Farewell to country community’s unsung hero

Perry Feldman, a greatly admired Parys farmer, businessman, and Jewish communal leader was taken from us this week, another casualty of the coronavirus epidemic.

Feldman embodied the very best of South African Jewish country community values. A kol d’mamah dakah (a still small voice which speaks the word of G-d) is how Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft described Feldman in his eulogy, his friend and congregant of many years.

A quiet, humble, modest individual, but so full of kindness and of love, burning with encouragement to do the will of the almighty to make this world a better place, with no need for external pomp and circumstance to call attention to his fine qualities.

Feldman grew up in the picturesque Free State dorp of Parys, situated along the banks of the Vaal river. He matriculated from Parys High School in 1961, and went on to study a BCom at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he graduated cum laude and won numerous medals.

He returned to Parys to join his father, Abe, in his successful farming business. His hard work, meticulous planning, and inventiveness earned him the esteem of the South African farming community.

Never one to rest on his laurels, in the early 1990s, Feldman and his wife, Veronica, joined Searle and Lorna Sacks as business partners in Parys Biltong. Together, they grew this into one of the largest suppliers of biltong, dried fruit, and nuts in South Africa.

Even more impressive is that this was achieved by focusing on building strong labour relations and empowering black women (who comprise 95% of the workforce) in a town synonymous with worker exploitation.

In addition to being a successful businessman, Feldman was a South African patriot in the liberal tradition. In spite of his parents being victims of farm violence in the early 1990s, he was determined to do all he could to build a successful, harmonious, and multiracial future for the country.

During the political unrest in Parys during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Feldman served on the local peace committee. His remarkable ability to listen to everyone and always infuse calm helped to avoid racial clashes and allowed for practical, non-violent solutions. This earned him the enduring friendship of both the town’s most verkrampte Afrikaner nationalists and radical struggle veterans.

Over the past decade, during his “retirement”, Feldman took up the contentious issue of land reform. He believed that giving township dwellers ownership of their homes was key to enhancing human dignity and building a more equitable and sustainable economy. Through the Free Market Foundation’s Khaya Lam initiative, his team has raised millions of rands and worked with local municipalities of all political stripes across South Africa to transfer about 11 000 title deeds to township residents. Even during lockdown, the Feldmans continued to travel around the country promoting this tangible land-reform programme.

Family, Yiddishkeit, and community were at his core. He was a devoted husband, and in more than 50 years of marriage, they were rarely apart. They raised two children, Batya and Ari, and have five grandchildren, whom Feldman doted on. He was a pillar of strength to his family and friends – the first person you thought to call when you needed help with almost anything.

Feldman served the Parys Jewish community for many years. At a young age, he was a Habonim madrich, organising Zionist activities for the small but vibrant Jewish community. Always a man of action, he volunteered to go to Israel to help out during the Six-Day War. In later years, as the community dwindled, Feldman took responsibility for its continued functioning.

Although not religiously inclined, he would conduct, without fail, Friday night services in shul in his characteristic short pants and short-sleeved shirt. The maintenance of the Jewish cemetery was another of his personal projects.

Recently, he took up the battle to keep a country community organisation alive, and helped to establish the Small Jewish Communities Association, of which he was vice-chairperson. Deeply principled and not afraid of a fight, he achieved this in spite of the opposition of entrenched communal interest groups. Co-committee member Anne Harris described him as the organisation’s “mastermind”, and lamented that with his passing “we will all need to shoulder the burden of caring for the country communities which were so dear and important to him”.

Feldman loved learning about Jewish history and culture. He had a library of Jewish books to rival a university, and made a point of connecting with Jewish communities in the many off-the-beaten-track places around the world to which he and his wife travelled. It was this same spirit that inspired his mission to preserve and remember Jewish life in the smaller towns across South Africa.

“An unsung hero of the South African Jewish community” is how Silberhaft described him. We shall not see his like again.

• Michael Kransdorff is a Harvard-educated financial innovator and consultant, chairman of the JNF SA and Perry Feldman’s cousin. His great grandfather was the found member of the Parys Shul and a former chairman. His family still have a holiday home in the town.