(Author: David A Sher, Vol. 70, No. 1, Pesach 2015)
The passing in Johannesburg of the renowned philanthropist Samuel Michael (Sam) Sher on 9 December 2013/6 Teveth 5774 elicited much sorrow amongst his friends, family, associates and beneficiaries. “Sam has departed. South Africa has lost its glory”, declared Rabbi Boruch Grossnass of Johannesburg’s Kollel Yad Shaul. Speaking on his show on Chai FM, Isaac Reznik lamented, “The whole community is in mourning over the loss of a tzaddik in our time and one of the most wonderful philanthropists in our city”.1
Born in Anterlypt, Lithuania, on 7 August 1926 Sam, with his parents, immigrated the following year to the Union of South Africa. The family settled in Doornfontein, then the first stop for immigrants “on the Jewish residential ladder”. 2 Sam attended shul first in Bertrams and then in Berea; as a young boy, he also sang in the choir at the (still extant) Lions Shul on Seimert Road, where the nephew of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna, Rabbi Michel Kossowsky was then Rav. 3 Working during the day, he attended night school, to that end trekking to the CBD of Johannesburg and back each evening. Sometimes, he was accompanied on these walks by Joe Slovo, although he never shared his communist views. Qualifying as a pharmacist, he eventually built up successful business. In 1956, he married Rose Bartkunsky – then a charismatic nurse at Johannesburg’s General Hospital – at Johannesburg’s Great Synagogue, Wolmarans Street. The officiant was Rabbi A H Lapin z’’tl, a nephew of the famed Rav Eliyahu Lopian z’’tl. Rose remained his devoted companion for well over half a century, supporting him in all that he did.
Sam helped keep afloat the renowned Etz Chaim Yeshiva, Jerusalem, the oldest in Israel (founded 1858). It was run by his dear friend Rabbi N Tucazinsky z’’tl. It is said that once, when Sam had given more money than he could afford to the Yeshiva, Rabbi Tucazinsky gave him a blessing that he “should always have enough money to support all great Torah institutions”. In time, innumerable fundraisers seeking support from South African Jewry were directed to him.
Sam always was communally minded; he was the Senior Warden at the prestigious Oxford Synagogue and chaired its Chevra Lomdei Torah, which nourished the spiritual side of what had become the most affluent synagogue following the gradual deterioration of attendance at the Great Synagogue.4 He was later, in 1986, appointed Chairman of the United Hebrew Congregations of Johannesburg, serving alongside Chief Rabbi Bernard Casper.5 When Rabbi Casper was planning to return to Israel, he was desirous of moving his Kenyan domestic assistant to the Sher household, being no doubt cognisant of the dignity with which the man would be treated. Sam informed the author that after Rabbi Casper’s departure, he met him by chance at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue; sadly Rabbi Casper died shortly afterwards. In summing up the common thread between these two colleagues, Dayan Boruch Rappoport of the Johannesburg Beth Din cited their “respect…knowledge and support of Torah and its scholars”.6
United Hebrew Congregations of Johannesburg, Council and officials, 1986-7. Sam Sher is seated, front, to the right of Chief Rabbi B M Casper.
In his official capacity (which as chairman offered ‘interminable’ committee meetings, as he remarked to the author) Sam always stood up for the greatness of Torah and tradition. A gala event was staged once at Johannesburg’s opulent Sandton Sun Hotel to celebrate the service of Chief Rabbi C.K. Harris. Sam was invited both as a principal benefactor and as a friend of Rabbi Harris. Many rabbis, including the Av Beth Din and Dayanim, were present, along with the crème de la crème of Johannesburg society; even the secular guests, exemplifying South Africa’s famed “kavod rabbonim” [honouring rabbis], donned yarmulkes out of respect to the Rabbis present. A VIP in attendance was an Israeli politician, who later became Prime Minister of Israel. To the audience’s shock, this representative of Israel was observed to be addressing the gathering whilst brazenly bare-headed. Even more astounding was what occurred next: Samuel Sher purposefully ascended the podium, removed his own Yarmulkaand placed it square on the politician’s head! The stunned security quickly escorted him out the room (his wife followed), but many in the audience subsequently telephoned to commend him and many synagogues sponsored brochasin his honour in the weeks that followed.
