 1969, soon after , played with extraordinary flair by the German actor Gert UK author exposes the oft-forgotten horrors of a 11 belief. And it is the only instance in which the perpetrators conducted this Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister. One of Blofeld’s “Angels of Death” Frobe. However, when the Israeli censorship board found out that Frobe, Nazi death camp for women genocide for no ostensible material, territorial or political gain. (bacteriological warfare agents) was an Israeli girl with a Shellfish allergy3. who had studied theatre in Berlin, had joined the Nazi party during the Are ‘1652s’ the new Jews 13 Due to the obvious lack of Kashrut policy, I thought the “Israeli girl” was a Third Reich, Goldfinger was banned at once from being screened. Frobe Thus Jews were singled out for the “crime” of existing. Jewish birth was rather amusing character-cast. heard about this and attempted to set the record straight: in a subsequent Community News 15 sufficient cause for death. Assimilation was impossible. Conversion Past Tense 15 offered no protection. The biological connection to Jewish grandparents newspaper interview, he claimed that he had actually left the Nazi party Bubkes 16 was guilt enough. Bond, though, has met up with a whole gamut of villains with a dodgy two years before the outbreak of WW2, that he was drafted and sent Beth Shalom 17 Nazi background. This is hardly surprising as Ian Fleming worked for to the Russian Front for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, and made the News from Hashalom 19 So the extermination of the Jews was not a means to an end, it was British Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. His war-time startling revelation that he risked his life in the war to hide two Jews from Young Israel Centre 19 Durban Holocaust Centre 20 an end in itself. It was carried out for ideological reasons. The mass experiences and the immediate post-war period provided the inspiration the Gestapo. No-one believed him and Goldfinger remained banned. Then Limmud 21 murder of the Jewish people ran parallel to the German war against the for what was essentially a Cold-war spy combatting rogues in the twilight out of the blue a certain Mario Blumenau suddenly appeared at the Israeli Eden College 22 Allies. Enormous resources were diverted from the Nazi war machine to of the British Empire. There was Sir of Moonraker fame, who, embassy in Vienna and backed up Frobe’s revelation: he and his mother facilitate the extermination of the Jews. Durban United Hebrew Congregation 23 in the original book, had joined the Nazi Party and fought with the had been saved by the slandered actor‘s actions and they wanted to set Hebrew Order of David 23 Wotsup Wizo 24 The atrocities of the Holocaust were not primarily carried out by Wehrmacht. Max Zorin, of A View to Kill, was a former KGB agent, who was the record straight! Their written affidavit was accepted by the local film Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation 25 monsters, but for the most part, average citizens. They were in born in in 1943 as a product of Nazi medical experimentation. His censorship board, the ban lifted, and Frobe’s reputation restored. Sisterhood of Temple David 25 Fackenheim’s words “ordinary jobholders”. Throughout Europe Jews associate in the film, and the one responsible for the experiments, was Union of Jewish Women 26 were rounded up and swept into concentration camps with the Dr. Carl Mortner (real name Hans Glaub), who’s character is akin to the evil There is still an outside chance that James Bond might make a film Divote 27 connivance of the local authorities. In many cases they were betrayed by Dr. Josef Mengele. Bond’s most-recurring nemesis, , debut appearance here in Israel. There have been book series spin-offs Umhlanga Jewish Centre 28 their neighbours and friends. Those running the camps worked all day in Akiva College 29 was in fact a worker in one of the ministries of the Polish Government, by Fleming’s publishers since the 1980’s, where the recreated James the most inhumane conditions imaginable, and returned each evening KwaZulu Natal Zionist Council 30 who collaborated with the Nazis prior to Poland’s invasion by passing on Bond character does meet up with the Mossad. A Bond/Beautiful Sabra to the comfort of their families. At the end of the war, many people who Above Board 31 classified material (as outlined in the novel Thunderball). In all the films, Mossad Agent rendezvous on Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach is not out of the participated in conducting the horrors of the Holocaust simply returned Cooking with Judy and Linda 31 Blofeld’s background is never truly revealed 4. realm of possibility. Social and Personal 31 to their normal lives. Diary of Events 32 The growing persecution of the Jews between 1933 and 1945 unfolded So, despite many literary and cinematic run-ins with Nazis or Nazi- The views expressed in the pages of Hashalom are not necessarily those of the without organised official opposition by the governments of the world. A collaborators, there is still no compelling reason why 007 should be 1 In The Man with a Golden Gun Editorial Board or any other organisation or religious body unless otherwise great deal of terrifying information was widely available, but no measures banned in Eretz HaKodesh. There was, however, an official ban on 2 In The Spy Who Loved Me were taken to limit the damage. The impediment to the Jews finding their purchasing German-made products in the initial four year inception period 3 In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service individual. way to safety lay in the refusal by these nations to receive the Jewish of the State, until a reparations agreement was signed with in 4 Interestingly, and by way of trivia, Fleming pens Blofeld’s birthday to be refugees from Europe. Hashalom Editorial Board: 1952. And even afterwards, there were in fact no diplomatic ties until in the port of Gydnia, on May 28, 1908, his own birthdate! Editor: Prof Antony Arkin these were established in 1965 by Levi Eshkol and Ludwig Erhard. Buying 5 More useless trivia: “Pussy Galore” was inspired by the actual name of Editorial Board: Mrs Mikki Norton, Mrs Michelle Shapira One of the inexplicable aspects of the Holocaust is that it took place in Commitee: Dr Issy Fisher, Ms Diane McColl, Mrs Lauren Shapiro, Mr Colin Plen the twentieth century and was the work of the so-called “cultured” highly products “Made in Germany” continued to be a bit of a taboo, and there Fleming’s pet octopus, which was called “”. Production Manager: Mrs Robyn Bradley educated Germans with the connivance of the “civilized” world. The other existed an unofficial boycott by the generation of Holocaust survivors. examples of mass murder in the last century have included the Turkish This was passed down to the next generation, where many also banned Notice to Organisations/Contributors: annihilation of the Armenians, Stalin’s atrocities in the , Mao (or at least disapproved) their children from travelling back to Germany All material to be submitted by email to Zedong’s “great leap forward” in China, Pol Pot’s atrocities in Cambodia [email protected] to tour or holiday (even on a cultural roots visit). Over the years, this has Troy Schonken and the Rwanda genocide, but none of them have all the characteristics DEADLINE FOR THE JUNE ISSUE: 6 May 2016 whittled down to the extent that Germany today is arguably Israel’s of the Holocaust. biggest political ally in Europe. And of course, it is very common to drive a Advertisements German-made car, or use German-made appliances at home. However, Contact: Robyn Bradley P.O. Box 10797 Marine Parade 4056 Jews do no need to compete in a morbid contest for victimhood. www.djc.co.za Tel: (031) 335 4451 Fax: (031) 337 9600 Email: [email protected] Throughout Jewish history memory is the key to survive. We are a back in the early sixties, the existing prevalent anti-German sentiment in people of memory. In the Ten Commandments we are commanded, Israel’s developing society was inflated by an incredible media spectacle. Hashalom is published under the auspices of the Council of KwaZulu-Natal “to remember the Sabbath day”. In the Bible we are told to remember The Eichmann capture in May 1960 in Argentina, his subsequent trial in Jewry, the KwaZulu-Natal Zionist Council and the Durban Jewish Club. the exodus from Egypt. We have a special obligation today to add yet Jerusalem, and his death sentence by hanging that ended a 2 year-saga Typesetting Supplied. another commandment to “remember”. Remember the Holocaust, so in June 1962, caused a dramatic increase in awareness of the Holocaust Designed by RBG Studios, email: [email protected] that its millions of victims at least have the gift of living in our memories. and in the suffering of survivors amongst the country’s younger citizens. Printed by Fishwick Printers In the words of Elie Wiesel “To forget would be to kill the victims a second time. We could not prevent their first death, we must not allow So by the time Goldfinger was released in 1964, the groundwork existed Visit our website: www.hashalom.co.za them to be killed again”. for something totally unexpected.

2 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 3 ISRAEL ISRAEL Learning to hate Real Rapprochement with Israel By Ariel Bolstein- Israel Hayom Requires Turkey to Tackle Anti-Semitism

Over the years we have grown accustomed to the international important indicator of a society’s values. They reflect everything By Aykan Erdemir - Blogger-Times of Israel community treating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a double we seek to pass on to the next generation. And in the case of the standard. In the majority of cases, the world is quick to blame Israel Palestinians, the MBFF research reveals, the next generation mostly Turkish and Israeli negotiators are having talks at an undisclosed location in pursuit of a reconciliation agreement to resume normalized relations. for all the problems in the region, whereas the Palestinians are receives messages of burning hatred. Both countries have a lot to gain from détente, and any step toward easing tensions in the Middle East should be cause for celebration. As a former commonly met with forgiveness and understanding. It is especially member of Turkish Parliament, who has vocally supported closer Turkish-Israeli ties and a “peace pipeline” carrying Israeli gas to Turkey via Cyprus, grating when these double standards spread afield throughout Textbooks in the PA contain condescending and degrading language it is encouraging to see that the talks that started in June 2015 have come this far. However, I have serious concerns about the shaky foundations of Turkish-Israeli rapprochement, and remain unconvinced about its sustainability. Europe, because we should be able to expect that our friends - with about Jews. There isn’t a lack of examples. No place where Jews whom we share similar moral values and a desire for progress - not live, regardless of location or size, is described as a city, village or Turkey’s government mouthpieces – notorious for their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel vitriol – seem to be in a celebratory mood about the apparently to turn a blind eye when those values are trampled on by those who community. These places are only depicted as Arab villages and impending reconciliation. A pro-government daily, for example, published not only a front-page endorsement of normalization but accompanied it harbor ill will toward Israel. It is therefore encouraging to learn that towns. On the subject of those places where Jews live, whether in with news of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plans to serve as a witness at a wedding in an Istanbul synagogue. Last week, the media ran similar praise for Erdoğan’s meeting with Jewish-American leaders during his Washington visit. the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, a reputable German think tank, is large numbers as in Tel Aviv or a small kibbutz, researchers found focusing a spotlight on the Palestinian Authority educational system. that they are universally referred to as “settlements.” The word Such positive coverage is an extraordinary development in a country that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, harbors higher levels of anti- “Israel” is also hard to find in Palestinian textbooks and is replaced Semitism than Iran. The U-turn of the pro-government media, which only a year ago aired a documentary alleging a millennia-long Jewish conspiracy Recently published research by the MFFB deals with the textbooks with terms like “the occupation regime,” or “the Zionist terrorist to dominate the world, is curious, to say the least. used in the first to ninth grades in the PA, including schools operated organization.” History books ignore all vestiges of Jewish civilization. Also curious are the new public-diplomacy efforts at the Foreign Ministry. Ankara’s consulate and congregants of a Modern-Orthodox synagogue in by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. Textbooks are the most Maps in the PA’s geography textbooks provide no redemption New York will co-organize a conference this Sunday on the “Inclusion and Prosperity of Ottoman Turkish Sephardi Jews.” The conference marketing either - Israel simply does not appear in them. The authors of one proudly features a photo of the recently restored Grand Synagogue in the city of Edirne, which is being billed as a monumental testimony to the textbook didn’t even spare the Mandatory-era stamp. On the original Turkish state’s embrace of its Jewish citizens. Somehow, the conference organizers neglected to recall the Edirne governor’s appalling pledge that he stamp, produced by the British, the name of the land appears in would not allow Jews to worship in the synagogue, let alone the 1934 pogroms that cleansed the area from Jews in the first place. three languages, but Palestinian students will only see its censored Erdoğan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Democracy Party (AKP), which has ruled Turkey since 2002, is attempting to paper over some ugly truths. version, without Hebrew, which was erased. The AKP is desperate to overhaul its failed foreign policy – including an ongoing crisis with Russia, fear of Iran’s rising regional hegemony, and the collapse of Turkey’s vision for Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt and Syria. With its list of regional enemies mounting, the AKP hopes to steer And if anybody thinks this is all arbitrary, the researchers offer their Turkey back to its traditional allies: the European Union, NATO, and Israel. This is why Erdoğan recently toned down his anti-Western rhetoric primary conclusion and determine unequivocally: In no Palestinian and miraculously come to appreciate the transactional relationships he can establish with pragmatic counterparts, rather than the Islamists he was courting just months ago. textbook will one find any call for peace, tolerance or mutual understanding. Meanwhile, calls to fight and carry out violent Turkey’s government, however, still offers frequent reminders of its hypocrisy on Jews and Israel. Following last month’s suicide bombing in Istanbul, attacks against Israelis appear frequently. Those who perpetrate a board member of the AKP’s women’s branch in the city tweeted her wish for the wounded Israeli tourists to have been killed. A few weeks before, such attacks are glorified and praised profusely. Terms like “jihad,” a chief advisor to the president appeared in pro-government media to attack political rivals as “raising soldiers for the Jews.” The board member had to leave her post but the chief advisor is still serving. “shahid,” “heroism,” and “sacrifice” are reserved for acts against the “Zionist enemy.” As early as the second grade, textbooks emphasize For those of us committed to combating prejudice against Turkey’s minorities, the current state of affairs poses a particular challenge. In the the importance of shahids (martyrs) and implore the young pupils to run-up to the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement, Turkish analysts are expected to turn a blind eye to years of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli propaganda visit the families of those who have fallen on the altar of jihad. disseminated by Turkey’s top officials and their mouthpieces. But it would be a mistake to do so.

