(Author: Isaac Reznik, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009)
“Growing up in a small Jewish country community on the Highveld of the then Eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga, Johannesburg in the minds of both adults and children – had the image of the quintessential big city, where everything even the humdrum, was endowed with an element of wonder.”
This was how the late Aleck Goldberg, who passed away last year just before Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot at the age of 85, described a prospective visit to the great metropolis during his boyhood. Aleck was born and grew up in the small Eastern Transvaal town of Ermelo, moving to Johannesburg only after matriculating there.
I first met Aleck Goldberg in the early 1970s when the then General Secretary of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, the late Gus Saron, approached me to prepare (together with the late Dr. Julius and Bianca Sergay) an audio-visual presentation – ‘Speak with one Voice’ – to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the SAJBD. I spent many hours with Aleck. Both of us had an ardent interest in and keen understanding of South African Jewish history, and we would spend many hours at his office discussing Jewish affairs.
My first impressions of Aleck could not but be influenced by the aesthetic atmosphere of his office. The latter was adorned with a Berenice Michelow lithograph and a pastel by Lionel Abrahams – two of the many expressions of his multifaceted artistic and creative interests. Creativity, an integral part of Aleck’s interest and involvement, spanned a wide spectrum – classical music, art, and insatiable interest in reading, particularly journals of Jewish interest, and writing about Jewish literature and communal activities. All of this in turn revealed the many facets of his cultural background.
When Aleck retired as executive director of the SAJBD in 1990 I asked him, and he agreed, to join the editorial board of Jewish Tradition, of which I was then the editor. We both also served on the Library committee of the SA Zionist Federation for many years, until his passing.
When Aleck decided to write a book about the South African Jewish community I, as director of the Rabbi Aloy Foundation Trust, arranged for the funds to be made available for its publication. I spent many hours with Aleck editing the book, which eventually appeared under the name Profile of a community South African Jewry (2002). At its launch, he generously thanked me for my “invaluable help” in compiling several of its chapters.
For more than fifteen years, until his untimely illness, both Aleck and I regularly attended a shiur on Wednesday evenings at the home of the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris. Aleck always participated fully in the shiur, and invariably Rabbi Harris would ask him to comment or elaborate on the subject being discussed.
I could best describe the late Aleck Goldberg as a “scholar and a gentleman”, and in all the years that knew him, I never once heard him speak badly about anyone. His knowledge of Judaism, teaching background and ability to articulate and write fluently in both English and Afrikaans also made him the ideal candidate for Jewish professional leadership.
Aleck is survived by his wife Musa, who was always at his side, and supported him in all his endeavours, his two sons, daughters- in–law, daughter and grandchildren.
May his memory be for a blessing.
Isaac Reznik is a veteran Jewish communal professional, editor and journalist. He is a former editor of Jewish Tradition and former Executive Director of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa.