From his formative years in Doornfontein, Bezuidenhout Valley and onwards, Sam assisted his father and mother in running a grocery store, arising before dawn as his father prayed and preparing the store. In their later years, Sam bought his parents their own block of flats, providing them with financial security; he visited them at their flat each evening and would take them on holidays, including to the Kruger National Park. His in-laws were treated in the same fashion. His mother-in-law (a widow), once said to him, “You have been more of a son to me than a son-in-law”. Throughout his life, Sam honoured the memory of his parents, and many Sifrei Torah, Halachic works, synagogue arks, synagogues and kollelim bear their names.
In another area, Sam represented somewhat of an ambassadorial figure for Johannesburg Jewry and the Lithuanian Torah and Yeshiva roots from whence they came. Together with prominent businessman Jack Kaplan, he visited Rabbi Menachem Shach, dean of the famed Ponovezh Yeshiva. The latter had been built in part with funds garnered in Johannesburg7 by Rabbi Joseph S. Kahaneman, the “Ponovezher Rabbi”, who was assisted by the local Ponovezh landsmanschaft of Johannesburg’s Ponovezh Synagogue in the 1930’s.8 Once, on his visits to foremost sage Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Sam noted that the boys of the Yeshiva Maalot HaTorah were eating cold food; the kitchen was on a different floor and the food was brought up in shifts. Disturbed, he ensured that a new modern kitchen and lift were built for the students. The desperate state of the Rabbi Y.C. Sonnenfeld Orphanage in Jerusalem also caught his eye, and he ensured that the bereft youngsters would receive a daily delivery of fresh bread.
At the home of HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, l-r: Rabbi Davidowitz, Rabbi Auerbach, Rabbi Aharon Pfeuffer, S M Sher
In time, Sam’s support for needy institutions became synonymous in Israel with Johannesburg, as his brother-in-law C. Davidowitz recalled:
About ten years ago my wife, daughter and myself were walking along a crowded pavement in Mea Shaarim [the ultra-religious area of Jerusalem]. As we were strolling along a very tall ultra-Orthodox man accidently bumped into me. Var’shkuldig mier (excuse me) he said. Dos magt nit ous; I replied in broken Yiddish (Yiddish is the only language spoken in the area). The Rabbi asked where he came from, and on hearing ‘Drom Africa’ asked, “Du kenst efser a Mr. Sam Sher? (“Do you perhaps know a Mr. Sam Sher”). I pointed to my wife and said,“Ot is Mr. Sher’s shwetzer” (This is Mr. Sher’s sister). It was as if an angel had come down from Heaven! The rabbi got so excited that he called all his friends in the area to meet her. Sam had donated a large sum of money for the orphanage that the Rabbi supervised. 9
Since his earliest days, Sam had been a strenuous supporter of Israel. Joining the Gedud Trumpeldor of the Zionist Youth movement in the 1940s, he would meet with fellow members after Shabbos at the Doornfontein Talmud Torah premises on Beit Street (although he never supported liberal or anti-religious Zionism). He was soon appointed Rosh Gedud and filled that post with distinction. Sam also volunteered to serve in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence; he was turned down because his brother Mickey had already been recruited and as a precaution no two brothers were being taken.10 Sam found other ways of supporting Israel. Amongst other things, in 2005 he donated a synagogue and kollel, entitled Hechal Mordechai, in honour of his father and father in-law in the Modi’in Illit area of Jerusalem. He also donated one of the world’s most imposing hand-carved synagogue Arks, made by a Jew who served the carpentry needs of the Kremlin, to the large Karlin community in Beitar. It was one of several Aronei Hakodesh he donated in his lifetime. Busloads of tourists come to view this architectural treasure.11 In Har Nof, Jerusalem, Sam built the Vilna Gaon (Gr’a) shul. It was opened by Rose several years later (one passes through Sha’ar Shoshana [Rose] Sher in order to enter).
Many people have commented on Sam’s crucial support for the ba’al teshuva movement that swept South Africa during the 1980s. Always a visionary, he once heard Rabbi Shimshon Pinkus speak in South Africa and recognised his greatness long before he became the renowned mussar [ethical discourse] giant as the religious world know him today. He encouraged Rabbi Pinkus to come to South Africa again and this time for several months; many unaffiliated Jews were inspired to greater spiritual commitment through this. Every day, Sam had a daily study-session (chavruta) with Rabbi Pinkus, often in Sam’s own home. He was once learning with the Rabbi in the former Maharsha Synagogue on Durham Road when a large portion of the ceiling collapsed yards from where they were sitting! “That was a loud enough message”, Sam recalled and promptly led the purchase of magnificent new premises for the shul, yeshiva and kindergarten. The Maharsha kehilla was headed by Rabbi Aaron Pfeuffer, also of the Lithuanian-rooted Ponovezh Yeshiva.