A Sephardic friend of mine once told me her parents raised her in accordance with kayades, a Judeo-Spanish word for Turkish Jews’ code of silence The researchers conservatively describe the inciting textbooks in the face of discrimination. Today, those seeking to point out the disingenuous premises of Erdoğan’s reconciliation attempts are forced to wrestle as “problematic,” but also don’t hesitate to conclude that these with kayades once again. books promote and entrench hatred against Jews and Israelis, and contribute to legitimizing violence as a means to resolving the Thankfully, some Turkish citizens have already made the right choice. On this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a handful of Turkish diplomatic conflict. Anyone who dreams of peace in the Middle Jews and their non-Jewish friends launched Avlaremoz, a news site dedicated to combating anti-Semitism in Turkey. Avlaremoz means “Let’s talk” in Judeo-Spanish, and is a direct challenge to kayades. As expected, Avlaremoz was one of the few news outlets that covered the Erdoğan advisor’s East must first root out this incitement from the education system. remarks. Considering the fact that PA schools are largely funded by European donations, responsibility for teaching this hate and its consequences Turkish-Israeli rapprochement is important for regional stability. A sustainable relationship, however, cannot be built on hypocrisy and silence. falls on the shoulders of European leaders. Turkish society needs to recognize and confront the pervasive anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment that has taken hold of wide segments of the population, due in large part to the influence of the AKP. A future built on dialogue must start with genuine conversation about the wrongs of the past, but also about the dangerous politics that have led us to this perilous present. Ariel Bolstein is the founder of the Israel advocacy organization Faces of Israel. Aykan Erdemir is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament

4 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 5 ISRAEL Jewish World Welcome to the greenest building in Israel Daughter spots her teenaged survivor ISRAEL21c tours the new Porter School of Environmental Studies building mother in YouTube video in Tel Aviv, Israel’s first LEED Platinum edifice By Karin Kloosterman – Israel21c By By Ron Csillag – The Canadian Jewish News

A strange-looking capsule made of curved bamboo and offices. A series of enclosed patios are for public Like so many of us, Evelyn Rochwerg was noodling around the Internet They set sail at the height of the British blockade. Though their ship strips (sustainably harvested, of course) pops out expo rooms. Solar tubes collect energy from the sun one night, on a Facebook group for children of Holocaust survivors. landed, they and the other passengers were intercepted and taken to from a south-facing wall of sun-collecting tubes. and simultaneously shade occupants from its rays. Someone had posted a YouTube trailer for a film called Every Face Has Cyprus, where they were interned. The tubes, in fact, generate about 30 percent of the a Name, an award-winning 2015 Swedish documentary that attempts The intention of building such an odd accessory into energy used by the school. Water in the tubes gets to track down and interview survivors of German concentration camps, Following statehood, they made it to Israel, where they helped start Israel’s latest and foremost “green” building for the heated, and up on the roof this heat drives turbines seen in black-and-white archival shots, arriving at the harbour of Malmo, Kibbutz Dovrat, in the north. They were married in 1949 and came to Porter School of Environment Studies at Tel Aviv that create power. Sweden, on April 28, 1945. Canada in 1952 to begin new lives. University really was to scream “look at me” as thousands of Israelis make the daily commute into On the wall with the solar tubes hangs an egg- The film trains its lens on elderly survivors’ reactions as they recognize Her parents “never talked about their experiences,” Rochwerg said. or across Tel Aviv. shaped capsule where students and teachers can The Porter School of Environmental Studies. themselves or relatives in the grainy, black-and-white footage of those “It wasn’t something we discussed. My mother tried to shield me from Built atop the highest part of Tel Aviv on a precipice “float” new ideas. The capsule is more than a pretty arriving to safety in Sweden at war’s end. The film’s Canadian premiere anything bad.” Her father died two years ago. that hangs over the city’s main artery, the Ayalon nose on the face of the building. It is like an egg will take place at the closing of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on May 15. Highway, the new edifice - Israel’s first LEED ready to give birth to new ideas. As an added bonus, also in the same shot as her mother is Rochwerg’s Platinum-certified building - sits outside the main Rochwerg, who lives in Richmond Hill, was always interested in locating father’s first cousin, Hava Sylman, who was then around 25 and also belt of the campus beside the university’s unusual The central lobby is a buffer zone with vaulted long-lost loved ones. She clicked on the two-minute trailer – “I figured, survived Ravensbruck. She’s now in her mid-90s and lives in Toronto. Urban Safari. While it was once a dumping ground, ceilings illuminating passive light and cooling features what are the chances?” – and within 10 seconds, she “totally freaked out.” today this is prime real estate close to the train that transfer seaborne air around the building at Hailed by Variety magazine, Every Face Has a Name shows Jews arriving station. certain times of the day. Cool water pipes underfoot There in the crowd, smiling broadly and waving between two grim- from all over Europe - “Norwegian prisoners of war, Polish mothers circulate another layer of cool air around the faced kerchiefed women on that spring day in 1945 was her 16-year-old and children, members of the French resistance and British spies – and The Porter School was established about 15 years building. mother, Lola. perhaps unique among them, a young Italian-American who was accused ago, and oversees an estimated 150 master’s of being a spy while visiting her grandparents and deported to Auschwitz.” students and 60 aspiring PhDs every year. Now The third segment of the building to the north “Oh my God, I was screaming. I said, ‘My mother’s in the video!’ I didn’t it finally has a home fitting of an environment has few windows opening to the south in order know this existed. I never saw a picture of my mother as a child. I was on Rochwerg still can’t get over the shock of seeing her mother’s young, school that attracts overseas students and visitors. to conserve air-conditioning energy. The office More than just a nose sticking out of the such a high,” Rochwerg, 58, told The CJN in an effusive interview. happy face. ISRAEL21c got a private tour before the building windows face the north, and the rooms were built building. Photo by Karin Kloosterman opens for the coming school year. smartly so that movement and light sensors will After calming down, Rochwerg ordered the film and wrote to its “I keep looking at the video,” she said. automate air-conditioning and artificial lighting when producers, who have said they are eager to track down the stories of the Indoor wetlands needed. people in the archival shots.

With no security perimeter, the Porter School A green home of dreams “I’ve gone through these pictures quite a lot of times and have more than welcomes guests with wetlands. A series of open one time wondered about the girl with the big smile,” said researcher gray-water collection pools recycles water from the Much thought went into the construction of the Sebastian Claesson, who had a few questions for Rochwerg. building, turning it fresh with the help of water lilies. building, from sensors in the wetlands to choice of plants for the green roof to transferring waste The Krakow-born Lola Preiss was an inmate of the Ravensbruck Standing at a shaded entrance, Porter PhD student energy to water piping in the floors to cool or heat concentration camp in northern Germany and lost her parents and both Hofit Itzhak Ben Shalom shows us the features that the building, depending on the weather. Even the brothers in the Holocaust. After liberation, she was taken by the Red architects built in to ensure minimal energy will be concrete is from a sustainable source, Itzhak Ben Cross to Denmark, where she was quarantined for several weeks, and consumed by the building and people using it. Shalom tells ISRAEL21c. then on to Sweden.

“Notice no elevators?” she points out. “We have The Porter School follows the Azouri Eco-Tower, “You can see from the few seconds of footage that they’re not happy,” Plants on the building’s roof were carefully elevators, of course, but we’ve hidden them. Tel Aviv’s first LEED Gold standard edifice, built Rochwerg noted of the glum arrivals. chosen. Photo by Karin Kloosterman We want people to think about taking the stairs in 2010. Israel’s first “green” building was Intel’s “They’re now free but they’ve just been through hell.” Yet, her mother wears a high-wattage, ear-to-ear smile. automatically.” Development Design Center in Haifa. Above: Evelyn Rochwerg’s mother “She was still young and all alone, but I guess she realized that she had her Lola can be seen smiling in the There are about 300 sunny days per year in Israel. In Prof. Dan Rabinovich, who heads the school, says whole life ahead of her.” second row the summer, the heat can be unbearable. Reducing that Porter’s students “belong to a generation that the energy costs of cooling the building was a key sees sustainability, the environment, social justice Lola is now 87 and is wintering in Florida. Rochwerg said she can hardly factor in its construction. and our common future on this planet as one and wait to screen the footage for her. And in keeping with the movie’s theme, Left: Lola Sylman today the same.” she also wants to film her mother’s reaction to seeing her younger self. It was designed by about 40 people from Axelrod- Grobman Architects; Chen Architects and Joseph Their new building will be a testament to this. “She has the same face,” Rochwerg said with a chuckle. Cory’s Geotectura Studio. Look for it by day and lit up by night as you drive northward on the Ayalon Highway. Better still, pop After arriving in Sweden, her mother was taken to an all-girls school in the To deal with the intense heat of the sun, the building in when it’s open to see what kind of new green Natural light falls in the lobby. Photo by town of Forsbacka. Soon after, Jakob Sylman, a fellow Pole who survived is in three layers to shield people working in its labs research is cooking. Karin Kloosterman the war in Siberia, arrived to attend an all-boys school. The two met and planned to get to Palestine.

