(Author: Naomi Dison Kaplan, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010) When one asks writers why they write, their answers vary slightly, but on the whole all stress that it is not about choice – they write because they have to. It is an
(Author: Veronica Belling, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010) Cape Town’s oldest Jewish bookstore M. Beinkinstadt, established in 1903 by Moshe Beinkinstadt, remained in the hands of his descendants for 105 years. Situated on the outskirts of District Six, site of the earliest Jewish
(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010) Feature image: Ullmann Statue, Ernest Ullmann Park (by kind permission of The Heritage Portal. See http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/life-iconic-artist-sculptor-and-designer-ernest-ullmann) “The contribution of the German immigrants was that they recognised the value of African art at a time
(Author: Daniel Mackintosh, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010) Bernhard Schlink, in his novel The Reader, describes how the thousands of students who created the ‘1968 movement’ became heavily invested in understanding Germany’s past, resulting in a wave of student protests in which
(Author: Alana Pugh-Jones, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) Introduction Stretching back into history from the moment Moses raised his hand against the oppressive Egyptian overseer and led his people from slavery into freedom; to the instant that Abraham smashed the morally bankrupt idols
(Author: Benji Shulman, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) Comrade Goldberg is a documentary currently doing the alternative film circuit telling the story of one of South Africa’s less well-known struggle heroes. It looks at the life and times of Dennis Goldberg who, like
(Author: Suzanne Belling, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010) Whenever I had the privilege of interviewing David Susman, z”l, – first in the 1970s and in subsequent years for various publications – the phrase that always came to mind was: “an officer and
(Author: Saul Issroff, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010) Sarah Glueck acquired world-wide prominence during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. At the time, she was employed as the postmistress in the village of Lady Grey in the Cape Province, near the Lesotho border. She defied an
(Author: Cedric Ginsberg, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010) It is now almost a year since the untimely passing of Joseph Sherman, scholar, translator, lover of Yiddish, raconteur. In 2001, he left South Africa to take up the position of Woolf Corob Professor of Yiddish
(Author: Astrid Starck1, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010. First published Jewish Affairs, Winter, 1995. Translated from the French by Karen-Anne Durbach) Editor’s Note: Many of the stories discussed in this essay have been published in English translation, together with a detailed introduction to the