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10 HASHALOM October
2016
October
2016
HASHALOM
11
DURBAN JEWISH CLUB CANTEEN
- This consisted of two pages of
photographs depicting Canteen workers as well as servicemen enjoying the
facilities of the Club. Remember that the pages of HASHOLOM in those days were
9½ x 14 inches (23½ x 35 cm to you).
The remainder of the issue consisted of many interesting articles: “Jewish
Participation in the Nation’s War Effort” by Dr.H. Sonnabend, “The Centrality of
the Synagogue” by Rabbi A.H. Friedman, “Jewish Women and War-Work” by Alice
Kahn, “The Hebrew University in the First Year of War”, “The Monkey’s Prayer”
a satirical poem by William Stone, a short Story “The Invitation” by Neas. And
full reports of the activities of all the DJC’s sections and all the Durban communal
organisations.
HASHALOM – ROSH HASHANA ANNUAL 5727 - SEPTEMBER 1966
MESSAGES
- The issue opened with New Year Messages from Mr. B.N. Gevisser,
Chairman D.J.C, Mr Arnold Miller, President D.J.C, Dr. T. Schneider, President S.A.
Jewish Board of Deputies, Mr. E.J. Horwitz, Chairman S.A. Zionist Federation and
Rabbi Dr. Meyer Miller. One can imagine the relief, which the reader must now
have arrived at….
GUEST EDITORIAL
- entitled
The Communal Scene
. Here follows an extract:
“Not 50% of the Jewish population are members…… It appears to us that the
primary task is to ‘sell’ the Club to the community…… in the light of what it could
and should be- a source of communal pride, of respect won from the public at large
and a magnet which should attract the energies of our young men and women.”
The Editorial appears to have been written by more than one anonymous person
(see the word “us” in the above quotation), but considering after the lapse of 50
years, what was proposed, one can only, with regret, record its apparent failure.
Henry Katzew proposed
RECONSTRUCTING OUR COMMUNAL LIFE
by
ending the exclusive rule by “balebatim” (defined as successful men who give part-
time attention to Jewish affairs) and putting “professional Jews” (defined as Jews
who devote their working days to the affairs of the community) on an equal footing
with the “balebos”. Lack of space prevents a full analysis of this article.
Bernard Sachs paid a detailed biographical tribute to Gus Saron, who had served
as General Secretary of the S.A. Jewish Board of Deputies for the mind-boggling
period of over 30 years and who, you will also notice, wrote the extract referred
to above from the Rosh Hashanah issue of 25 years earlier.
THE LIVING GOD
- by Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams shortly controverted all the
arguments used by atheists to deny the existence of a deity.
THE IMPACT OF ISRAEL ON AMERICAN JEWISH THOUGHT
- Professor
Sol Liptzin described how the establishment of the State of Israel had affected the
Jewish point of view of American Jewry from the time of Hitler until the Nineteen-
Sixties.
THE MELODY LINGERS ON
- wrote Arrie Silberman about 2 melodies from his
Habonim days in telling the story of the circumstances in which he first heard them.
FROM REFUGEE TO CITIZEN
- Under this title Norma Beare reviewed a book
called
“Integration”
sponsored by the National Council of Social Research and
edited by Dr. Frieda Sichel, who had left Germany in 1933.
And that volume, too, concluded with full reports from the Club’s Council and
Executive, and all the Club’s Sections and all the Province’s Jewish Organisations
and Institutions.
With that L’Shana Tovah and well over the fast.
HASHOLOM- ROSH HASHONAH ANNUAL 5702 - SEPTEMBER 1941
EDITORIAL
- Under the heading “POST WAR RECONSTRUCTION” written
at a time when nobody could tell when, or indeed if, the war would ever end, the
Editor concluded: “Freedom has to be lived, and that implies the fullest participation
in every phase of the national life, be it ever so humble, so demanding of personal
service, so lacking in sectional prejudice.”