6 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 7 Jewish World crematorium, have survived and I’ alive! I’m alive and I’m healthy! and documents in Yad Vashem’s database, Rozett was able to piece It’s really unbelievable! Your brother is a human being born anew! I together the letter-writer’s heroic life story. have the ability to write a letter, my first in so many years, to you! In 1939, Syme’s whole family, including her parents and her husband That they had survived the Final Solution and could now begin a new Fritz, were all living in Brno, in what was then Czechoslovakia. The Living Word From a Dead World life was something survivors were only beginning to realize through Nazis had just invaded, and Brno was annexed by Germany. On March the process of writing these messages to their families, explained 18, Syme invited her parents and younger brothers, Ned and Michael, A new project at Yad Vashem analyzes the first letters that survivors wrote after the Nidam-Orvieto. “It was a way for them to declare to themselves that over to her house for a special family dinner. Syme, then 31, had asked Holocaust, letting their loved ones knowing that they were alive they had made it,” she said. Ned to bring his violin and a suitcase packed with his and Michael’s belongings. It had seemed to Ned an unusual request. By Yardena Schwartz - Tablet magazine In a note written in Yiddish on Sept. 1, 1944, Hirsch Brik wrote from Kovno, Lithuania, to friends in Palestine. Around noon, the family gathered at Syme’s house, where Syme told When Tzipora Shapiro walked out the gates of Auschwitz on Jan. Nidam-Orvieto, an Israeli Jew of Italian descent who lost some of her her brothers to flee Brno immediately. Their parents, she said, would 27, 1945, the first thing she felt was guilt. Her father, grandfather, own family members to the Holocaust, first thought of the project six I’m alive and I’m free. After three torturous years, I am back to being stay with her and Fritz, as they were too old and frail to run and hide. brothers, aunts, and uncles all died in the Lodz Ghetto, and when years ago, after coming across a note in the Yad Vashem archives. It a man like all other men. The German bastards have murdered my She gave Ned and Michael some money, and told them to leave as the Nazis transferred Shapiro and her mother to Auschwitz, she was written by an Italian survivor to his family in Palestine, describing entire family... There isn’t a long enough paper to list all the names soon as possible. watched as they sent her mother to the gas chambers. As a young, all he had suffered during the war. Over the next few years she saw of our common friends who have been savagely murdered. able-bodied woman, Shapiro was put to work in the camp—and was similar correspondence trickle into the Yad Vashem archive through The brothers listened to their older sister, and despite the Nazi invasion, the only member of her immediate family to survive. another project, “Gathering the Fragments,” which began in 2011. In another letter, Brik voiced his wish to “make aliyah,” or immigrate they managed to flee Brno for Krakow, Poland. As a gifted violinist, Ned to the not-yet-established State of Israel. It was a desire expressed began performing around the city. One night, after hearing Ned play, a After being liberated, Shapiro stayed in Poland, hoping to find a “Gathering the Fragments” called on survivors and their descendants in many letters, as more than half of all Holocaust survivors moved to British Consulate official offered him a visa and a scholarship to attend distant relative who may have survived the war. Thirteen months to submit Holocaust-related artifacts, photographs, and documents what was then Palestine after liberation. Brik did immigrate in 1947, the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ned convinced the official to later, she finally found the address of a cousin who had fled to to Yad Vashem; many of these time-stained pieces of paper had been changing has last name to Barak, a practice of “Israelization” that was give Michael a visa too, and the brothers survived the war in London, British Mandate Palestine before the ghettos of Poland gave way sitting in attics, boxes, and old suitcases throughout Israel. So far common among early immigrants. His son Aharon Barak later became later moving to Palestine. to genocide. 150,000 items have come in, including 83,000 documents, 60,000 a legal adviser to the Israeli government, participated in the 1979 photos, 3,150 artifacts, and 500 pieces of art. This material adds peace negotiations with Egypt, and served as chief justice of the Israeli Syme was imprisoned at Auschwitz with her parents and husband but “At long last,” Shapiro wrote on Feb. 15, 1946, in her first letter to Yad Vashem’s database of 4.5 million victims’ names, 125,000 Supreme Court. miraculously escaped during a death march to another camp in 1945. as a free woman, “I’m hurrying to send you a living word from a testimonies, and 179 million pages of documents. After the war, she moved to Toronto, where she remarried. dead world.” Yet another common theme pervasive in these letters is a morbid After looking through the piles of material she and her research team sense of guilt. Tzipora Shapiro, the Auschwitz survivor who detailed The letters contain information that survivors rarely spoke about After telling her cousin, Rhuze, that she had survived while her received, Nidam-Orvieto realized that these letters weren’t just an to her cousin how regretful she was for surviving when everyone otherwise. “Survivors were able to write things that they were unable parents and the rest of her family had died, Shapiro wrote: interesting side note to “Gathering the Fragments.” Taken together, she loved had perished, also apologized for what she called “the to say orally,” said Nidam-Orvieto. they represented a new historical treasure trove. While there was no unpleasantness” she had shared with her cousin: How could I justify to you that I left the lions’ den intact, that I saw single bombshell of information gleaned from the letters, such as a Bernard Zucker, who wrote to his sisters in Palestine, went from the fiery furnaces, red flames in the skies? That I saw thousands of previously unreported concentration camp, these documents tell us Forgive me for this bitter letter. I will never talk about it again. From refugee camp in Austria to Italy, where he rescued Jewish children people led daily to the gas chambers, not knowing what awaited more about Holocaust survivors, what they went through, and their now on I will write you only happy letters, filled with hope for the and brought them to Palestine with him. There he reunited with and them in ten minutes; that I saw sheaves of sparks and tongues immediate feelings after the war, than we have ever known before. future... You see, you cannot go through all of this without it leaving married the woman he had proposed to before the war, who was also of fire, and sometimes even part of a roasted hand bursting forth a deep scar that manifests in terrible memories and feelings of guilt. a Holocaust survivor. Together they settled on a kibbutz and had eight from a gigantic chimney; that I stood naked daily at roll call for “I never thought so many of these letters had been written,” said children, eventually changing their last name to Tzur. the Selektion, and the SS man, as if to anger me, sent me back to Nidam-Orvieto, adding that when she spoke to other Holocaust Others also carried this complex weight of shame and regret. Olga, the camp and didn’t take me to the oven… and a huge prayer, a scholars around the world, they too were shocked to hear how many whose letter is without a last name, survived Auschwitz but lost her Eli Tzur, their now-67-year-old son, is one of 7,000 Israelis who has stubborn prayer for divine benevolence, for death. of these dispatches she was finding. only child, an 11-year-old boy, to the gas chambers. “Believe me, it donated Holocaust artifacts to Yad Vashem since 2011. Like many would be a blessing if I wouldn’t remain alive,” Olga wrote to her aunt. children of survivors, he grew up in a home where the subject of the Shapiro’s letter, written in Polish on a piece of paper that has since Scholars weren’t the only ones who didn’t know these letters existed. Holocaust was untouchable. turned yellow and wrinkled, peppered with the brown stains of time, Even family members who had these notes in their possession for Some survivors hesitated to tell their loved ones what they had been is one of thousands being pored over by historians in Jerusalem decades had no idea what they were, as most of them were written in through out of fear that they wouldn’t be believed. “They felt that what “They barely ever spoke about their experience in the war, and I who are searching for clues to better understand a people and a Yiddish, Polish, Czech, and other European languages. they experienced was so painful and horrible that they have to tell their didn’t ask,” Tzur said. “Many children didn’t ask their parents what period of time that to many seems over-studied, but to historians family members it’s true,” said Nidam-Orvieto, noting the widespread happened. They were silent and so were we. We didn’t want to hurt remains full of holes. Researchers at Yad Vashem have embarked on Nidam-Orvieto kept her idea for a separate project around these letters skepticism surrounding news of the Holocaust at the time. them by opening their wounds.” an unprecedented project called “First Letters,” examining the very tucked away until November 2014, when Yad Vashem decided that its first dispatches sent by Holocaust survivors in the days, weeks, and theme for 2015 would commemorate 70 years since liberation. It was With each letter they analyze, the historians at Yad Vashem are not Before his father died in 2001, Tzur returned to Poland with him to visit months after liberation to let their loved ones know they were alive. then that she initiated the “First Letters” project. Since then, she and only translating the words, but investigating the past and future of the various camps where he had been a prisoner. Even there, he said, There is of course no shortage of books, films, and millions of words other researchers have been furiously translating and analyzing the each author in order to learn more about the Holocaust and the human he was afraid to hurt his father, and so he didn’t ask many questions. devoted to the Holocaust and those who lived through it. Yet most messages, trying to learn as much as they can about their authors and beings who were reduced to numbers. Only after reading his father’s letters did he finally discover all he had personal accounts emerged only years and even decades after the what happened to them. Yad Vashem plans to publish dozens of the witnessed and felt during the five horrific years of his life that he had war, when survivors were finally ready to revisit their horrifying letters in a book that will be published in the coming year. “We’ve become detectives with these letters,” said Robert Rozett, tried so hard to forget. memories through the mollifying filter of time. “First Letters” is the director of Yad Vashem Libraries who is leading the project with unparalleled in that its messages reveal the very real and complex While they differ vastly in the feelings they convey, many of the Nidam-Orvieto. Still, there are some stories and people that have simply been lost to emotions of Holocaust victims who were just coming to terms with dispatches begin the same way: “I survived and I’m alive,” as if these history. Some letters just don’t have enough clues. the atrocities they faced. In essence, these letters represent the were two entirely different states of being. For instance, there’s the story of Syme Rysavy, who wrote to her most original source Holocaust scholars have ever had. brother Ned eight months after her liberation from Auschwitz, Zahavit, whose letter contains only her first name, is one of many Bernard Zucker had been a free man for 28 days when he wrote his informing him that their mother and her own husband had died in the elusive survivors whose story is and may always be a mystery. All “These letters bring us their first personal voice,” said Iael Nidam- first letter from a refugee camp in Austria to his sisters, who had gas chambers: we learn from her message is that she survived both Auschwitz and Orvieto, the leader of the project and director of Yad Vashem’s survived the war by fleeing to Palestine. They were the only other Bergen Belsen. In her note, written soon after British troops liberated International Institute for Holocaust Research. “They give us surviving members of his family. You will never be able to understand it, even if, God forbid, you were there... Bergen Belsen, Zahavit writes in Hebrew: an intense glance at the way survivors felt and thought about You will not be able to comprehend the sadism and lack of humanity. themselves, their situation, and their future exactly at the time of I, who four weeks ago existed only as #87292 in the Mauthausen You may not understand me, better us, who went through all of liberation. We’ve never had that before.” concentration camp, and was intended like all the rest for the By matching the information in her letter with names, testimonies, Germany’s savageries. While we were imprisoned, we forgot that

8 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 9 we’re people, human beings. We were no more than a number and we “This is something almost every Jewish family can relate to. It’s like, ‘Why didn’t matter to anyone. didn’t I ask grandma before she passed away?’ ” said Rozett. “Reading Jewish World these letters rescues these people from oblivion, but there are pieces of Rozett has come close to discovering Zahavit’s roots, but without her them that you just can’t know. That’s part of what the Holocaust did. It left last name, any hint of where she’s from and who she sent her letter to, fragments. We spend a lot of time looking at those fragments and building she is merely a name on a piece of paper. an understanding, but we’re always going to be missing fragments.” UK author exposes the oft-forgotten horrors of a Nazi death camp for women In her book ‘If This Is a Woman,’ Sarah Helm goes inside Germany’s Ravensbrück, where up to 90,000 women perished during the Holocaust

