28 SA JEWISH REPORT 15 - 29 April 2011 BUILDING SOUTH AFRICA People doing remarkable things With a team of skilled presenters, Forman trained thousands of people in the decade Go-getter Reeva has that followed. People of note attracted to the course were former Rhodesian General Peter Walls and ministers of religion from always retained hatikvah all ethnic backgrounds. It was also in 1980 that as the first woman ALISON GOLDBERG After obtaining a BA (Hons) in psychology president of the Junior Chamber of PHOTOGRAPH: ILAN OSSENDRYVER from Wits, Forman turned down a modelling Commerce, Forman ran a “Black Executive career in New York - she had been a model in Development” programme sponsored by THE IRREPRESSIBLE and affectionate the seventies - and instead went to the San (then) Barclays Bank. Reeva Forman, MD of two companies; Francisco Success Institute to study In 1982 Marina Maponya was nominated South Africa’s Businesswoman of the American motivational training. On her Businesswoman of the Year; Forman won Year in 1983, director of Jewish and other return to South Africa, she devoted herself this award the following year. Then in 1984 organisations, is still most often synony- to empowering black entrepreneurs. both Maponya and Forman represented mous with a cosmetics company in In 1980 she founded Reeva Forman South Africa at the International Business Parktown, Johannesburg. Success Institute, running five-day manage- Women’s Conference in Chicago. But for those who know her better, she ment courses. “My aim was to motivate peo- From 1985-’87, she served on the board of is rather associated with her humanitar- ple irrespective of their obstacles, to achieve the SABC. ian activism - her driving force. their goals and gain self-respect”. Her cosmetics company, Reeva Forman Pty Ltd, flowed from her training company “as a way of giving people a real chance of earning extra money. “Growing up behind a counter in my par- ents’ pharmacy in Doornfontein, perfume and cosmetics were easy products to sell on a direct basis. I loved working with inde- pendent businesswomen and men and saw it as another way of empowering people. “It was also a first-hand opportunity to see blacks, whites and religious groups reaching out to one another. I had no doubt that we could become a model democracy. I was a humanitarian activist, not a political one.” In spite of apartheid, Forman was wit- nessing disadvantaged people rising to great heights in the business and arts: Richard and Marina Maponya, Welcome Nsomi, Lazarus Zim, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Hugh Masekela, among many others. It was these kinds of role models who were inspir- ing their people to achieve, while political justice was being fought for. From day one of operating the cosmetics company “we had the philosophy of target- ing all South Africans with specialised ranges. Today this is the norm for all leading international cosmetic houses.” In the nineties, Forman had to overcome her own adversity: first there was a five year defamation suit against Caxton - which she eventually won - then the sale by auction of her headquarters; a severe blow to her and her cosmetics business. It was not until 2004 that she regained her confidence, when she reclaimed ownership of 2 Sherborne Road, Parktown, which she had built in the early nineties. Today Reeva Beauty & Health is once more thriving. In 1994 Forman was asked to help save Temple Israel Reform Congregation in Hillbrow. Then MaAfrika Tikkun asked her to become one of its founding members and in 1996, as its first inner-city regeneration proj- ect, MaAfrika Tikkun took over the existing black crèche and expanded the shul’s servic- es to offer sewing and literacy classes. The congregation is now about 70 strong, holding Shabbat and chagim services. Temple Israel today stands as an outreach centre in Hillbrow, reaching out to Jews still living there and through MaAfrika Tikkun to disadvantaged people in the area. In 1998 Forman was invited to join the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and this started Forman on a more conscious career of serv- ing the Jewish community. In 2002 she joined the SA Zionist Federation and so began a phase of Zionist activism that continues to this day. Forman’s name is now inseparable from the “Israel Now Tour”, which she has organ- ised and led since 2002. By 2008 - Israel ’s 60th birthday - she had conducted 13 tours taking over 600 people to Israel. In 2009, with echoes of bringing people to- gether in apartheid South Africa, she “became passionate about doing the same thing across the Israeli-Palestinian divide, where I found the vast majority of people wanted to co-exist in peace. I also discovered hundreds of organisations working