Samuel hated conflict. Recognising the outstanding abilities of Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, he had sponsored the construction of the new Vilna Gaon Torah Centre building in Yeoville. This was opened by Mayor Harold Rudolph and is the only synagogue still functioning in that area. During the 1980s and 1990s, it became a beacon of Torah, and inspired many families to become baalei teshuva.12 Nonetheless, Rabbi Sternbuch broke with many establishments, including the Johannesburg Beth Din, whose kashrut standard he was dissatisfied with. He also spoke out against the lackadaisical attitude with which some aspects of burial were treated.13This caused ripples in the community and the UHC importuned Sam to ask Rabbi Sternbuch to cease this activity forthwith. Many were hostile to what they perceived as the Rabbi’s ‘fanaticism’; on one occasion Rabbi Sternbuch asked Sam to deliver his response on a kashrut issue to a prominent UHC office-holder. This individual, who shall remain nameless, glanced at the letter with disdain and then sat on it. “This is what I think of the letter”, he told Sam (who learned several weeks later that the unlucky gentleman had broken both legs in succession in the aftermath of this encounter). Nonetheless, the fact that the chairman of the UHC sided with Rabbi Sternbuch prevented a rift in the close-knit community. “If Mr Sher is with them, they cannot be such fanatics”, was the commonly held view. Thus was a damaging confrontation felicitously averted.
To the end of his days, Sam shared the closest of relationships with Rabbi Sternbuch, who on his passing lamented to Sam’s children, “I personally have lost a true friend and it is difficult for me to accept this sad news. His death is a bitter loss not only for the family but for the whole of Jewry, especially the Torah world who admired his sincere love of Torah.”14
In another milestone for Orthodoxy in South Africa, the construction of the Chofetz Chaim synagogue in Raedene was completed in August 1999. Their souvenir ‘Dedication of the House’ pamphlet is an excellent source on the overwhelming feeling of the distress of a distraught and bewildered community, battered by crime. The congregation’s Rabbi AY Pfeuffer wrote that when the Chofetz Chaim property was bought, “Many were no doubt wondering if it was the proper time to do so. South Africa is now experiencing a time of ‘Twilights’. No one is exempt from hearing stories of atrocities…” Rabbi Pfeuffer then thanked “our best friend Mr Sam Sher and his wife Rose”, without whose “great generosity, love, untiring efforts and good heart, this building would not have been purchased and renovated.”15
Other signs of Jewish rebirth due to Samuel’s efforts were observed in 1987 when the Torah Centre celebrated the first Torah scroll to be completed in South Africa in over fifty years (Sam paid for many such SifreiTorah). The event was captured by the national paper, TheCitizen with the headline ‘Torah Handed over in Street Celebrations’.16
Hachnasis Sefer Torah ceremony, 1987. Sam Sher with Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch. In the background is Rabbi Irma Aloy.
Sam was an unfaltering patron of the Kollel Yad Sha’ul. A Torah magnet, it was (and still is) led by the Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Boruch Grosnass and his brother Rabbi Sender, sons of the esteemed Dayan Grossnass of the London Beth Din. Almost every day, Sam arose extremely early, often at 4:30 a.m., to attend shiurim there prior to prayers.