LONDON — Lying 50 miles north of Berlin, Understandably, then, says Helm, the sheer By autumn 1944, Ravensbrück had become Ravensbrück was the only concentration camp scale and horror of the Jewish Holocaust totally overcrowded. The vast numbers coming into the Nazis built with the sole intention to house took over the narrative. the camp were the result of the enormous female political prisoners. Opening up its gates evacuation process in the East, where the in May 1939, just four months before the “And so the story of the non-Jewish groups Russians had begun liberating numerous camps, outbreak of World War II, it was liberated by [that were exterminated] were treated as such as Auschwitz. the Russians six years later. secondary.” Consequently, Hitler took the rather bizarre Over 130,00 women passed through its gates. Moreover, because these prisoners in decision to take all the survivors out of these During its busiest period, towards the end of Ravensbrück were all women, this important camps, and march them back to Germany. the war, the camp had a population of 45,000. epoch of Nazi history was neatly dusted aside Estimates of the final death toll are debatable, for decades hence, Helm explains. “Most “Essentially, hundreds of thousands of destitute ranging from 30,000 to 90,000. mainstream historians at the time were men, so prisoners were being marched westwards,” ‘Japanese Schindler’ Who Saved 6,000 Lives inevitably this subject was neglected.” Helm explains. Why, therefore, is so little known about a camp that eliminated tens of thousands of women on ‘Most mainstream historians at the time were The Hungarian exodus impacted massively During World War II Finally Gets A Movie German soil? men, so inevitably this subject was neglected’ on Ravensbrück too, especially the Jews of Hungary, many of whom were sent to The wholesale destruction of evidence It really wasn’t until the mid-1990s that female Auschwitz. By October 1944 the Horthy “He just did what he thought was right.” partially explains for this historical vacuum. In historians began to explore the stories of government in Budapest had fallen, and Allied Ravensbrück’s final days, before the liberation Ravensbrück with proper analysis. Before that, bombs had destroyed train lines. By Carol Kuruvilla -Religion Associate Editor - The Huffington Post by the Soviet Red Army, most prisoner’s files most women who passed through the camp were burned by the Nazis and then thrown in were lucky if they got even a paragraph in the Thus transportation of people across Eastern the lake beside the camp. main history of the Holocaust, says Helm. Europe had become a major problem. Still, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List” told the story of German It’s estimated that Sugihara, who is sometimes called the “Japanese Schindler,” Hitler insisted that every last Jew be removed businessman Oskar Schindler, whose determination to stand up for what saved over 6,000 lives before he left Lithuania - continuing to write and pass At least that’s the argument British freelance Especially the German “asocials”: the homeless, from Hungary before the Red Army arrived. was right saved approximately 1,100 Jews from the Nazis. visas to people from the open window of his train as it was leaving Kaunas. journalist and author Sarah Helm makes with the prostitutes, and the down and outs. compelling conviction in her latest book, “If Auschwitz was no longer operating after Twenty-three years later, another hero who saved lives during the When he returned to Japan years later, the diplomat was reportedly asked to This Is a Woman — Inside Ravensbrück: Hitler’s “These women were sent off to gas chambers November 1944, so many [prisoners] began to Holocaust is being commemorated with a feature-length film. resign from his government position. He resorted to taking up odd jobs and Concentration Camp for Women.” and were of no real interest to historians,” says be marched towards Germany,” Helm explains. lived out his life quietly until 1968, when a survivor managed to make contact. Helm. Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat Backed up by a vast undertaking of research and “In this climate, [the Nazis] began taking the who was stationed at a consulate in Kaunas, In 1985, Israel granted him the designation of interviews — including historical sources that Perhaps what’s most fascinating about the view that the only way to solve this problem Lithuania during the early days of World War being “Righteous Among the Nations,” a title were once locked behind the Iron Curtain — history of Ravensbrück is the way it transformed, was to kill more people.” II. Between July 31 and August 28, 1940, conferred to non-Jews who refused to act as Helm’s book shows how one dedicated writer over time, from an institution that housed Sugihara and his wife spent long nights writing bystanders during the Holocaust. really can rescue history from the dustbin. political prisoners only, to eventually become Crucially, though, Helm makes clear, the killing and issuing more than 2,000 visas for Jewish the cruelest of Nazi death camps. that began at Ravensbrück during this time refugees desperate to flee the Nazis and build Gluck, the film’s director, told Nippon that his Paradoxically, though, says Helm, when we meant gassing ceased to be an ideological new lives in Japan - even though his actions goal wasn’t to portray Sugihara as a “larger- begin chatting, the emergence of the Holocaust “In the beginning Ravensbrück was very small,” process of extermination. Instead, in the view defied the Japanese government’s orders. than-life” figure, but to show how ordinary as a proper cultural global discussion, during the says Helm. “It consisted largely of German of warped Nazi ideology at any rate, it became a people can do extraordinary things. He pointed out that while Schindler 1960s, was a contributing factor that ensured women, who were either asocials or political practical way of controlling population numbers “Persona Non Grata,” a biopic based on Sugihara’s courageous actions, saved the lives of people he knew, who worked in his own factory, Ravensbrück became sidelined as a subject in prisoners. Basically anyone who openly in horrifically overcrowded work camps. is scheduled to premiere in the United States on January 31 during the Sugihara went above and beyond to rescue thousands he’d never seen. the dominant historical discourse around Nazi opposed Hitler.” Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Germany and its heinous crimes. “The killing had to go up by 2,000 a month “Heroes are born when ordinary people respond to extraordinary Many women in that particular group were at Ravensbrück during this time,” says Helm. Directed by Japanese-American director Cellin Gluck (best known for his circumstances,” Gluck said. “[Sugihara] didn’t advertise or flaunt his “Obviously people had known about the Jewish says Helm. Although it appears they A way had to be found to speed up the killing work on “Remember the Titans,” “Transformers,” and “Contact”), the heroism. He just did what he thought was right, and as a result, thousands Holocaust before [the 1960s],” says Helm. “But hadn’t at this early stage been placed there process too. So a gas chamber was set up. movie was filmed in Poland and stars Japanese actor Toshiaki Karasawa of people’s lives were saved, and their descendants eventually numbered the consciousness had not taken a proper hold because of their racial status, but simply because as Sugihara. in the tens of thousands. That’s what made him a hero.” until after the Eichmann trial in 1961.” of their political activity. “Parts of that gas chamber were said to have

10 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 11 been brought directly from Auschwitz, which literature on these historic sites. His idea was “Siemens knew their own workers were at that time had been dismantled,” says Helm. that nature would purify the German gene, and prisoners, who at any given moment could be Jewish World that the SS, and the Germans, would grow up sent to their deaths,” says Helm. The title of Helm’s book may give the impression pure and strong, like the trees in the woods.” that the concentration camps in In the epilogue of this meticulously detailed “And yet, not a single management figure, or were entirely Hitler’s brainchild, but almost every book - which runs to over 700 pages in director, from Siemens has ever been brought aspect of the camps were managed and planned length - Helm spends considerable time and to account for what happened in Ravensbrück.” with extraordinary detail by Heinrich Himmler. ink dissecting at length why those in positions Are ‘1652s’ the new Jews of authority involved in these horrendous Years later, though, as the extent of the In her book Helm writes: “Adolf Hitler showed atrocities at Ravensbrück were never brought Holocaust, and atrocities became clearer, there By Michael Cardo little interest in the concentration camps, but to justice. were strong moves - particularly with Jewish they lay at the center of Himmler’s empire; survivors based in Israel and international Jewish Review Essay: Milton Shain, A Perfect Storm: Antisemitism in , 1930-1948 (Jonathan Ball, 2015) whatever went on behind their walls was signed The reasons are complicated. But one thing movements - for compensation to be paid out. off by his pen.” is certain: by 1948 the Allies had lost their In this rigorously researched and readable account, Milton Shain anger reached a fever pitch. The Aliens Act was passed in 1937 to appetite for punishing Nazis. Primarily because However, the figures are paltry, Helm believes, documents the growth of anti-Semitism in South Africa during the 1930s stop the influx of German-Jewish refugees. It effectively precluded the “Himmler was also behind the original idea the Cold War had become the dominant theme “especially given the extent to which Siemens and 1940s. In this period, intense anti-Jewish prejudice spread from the immigration of Jews to South Africa. The Nationalists’ focus now shifted of setting up the women’s camps too,” Helm on the intentional-political agenda. was complicit in these crimes, and the way it margins of the radical right to the centre of public life. to quotas on Jewish commerce, professional activity and employment. insists. sided and collaborated with the Nazis.” And, from 1949 onwards, the main responsibility A number of dark clouds gathered to produce the “perfect storm”. On the campaign trail in Kroonstad ahead of the 1938 general election, The fact that the compensation only applied Although Himmler wasn’t the only person for investigating Nazi crimes was handed back The socioeconomic atmosphere was already combustible after the Malan invoked the names of diamond magnate Ernest Oppenheimer and to Jewish victims too means the compensation involved in the plans for the Final Solution, to German courts, many of whom, presumably, Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that reverberated industrialist Isidore Schlesinger to argue for the imposition of quotas on paid out is not a true reflection of the crimes Helm claims that he did help oversee much of had been Nazis just a few years previously. globally in its wake. A devastating drought wreaked havoc on the South Jewish-owned businesses. themselves either, Helm believes, especially the process of setting up the camps in the East, African economy. It exacerbated the so-called “poor white” problem since many of the victims were not Jews. which would eventually lead to the death of Most notable among these perpetrators let off which, according to the Carnegie Commission’s report in 1932, beset A few days later in Parys, he praised Mussolini and Hitler, and fulminated millions of Jews. the hook were German industrialists. Especially, one in five – mainly Afrikaner – whites. against the “overrepresentation” of Jews in trade and the legal profession. “It’s unbelievable that Siemens is unable to Helm argues, since their profits were needed to come out in the open and confront the crimes it Himmler was also a regular visitor to the camp fight the Cold War. was deeply complicit in,” says Helm. Poverty, writes Shain, was the “furnace that fired extremism”. It enabled Under the influence of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda, and drawing on in Ravensbrück too, says Helm. “He visited the the proliferation of radical right movements that took their cue from anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist rhetoric, Malan’s Nationalists began to camps because he wanted them to be as self- Siemens, the German electrical manufacturer, Helm’s narrative concludes on a rather open- fascists in Europe and Nazis in Germany. There was a rapid fungal make an intellectual case for what today would be called “demographic sufficient as far as possible.” which had a factory located just at the edge ended note. The story of Ravensbrück may spread: the South African Christian National Socialist Movement (or representivity”. This was expounded most fully by the Dutch-born, of Ravensbrück, from 1942 onwards, is one have finally come out into the public domain Greyshirts) was founded by Louis Weichardt in 1933, and soon there German-trained, Stellenbosch academic-turned-politician, Hendrik Nor was Himmler’s decision to put the camps company that notoriously got off scott free after many years lying dormant, but this were Blackshirts, Brownshirts and Orangeshirts, too. Verwoerd. next to areas of natural beauty, such as lakes for its complicity in knowledge of war crimes. particular chapter of Nazi history, it appears, is and trees, merely coincidental. Indeed, German It has never publicly admitted it knew of the not entirely complete. As “hapless victims of decades of structural change”, alienated, unskilled Writing in Die Transvaler in 1937 on the “The Jewish Question from the forests played a central role in the mythology of exterminations happening at the camp. and marginalised ‘poor whites’ were an easy target for ethnic mobilisation. National Party standpoint”, Verwoerd claimed that Jews were “hostile to the Heimat, or German soil. Take Buchhenwald, Of the estimated 3,500 women guards who They constituted a “political time bomb” waiting to explode. And the the national aspirations of Afrikanerdom” and stood “in the way of the for example, one of the more famous Nazi “The gassing in Ravensbrück at this time was passed through Ravensbrück, only a fraction “demagogic, simplistic and vulgar message” of Jew-hatred peddled by the Afrikaner’s economic prosperity”. concentration camps: its literal translation being kept secret,” says Helm. “But even still, have ever come under investigation in the likes of Weichardt lit the fuse. means Beech Forest. Siemens continued to operate its factory.” German courts, mainly because Germany still He argued that legislation should “gradually but purposefully” be doesn’t keep a proper record of the numbers Drawing on centuries of anti-Semitic stereotyping, the Shirtists cast introduced to ensure that each section of the white population should, “Many of the camps were [purposely] located in The idea that the killing was being hidden they have charged, says Helm. an “alien”, “unassimilable” Jewry as an existential danger to Afrikaner “as far as practicable, enjoy a share of each of the major occupations, places of great natural beauty,” says Helm. from the Siemens management and guards spiritual unity and the South African polity. according to its proportion of the white population”. is laughable, Helm believes. Moreover, the “The system did not want to confront this subject. “Ravensbrück, for example, was located beside evidence clearly displays that prisoners knew So very few of the guards from Ravensbrück At the same time, a völkisch Afrikaner Christian-Nationalism began In this way, as Shain remarks, from the 1930s, the so-called “Jewish a lake. Other camps were similarly located in perfectly well that Ravensbrück had become a were ever confronted or held to account for their to saturate the mainstream political climate. This was signalled by the Question”, and attempts to resolve it, paralleled – “and to some extent beautiful wooded areas. Himmler had read the death camp. actions,” says Helm. breakaway formation of D.F. Malan’s ‘Purified’ National Party in 1934. even presaged” – the elaboration of apartheid ideology.

