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Chanukah 2014 J EEWISHW I S H A FFFAIRSFA I R S Chanukah 2014 Price R50,00 incl. VAT Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper ISSN 0021 • 6313 May the light of knowledge shine bright on your path to freedom. Happy Chanukah. The Advantage of Knowing Liberty Group Ltd – an authorised financial services provider in terms of the FAIS Act (Licence No. 2409). We wish all our Jewish customers a Chanukah Sameach www.picknpay.co.za. Customer Care 0800 11 22 88. Toll free landline only. Cellphone rates apply. MISSION EDITORIAL BOARD In publishing JEWISH AFFAIRS, the SA EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jewish Board of Deputies aims to produce a cultural forum which caters for a wide David Saks SA Jewish Board of Deputies variety of interests in the community. The journal will be a vehicle for the publication of ACADEMIC ADVISORY BOARD articles of significant thought and opinion on Professor Marcus Arkin contemporary Jewish issues, and will aim to Suzanne Belling Author and Journalist encourage constructive debate, in the form of Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies of Jewish and general interest. Cedric Ginsberg University of South Africa JEWISH AFFAIRS aims also to publish essays Dr Elaine Katz of scholarly research on all subjects of Jewish Professor Marcia Leveson interest, with special emphasis on aspects Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer of South African Jewish life and thought. Professor Reuben Musiker SAJBD Library Consultant Scholarly research papers that make an original Gwynne Schrire SA Jewish Board of Deputies contribution to their chosen field of enquiry Dr Gabriel A Sivan World Jewish Bible Centre will be submitted to the normal processes of academic refereeing before being accepted Professor Gideon Shimoni Hebrew University of Jerusalem for publication. Professor Milton Shain University of Cape Town John Simon JEWISH AFFAIRS will promote Jewish The Hon. Mr Justice Ralph Zulman cultural and creative achievement in South Africa, and consider Jewish traditions and ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS – Shirley Beagle heritage within the modern context. It aims ENQUIRIES [email protected] to provide future researchers with a window 011 645 2583 on the community’s reaction to societal TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg challenges. In this way the journal hopes critically to explore, and honestly to confront, problems facing the Jewish community both in South Africa and abroad, by examining © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2014 national and international affairs and their Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be impact on South Africa. applied for from The South African Jewish Board of Deputies The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect Annual subscription R140 including VAT and postage human rights and to strive for better relations Overseas Subscriptions R300 among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 in South Africa. [email protected] The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will therefore be open to all shades of opinion. FRONT COVER IMAGE The views expressed by the contributors will Jewish Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade in Potchefstroom on the eve of their be their own, and do not necessarily reflect departure for German East Africa, World War II the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the Publishers. Original, unpublished essays of between 1 000 and 6 000 words on However, in keeping with the provisions of all subjects are invited, and should be sent to: the National Constitution, the freedom of speech exercised in this journal will exclude The Editor, JEWISH AFFAIRS, PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041, the dissemination of hate propaganda, personal [email protected] attacks or invective, or any material which may be regarded as defamatory or malicious. In all such matters, the Editor’s decision is final. VOL. 69 NO. 3 CHANUKAH 2014 Editor: David Saks OBITUARIES Mervyn Smith, Ronnie Mink, Rabbi Norman Bernhard Isaac Reznik, David Saks .............................................................................................................................6 WORLD WAR ONE CENTENARY The Great War and World Jewry – Centenary Reflections Anthony Grenville ........................................................................................................................................9 South African Jews in World War I Gus Saron ..................................................................................................................................................12 War Poet Isaac Rosenberg – The South African Connection Steven Gray................................................................................................................................................19 Jack Rich’s Career in the Jewish Legion, 1917-1920 Naomi Musiker ...........................................................................................................................................21 IN MEMORIAM – THE JEWS OF RHODES Rhodes Fifty Years Later – A Survivor Remembers Violette Fintz .............................................................................................................................................23 The Deportation of Rhodes Jewry Zmira Cohen ..............................................................................................................................................26 Forever Linked Maurice Turiel ..........................................................................................................................................31 A forgotten South African Jewish Soldier who died on Rhodes Isaac Habib................................................................................................................................................32 ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS South African Jewish POWs in World War II David Saks .................................................................................................................................................34 Dmitri Shostakovich and his Jewish Sympathies Cecil Bloom ...............................................................................................................................................39 The Ideological War against Israel Shelley Glaser ............................................................................................................................................44 Deir Yassin – The Massacre that Wasn’t Kenneth D Penkin ......................................................................................................................................46 Life Before Birth - Lessons From The Womb Bernard Levinson .......................................................................................................................................49 BOOK REVIEWS Blood Money Ralph Zulman .............................................................................................................................................52 In Ishmael’s House Gary Selikow ..............................................................................................................................................54 READER’S LETTER Sorrel Kerbel .............................................................................................................................................57 NEW POETRY Charlotte Cohen, Isaac Habib, Rodney Mazinter .......................................................................................59 JEWISH AFFAIRS CHANUKAH 2014 OBITUARIES MERVYN MYER SMITH * David Saks community included those of President of the Law Societies of South Africa and the chairmanships of the Performing Arts Council of South Africa, the Cape Performing Arts Board and the Cape Town City Ballet. Parallel to these activities, Smith was involved in Jewish affairs from an early age, being active in Habonim and serving as chairman of the University of Cape Town branch of the Students Jewish Association. He was first elected to the Cape Council of the Board of Deputies in the 1970s, serving two terms as chairman between 1983 and Mervyn Smith (right) with Nelson Mandela 1987. In 1991, he became the first-ever and Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris, when person outside of Johannesburg to be elected Mandela visited the Green & Sea Point National Chairman of the Board. During his Hebrew Congregation in May 1994. tenure, he was instrumental in establishing the African Jewish Congress to act as the Shortly before this issue went to print representative, coordinating body for the Mervyn Smith, one of the most eminent Jewish communities of Sub-Saharan Africa Jewish communal leaders in South Africa as and served continually as its president well as in the arena of international Jewish for the remainder of his life. His growing politics, passed away in Cape Town at the stature as an international Jewish leader was age of 77. It is a mark of the esteem in which demonstrated by his appointment as a vice he was held that his passing occasioned president of the World Jewish Congress and, tributes and obituaries throughout the global in May last year, as co-chairman of its Policy Jewish media. Council. He was also a Director of the Claims For generations of Jewish communal Conference for Material Claims against leaders and professionals, Mervyn Smith Germany, and for many years represented provided an invaluable source of support South Africa on that body. and advice. Michael Bagraim,
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