(Author: Milton Shain, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010)
Feature image: Mendel Kaplan Kaplan Receives an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof Don Patinkin
Editor’s note: International Jewry, and South African Jewry in particular, were stunned by the sudden death of Mendel Kaplan on 19 November last year. Tributes quickly poured in for a remarkable man, one who had put his formidable gifts at the disposal of the Jewish world and enriched it in innumerable ways.
In its obituary message placed in the general media, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies stressed the extraordinary scope of Kaplan’s achievements:
The SA Jewish Board of Deputies pays wholehearted tribute to you, Mendel.
Yours was a remarkable life, a noble saga of selfless, unstinting service to the Jewish people. Few have accomplished as much as you did in enriching and strengthening the Jewish world, particularly in the country of your birth. We mourn your sudden loss, but are comforted by the knowledge that your multiple achievements on behalf of Klal Yisrael live on. May your memory be a blessing and your example a shining source of inspiration for generations to come.
In his condolence letter to the Kaplan family, SAJBD National Chairman Zev Krengel noted that while South African Jewry had been blessed by the many other fine men and women who had devoted themselves heart and soul to serving the Jewish people, Mendel had been something special:
Few indeed can have given so much, in so very many fields, to the greater Jewish cause. Blessed with prodigious gifts, whether in the financial, intellectual or leadership realms, he never ceased to put them at the disposal of his beloved people and their precious heritage. He enriched us all, put steel into our collective backbone and left us a priceless legacy that will endure for generations to come.
This article by Milton Shain focuses on one aspect of Mendel Kaplan’s enduring legacy, the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town which he endowed and remained intricately involved with.
Mendel Kaplan once told me that the key to success was focus. I witnessed it in all his efforts. Details concerned him greatly, but he never lost sight of the big picture. Indeed, he created the big picture. Mendel was hugely involved in matters Jewish, with a stellar record in service and leadership. He initiated, led and funded numerous Jewish, Zionist and other projects in South Africa and throughout the Jewish world. He was honorary president of Keren Hayesod and a former chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors. And he was also a greatly respected industrialist. While I know little about Cape Gate, the family business Mendel’s father Isaac founded 80 years ago, as Director of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town (UCT) since 1994, I have been privileged to have worked closely with Mendel.
The Centre was established in 1980 under the terms of a gift to UCT by the Kaplan Kushlick Foundation and was named in honour of the parents of Mendel and Robert Kaplan. The Centre, the only one of its kind in South Africa, was founded to stimulate and promote the field of Jewish studies and research at the University. Mendel was acutely aware of the importance of an academic Jewish education. He was particularly fascinated with the South African Jewish experience and indeed contributed to our knowledge in this area through numerous books and scholarly articles.
Mendel’s initiative to create an academic Jewish Centre at UCT was greatly influenced by the vision of Professor Moshe Davis, operating in the late 1970s at the International Centre for the Teaching of Jewish Civilization under the auspices of the Presidency of the State of Israel. ‘Davis felt that Jewish Studies should not be contained within a specialised Department’, recalled Mendel on the occasion of the Kaplan Centre’s twenty-fifth anniversary. He believed Jewish Studies ‘should be available to all Departments and disciplines within the University that could relate to aspects of Jewish Civilization. He therefore envisaged teaching the Jewish experience as a part of wider cultural and historical studies and in appropriate departments’.
In line with Mendel’s vision, and informed by Davis’s insights, the Centre has, from its inception, stimulated and promoted the whole field of Jewish studies and research at UCT. It has evolved a multidisciplinary outlook, encouraging the participation of scholars in a range of fields including history, political science, education, sociology, comparative literature and the broad spectrum of Hebrew and Judaic studies. Its resources are used to invite distinguished scholars to teach Jewish-content courses within established University departments, to initiate and sponsor research projects, to publish monographs and occasional papers, to hold international and local conferences, to invite scholars to participate in the annual UCT ‘Summer School’, under the auspices of the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, and to strengthen the university’s library holding of books, microfilms and visual and archival sources.