With the mercury rising, Jews – as so often throughout world history – During the 1930s and 1940s, Jews helped to consolidate an “all-embracing were turned into a “problem”, scapegoated and victimised. The “Jewish Afrikaner identity” among nationalists. Anti-Semitism was used to paper Question” began to dominate public discourse. over the cracks of class divisions and antagonisms in Afrikaner society.

Having gauged the political temperature, Malan’s Nationalists latched For all that, the party of a broad and accommodating bilingual white onto a populist cause. In 1930, Malan himself – in his capacity as Minister “South Africanism”, the (subsequently United of the Interior – had introduced the (hastily-enacted) Quota Bill, which Party) was, if not swept up by, then certainly carried in part by, the aimed to halt eastern European Jewish immigration to South Africa. prevailing current of anti-Semitism. After all, despite the fact that it was supported by Jewish voters, both the Quota Act and Aliens Act were In 1931, Malan went out of his way to tell Die Burger – the Nationalist promulgated on its watch. Jan Hofmeyr, the great misplaced hope of mouthpiece of which he was a one-time editor – how easy it was to South African liberals, would only countenance Jewish immigration if it “rouse a feeling of hate towards the Jew”. After 1934, his new splinter was part of a wider immigration stream of the “stock of people from party invested a great deal of time trying to do just that. whom we have sprung”.

They drummed up and exploited discontent regarding the “Jewish Among the most virulent anti-Semites were English-speaking South Question”, and used it to try and marginalise Jews from public life. Shain Africans. One of the more odious characters in Shain’s study (in a notes that under pressure from the radical right, the ‘Purified’ National field with stiff competition) is one Kerr Wylie, a Professor of Law at Party called for “programmatic action” against Jews. the University of . He edited a fascist propaganda-sheet, the bilingual Die Waarheid/ The Truth. Kerr, a conspiracist of note, Such calls went beyond tightened immigration controls. In the wake of believed that Jews were “at the bottom of all the evils” afflicting the Stuttgart Affair, which saw 537 German-Jewish refugees arrive in South Africa and that “organised Jewry is the leading agent of the South Africa aboard the German liner Stuttgart in 1936, anti-immigrant Devil on earth”. Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany, 1939. (Bundesarchiv, Bild via Wikimedia Commons) Cover of ‘If This Is a Woman - Inside Ravensbrück: Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women’ (Courtesy) 12 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 13 PAST TENSE Even Patrick Duncan, who went on to enjoy a colourful political career words, by a populist fury against whites. Seized with a grandiose but ill- in the Liberal Party and the Pan African Congress, complained to defined project to “decolonise” institutions, these student demagogues Lady Selborne in 1935 about the “throng” of Jewish holidaymakers at view “whiteness” (an incoherent notion) as an existential threat; an . Like a Penny Sparrow avant la lettre, he wrote: “I am not impurity that has to be “countered”, “abolished” and even “burned”. anti-Semitic. I have many Jewish friends whom I like and admire. But They are chauvinists who reject any kind of cultural cross-pollination as a PAST TENSE something in me revolts against our country being peopled by the squat- form of “appropriation”. In fact, opposition to “whiteness” now performs bodied, furtive-eyed, loud-voiced race which crowds Muizenberg from a similar function to anti-Semitism among Afrikaners in the 1930s and Extraordinarily interesting for those with a philosophical bent, but hardly, the upcountry trading stores”. 1940s. It is being used to construct a monolithic group identity and deflect I should have thought, for the average Club member. attention from socio-economic cleavages among black South Africans. Shain writes that the “alien Jew challenged an emerging sense of ‘South SOCIAL ROUND-UP written by “Your FRIENDLY Reporter” started Africanness’ among English- and Afrikaans-speaking whites”. Yet there is Jew-baiting has made its return. Last year, the former President of with a report of the Club’s Hockey section accompanied by an action not much evidence to suggest (not that Shain quite makes the claim) that the Student Representative Council (SRC) at Wits University, Mcebo HASHOLOM May 1941 - EXTRACTS photograph of an actual hockey match. Then “FRIENDLY” appealed for the consolidation of an inclusive Anglo-Afrikaner identity was driven by a Dlamini, declared his love for Adolf Hitler. He said, “[w]hat I love about old family books or photographs of Jewish interest and reported that Mrs. shared anti-Semitism. Hitler is his charisma and his capabilities to organise people. We need TIME MARCHES ON Lena Lapin had, in memory of the late Solly Lapin, given to the Club Library more leaders of such calibre. I love Adolf Hitler”. A few months later, the Under this title, the Editorial, having recorded that the month marked the the “British Jewry Book of Honour 1914-1918”. Mrs. Lapin and some of There is no doubt that the “Jewish Question” played a critical role in SRC President at the Durban University of Technology, Mqondisi Duma, 10th Anniversary of the opening of the Club premises and the 21st since her relatives had also presented a photograph of a number of elderly Jewish South African politics during the 1930s and 1940s. However, as Shain demanded that his Council expel from the university all Jews who would the inception of its predecessor, the Durban Jewish Circle, pondered the gentlemen, who were identified in the caption containing their names. acknowledges, “at no time during these years did anti-Jewish discourse not publicly declare their loyalty to the Palestinian cause. future of the Jews of Durban, and went on to record what was described in South Africa approximate the language of exclusion and frenzy heard in as “the imperative need to think actively and vigorously” about means to Judging by their dress and appearance (a number of bushy moustaches some European countries”. These student fascists are aided and abetted by an insurgent black grapple with the problems which lay ahead. and one beard, but no kippot) and the fact that some of them were middle-class intelligentsia, riding the bandwagon of racial populism (the described as holding office (e.g. Pres., Hon. Sec etc.) this must have been Indeed, Jewish South Africans flourished in many areas of public life Piet Meyers, Nico Diedrichses and – dare it be said – Hendrik Verwoerds In 2016, different, but equally important, problems lie ahead of us today the committee of some Jewish but not Shul-associated organisation. during these two decades. Morris Kentridge was a voice of reason in of their time). and it is equally incumbent on the leadership of the community to “think Parliament, reminding South Africans that “racialism, illiberalism and actively and vigorously” of methods to deal with these problems. Pundit’s question: Can any reader recognise the organisation in question economic depression have always proved fertile soil for anti-Semitism”. Trapped in a binary, essentialist cast of mind – where black pain and if given the following information? The President was Mr. S Lyons, the Trustees were Messrs. C. H. Blumenfeld and H. Lipinski, the Treasurer was victimhood square off against white domination and privilege – their ANIVERSARY OF A GREAT SCHOLAR. The 900th Anniversary of the birth of Rabbi Shlomo Itzchaki (or Yitzchaki), Mr. A. Berman and the Hon. Sec. was Mr. H. Miranda and Mr. B. Smolensky Curiously, with the exception of Morris Alexander, other contemporary discourse has already moved from a regressive leftist fringe to the centre better known to history as Rashi, had fallen on 22nd February, 1940, was described as Past Treasurer. Others in the photograph were: Messrs. B. Jewish MPs like Henry Gluckman play a marginal role in Shain’s book, of politics. They view whites as aliens, or “1652s” in their jarring parlance; which was sufficient reason to publish this interesting biography by Dr.J. Berman, J.Rothstein, S.Danziger, B.Marcus, S.Sevel, J. Moshalsowitz and H. Ellis. while others – like Max Sonnenberg and Bertha Solomon – seem not to predatory immigrants who might, ultimately, be unassimilable into their Sacks, who described his life, family and work. The last paragraph of the feature at all. new world order. article, which must have resonated with 1941 readers, reads:-

South African Jews were also active in student politics. Many of the most As Helen Suzman Foundation Research Fellow, Aubrey Matshiqi, recently “Rashi’s last years were saddened by the massacres of the first Crusade prominent leftists in the National Union of South African Students in the observed, when countries, organisations and institutions feel under siege (1096-1099), in which many of his relatives and friends lost their lives: 1940s were Jewish: figures like Brian Bunting and Ruvin Bennun. and are incapable of resolving their problems, then “finding ‘Jews’ to so his 900th anniversary is saddened by a new crusade on the Jews of blame becomes a strategic option”. Germany and Poland.” And during the Second World War, Jewish volunteers like Jock Isacowitz, IN TOWN AND OUT Jack Hodgson, Roley Arenstein and Joe Podbrey played a key role in the If Shain’s book holds a lesson in store for us, it is that we should never lose HASHOLOM remembered another anniversary, namely that of Magna Congratulated: Springbok Legion, a soldiers’ organisation whose members returned to sight of the real problems, never stop searching for alternative solutions, Carta, which King John signed at Runnymede in June 1215 and, on the same • Adrienne, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. B. Morris and Yoav Raanan, of South Africa radicalised by the fight against fascism. and never succumb – as the United Party did – to a lazy accommodation page, wished “Many Happy Returns” to Dr. J.L. Landau, M.A., Ph.D., Chief Israel, on their recent marriage. with the prevailing orthodoxy. That way storm clouds lie, ready to erupt. Rabbi of South Africa, who celebrated his birthday “earlier this month”. • Mark, son of Cecil and Marcia Tollman, who had celebrated his Barmitzvah. It would have been interesting to learn how they engaged in, challenged and refashioned the polemical arena in which anti-Semitism seemed to GREETINGS FROM A SOLDIER written by a sergeant in the Q Services CLUB FORUM had welcomed as guest speaker on the topic “Trade thrive back home. Corps “up North” was a poem in 15 stanzas, the last of which reads as follows: Sanctions”, Professor O.P.F. Horwood, the Principal and Head of the “Until we meet again – Shalom Economics Department at the (then) University of Natal. It is interesting And also a Hazak, to note that, while he was still at the University and before he became Yet, as early as 1943, as Shain remarks, the “Jewish Question” had “lost With greetings from a soldier boy a Cabinet Minister in the Nationalist Party Government, Prof. Horwood much of its electoral traction”. Once the war was over, and the (now) From out of Kenya’s muck.” said that a reading of the UN Charter had led him to question both ‘Reunited’ National Party came to power in 1948, Malan turned his the legality and the justification of the call by U Thant (remember him? back completely on the “Jewish Question”. As the economy recovered IN TOWN AND OUT Secretary-General of the United Nations) for concerted action against and Afrikaners became more upwardly mobile, the need for a Jewish Congratulated: “racial discrimination in an important country” - obviously South Africa. bogeyman disappeared. The wily opportunist, Malan, switched from Miss Hanid Lindsay and Mr. H. Lipschitz on their engagement. demonising Jews as “unassimilable” to holding them up as a model of • Rita Leibowitz, who for the fourth successive year had won the D.J.C. YOUTH SECTION reported on a Fashion Show at which the survival for Afrikaners to emulate. Natal Professional Dancing Championship. compere, Tikvah Kaplan, was accompanied by Peter Stange and his organ • Sheila Wartski who won the Natal Amateur Dancing Championship. and the “resident photographer”, Geoffrey Ditz, took candid shots of the Shain’s book documents in rich detail the rise of South African anti- • Rita and Sheila who had also won the Professional and Amateur crowd during the interval. The report was accompanied by two of those Semitism during a critical period. As such, it makes a significant Natal Operatic Dancing Championships respectively. “candid shots” which to Pundit’s interested eye, seemed to be carefully contribution to a broader body of international scholarship on anti- • Mr. and Mrs. Woolfson on the occasion of their son, Joshua’s, Barmitzvah. posed. The subjects of one of them were Mr. Jeff Isaacs (slim and lots of Semitism, but it also throws a new light on the domestic politics of the • Harry Jacobson who had been “appointed to Command a Flight of hair), Mr. Dennis Rubin and Miss Esme Henry; and of the other Mrs Fay 1930s and 1940s. the SA Air Force”. Spain, Mr Harry Spain (also slim and lots of hair), Mrs Susan Wineberg, Mr Meyer Greenspan and Miss Ilana Sudar. The parallels with South Africa today are too obvious to ignore. Some HASHALOM May 1966 – EXTRACTS 80 to 90 years on, we are once more a country in economic decline, A photograph of Harold Silver accompanied the article “DJC Youth mired in poverty, wracked by drought, in the grip of political turmoil, and The Issue led off with Personality of the Month” and a photograph of Gladys Manion, GUEST EDITORIAL FROM “JEWISH SPECTATOR” dealing with accompanied an article about her as newly-elected Chairman (no witness to a resurgence of racial nativism. the topic “IS GOD ALIVE?”. The article, which occupied three full Chairperson in 1966) of the Durban Women’s Zionist League, written by pages of the magazine, was replete with quotations from Maimonides. S.M., whom I take to be Sam Manion and not Sol Moshal. Latter-day fascists stalk our university campuses propelled, in Tony Leon’s