NAZI MODELS AMD SOUTH AFRICAN IMITATIONS
- Gustav Saron, the
Secretary General of the S.A. Jewish Board of Deputies, described how some
Nazi purveyors of the Anti-Semitic propaganda (foremost among which was Julius
Streicher’s “Der Stürmer”) had created and supplied material used by South
African followers of the Nazi line of thought.
PALESTINE PLAYS ITS PART
- was the headline of an article by Harry Levine
in which he described the activities of the Palestinian units in the British Army.
Very interesting, 75 years later, to be told that these units consisted in the main of
Jewish recruits.
CHIEF RABBI DR. J.L. LANDAU
- A very young (judging by the photograph
which accompanied the article) Edgar Bernstein wrote an extremely interesting
appreciation of Dr. Landau in South Africa, which started just before Rosh Hashanah
of 1903, when the Chief Rabbi was only 37 years of age. A record of activities and
achievements while in this country is too vast to commemorate here, but I cannot
resist quoting what Rabbi J.L. Zlotnik writes in the “Canadian Jewish Chronicle”:
“Whenever I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. J.L. Landau, Chief Rabbi of
South African Jewry, or reading anything which came from his brilliant pen, I had
the feeling that the man does not belong at all to our age. He is an anomaly in our
day. He belongs among the sages of the Golden Epoch in Spain. A Rabbi who writes
dramas in the most refined Hebrew; a Rabbi who writes poetry in the strains of
the Song of Songs; a Rabbi who writes on Halevi, Meyerbeer, Lasalle and Nordau!”
THE CALL OF FREEDOM
- Under this title, Harold Fridjhon wrote a full report
on the activities of “Jewish Springboks” who played a great part in the East African
campaign. The article was replete with names like Mogadishu, Addis Ababa and
Amba Alagi, which were on everyone’s lips when the South African forces drove
Mussolini out of Abyssinia, now called, of course, Ethiopia.
JEWISH CHAMPIONS
- by Dr. E. Jokl, described the lives and activities of five
Jewish champions of the British Boxing Ring of the 18th and 19th Centuries. The
first and most famous (and the only one Pundit had ever heard of) was Daniel
Mendoza. The others were Samuel Elias (known as “Dutch Sam”), Isaac Bittoon,
Abe Belasco, and Barney Aaron.
QUO VADIS, JUDA?
- Dr. A. Birnbaum, an educationalist, obviously with a
classical bent, analysed the history of Jewish education and answered thus the
question the title of his article posed; “Back to Hebraic spirit, Hebrew language
and Hebrew land, thus restoring your freedom and actively helping to restore and
sustain the freedom of the nations.
An illustration to the article, captioned “Jewish Education in practice; The Staff and
pupils of the Durban Talmud Torah”, was a photograph of Sam Ernst, Luba Bilchik
and Bina Rubenstein with what must have been all the pupils in the school - 53 boys
and girls. It would be an interesting sociological enquiry to investigate how many of
those pupils live in Durban or have descendants, children, grandchildren or great-
grandchildren based here.
PAST TENSE
by Pundit
PAST TENSE
BUBKES
How to discipline your child
Parenting techniques from the Torah
I read a lot of parenting books. I’ve amassed a mini library of
them. And no matter how many I read, just when I feel I’ve got
that discipline thing waxed, things change. Either popular culture
changes (the Naughty Corner has become the Thinking Step;
smacking was out but may be about to make a comeback), or the
kids change. As they grow, different methods work better on them.
You can’t have a reasonable, respectful discussion with a toddler
about why playing with the garden tap on full blast is bad for the
environment in light of the current climatic situation. (I’ve tried. My
husband thought it was hilarious.) Older kids don’t take too well to
being treated “like babies”, which is what my boys now call it when
I try to give them the same Time Outs as their younger sister.
Parenting techniques have certainly evolved over time. We may no
longer stone rebellious children at the city gates (as recommended
in Deuteronomy 21:18-21), but there is still much wisdom to be
found in the Torah on this subject. Personally, what I find most
inspiring is not how mortal parents treated their children in ye good
ole biblical days, but how
Hashem
our Father treated us as we
grew and matured as His children.
