MISSION EDITORIAL BOARD In publishing JEWISH AFFAIRS, the SA EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jewish Board of Deputies aims to produce a cultural forum which caters for a wide variety David Saks SA Jewish Board of Deputies of interests in the community. The journal will be a vehicle for the publication of articles of significant thought and opinion on contemporary Jewish issues, and will aim to ACADEMIC ADVISORY BOARD encourage constructive debate, in the form of Professor Marcus Arkin South African Zionist Federation reasoned and researched essays, on all matters Suzanne Belling Journalist and editor of Jewish and general interest. Dr Louise Bethlehem Hebrew University of Jerusalem Marlene Bethlehem SA Jewish Board of Deputies JEWISH AFFAIRS aims also to publish essays Cedric Ginsberg University of South Africa of scholarly research on all subjects of Jewish interest, with special emphasis on aspects of Dr Elaine Katz University of the Witwatersrand South African Jewish life and thought. Professor Marcia Leveson University of the Witwatersrand Scholarly research papers that make an original Naomi Musiker Archivist and Bibliographer contribution to their chosen field of enquiry Professor Reuben Musiker University of the Witwatersrand will be submitted to the normal processes of Gwynne Schrire SA Jewish Board of Deputies academic refereeing before being accepted for Dr Gabriel A Sivan World Jewish Bible Centre publication. Professor Gideon Shimoni Hebrew University of Jerusalem JEWISH AFFAIRS will promote Jewish Professor Milton Shain University of Cape Town cultural and creative achievement in South John Simon University of Cape Town Africa, and consider Jewish traditions and The Hon. Mr Justice Ralph Zulman Appeal Court of South Africa heritage within the modern context. It aims to provide future researchers with a window on the community’s reaction to societal challenges. In this way the journal hopes SECRETARY – Golde Goldsmith critically to explore, and honestly to confront, TYPESETTING/PRINTING – Bookpress, Johannesburg problems facing the Jewish community both in South Africa and abroad, by examining national and international affairs and their impact on South Africa. The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is committed © South African Jewish Board of Deputies 2010 to dialogue and free enquiry. It aims to protect Permission to reprint material from JEWISH AFFAIRS should be human rights and to strive for better relations applied for from among peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds The South African Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa. JEWISH AFFAIRS is published 3 times annually Annual subscription R180 including VAT and postage The columns of JEWISH AFFAIRS will Overseas: Surface Mail US$30 or BPS25 therefore be open to all shades of opinion. The Air Mail US$70 or BPS50 views expressed by the contributors will be Postal Address: PO Box 87557, Houghton 2041 their own, and do not necessarily reflect 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. The Editorial Board reserves the right to cut the length of articles In all such matters, the Editor’s decision is accepted for publication, and to make any stylistic changes which it final. may deem necessary. VOL. 65 b NO. 2 b ROSH HASHANAH 2010 Editor: David Saks LITERATURE, ARTS AND CULTURE End of an Era: Closure of Beinkinstadt, Cape Town’s oldest Jewish bookstore Veronica Belling ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 The German Jewish immigrant contribution to Art in South Africa Gwynne Schrire .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Azila Talit Reisenberger’s Writings as Poetic Biography of South African Jewry Naomi Kaplan .......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Yiddish Civilization: The story of Yiddish and the people who spoke it Bernard Katz ............................................................................................................................................................ 20 Music of the Jews in the First and Second Temple Periods Alan Jacobs .............................................................................................................................................................. 27 The Creation Story in Bereishit: A Literary Study Gloria Sandak-Lewin ............................................................................................................................................... 29 The Fundamental Significance of Foreign Language in Worship: A Response to David Benatar Azila Reisenberger ................................................................................................................................................... 32 REFLECTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES Speaking out against injustice? Re-examining the SA Jewish Board of Deputies’ response to Apartheid, 1948-1976 Daniel Mackintosh ................................................................................................................................................... 34 A tribute to David Susman Suzanne Belling ........................................................................................................................................................ 41 Some Gentile Zionists (Part II) Cecil Bloom .............................................................................................................................................................. 43 FICTION Treasure Zita Nurok ................................................................................................................................................................ 49 BOOK REVIEWS Boerejode: Jews in the Boer Armed Forces, 1899-1902 Ralph Zulman ........................................................................................................................................................... 51 Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England Chuck Volpe ............................................................................................................................................................. 52 United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror Gary Selikow ............................................................................................................................................................ 53 Insights into The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Beginner’s Guide David Saks ................................................................................................................................................................ 55 NEW POETRY Azila, Suzanne Belling, Charlotte Cohen, Ben Krengel, John Yarbrough ....................................................... 48, 56 JEWISH AFFAIRS N ROSH HASHANAH 2010 THE END OF AN ERA: BEINKINSTADT, CAPE TOWN’S OLDEST JEWISH BOOKSTORE, CLOSES DOWN. * Veronica Belling Cape Town’s oldest Jewish bookstore M. bound letter books and ledgers from as early as 1904. Beinkinstadt, established in 1903 by Moshe Due to space considerations, we chose to take just the Beinkinstadt, remained in the hands of his descendants one hundred leather bound letter books (1904-1942). for 105 years. Situated on the outskirts of District These contain copies of letters that were written with Six, site of the earliest Jewish settlement in Cape special ink, laid between dampened sheets of tissue Town, it reflects the history of Cape Town’s Jewish paper and placed in the book press in order to make community. In June 2008, shortly before the shop’s the copies. We also took one ledger (1947-1952), closure, I was contacted by the late Joseph Sherman, and a miscellany of exemplars of the shop’s stationary Korob Fellow of Yiddish Studies at Oxford, and and letterheads. former editor of Jewish Affairs, to assist the The letters are to suppliers, who were generally proprietors, Michael and Fay Padowich, in disposing overseas, in Russia, Latvia, Germany, Palestine, of their collection of approximately 3500 Hebrew London and the United States. Among the earliest and Yiddish books. They were keen to send the supplier was M. Katzenellenbogen of Vilna, who books to the National Yiddish Book Center (NYBC) sold Jewish books, pictures, maps and wool and silk in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, but taleysim (prayer shawls). The customers are local, required help sorting them. Joseph had been contacted living all over South Africa as well as in the former by the NYBC and had subsequently put them in southern Rhodesia. By far the greater proportion of touch with me. the letters is written in Yiddish, but in the earliest It was agreed that I would sort through the books books there is also a fair amount of correspondence in the shop, which would then be transferred to the in Russian. Beinkinstadt’s customer base expanded Jewish Studies Library at the Kaplan Centre at the very rapidly. While in the 1904 letter