14 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 15 Bubkes COMMUNITY NEWS

Bye-bye Gampa, we love you! Helping kids cope with bereavement by Lauren Shapiro By Sylvia Collins We recently saw a dear, dear man return to or scary. In this informal setting, they could be characters in the protagonist’s head. On top his Maker. My father-in-law, Leslie Shapiro ZL themselves, ask more questions, and have the of entertaining the kids so that the grownups (Gampa to my kids), was a kind, tender soul same closure we’d gained by seeing the burial could get on with the rituals of mourning, the This has been a wonderful month for our residents with lots of entertainment that has been thoroughly enjoyed. We were very blessed to have a and a true gentleman. site. Placing stones on the raw earth gave movie also taught them about expressing delightful braai sponsored by of Jewish Women for pre-Pesach for our residents and residents of Jewel House. Both Rabbis attended and them a tangible connection to the process. various emotions and that no emotions are this was a wonderful feast. Everyone enjoyed their delicious chops. The weather was much cooler with rain, however our superb kitchen staff still Although he lived in Cape Town, my kids had “bad” or unacceptable. managed to prepare wonderful food. a special relationship with Gampa. Visits saw Incidentally, the excursion became a family them building planes out of Coke bottles and history tutorial as we visited the graves of my I highly recommend this film for kids Beth Shalom had a Quiz evening, which was hosted by Dr Chanoch at the Home. This turned out to be a wonderful evening of knowledge. It was Beth cereal boxes or watching aerodynamic videos grandparents and other relatives which were experiencing difficult emotions of any kind Shalom against the Committee and Community members. What fun! on Youtube together. He had a wonderful (forgive me) a stone’s throw away. There was (particularly Anger, Fear, and Sadness, who – Our residents enjoyed going out to St Clements Tea Garden in Musgrave for tea. Mrs. Jo Fourie, who works at the Home in our Physical Maintenance sense of humour and could carry a tune like something heartwarming and circle-of-life- spoiler alert! – actually saves the day). Department, arranged this lovely excursion for us. a pro, so the kids loved talking to him on the ish to see my kids paying their respects to phone or Skype. Also, Gampa could wiggle his their forebears and connecting to their lives 5.Oh, heavens! We have also celebrated lots of birthdays this month at the Home namely Martha Levi who is now 101; Avril Binks; Helen Leibowitz; Valerie Driman; ears without moving the rest of his face – a and values. Frank Schneider; Erika Berko and Dr Elaine Goldberg. Mazeltov to all. party trick enough to endear him to any child. It’s easy to forget that schools are not just 2.Bagel, anyone? for teaching kids to read and count. Their Presently we are busy with renovations so a big thank you to the donors who have made this possible. But how do you explain to children seven- experience of paediatric development and-under that they will never see their Kids adore symbols, and that’s one area where generally far outstrips parents’ by pure We welcome all our new residents and hope that they will have a happy stay with us. Gampa again? How do you convey death Judaism’s got them waxed: Hamentaschen for quantum, and they have great advice on The Home had a lovely Market Day that was organised and arranged by Janice Ellison and her sister Lindi. Our faithful residents are still knitting, so a and mourning to young children? I found Purim, matzah for Pesach, apples and honey how to deal with most things, including big thank you to everyone who is helping the under- privileged or helping a cause close to their hearts. a combination of traditional and creative for Rosh Hashanah. My kids were obsessed psychological events like bereavement. approaches did the trick: with the eggs and bagels, the yahrtzheit candles, etc (though my two-year-old was We informed the kids’ school of Gampa’s 1. The graveyard shift most put out when I explained that she passing, in case it explained any behavioural couldn’t blow out the yahrtzheit candle and changes as the children processed Gampa wanted to be buried in Durban, so sing Happy Birthday to Gampa). Such was the situation. Not only were the staff my kids experienced a shiva house firsthand. their fascination with the symbols that that understanding, they were actively supportive. While they didn’t attend the funeral, they had night they insisted I read the explanatory The teachers counseled my kids and Ari (the lots of questions about it. What did the coffin pamphlet from the Chevra Kadisha as a only literate one) was encouraged to put his look like? What was Gampa wearing? Which bedtime story. I know… feelings down on paper. way was he facing? Who put the sand on? How long did it take? Can they dig him up and 3.Custom made Unprompted and unguided by his teacher, my look? I answered these as patiently and as seven-year-old wrote: “Dear Gampa, I really directly as I could. Judaism has some pretty nifty customs miss you and I love you. Love, Ariel, Yishai and around bereavement, and I found they’re Aviva. And Wa.” (No, I’m not feribelled…) Mavis Jones and Rolene Lyons Audrey Levy, Ernie Aaron and Janie Wolman Avril Kaye and her mother Beryl Israelite at the braai More than questions, however, kids learn very accessible to children. These help to through play – it’s how they experiment represent on the outside how we feel on the Morah Tracey then attached this note to a with roles and emotions. Pretend play is inside: Daddy and Nana tore their clothes to helium balloon and let him release it into the particularly empowering because they are show that they feel broken; they’re sitting on sky. Five-year-old Shai and two-year-old Viv in control, so it can help make intimidating short seats because they feel low and sad. also sent balloons up to heaven, smiling and situations seem less scary. So while I found The pictures are skew to show that they feel waving and shouting, “Bye-bye Gampa, we it a little odd, it was probably psychologically off centre, and the mirrors are covered so love you!” productive that the three of them spent the they don’t have to worry about outside things rest of the afternoon in the sandpit “burying like looks and can focus on inside things like Of course my kids are sad that Gampa is gone, Gampa” over and over and over again. feelings. By explaining the rituals to them, I but they’re not traumatized. I pray that they even found them more meaningful for myself. remember Gampa’s goodness, his gentility Later I took them to visit his final resting and his kindness. If they carry these with place, separate from the weeping crowds and 4.Thank you, Pixar them, then, in a sense, he isn’t really gone. strict ceremonies of a funeral. I wanted to And – as my five-year-old pointed out – we’ll Barbara Daniels with her granddaughter from overseas Freddy our Kitchen Supervisor and Anton our waiter Stan and Brenda Liansky at the UJW function show them that cemeteries can be peaceful I played Inside Out, a film in which emotions see him again “just as soon as Moshiach gets and her great grandchildren who helped make the braai and day such a success places and that they need not be mysterious are personified as cute little cartoon here”. Until next time.

16 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 17 COMMUNITY NEWS COMMUNITY NEWS

News from BETH SHALOM QUIZ By: Dr Des levin

We would like to take a moment to say a big thank you to each and every Recently a quiz was arranged at Beth Shalom. Veteran quiz-master Jeff Chanoch officiated and devoted a lot of time to preparation of a large variety By Les Levin of quiz material. one of the Hashalom readers. We truly have a wonderfully engaged readership, which is always evident in the phone calls, letters and emails The format entailed four participating teams, two chosen from Beth Shalom residents and two from members of the community. Each team Last month the Hebrew Order of David International that we regularly receive. We strive to put out a valued publication for comprised four players and was selected on the presumption that the individuals were thought to have good all round general knowledge. held its Biennial Conference. Delegates from Lodges our community and it is your positive feedback that keeps motivating us to always do better. Please keep it up! We would also like to encourage The first questions were relatively easy and were easily answered by all four teams. It was immediately obvious that more testing challenges were in Israel, UK, Canada and the USA attended. This your contributions. If you have any interesting stories which you feel required. The teams responded superbly and very few questions were not answered. On these relatively rare occasions the audience was invited to conference is a show of strength for an Organisation proffer answers and residents in the audience performed creditably. that grew from a Lodge in Johannesburg to a are relevant, encouraging or poignant, for our community, please feel Fraternity that does good work in 5 countries. welcome to share your thoughts in writing to us. Who knows, you may All four teams scored well and as the latter stages were reached first and last were separated by a mere three points. Ultimately one of the community see your letter published in the next issue of Hashalom. teams won “by a nostril”, followed by the two Beth Shalom teams, with the second community team just behind in last position. The HOD was founded in Johannesburg in 1904, but numbers dwindled from 1990, with increasing Jewish Finally, we want to thank our subscribers who have already paid their Sceptics who had believed that the Beth Shalom teams would be out of their depth were soon eating humble pie and it was enthralling to observe 2016 subscription of Hashalom If you have not yet paid for your 2016 the high level of performance of the nominal “senior” citizens. The proceedings also highlighted yet another merit of this wonderful retirement home. emigration. This created an opportunity to start overseas lodges. We now have lodges in South Africa, subscription to Durban’s finest Jewish Magazine, please kindly do so There is a strong cohort of residents who function at a high intellectual level, and prospective future residents can regard this fact as yet another with our new banking details below reason to choose this haven as their retirement objective. London, Atlanta, Boka, Raton, Dallas, Houston and Toronto, as well as Ra’anana in Israel. It is with your loyal support that we can keep Hashalom an interesting publication that will keep moving onwards and upwards and remain a At the Conference a Grand President, Michael valued and relevant journal. Thank you from the Hashalom team. Margolis, from London, was elected. The Deputy Grand President is Alan Rubenstein, from Atlanta. Please NOTE our new banking details: The head office will still be in Johannesburg, with the Standard Bank outgoing Grand President acting as Secretary. Account name: Council of KwaZulu Natal Jewry Account number: 050728938 There you have it. You can leave South Africa, but Branch: Kingsmead you can’t escape the HOD. Branch code: 040026 Reference: Your name & Subscription 2016 Young Israel Centre Committee members, Mike Caminsky, Marcel Nathan and Stan Liansky. Residents enjoying the Quiz evening at Beth Shalom. By Jess Stout

On Friday 11 March, the Young Israel Centre hosted a girls shabbaton. Eight girls, grade 6 to 10 from Crawford and Akiva College, enjoyed a delicious supper and slept over the Young Israel Centre.

On Shabbat day the girls enjoyed a yummy breakfast and we all headed down to Shul.

That afternoon the Young Israel Centre hosted a massive youth lunch.

We had an incredible turn out with 30 children between grade 4 and 10 from Durban Girls College, Clifton, Crawford and Akiva College .Many stayed until the late afternoon, when Ben Sapo fetched them to go back to Shul for a Bnei Akiva tochnit. Everyone had a wonderful time and we look Ezra Altshuler; Dr Des levin; Dr Sheldon Levin and Linda Nathan Audrey levy and Dr Elaine Goldberg forward to hosting another Shabbaton soon.

Cheder and Bat mitzvah lessons have started for what promises to be another busy term.

