Losing friends and creating controversy in four easy minutes

TALI FEINBERG

“Here in South Africa we have wider religious tolerance and freedom than in my country, in Israel. It is a source of strength and pride to South Africans, as much as it is a source of shame and distress for all Jews,” he declared to much applause from the big ANC audience.

Shaked, the Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue rabbi, was invited to say a prayer on behalf of the South African Jewish community at the conference, which lasted from last Friday to Wednesday this week.

The leadership of the Jewish community are furious, not least of all considering the ANC’s clear anti-Israel stance. 

SAZF Chairman Ben Swartz said: “It is mind-boggling that Sa’ar Shaked chose the ANC NCP to air our dirty laundry. Does he sincerely believe in his cause? If so, why did he choose the occasion to vent his anger to an audience that will have absolutely no impact on a cause that the broader South African Jewish and Zionist community has shown a huge degree of support and understanding for?

“In fact, his actions are almost definitely going to have the exact opposite effect. Instead of engaging with those who stand to positively impact the outcome of his cause, he chose to ignore the community’s strong overtures of support and instead seek the overtures of an audience that is known to harbour the most anti-Israel sentiment globally.

In doing so, he has chosen to fuel anti-Israel sentiment in the South African political structures and done much harm not just to SA-Israel relations, but to the Jewish community that he ‘claimed’ to represent.”

SA Jewish Board of Deputies National Director Wendy Kahn, expressed similar sentiments: “It was unfortunate that Rabbi Shaked chose this important platform to express his frustration with Israel. This message would be more appropriate directed to the Israeli government,” she said.

Rabbi Shaked was unrepentant, insisting it was the right platform to share his views.  “My role as a rabbi is to hold a mirror up to society, to demand equality and justice, and to hold Israel accountable. I am not here to just say what the community wants to hear.”

Rabbi Shaked also said he thinks that we might be underestimating the knowledge of the ANC delegates, who he says do read the news. He also feels that we should look at history – specifically Israel’s support of apartheid South Africa – to understand the ANC’s distrust of Israel today.

He added that at first he declined the invitation to say a prayer. Eventually he agreed, and decided unilaterally that he should use the platform to share his stance.

“It was clear to me that this is an opportunity to promote the Jewish agenda of the day – religious freedom in Israel. As most Jews around the world, I feel betrayed by the last actions of the current regime regarding the Kotel and the conversion bill. Rabbis and organisations all over the Jewish world are expressing their deep disappointment.”

The rabbi acknowledges that his statement made people uncomfortable, but “I am here to speak the truth and to ensure Israel is the best it can be”, he concluded.

According to tradition, the privilege of saying a prayer at ANC conferences is usually granted to the Chief Rabbi of the country, as the spiritual leader of the community. In this instance, the Office of the Chief Rabbi confirmed Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein had received no such invitation. Rabbi Goldstein was out of the country this week and could not be reached for comment.

Asked why Rabbi Goldstein had not been invited to say a prayer, conference organiser Rev Dr Vukile Mehana told Jewish Report that he had simply selected Rabbi Shaked “from a list I was given from Luthuli House”.

Mehana, said that the invitation to offer prayers was a late decision and that the only reason Chief Rabbi Goldstein had not been on the list, was because it only included those who had accepted an invitation to attend.

It is believed Rabbi Shaked was invited because of his close relationship with the late Struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

Rabbi Shaked said a prayer at Kathrada’s funeral in April, and was taken to task by some members of the Jewish community because Kathrada had been a staunch Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) supporter.

At the time, Rabbi Shaked told Jewish Report that Kathrada and his wife, Barbara Hogan, had been his guests at Beit Emanuel services a number of times. He added that a number of guests from the Kathrada Foundation had also attended a special Human Rights Shabbat Service at Beit Emanuel last year.

SA Union of Progressive Judaism National Chairman Monica Solomon said: “Rabbi Shaked was approached directly by the ANC to deliver this prayer. As in every organisation, we have rabbis with different backgrounds and political views, and Rabbi Shaked’s remarks do not reflect the ideologies of the Progressive Movement.”

Rabbi Greg Alexander of the South African Association of Progressive Rabbis, issued a statement from the United States, where he is travelling: “Rabbi Shaked was personally invited to speak at the opening of the ANC Policy Conference in Johannesburg.  While the majority of his address was a reading from our own Mishkan T’filah siddur, he also took the opportunity to make some impromptu remarks.

“However, the words that he chose and the occasion that he chose to say them, were not phrased in the clearest or most opportune manner, and we regret any embarrassment that has ensued because of them. 

“It is important to note that Rabbi Shaked, as all our rabbis are, is committed to Israel as a Jewish state, while also espousing the values of tolerance and Jewish pluralism that we would like to see in the Jewish homeland.”

Reeva Forman, a leader of the Progressive Jewish community and chairman of Temple Israel in Hillbrow, said in her personal capacity that “Rabbi Shaked made it clear that he is not speaking on behalf of South African Jews when he said ‘As a minority within a minority, as a Progressive Jew…’ so it seems he was in fact talking on behalf of himself.

“However, I question if the audience understood this. In no way can Rabbi Shaked claim to speak on behalf of the South African Jewish community, the majority of whom are Modern Orthodox. 

“As a South African Jew and member of the Progressive Jewish community, I personally do not agree. Israel has extensive religious freedom, albeit an Israel within borders still to be defined.

“Every religion is respected. If the rabbi was referring to the current dispute in Israel between the ultra-Orthodox and the modern Jewish world, this would in my opinion have been totally lost on his audience, and his words construed as part of the usual ‘cant’ of those who delegitimise Israel.”