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Durban’s heartfelt tribute to Shimon Peres
ANT KATZ
Well done Durbs!
On Thursday evening, September 29, a very moving ceremony was held in Durban to honour the life and work of Shimon Peres. The event was held under the auspices of the KwaZulu-Natal Zionist Council. The chairman of the KNZC, Prof Antony Arkin, paid tribute to Peres, emphasising his lifetime of service to the State of Israel, and his pragmatic approach towards negotiating a lasting peace in the Middle East.
Rabbi Hillel Avidan, in a short address expanded on a number of verses from the book of Proverbs on the subject of wisdom, and related this to the wisdom shown by Shimon Peres during his many years of leadership.
KNZC Director Michelle Shapira, read a beautiful poem, in English and Hebrew, by Hannah Szenes, which talks of the way in which the memories of the lives of those that have passed on, are able to light our paths, and show us the way forward.
Following a very well put-together audio-visual presentation by the South African Zionist Federation on the life of Shimon Peres, Gilad Friedman, head of the Umhlanga Jewish Centre, closed the ceremony with a reading of Psalm 23, which was followed by the singing of Hatikva.
The ceremony was followed by refreshments and it was most notable that many people commented on the beauty and appropriateness of the ceremony, considering the understandably short notice.
