(Vol. 63, # 3, Chanukah 2008)
The untimely passing of Dr. Jocelyn Hellig, one of South African Jewry’s most respected scholars, writers and communal leaders, was a grievous loss to the community as a whole and to Jewish Affairs in particular. She was an indefatigable worker on behalf of the community she loved and understood so well, contributing in countless ways to Jewish scholarship and the fight against antisemitism. Her input on the editorial board of Jewish Affairs was much valued by her colleagues, and the scholarly articles she contributed can be ranked with some of the finest material published by the journal over the years.
At the time of her passing, Jocelyn held the position of National Vice-chairperson of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies. She was also a vice-chairperson of the Gauteng Council of the SAJBD, on which committee she had served for nearly three decades.
Through the various offices of the Board, she rendered a range of services to the Jewish community that were as impressive as they were diverse. Among other things, she chaired the SAJBD’s bursaries’ committee, addressed innumerable conferences and communal events, helped organise conferences, prepared position papers and represented the Board at many high level meetings. She was much in demand as a speaker, addressing innumerable Jewish communal gatherings over the years. These included Yom Hashoah commemorative ceremonies in centres throughout the country and various national and regional conferences and other public functions of the SAJBD. Perhaps her most striking achievement in recent years was her heading up of the phenomenally successful “Seeking Refuge” exhibition project focusing on German-Jewish refugees who settled in Johannesburg in the 1930s.
Both the SAJBD staff and colleagues on the various Board councils relied heavily on her advice and expertise, particularly where issues of antisemitism were concerned. In the media sphere, Jocelyn appeared on numerous occasions on radio and television, providing informed and always scrupulously balanced perspectives on antisemitism, the Holocaust, the South African Jewish community, the Middle East and world religions. Much of what she had to deal with was controversial, but she had not only the intellectual expertise but, just as importantly, the sensitivity to address such issues appropriately.
Jocelyn Hellig (neé Judes) was born in Johannesburg in 1940. She matriculated cum laude at the Johannesburg Girls’ High School and obtained a BA and H. Dip Ed. from Wits University and the Johannesburg College of Education respectively. In 1961, she married Dr Michael Hellig, and the couple had two daughters and a son. While raising her family and working (she was a high school teacher for a time at Forest High and after 1976 a lecturer on world religions in the Department of Religious Studies at Wits), Hellig continued to study at Wits, completing Biblical and Religious Studies I, II and III. In 1982, she obtained her PhD. for her thesis “The Death of G-d” in the thought of Richard L. Rubenstein”. In 1992 and again in 1995-8, she was Head of the Department of Religious Studies, afterwards becoming an Honorary Research Fellow.
Jocelyn was a prolific writer, contributing numerous academic articles and chapters in books to a wide range of scholarly publications on such themes as Jewish religious expression in Africa, antisemitism and the Holocaust and comparative religion. She also wrote extensively for both the Jewish and general media on these and other relevant topics. Her critically acclaimed book The Holocaust and Anti-Semitism: A Short History (One World, Oxford) appeared in 2003.