Sam was a long-term supporter of such key British institutions as the Gateshead Yeshiva.17He also established a warm rapport with Rabbi Gavriel Knopfler, Rosh Yeshiva of Shaarei Torah, Manchester, where scores of South African students have graduated. ZAKA’s quick response to the ill also appealed to his sense of duty to assist the sick of Israel and he donated a rapid-response unit to that most worthy organisation. He had his own unique way of assisting the sick individually. Weeping, a woman remembered, “We had a child so unwell it appeared terminal but we always persevered and came to Sam at the Bramley Pharmacy to order expensive drugs. My husband had lost his job and I did not know how we would pay”. Samuel was his usual self; “take the medicine. We’ll discuss payment some other time”, he said vaguely. Eventually after the last treatment had taken place, by which time a large amount of medicine had been accrued from Mr Sher on credit, the woman returned, somehow having managed to scrape together some of the money. “I will not accept your money. It would take away my zechusim (merits)” Sam explained.18
A long distance phone call once reached Samuel from Great Britain. A group of Mancunian businessmen had secured funds to purchase a large wedding hall for impecunious couples. However they did not have enough funds at that time to acquire the remainder of the land, owned by Keren Hayesod (the South African Zionist organisation) and the land was to be defaulted back to Keren Hayesod, with all the men’s investment lost. Within days Sam had sorted the imbroglio, having persuaded his close friend Mendel Kaplan, the South African Chairman of the Jewish Agency, to intervene and extend the period the businessmen had to accrue the outstanding funds. That was all the businessmen needed. Once, another urgent call from Israel was received. This time it was Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky, wife of leading Lithuanian sage Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. There was a destitute girl who was not able to marry due to her indigent state – would Sam be able to assist? The answer was not long in coming and the girl became one of several destitute brides to be ushered to the bridal canopy through his generosity.
Samuel never forgot how the family had arrived indigent from Lithuania. One of his siblings, Raphael, had died because his parents had no funds to cover the treatment for diphtheria; this gives us an insight in the difficulties of Johannesburg’s Jewish immigrants in the 1920s-30s. For many years they could not pay for a proper tombstone on the grave in the Brixton Jewish Cemetery. Years later, Sam arranged for one to be put up. “My mother cried as much as she wept the day Ralphie died” he recalled. On one occasion, he was asked by the gentile parents of a boy who had died in a car accident if he would identify the body at the morgue as they were too distraught to do so themselves. This melancholy task he accepted stoically. Rabbi Sender Grossnass, officiating at Sam’s tombstone unveiling ceremony, summed up one of his principal traits: “He was an Omer v’Oseh – when he committed to something he did it” he said, echoing the Baruch She’amar prayer in Jewish liturgy. Rabbi Grosnass further quoted O. Koren, a long-standing friend of Sam’s, who recounted, “one Shabbos I discussed a very needy family with Sam and asked him to assist. He responded with two words: ‘How much?’ By that Monday, the family had the money in their bank account- such was Sam’s zeal for charity. And this was done in the days before EFT’s.”19
Unlike some large-scale philanthropists, Sam never disassociated himself from his love of Israel or religion. He would invariably be one of the first in synagogue, long before prayers commenced. When he was asked by a grandchild why he did so the response was, “I like to come early to shul so I can clear my mind and prepare myself to speak to the ‘Ribono shel Olam’ [Master of the World]”. He could recite vast swathes of the liturgy, as well as its translation by heart and always practiced his belief that one should conduct oneself with decorum and dignity in a synagogue. Not content with merely supporting Torah, he also learnt Torah, attending a shiur at the Kollel every morning. He was often the first one present as he arrived long before dawn break. He could quote many passages of Talmud and in particular the commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy was his forte and he often quoted from the Re’ehsedra [portion – aptly, his Barmitzvah parsha] on the duty to assist, “thine destitute brother- achicha haevyon”.20 Through Rabbi Pfeuffer’s Yeshiva Maharsha, whose capacious grounds were secured by Samuel’s efforts, have passed hundreds of Talmudic students, many of whom return to South Africa to become rabbis, mashgichim and Torah studiers. Rabbi Pfeuffer’s well-known works; the Talmudic Ohr Aharon Beis (“Light of Aaron” Volume 2)21anda work on the kosher dietary laws (Kitzur Hilchos Dam Melicha UtZliya) owed their publication to Sam. Across the world, therefore, people discovered for the first time the existence of a religiously fastidious Johannesburg community known as Maharsha, whose students filled the most important Yeshivoth and Talmudic Colleges. The ‘Torah’ transformation that is still taking place in Johannesburg in large part through Rabbi Pfeuffer’s institution owes much of its existence to Sam, whom Rabbi Pfeuffer’s family described as having been “at the forefront and leader of any matter of spirituality.”22 For 27 years Sam attended a Talmud lecture with Dayan Boruch Rappoport of the Johannesburg Beth Din who recalled him traversing the distance to his shiur with a Tehillim (Book of Psalms) which he memorised. Dayan Rappoport also commented that Sam did not wait for serendipitous solicitations from individuals for assistance, but rather often innovated ways of alleviating penury on his own accord.