18 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 19 COMMUNITY NEWS

Alana By Alana Baranov Baranov Night Will Fall ‘Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures evidence of the Nazi’s unspeakable crimes. Yet, LIMMUD DURBAN PRESENTS ITS NINTH CONFERENCE teach, night will fall. But, by God’s grace, we who despite initial support form the British and live will learn’ - from the documentary German US governments, the film was shelved. In this Concentration Camps Factual Survey (1945) compelling documentary, the full story of the LIMMUD DURBAN 22/23 AUG 2016 filming of the camps and the fate of Bernstein’s On Tuesday March 22nd the DHC hosted a project, which has now been restored and Introducing 4 of our exciting International Presenters screening of the powerful film ‘Night Will Fall’. completed by the Imperial War Museum, can finally be told. When Allied Forces liberated Nazi concentration camps, their terrible discoveries were recorded Although the film came with a warning of graphic Nir Boms is a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University and at by army cameramen, revealing for the first time footage and an advisory for viewer discretion, a the International Center for Counter Terrorism in Hertzliya. He is a member of the the horror of what had happened. Using British, large audience joined us on the evening to watch board of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in Schools and is Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of this important footage that bears testimony to also a Co-Founder of CyberDissidents.org, a network of Middle East bloggers that Information’s Sidney Bernstein collaborated with what took place in the camps and how important focuses on freedom of expression and the promotion of dialogue in the region. His Alfred Hitchcock to make a film that would provide the lesson of ‘Never Again’ truly is for all humanity. most recent book, “Expat-ing Democracy”, focuses on technology and political discourse in the Middle East. The DHC recently celebrated its 8th Happy birthday in style. Gila Fine is the editor in chief of Maggid Books (Koren Publishers Jerusalem). She is  We are so proud of how our also a teacher of talmudic narrative and has taught at the Hebrew University, Tel-Aviv Centre has grown in both the University, Pardes, the Shalom Hartman Institute, and WebYeshiva. Gila is the former scope and depth of our work editor of the quarterly journal Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation, and the ghostwriter and look forward to many behind several well-known books. y more years of Holocaust and B 8 da tolerance and human rights ir education in the future. Sharonah Fredrick is an anthropologist who teaches, lectures and publishes in four languages - Spanish, English, Hebrew and Portuguese. She is currently the Assistant Son of Saul’ Screening – Support the DHC and buy your ticket today! Director of the Arizona Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her specialties The DHC, through the generosity of The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body include - Transatlantic and Transpacific colonialism, the Inquisition and slavery from will be hosting a special one night only screening of the Academy from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s 1450-1790; Mayan and Andean religions and their resistance to Conquest; Judeo- Award winning movie ‘Son of Saul’ at our Centre on Wednesday 18th Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial... Spanish history and poetry of the pre and post-Expulsion periods; Irish mythology and may at 7.30pm. Tickets are on sale for R180 each and all proceeds go comparison of Tudor Ireland and Spanish colonialism in the Americas; and the towards the educational programs, for both schools and adult groups, The film, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign formation of multicultural outlaw societies in the New World from 1550-1800. as well as our public events and social justice initiatives. Language Film at the 88th Academy Award Son of Saul premiered in South Africa at The Fugard This is your chance to support the work of the Durban Holocaust Centre Theatre Bioscope as part of the 2015 & 2016 so secure your seat today. RSVP to Maureen on dbnholocaust@djc. Fugard Bioscope World Arts Season earlier this Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D. is a Professor of Bioethics, the study of the controversial co.za or call 031 3686833. year. ethical issues emerging from new situations and possibilities brought about by advances in biology and medicine. He is the Schinazi Professor of Jewish Bioethics and October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau: Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of The Fugard Theatre is proud to bear the name of Athol Fugard, one Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. He is a past President of the the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp of South Africa’s most significant and internationally acclaimed American Society for Bioethics and Humanities and the Senior Bioethicist for NASA. He and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. playwrights, and will honours him by providing a crucible of creativity was the 2011 winner of the World Technology Network Award in Ethics and designated While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy and beacon of humanity for all South Africans regardless of race, he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides colour, gender or creed. a “Brave Thinker of 2011” by Atlantic Magazine. He currently serves as the Editor-in- Chief of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience and has recorded a TED Talk. Circle Café and DHC Gift Shop – new stock The Circle Café and Gift Shop will reopen after Pesach with some wonderful new stock – stop by today to pick out something something for your home or a unique gift for a lovedlike one. So much more to come.... booking opens soon Check out our website at DHC on Social Media! @ DbnHoloCent like www.facebook.com/dbnholocent www.holocaust.org.za Log on to our website: www.limmud.org.za for more information 20 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 21

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KwaZulu-Natal Zionist Council Some pictures Biennial General Meeting taken at our BGM.....

The Biennial General Meeting of the KNZC events, hosting the Israeli ambassador on a organisation South African Friends of Israel took place on 14 April 2016, with Professor number of occasions, the King David String (SAFI), which was formed under the auspices Princess Muhkelile chats with Lynn Foster and Rochelle Puterman and Antony Antony Arkin continuing for a further term Ensemble of Jerusalem, the film director of the SAZF 5 years ago. SAFI, through its Viv Stiller of WIZO Arkin as Chairman, and Mr Greg Bass as Treasurer. Gloria Greenfield, the pianist Astrith Baltsan, hard work in areas such as Israel advocacy The committee, consisting of Mrs Suzanne journalist Paula Slier, and Colonel Richard training, arranging group specific tours Edmunds, Mrs Rochelle Puterman, Mrs Kemp. The work of the KNZC, to protect the to Israel (such as groups of leading party Jeanette Bank, Mr Glen Sol and Mr Gilad interests of Israel in the diaspora, continues, political figures, Christian leadership groups, Friedman, was unanimously voted in. so that the world can see the positive, young political leadership groups, and hugely impactful contributions that Israel profession specific tours) and their annual In his report as chairman, Prof. Arkin has made globally, and so that Israel and Israel Advocacy Conference, has grown highlighted the varied and abundant Jews world-wide are able to continue the from strength to strength. He also went achievements of the KNZC, considering the task of tikkun olam and striving for peace on to outline the ways in which the Jewish constraints, both financial and in terms of and prosperity for all. community has been able to reciprocate the human resources. Professor Arkin noted support received from South Africans, in that when he was first approached to chair Mrs Rochelle Puterman was singled out for the development of projects in the areas of the KNZC 30 years ago, the KNZC had 14 her many years of dedicated service to the health, agriculture and education facilitated full time employees, while presently, only KNZC, as a committee member, as Honorary by the SAZF and SAFI, though which Israeli Ben Swartz, HRH Princess Mukelile Mrs Suzanne Edmunds Antony Arkin thanks HRH Attendees listen attentively to the Chairman’s one employee. Nevertheless, the KNZC Treasurer for many years, and also as the ideas and technology can benefit the lives of Zulu and Antony Arkin introduces our royal guest Princess Mukelile report would continue to carry out the goals set by head of the Hasbara committee during the ordinary South Africans. the South African Zionist Federation to the last few years. best of its ability, adapting to the changing The second speaker was Her Royal circumstances. Professor Arkin especially thanked the four, Highness, Princess Mukelile Zulu, very significant pillars of the Durban Jewish representing the Wellness Program of His Prof Arkin enumerated the continuing Community, The Victor Daitz Foundation, Royal Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini. challenges which face Israel and the Jewish the Beare Foundation, the JAKAMaR Trust The Princess, in a very heartfelt and sincere By Michael Greenbaum people and made special note of the way and the Lazarus Family Trust for their way, described the work of the Wellness in which our response is most often one unfailing support of the KNZC, without Clinic at Matubatuba, a project which The DUHC welcomes Rabbi Yitzchak, Haya and their of deeds of loving kindness and outreach. which the KNZC would not be able to was undertaken by the Bayede Trust in son Michael to Durban He described the ongoing, wonderful work continue to function. conjunction with the KZN Dept of Health, of DIVOTE, an affiliate organisation to the the Dischem Foundation and the KNZC. Rabbi Yitzchak and Haya Lebowitz grew up in Israel, in a suburb of Jerusalem KNZC, so ably run by Mrs Cheryl Unterslak, Mr Greg Bass, in his report as Treasurer, The Princess described some of the great called Telzstone. Rabbi Lebowitz received his rabbinical ordination at The which provides comfort and support to also thanked the four trusts for their successes of the clinic so far and spoke Shehebar Sephardic Centre, a yeshiva in the old city of Jerusalem, while the those affected by terror in Israel. Professor financial support. He further thanked the of the challenges which prevent the clinic Arkin lauded the work of the JNF Victor Daitz IUA/UCF for its contribution which enabled reaching its full potential. She thanked the rebbetzin completed her B.sc in computer science. They both joined the Eco Educational Centre at Hammarsdale, the employment of the community youth Jewish community for their support of the Ner Le’elef Shalhevet Program, which is a two year long program for training which carries out, in co-operation with the worker, Ms Amy Groer. In addition, over the underprivileged and expressed her hope rabbinical families in communal work in the diaspora. Rabbi Lebowitz has KZN Dept of Education and Durban Solid past year, the contribution by the IUA/UCF that in the future this project would be been appointed as the Rav Sheni of The Great Synagogue and will live on the Waste, education in the fields of recycling to the KNZC towards the administrative expanded to incorporate a further 9 clinics Berea, assisting Rabbi Zekry with general rabbinical duties, as well as teaching and permaculture to local school pupils. costs of the KNZC office, enabled the KNZC in areas which are badly in need of better in Akiva College. He also mentioned the efforts made to balance its books for the first time in a primary health care. during the past few years to strengthen number of years. relationships between our community and Following the close of the meeting, the We wish hatzlacha and much success to the Lebowitz family. other groups, such as the Christian Zionist The first keynote speaker of the evening was attendees were able to spend some time community and the Zulu Royal household. the National Chairman of the South African talking with the speakers while enjoying Prof Arkin highlighted the very important Zionist Federation, Mr Ben Swartz. Ben a wonderful spread so ably catered by contribution of the KNZC to the community, spoke of how, in recent years, the focus of David Jacobson. in the organization of Israel related events, the SAZF has expanded to include investing speakers and programs, especially the resources in strengthening ties between The KNZC would like to thank all the annual Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut the Jewish community and other South attendees for their support, not only events, which involved an enormous African communities, especially Christian on the night, but throughout the years. amount of time and effort. In addition, the supporters of Israel. Ben expanded on KNZC have held a large number of public the phenomenal achievements of the

22 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 23 COMMUNITY NEWS

By Diane McColl

On Friday 8 April, the Free Masons joined the DPJC for the annual Free Masons Service. The DPJC has for several years hosted a special Shabbat service honouring the Masons and their work. A number of our members belong to the Masons and together with others took part in the service, reading from Psalms and Pirkei Avot.

During the service, Rabbi Avidan spoke briefly about the history of Free Masonry and its committed involvement in social upliftment and charitable projects. “The concept of Tikkun Olam is embodied in this commitment.” said Rabbi Avidan.

Following the service, a special Brocha sponsored by the Masons, was enjoyed by the about eighty people who attended the service.

Free Masons attending the Lesley Shapiro in conversation Vice president of the DPJC, Jonathan Shabbat service with members of the Free Masons Manduell and Jeremy Droyman

PURIM AT DPJC-SISTERHOOD OF TEMPLE DAVID

The Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation celebrated Purim in style with a full house for the service and reading of the Megillah. We then went on to enjoy the Purim Carnival, incorporating the Fancy Dress competition. Adults and children alike were decked out in innovative, colourful costumes, with prizes for various ‘age’ groups, young and not-so-young. We all ate happily, and the hamantaschen were plentiful and delicious. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, and the evening was most enjoyable, so thanks to all who came and made it such a success.

24 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 25 COMMUNITY NEWS COMMUNITY NEWS

By Cheryl Unterslak

This is a picture of the women who was injured in the bombing This mother Michal was stabbed recently- she is recovering well and the baby in Turkey. Sadly her husband was killed. She cried from happiness that she is carrying is also well. Here she is with her children knowing that the Jews of SA cared

Ohr with some of her gifts from the members of the Base shul in Johannesburg

Shai with his Barmitzvah gift from a Barmitzvah boy in Johannesburg. He was so happy and then he and his mother showed me how he has been saving his coins to buy a camera and now he has one!!