Within this context, a new generation of young scholars with an academic background in Jewish affairs has emerged, among them communal professionals and teachers. To this end the Centre funds research and awards scholarships. Students are privileged to interact with luminaries at the cutting edge of their fields and disciplines. Since the Rachel Bloch House was completed in 1989, they have enjoyed a unique environment including prayer facilities in the Beth Hamedrash, vibrant Jewish learning opportunities enriched by the services of a Chaplain, as well as a kosher canteen efficiently managed by Brenda Kammy. Few universities can lay claim to such an array of activities as those offered by the Centre.
Over the years the Centre has shared in cooperative research with institutions abroad, most recently with the University of Southampton’s Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. In March 2010 a publication arising from one of the joint conferences – Zakor v’Makor: Place and Displacement in Jewish History and Memory, edited by David Cesarani, Tony Kushner and Milton Shain, and published by Valentine Mitchell – was runner-up in the category for ‘Anthologies and Collections’ in the highly prestigious National Jewish Book Award in the United States.
The Centre’s capacity and publication output is invigorated by Research Associates and augmented by its own publishing arm, Jewish PublicationsSouth Africa. The Centre’s work is further enhanced by a fine library headed by Veronica Belling. We are particularly proud of the Duker and Rajak collections, as well as a range of rare items and a rich manuscript collection including the Sammy Marks Papers, professionally managed and controlled by the Manuscripts Division of UCT led by Lesley Hart.
Beyond formal teaching and research, the Centre has mounted exhibitions, usually on subjects relating to South African Jewry. In this regard we collaborate closely with the South African Jewish Museum, a world-class heritage centre in the Company Gardens, yet another initiative of Mendel and Robert Kaplan. ‘Helen Suzman. Fighter for Human Rights’ – an exhibition researched and written by Millie Pimstone, with graphics by Linda Bester – is currently touring the United States.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] Mendel Kaplan taking President Nelson Mandela around the SA Jewish Museum.
Mendel’s deep engagement with the Centre, his ideas and his vision, has informed much of the Centre’s priorities. While we have focused on the South African Jewish experience, other aspects of the Jewish past and present are not ignored. All initiatives are subject to the approval of the Centre’s Board that includes representatives of the Kaplan family, Jewish communal leaders and UCT academics. Mendel was always present at these meetings. He knew balance sheets were not my strongest suit and would leave that alone. Projects, conferences and research were the subjects that really interested him. There were no formalities; it was down to business. Mendel laughed at the stuffiness of university mores. With uncanny business acumen and total recall, he was able to juggle a myriad of activities and projects with mesmerizing precision.
Mendel’s law degree from the University of Cape Town and his Master’s in Business Administration from Columbia University in New York no doubt stood him in great stead. But it was his creativity, vision and focus that set him apart. A working lunch on his lovely patio overlooking False Bay in Cape Town would always be interrupted by calls from abroad – the Jerusalem Zoo, an Israeli cabinet minister, or an old friend from school. Mendel was always three steps ahead. He provided direction and ideas, but he also appreciated contestation. Exchanges were often tense but always underpinned by loyalty.
Without the vision and foresight of Mendel Kaplan and the generous assistance of the Kaplan Kushlick Foundation, academic Jewish learning at UCT would have been deeply compromised. Without his input, we would not have been able to translate a vision into a reality. Mendel conceived of the Centre, supported it with passion and provided thoughtful and incomparable guidance. He inspired the Centre’s agenda and activities. When he set his mind to something, he was unstoppable. He had a passion for matters Jewish. A deeply spiritual man, he was always reading, learning and writing. His most recent book, written for his grandchildren, recorded his travels as a young man in East Africa.
I know the Centre meant much to Mendel, although it was only one of many flourishing ventures he created in a life dedicated to the Jewish people, to Israel, to family and to the less fortunate, both Jewish and non-Jewish. He will be sorely missed. As Director of the Kaplan Centre for the past fifteen years, I gained enormously from Mendel’s insights and refreshing ideas. Today the Centre enjoys national and international recognition. We can justly be proud of our achievements. The Centre will continue to flourish in his memory.
Milton Shain teaches in the Department of Historical Studies and is Director of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, UCT. A long-serving member of the Editorial Board of Jewish Affairs, he has published widely on SA Jewish history and antisemitism. His latest book, The Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated History (cowritten with Richard Mendelsohn), appeared in 2008.
