Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

More documents

Recommendations

Info

JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009between the deceased and those left behind:Halo yipakeid m’komoB’veiti bein rei’av u’mosadim rabim(His many friends and associates feel his loss,Will he not be missed in my house and amongsthis friends and many institutions?)Questions are asked in refrains. The mournersays, “Where is his place? Ubi topos? Ubi sunt? Themourner finds the death difficult to accept.Where is Schrire? … Where is Schrire?Where is he?Is there an equal in this ungodly land of Africa?Where is he?Why was his departure so sudden …?Where is he?“Where is he?” is repeated five times. There isrhetorical repetition, the name of the deceased isfrequently mentioned, and a complaint about theshortness of life.His many friends and associates feel his loss,Leaving behind his grieving family and friends.AndWill he not be missed in my house,Among his many friends and among manyinstitutions?The ‘departure’ is repeated:He departed this world before his timeWhy was his departure so sudden?Words similar in intonation to eichah or eich,such as ayei? and ayeihu?, are repeated. These aremourning words. Distressed but restrained, themourner expresses praises of the deceased. He wasan encyclopaedia of knowledge and wisdom and anoble soul. As in the Book of Lamentations and otherlaments, references are made to the young and theold: “All will yearn for his counsel, young and old”.“Why did he die before his time” (b’lo yomo)? Hewas so young. The past and present are compared.Life was rich when Schrire was there. Who will behelping them now? There are no people to continuethe work. He was the watchful eye and adviser of thepeople. He was great among the living and now hehas gone to another sphere, to heaven. Life is void.Even though the pain is so great now, there is therecognition that this is derech olam, the way ofnature. In the poem, the mourner asks, “Why did heleave while the work is so much?” and there are nopeople to help (stanza 3). Pirkei Avot 2:2 says, “It isnot thy duty to complete the work, but neither artthou free to desist from it …”, but to the mourner itseems as if all is lost, and there are no people to takeover Schrire’s work. The reader knows life will takeits course and somebody will rise to the occasion todo it. From early times in history, it is not expectedof any human to finish the task, only to do as muchas possible. Life goes on; this is an outlook for thefuture.This poem is written from a background oftraditional learning and imbued with religious beliefand a belief in the importance of faith and prayer. Inaccordance with this belief, the poet would haveaccepted that Schrire would have been gathered tohis people (Gen. 25:8) and he would go to the OlamHaba. A comfort for those who are religious is thebelief that they will meet with their dear ones again.Death divides and death unites.The light comes in the answer, “listen and I willtell you”; the poet consoles the mourners by sayingthat the deceased was too noble for this world. Theidea that the deceased went to a better place, theOlam Haba, would provide comfort.This poem was written to express sorrow at theloss of a friend, and it tries to alleviate despair byproviding an answer to the mourner’s feelings ofwhy it had to happen. The poem praises Schrire’swisdom, scholarship and character and ends byproviding an answer to the questions of why thisdeath had to happen: He was too good for this world;he had to ascend to a higher place.The vanities of this earth being too much for him,He ascended to a higher plane.PostscriptOne of Yehuda Leib Schrire’s descendants isGwynne Schrire, a frequent contributor to this journaland a member of its editorial board. I asked her if herfamily was related to the prestigious Gaon Shrerer 6(c. 906 – 1006). She replied that the family traditionwas that it is so, although there have been manyvariations on the spelling of her great grandfather’sname, viz. Shriro, Schrire, Shrira and Sherira. Wecannot personally know about Sherira Gaon, as hedied about a thousand years ago, but what is in athousand years from Sherira to Schrire? Great people,like great ships, sail on.NOTES1 cf, 1 Sam. 20:27 and also 1 Sam. 20:18. Both of these versesare from the frequently recited Haftorah of Machar Chodesh.2 The Barkusky translation is: “He has left a void / His manyfriends and associates feel his loss”.3 This alludes to Rabbi Tarphon in Pirkei Avot 1:20 “The workis much and labourers are idle”.4 Ahad Ha’am also used the expression askan, “worker for thecommunal good” in conjunction with an expression relatingto working with books, as follows: Bayamim haheim loha’yiti od lo sofeir v’lo askan, in those days I was not yet awriter nor a worker for the public good”. The work askanwas also used in the Talmud, Chullin 57 in a slightly differentsense. Askan bid’varim meant a person of initiative, aninventive person.5 A more correct translation is Schrire haya ish na’a’le beinhachayim. “Schrire was a man elevated amongst the living”.6 Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 14, p138129
JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT AT THE DURBANREVIEW CONFERENCE*Wendy Kahn“Giving the Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad aplatform to lecture the world about racism is likeinviting Bernie Madoff to head a global conferenceon business ethics”.This was one of the choice quotes doing therounds in Geneva during the UN Durban ReviewConference (DRC) from 20-24 April this year. It wasoccasioned by an inflammatory opening speech byIranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, whoserabid antisemitic rhetoric was all too reminiscent ofthe event’s notorious predecessor, the September2001 World Conference Against Racism in our veryown Durban.The purpose of the DRC was to follow up theDurban Declaration and Programme of Actionadopted at the 2001 conference. Much of the effortsof international Jewry in the build-up to the conferencehad been directed at persuading various countries topull out altogether, and around ten, including Canada,Italy and Australia, eventually did so. However, theviewpoint adopted by the SA Jewish Board ofDeputies and others was that this should not be doneat the expense of preparing properly for the conferenceitself, since this was going to go aheadnotwithstanding the boycotts.It was to ensure a strong, coordinated and effectiveparticipation by world Jewry at the DRC that theInternational Jewish Caucus (IJC) was set up.Throughout, the SAJBD had valuable input into theprocess, inter alia bringing to the table its experienceof what had been successful in the 2002 WorldSummit on Sustainable Development inJohannesburg. Also useful was its contacts with theSA government built up over the years, which enabledit to obtain important accurate information onconference procedure on behalf of the IJC once theDRC was underway.I was a member of the IJC in Geneva for theduration of the conference representing the SAJBD,which was participating as an accredited NGO andalso as part of the IJC.With me from South Africa was Marc Pozniak,who had participated (with former SAJBD GautengCouncil vice-chairman Gershon Hurwitz) in theprevious year’s African Preparatory Meeting for theDRC in Abuja, Nigeria. Both attended under theauspices of the World Jewish Diplomatic CorpsWendy Kahn is National Director of the SA JewishBoard of Deputies. She was extensively involved inthe UN Durban Review Conference, both prior andduring the event, working closely with internationalJewish organisations.division of the World Jewish Congress. Prior to mydeparture, I had worked with communications expertLouis Gavin to develop some key messaging andcommunication tools for the Caucus, and Louis’company designed some exquisite posters which Itook across with me. The following are the essentialmessages we formulated to convey what the DRCmeant to us as Jews:The underlying lesson of 3500 years of Jewishhistory is that respecting human rights is not anabstract ideal – it is a necessity.The history of the Jewish people is a story ofconstant struggle against persecution, whetherracially or religiously inspired. Jews have striven,and continue to strive, to uphold the fundamentalprinciples of human rights, dignity and equalitythat underpin their faith and national culture. Forso long exiled from their ancestral homeland anddispersed throughout the world, they have foughtto survive as a marginalised and powerlessminority in their host societies. They havesucceeded, but the price has been high.Informed by the lessons of their own history, theJewish people condemn all forms of prejudice,racism and injustice and commit themselves tofighting it wherever and whenever it occurs.The Geneva Jewish community truly rose to theoccasion, arranging a fully equipped Welcome Centrefor us at the entrance to the UN, where we had ourcaucus briefings and where we could buy koshersandwiches and salads. We were welcomed with asmile and treated with the warmest hospitalityThe author speaking with SA Minister of ForeignAffairs, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.30
Page 3: VOL. 64 NO. 2 ROSH HASHANAH 2009E
Page 6 and 7: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009t
Page 8: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009T
Page 17 and 18: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009s
Page 19: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009S
Page 22 and 23: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009a
Page 24: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009r
Page 28 and 29: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 20098
Page 34 and 35: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009I
Page 36 and 37: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009b
Page 38 and 39: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009b
Page 40 and 41: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009T
Page 42: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009p
Page 48 and 49: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009i
Page 52 and 53: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009W
Page 56 and 57: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009m
Page 58 and 59: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009D
Page 60 and 61: JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009R

Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?