Some very special children in Johannesburg gave me the mishloach manot that they got for purim and I took it to Israel to give it to one of the families who were affected by terror and financial challenges. Only the mother and one son are photographed here. They appreciated the love and care that came from these beautiful little neshomas. Gal was seriously injured when a car rammed into him. He sustained bad leg and head injuries and has a long way to go to heal fully. He is a wonderful young man and we wish him a refuah shelama

26 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 27 COMMUNITY NEWS COMMUNITY NEWS Umhlanga Jewish centre - FUN DAY

Akiva College, together with the Umhlanga Jewish Centre hosted a fun day for the entire Durban Jewish Community. The glorious weather on Sunday the 10th of April provided the perfect backdrop to this wonderful day. Activities spread across the beautiful surroundings included Face painting; sand art and balloon making We extend a very big thank you to the union of Jewish Women for providing a host of exciting activities for the children to partake in Umhlanga Jewish Centre and the delicious chocolates the contestants received as prizes. The mammoth inflatables were enjoyed by students, parents and even some Akiva College By Gilad Friedman teachers. A soccer clinic and lazer tag kept the children very active and many parents participated in the superb tennis demonstration by China’s former number 1 tennis player. An impromptu hypnotist show by Bradley Meltz ensured everyone left with a smile on their faces. The day ended with a lucky draw with prizes graciously donated by the Pillemers and the Gerings. Thank you to Itai Mizrachi for his coffee bar; Jacqui Burne for her delicious treats at the tea The joyous festival of Purim is celebrated on the 14th of Adar. It recalls the salvation of the Jewish people through the heroism displayed by Queen Esther, Mordechi and Klal Yisrael, garden; Gary Furman and Itai Mizrachi for the terrific music; Johhny and his team and Brett Hummel for the scrumptious food; Robbie Pillemer for his chess when the evil Haman sought to wipe out our people. expertise and to all the parents who manned stations on the day. This phenomenal event would not have been possible without Angie Sacks, Rabbi Zekry, Karen Plen, Terri Pillemer and particularly Nicole Tuttle who was the powerhouse behind it all. Thank you all for your generosity of spirit and to all of those Four megila readings were held this year at the shuls! With each major centre the DUHC & who came to participate in this special day. UJC holding readings on the eve of Purim.

The community event this year, took place at the UJC in the main hall and terrace overlooking the sugarcane fields. It was exceptionally well attended by members from both sides of the Umgeni as well as a massive influx of tourists.

The theme “Mexican” took the evening to the next level, with a delicious Mexican style menu, Mexican drinks, Mexican dessert and Mexican decor. Guests arrived wearing costumes beginning with the letter “m” and activities included a mechanical bull, jumping castles, costume parade and prizes, piñata, line dancing and a chili eating competition.

We extend our gratitude to those who gave tirelessly of their time to make this event happen. Thank you Gary Plen, Joanne Mizrachi, Michelle Nathan, Carryn Meltz and Selma Lurie. Akiva College Term 1 at Akiva College ended with a flourish of activity.

As Purim fell during the school holidays, we ran a fun and educational programme during the last week of term to ensure that the children would get the most out of the day. Our pupils were split into groups and the high school students guided the younger ones in making their very own megilah. Every child had the opportunity to make delicious hamentaschen with Morah Dina and Mrs Plen. Thus the Akiva College students entered Purim 2016 with a wealth of knowledge and yummy hamentaschen!

The term ended with a dog show. Akiva College students were entertained by the amazing tricks that a variety of dogs were able to perform. The highlight was definitely one of the dogs spelling “good bye” at the end of the show. What a fantastic way to end off the term!

Akiva College returned well-rested and excited for a very busy second term. The school has been filled with beautiful singing as we practice for the school Seders. We look forward to reporting back on these next month.

PURIM

Sinai X was a wonderful event, this year held at the UJC. Yishar koach to the Chief Rabbi for a wonderful event. People came in droves to hear the inspirational speakers and to be a part of the experience.

DOG SHOW

G Friedman and Rabbi Zekry at Sinai X Chief Rabbi at Sinai X

28 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 29 COMMUNITY NEWS Above Board Eden College Mary Kluk, National Chairman Alana By Norma Baranov Bloch A column of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies Shalom

Excitement, joy and shrieks of delight were the sounds that could be heard at Eden College on our “Purim Carnival” day. Yom Hashoah: Lessons for South Africa

After the Jewish Studies primary school children narrated the story of Purim to the school, we held our annual fancy dress competition. At the time of writing, the regional branches of the Board are organising the Yom Hashoah ceremonies in their respective centres around the RISING TO THE The theme this year was “The Mad hatter’s tea party”. Teachers and pupils really got into the spirit of the day with their weird and outlandish country. Perhaps more than any other date on the communal calendar, hat creations. The heads of Judaica were the judges and did a brilliant job. They took great delight in insisting that all the teachers dance and Yom Hashoah unites Jews from across the spectrum, whether they are HEALTHY OCCASION parade on the stage before they could announce the winner. Seems to me like they could have been exacting some revenge! strictly Orthodox, secular or somewhere in between. Merely to have WHOLE-WHEAT ROSEMARY & GARLIC BREAD Different carnival activities and stalls were laid out on the field. Snake handlers, jugglers and men on stilts intermingled with the pupils been born Jewish in Nazi-occupied Europe was a death sentence, and thrilling them with their skills and talents. A big thank you to Keren Pocock and her family who generously sponsored these entertainers that even meant those who had converted to Christianity. On Yom 4 cups whole wheat flour 1 x 10g sachet instant dry yeast making the day such a great success. Hashoah, we come together as one people, committed to helping, 1½ teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary supporting and safe-guarding one another wherever we might be and 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley 3 Cloves garlic, crushed The pre-primary school celebrated a carnival on their field also enjoying a carnival atmosphere with the entertainers and their fancy regardless of belief or affiliation. 4 spring onions, chopped finely 2 tablespoons oil dress party. 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar 2 ½ Cups warm water In addition to the local Jewish communities, the ceremonies will be For the Jewish children the day ended on a high with the exchange of mishloach manot and then... the best part ever of course was the attended by a range of political and religious leaders, diplomats and Mix all the ingredients except the water in a large bowl, baking of their own hamentashen. members of the media. In part, representatives of the wider society Add enough water to make a moist dough (not sloppy!) Spread evenly into a greased 9 x 22cm tube tin The batter should reach halfway attend as a gesture of solidarity with the Jewish community, but it is Until next month. up the sides. also now joined with a growing recognition that the significance of Leave to rise in a warm place for 30 -40 minutes. Yom Hashoah goes further than that. On Yom Hashoah, we remember Bake at 200degC for 30 minutes then reduce heat to 180degC and bake for a the six million Jewish victims of Nazi tyranny, as well as the millions further 25 minutes. Leave to stand for a few minutes before turning out onto of other innocent men, women and children who died at the hands a rack to cool. of that regime. Just as importantly, we remember the ideology of You can use a loaf tin 26x9x7 tin (oiled and lined) but add 10 minutes onto baking racial, religious and ethnic hatred that ultimately led to these murders. time. The death camps were the culmination, not the starting point, of the Holocaust. What began as hateful rhetoric against the Jewish people OUR SPECIAL HEALTH BREAD Dedicated to you Louis z’l paved the way to legal discrimination, seizure of property, expulsion and eventually systematic mass murder. In a large bowl mix the following ingredients: 5 cups whole wheat flour 1 tablespoon brown sugar The lesson that all South Africans must take to heart is that words lead to 1 sachet instant yeast 2 teaspoons salt ¼ cup chopped dried apricots ¼ cup sultanas action. In the past, and even in our own times, we have seen how verbal ¼ cup sesame seeds ¼ cup poppy seeds incitement to hatred, whether based on race, ethnicity, nationality or ¼ cup sunflower seeds even political affiliation, has led to lethal acts of violence in this country. The upsurge of racism and racist incitement, particularly in the social Mix well then add 3 cups warm water, 1 Tablespoon honey and 1 Tablespoon media, earlier this year shocked the country into a belated realization oil. that racism continues to pose a potent threat to our society, even Place dough into a well greased medium to large bread tin. 22 years after the transition to democracy. At Yom Hashoah, we are Sprinkle top with pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds . likewise reminded of the dangers of allowing racial hatred to run wild Switch oven to 180degC. Allow bread to rest for 20-30 minutes. and of the responsibility of every one of us to take a firm stand against Bake for 55 minutes for a narrow tin or 60 minutes for a wider tin. it wherever it surfaces. HONEY OAT BREAD Last month, we were saddened by the passing of one of our 5 cups flour ¾ cup oats community’s greatest philanthropists and Jewish communal leaders. 1 sachet instant dry yeast 1/3 cup honey Bertie Lubner, with whom I had the privilege of working with fir many 2 teaspoons salt 1¾ cup lukewarm water years on the SAJBD National Executive Committee, was a successful 3 tablespoons oil 1 egg for egg wash businessman who devoted just as much, if not more, passion and effort extra oats for topping to serving his community, country and beloved State of Israel. What was so remarkable about him, and which his fellow SAJBD members Place all 4 cups flour and all other dry ingredients in a large bowl. on our Gauteng Council and NEC found so inspiring, was that the word Add the water, honey and oil, adding enough flour to form a soft dough. ‘enough’ was not in his vocabulary. Despite all he had achieved - even Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise at room temperature for 1 hour. listing the highlights here would take up too much space - Bertie was Punch down dough, shape into two loaves and place in the greased loaf tins. always looking to do more. This was as true in his final months, when Cover and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. his health was failing. We will miss him greatly, but are in part comforted Brush tops of loaves with egg wash and sprinkle with some extra oats. by the thought that the legacy he left will benefit ourselves, our country Preheat oven to 180degC and the people of Israel for generations to come. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from tins and cool.

30 HASHALOM █ May 2016 May 2016 █ HASHALOM 31 BIRTHS May 2016

Mazaltov to Charise Hollander and Glenda Bernstein on Date Time Event Venue the birth of a grandson/great grandson, a son for Mark and Daniella Gamsu in Sydney. 4 9.30am Friendship Club - UJW Beth Shalom BAR/BATMITZVAHS 8 11:00am Yom Hashoah - CKNJ DJCentre 10 6.30pm Yom Hazikaron - KNZC DJCentre Mazaltov to Mervin Berzack and Aileen Berzack and Colin and Evelyn Plen on the Batmitzvah of their granddaughter 11 6.30pm Yom Haatzmaut - KNZC DJCentre Kira in Atlanta; to Arline and Kenny Foreman on the 15 1:30pm Beth Shalom Poker Evening DJCentre Batmitzvah of their granddaughter Mia, daughter of Ivan and Karin Foreman in the UK; to Ruby and Sandra Kravat 16 HOD Lodge Jaffa Meeting DJCentre on the Barmitzvah of their grandson Benjamin, son of Alan 18 9.30am Friendship Club - Sisterhood Beth Shalom and Andrea Greenstein in Sydney. 25 AGM - UJW DHC ENGAGEMENTS Mazaltov to Michelle Shapira on her engagement to David Campbell. June 2016 WEDDING Date Time Event Venue 1 9.30am Friendship Club - UJW Beth Shalom Mazaltov to Alwyn and Marion Immerman on the marriage of their daughter Rozanne to Craig Blumenthal; to Jack and Rene Strous on the marriage of their granddaughter Batya Edelman to Aaron Michelson in New York. Merle, Lyall and Warren Shapiro send their profound thanks to this wonderful community BIRTHDAYS for all of its care, compassion and support over Mazaltov to Rose Simpson on her 107th birthday; to Ruby the loss of our dear husband and father, Leslie Goldberg on her 97th birthday; Alex Fisher on his 80th OBM. Hashem’s richest blessings to you all. birthday. CONDOLENCES Our deepest condolences to Solly Goldman on the passing of his wife Beryl; to Melvyn Geshen and Sandra Geshen on the passing of their brother Colin; to Judy Druck on the passing of her brother Justin Cohen; to Golda Shear on the passing of her sister Rita Tollman.

Hashalom is not responsible for errors and omissions. Please submit your information in writing to The Editor, PO Box 10797, Marine Parade 4056 or fax to (031) 3379600 or email [email protected].

32 HASHALOM █ May 2016