Despite all he spearheaded and achieved, Samuel remained humble, unpretentious and self-effacing. Never one to flaunt his wealth, he lived unassumingly. He shared friendship with many of the greatest Rabbis of our time, including the American Rabbi Avigdor Miller and Rabbi Menachem Shach. He once disclosed with a grandchild his sentiments when reciting a verse in Hallel (Psalm 113): “He raises the needy from the dust, from the trash heaps…to seat them with the nobles”. Explaining to his grandchild, Sam said, “I think of myself, who am I; I am no one eminent, yet G-d has given me an enormous merit, enabling me to meet and forge relationships with the Gedolei Yisrael!”
There was hardly a cause in Johannesburg that was left untouched by the benevolent hand of Samuel Sher, and many international causes he supported are only being made known to his children now. His gracious style endeared him to his many employees (some of half a century standing) who revered him for the way he treated them, as he did all he met – with dignity and compassion. He never refused to give to any individual in need. “Giving is better than receiving” was his dictum, and he lived by it throughout his life.
David Sher is a student at Shaarei Torah Yeshiva in Manchester. His family has a long history of involvement in the United Hebrew Congregation. This article is adapted from his book on the history of Johannesburg Jewry, to appear shortly.
NOTES
- Joe Slovo, and Nelson Mandela (Contributor), Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography of ANC Leader Joe Slovo, New York, Ocean Press, 1997, p14.
- On Rav Kossowsky at the Doornfontein HebrewCongregation, known as the Lions Shul, see ‘Those were the days, I Remember Doornfontein’,Zionist Record, Johannesburg, 25 October 1974.
- Information from former Oxford Synagogue congregants (2012).
- Dayan Abramsky had advised Rabbi Casper to leave Israel in order to guide Johannesburg and SA Jewry.
- 101.9 ChaiFM Interview with Dayan B. Rappoport, Broadcaston 10 Tevet 5774 at 9AM “Chief Rabbi Casper and Mr Sam Sher Tribute”, conducted by Isaac Reznik.
- Details obtained from Z. Greenfeld, Gorel Ha’Gra ‘The Vilna Gaon’s Draw’, Jerusalem, Sefereti Publishing, 2006, p146. Author rendered translation of this Hebrew publication. See also The Rabbi from Ponovez (Hebrew) Section I, pp341-344.
- The society was founded in 1899. B Yudelevitz, ‘The Ponevez Society of Johannesburg 1899 – 1949’, Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy Society. 2002. See http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/ponevez/index.htm
- Comment of 20 January 2014, SA Jewish Report Website, ‘Philanthropist Sam Sher Passes On’ 20 January 2014. http://www.sajr.co.za/religion/featured-item/2014/01/20/philanthropist-sam-sher-passes-on/
- Mickey Sher was one of the 800 South African volunteers who fought in Israel’s War of Independence.
- See ‘An Aron Kodesh in Yerushalayim’, Mishpachamagazine, Issue 46, 16 March 2005, New York.
- Rabbi Sternbuch himself discusses this phenomenon in his authoritative work; See Introduction to M Sternbuch, Rabbi, Teshuvoth VeHanhagoth (Hebrew), Jerusalem, published by S Sternbuch, 5752/1991, iv.
- As heard from Rabbi Michoel Emanuel, formerly of Yeoville,Manchester, 2013.
- Correspondence received from Rabbi Sternbuch in Israel, 2013.
- Dedication of Synagogue Commemorative Brochure, Rabbi’sMessage, August 1999.
- ‘Torah Handed Over in Street Celebrations’, Citizen, Johannesburg, Mon 21 September 1987.
- Correspondence received from Mr Luftig, fundraiser of that institution, 2013.
- Personal communication, 2013.
- Heard at Sam Sher’s Tombstone Unveiling ceremony, 7 December 2014, West Park Jewish Cemetery.
- Deut. 15:7.
- This was published by the Rabbi’s family.
- Rosh V’Rishon l’Chol Davar SheBikdusha. as titled in a preface to Ohr Aharon II. SeeAaron Pfeuffer, Rabbi, Ohr Aharon II (Hebrew), Bne Berak, published by YA, YM, S, Pfeuffer, 5765/2004, iii.