Take the story of Adam and Eve for
starters. When human beings were new
to this earth and perhaps emotionally
immature,
Hashem
set us firm
boundaries: “Here is your garden. Play nicely. And don’t touch that
tree.” When we didn’t listen, He gave us what child psychologists
today call a “direct consequence”. I like to think of it as the ultimate
smack – right out of Eden.
Adam’s offspring were treated in a similarly juvenile fashion. “What
did you do?” asked God of Cain, when He knew perfectly well what
he had done to his brother. (I confess to having used this line – and
that tone – on my kids when I walk in to find one of them covered in
finger paint and the others giggling in a corner.) Kids need to admit
to and understand their mistakes in order to take responsibility for
and control of their lives. Today shrinks call this “taking ownership”.
A little further down the generational line, Noah’s contemporaries
were shown in no uncertain terms that
Hashem
would not tolerate
bad behaviour. Those heavenly torrents that resulted are a
wonderful metaphor for my flood of emotions when I’m angry at
my children’s poor conduct.
But discipline – as every parenting book on the shelf reminds me
– must be “age-appropriate”. After this spiritual infancy, the Jewish
people began to come of age. We were growing up and moving
on, as is literally
depicted in the
parsha
of
Lech
Lecha
, when our
forefather Abraham left all he knew to start a new spiritual life in a
new land. But with growing up comes the pre-pubescent back-
chatting (yeah, that’s a fun time. Those of you who haven’t hit that
phase yet, brace yourselves). This can sometimes be avoided
through open negotiation between parent and child. Examine, if you
will, the incident of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Hashem
entered into
frank negotiations with Abraham over this issue. Of course He then
went and destroyed the cities anyway, but I’m sure psychologists
would be satisfied that at least Abraham had felt “heard”.
As we hurtled towards tribal adolescence (what else would you
call the whole Golden Calf episode if not teenage rebelliousness?),
Hashem
began to introduce discussion as a parenting technique
instead of force. Moses, for example, spent days in conversation
with the Lord and although God always had the final say, His
engagement with us gives a strong message of confidence and
encouragement.
Hashem
changes His parenting techniques as His children grow
and mature. After the
chumash
(the five books of the Torah),
God continued to feature in the lives of the prophets and kings,
sometimes even advising and guiding them directly as they led
His nation in finding their spiritual feet
5
. Now He intervenes less
often in our daily lives. He gives us choices and consequences.
He’s letting us get on with the business
of living, encouraging us to develop into
independent, thinking, responsible souls.
There’s them there lessons, people.
Psychologists assure us that it is
developmentally normal for children to “push boundaries”, to
explore relationships with authority, to test values and to experiment
with the limits of ethics and principles. But they also agree that
children need boundaries.
Even grownup children. We need them
to feel safe, and to have something against which to rail.
As human parents, we need to give our children clear boundaries
and rules, and as they grow we need to let them make their own
choices, and live with those choices. As the evolution of our people
shows us, this freedom is only appreciated when it comes from a
place of strength. Just as
Hashem
is our rock and our fortress in
Whom we take refuge (Psalm 18:3), we need to be a rock for our
children, always there to shelter them and give them strength when
they need it. But in order to do that, we have to be strong as rocks.
And sometimes immovable as boulders, especially when it comes
to issues of obedience.
My kids often resent my attempts to discipline them, claiming, “it’s
not fair! [stamp foot here]”. True, life is habitually unfair. But it’s often
these seemingly imbalanced situations that lead to opportunities for
spiritual growth. Growth may be painful, but growth is what makes
life meaningful. Would we really want to remain in an infantile state
our whole lives? I wouldn’t.
This
Simchat
Torah, I’m committing to becoming a better child of
God, so that I might be a better parent to my kids. And I’m going
to start by reading the best parenting book of all: the Torah. Until
next time.
By Lauren Shapiro