Another well-deserved accolade for our Marlene

SUZANNE BELLING

PHOTOGRAPH BY SUZANNE BELLING

 “I am totally overwhelmed and humbled for three reasons:

• My closeness and affection for Chief Rabbi Harris;
• It is an honour to uphold the memory of Ernest Leibowitz; and
• It is a vital opportunity to work with Ann (Harris) and Rabbi (Dovid) Hazdan,” she told SA Jewish Report.

Bethlehem is proud, too, to be associated with Hazel Cohen and Rene Sidley, the professionals of the RCHCC.

Bethlehem’s communal work was inherited from her mother, Dolly Palm, who was involved in the Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society and had chaired Arcadia Jewish Children’s Home.

Her achievements, however, went even further after she rose to great heights following her career as a professional tennis player.

She has three priorities in her life – family, the Jewish community and sport.

Not everyone knows her tennis background. She was on the international tennis circuit from 1959 till 1962, when she won the Wimbledon Plate (consolation event) for ladies’ singles in England and later that year won the Dutch International ladies’ doubles in Holland.

She was a professional coach from 1964 to 1985 and in 1974, during apartheid, was the official coach to the first-ever black SA women’s tennis team.

Some might remember her “match” against late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris (zt”l) to raise funds for the Benevolent and Emunah. “I miss him terribly – he was such an inspiration,” said Bethlehem, who with him and other rabbis, represented the Jewish community at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Bethlehem also recently took over the portfolio of country communities chairman of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, succeeding Mr Justice Ralph Zulman.

Her commitment to the community has been acknowledged in awards from the Edenvale Jewish Community, the Hebrew Order of David and a medal for meritorious service from the Union of Jewish Women.

She is also a trustee of the Christa Maria Will Trust, which fights anti-Semitism and promotes relationships between Jews and people of other denominations.

Bethlehem chaired the committee for the disbursement of the Swiss Banks’ Humanitarian Fund for Needy Holocaust Survivors in 1998 and in 2006 was the first and only South African elected vice-president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York.

It was as chairman of the executive committee of the JWBS (elected honorary life president in 1987) that Bethlehem impressed some of the top leaders of the Jewish community.

Gerald Leissner, backed by Mervyn Smith and Professor Michael Katz, all urged Bethlehem to become involved in mainstream leadership.

So successful was she in her initial position of chairman of the then Transvaal Council of the Jewish Board of Deputies in the early 1990s, that she became the first woman national chairman of the Board (1995 to 1999) since its inception in 1903, followed by national presidency of the organisation (1999 to 2003).

With her history as an advocate for human rights and equality, her term fortuitously coincided with Nelson Mandela’s tenure as president of SA.

“I was privileged beyond belief to have an association with him.”

She treasures a plate presented to her by the former president, inscribed with the words, “To Marlene Bethlehem, a fine lady, who has deserved our admiration and respect.”

Bethlehem had a strong bond with Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbkei, “a scholar and an intellectual”. In 2004 he appointed her deputy chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities.

Bethlehem has had a good innings on the SAJBD on which she still serves.  

She is married to Dr Brian Bethlehem and has three children and six grandchildren.

“A leader must have a moral and ethical approach and be passionate about the cause,” she says.