towards that end.” Forman is deeply grateful to the SA Jewish community and its religious and lay leaders who encouraged and fully supported her work, both in the local community and her Zionist activities. “I believe the most important word is hatikvah (hope). In spite of all the obstacles, goodness will prevail. That is the Jewish des- tiny and the greatest lesson one can impart to others. We all have adversity in our lives but we can overcome it with the abilities Hashem has given us.” 15 - 29 April 2011 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 First real Pesach for Afrikaans converters to Judaism STORY AND PHOTGRAPH BY RITA LEWIS THIS YEAR, a Jewish family will, for the first time, be celebrating a proper Pesach in their own home. Some six years ago, an Afrikaans-speak- ing Christian family of four and their daugh- ter-in-law, from Newcastle in KwaZulu- Sara, Avraham, Mordechai, Menucha and Natal, decided to convert to Judaism. baby, Laima. Such an important decision as the conver- sion of a family is generally made by the par- cessful, decided to start their own group at ents, and if others join them it is most times home in Newcastle and as they found they under some sort of duress. In this case, Sara had an affinity to the Jewish religion, and Avraham du Preez and both their chil- became Messianic Jews. dren, Chaya and Mordechai (and his wife) all They said at the time they knew nothing agreed that despite the fact that they were about “proper” Judaism and therefore staunch Christians, to convert to Judaism Avraham decided to visit Israel on a fact- was what they all wanted. finding mission. To take on the conversion process is a big After he returned to South Africa, they decision and the learning to be acquired, started travelling to Johannesburg to learn and customs to take on, is harrowing. For about Judaism from Aish HaTorah and this family, it was also the running up and Chabad. down to Johannesburg to the Beth Din, to “It was not an easy time as the local com- their teachers etc, that was tiring and expen- munity in Newcastle ostracised us. Our fam- sive. ilies were against our decision,” Sara said. However, although the couple themselves She was advised to contact Rabbi Hendler could become properly Jewish by convert- to discuss the matter of a conversion but he ing, the children could not convert accord- actually “tried to dissuade us from trying to ing to due process of the halacha if their par- convert” (as is the general custom). ents were Jewish but not married. But, Rabbi Hendler could see they were The couple, after converting, then had to not beginners in the process as they had go through a Jewish wedding ceremony. done a lot of learning and studying of This they did at Rabbi Ron Hendler’s shul Judaism and its tenets. However, they could in Glenhazel where they said, both the Rabbi still not read Hebrew - a prerequisite to con- and community “have been extremely sup- verting. portive”. “So for the next 18 months we commuted Sara said she had been brought up in a to Johannesburg to attend the Hebrew ulpan Christian environment. and to spend Shabbat with different people Eight or nine years ago the couple, who by to see how things were done.” then had two children, had become disillu- In July they decided to move to sioned with all the churches they had tried Johannesburg. “G-d was with us.” As they and found that the priests and pastors just were loading their last boxes into the truck, got hostile when they questioned them “someone came past and asked if he could regarding the reasons this or that was done, rent the house. We knew then that, despite the ceremonies, practices, etc. so many odds and difficulties, we made the The couple who were both financially suc- right decision.” 30 SA JEWISH REPORT 15 - 29 April 2011 Bringing ‘Lithuanian roots’ back to SA community STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY RITA LEWIS how the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) especially in Vilna where most Jews live, it there was helping, frail and indigent Jews. was decided that they together with two stu- THREE LITHUANIANS and a South Simon Gurevicius, executive director of dents, Efim Hiterrer 19 and Ina Frishman 16, African-born Israeli came to South Africa the Lithuanian community and South should come and tell South African Jews last week to address “A Taste of Limmud” African-born Solly Kaplinski, executive how the community there was faring. and to speak to learners at King David director overseas joint ventures of the JDC, There are some 5 000 Jews in Lithuania School and Yeshiva College and tell them felt that although many South African Jews today. A third are Holocaust survivors. about present-day Jewish life in the Baltics.