Cape Jewish Chronicle

In reviewing the contents of this issue – in the main covering the events of May – in order to highlight those which may be of the greatest significance and interest for ‘net readers’, I have encountered the greatest difficulty.

In that it is ‘the month of the Yoms’, there is more than enough. But, over and above the commemorations, particularly the outstanding Yom Hashoah Vehagevurah at Pinelands, and the range of celebrations of Israel’s 60th Yom Ha’atzmaut, there are a number of items which are well worth a perusal.

The ideal thing would be to download the entire paper, irrespective of the time and bandwidth it will utilise. In support of this, the highlights noted – that we use as ‘teasers’- are other than those events featured on page one – which in themselves are a ‘must read’.
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Ella Blumenthal shares her experiences and deliver s a cogent message
I was born in Warsaw, the youngest in a family of seven children. I had seven nieces and nephews. My father was a chasid, a respected and well-to-do textile merchant. My mother and the entire family were very frum. I was a happy teenager until the invasion of Poland. I will never forget the images in the Warsaw ghetto – of starvation, epidemics, streets lined with corpses, starving children in rags begging for a piece of bread, human hunting, roundups, raids and deportations. In spite of surviving three concentration camps, after the liberation I tried to integrate into a normal society and after getting married, raised and educated my four children. But, I wasn’t able to talk about my suffering and fight for survival because the open wounds were still bleeding.

Now after many years, the tears have dried up and the scars have healed and I am now able to share it with you. It is now a few days after Pesach. At this exact time but in 1943, 65 years ago, the Warsaw ghetto was set alight and I was there. (more…)

as M Beinkinstadt of Canterbury Street finally closes its doors

At the end of July one of Cape Town’s oldest existing family businesses, M Beinkinstadt, will be closing its doors — ending not a chapter, but an 105 year old ‘volume’ of service to and association with the Jewish and wider community of this city and far beyond.
Some 5 years ago, on the centenary of the business, I traced the history of the hundred years, beginning thus … “If Moshe Beinkinstadt of Vilna were to take a walk in the now extinct ‘District Six’ today, he would be proud indeed to see that the business he established at number 38 Canterbury Street a hundred years ago, is still in family hands, and being run by his grandson, Michael Padowich.” Today, I would imagine Moshe pausing in contemplation at the front doors of the old building and nodding, with a sigh, “Yes, my beloved grandson, now is the right time for the final chapter … for you to close the doors.” Moshe founded the business in 1903, and ran it for the first 4 decades of the century, after which his son-in-law, Berl Padowich, husband of his only daughter Bertha, took over. (more…)

Yom Hashoah Vehagevurah – Holocaust and Heroism Day – Thursday 1 May
The Pesach Hagadah speaks eloquently and powerfully of the historical imperative of transmitting the memory of the Exodus from Egypt from generation to generation: Bechol dor vador chaiav adam lirot et atzmò keillu hu yatzà mimmitzraim – In every generation, every individual must feel as if he personally had come out of Egypt. So it is with the commemoration of the Holocaust and the transmission of its memory. We feel the same imperative to remember and honour the memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust. We are now the fourth generation of South African Jews to commemorate the Shoah. Many here today are of the generation who lived through the Holocaust years; some – dwindling number – directly experienced its horrors, and we pay tribute to them as the living and heroic witnesses to our people’s tragedy; others here today, including myself, are of the post-war generation, the children of the late 1940s and 1950s, born after the Holocaust, and others still are their children and even grandchildren. The memory of the Holocaust, like the memory of the Exodus from Egypt, is one of the crucial bonds between these generations; one of the critical ties that bind us together as a South African Jewish community; one of the principal elements that define us as South African Jews. From the start, from the war years themselves, the Holocaust has played this vital role. (more…)

Pride, contemplation and concern the enduring sentiments as anniversary celebrated
Israel is 60 years old, a milestone the world has been reflecting on all week. As is inevitable when it comes to Israel, these reflections have been a mix of glowing positives and angry condemnations, as friend, foe and the undecided reflect on the historic anniversary. Israel itself has been celebrating while commemorating, and glowing with pride while undertaking profound soulsearching. Across the globe, reaction has been flowing all week. Here in London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown went to the Kinloss Synagogue to give a speech in praise of Israel, calling it “one of the greatest achievements” of the 20th century.
The British PM reminisced about his long standing personal connection to Israel and the Jewish people. “You may ask why it is that a young primary school child, brought up as I was in a mining town in Scotland in the 1950s, came to feel a huge attachment to the trials and the tribulations and the achievements of Israel. And the reason is that my father was brought up and learned Hebrew, supported the attainment of the State of Israel in 1948 and for decades was a member of the Church of Scotland’s ‘Church and Israel Committee’.
“He became a regular visitor to Israel, at least once or twice a year for many decades. And his interest in Israel meant that much of my early life revolved around the history of this ancient and modern land and its people. (more…)