Qhawe Lama Qhawe is laid to rest

Herby Rosenberg and I came from different sides of the political tracks. There was a threat, a gun, a raid on my offices as a young student activist. We were destined to fight, but instead, we became close friends.

A lawyer by profession and businessman by practice, Herby would regale us with stories about his time driving a luxury Cadillac motor vehicle which he gave up to find meaning in serving his people and the people of South Africa.

The first time I met Herby, he told the story of rushing to airforce headquarters in Pretoria where his son was stationed, upon hearing of the Church Street bombings, telling the story of cradling his injured son in his arms. He told the story of the first time his son danced with Herby’s wife, Sandra, after recovering from his injuries. Herby cried, we cried too.

As its director general, Herby lead the South African Zionist Federation into a political powerhouse that towered seven stories over the skyline of Doornfontein, and lead South African Jewry.

The world changed, and Herby changed too. He embraced the new South Africa with vigour and enthusiasm. He and Bertie Lubner would re-define the Jewish community’s contribution to the new South Africa. Nelson Mandela gave him his nickname of Qhawe Lama Qhawe (the Hero of Heroes), and never a better description there was.

Herby was a founding member of Afrika Tikkun, the SA Jewish Report, and South African Friends of Ben Gurion University. His energy and passion drove everything he did. When he took people round an Afrika Tikkun school, Herby would burst with pride. The kids loved him, they would run to him, surround him, hug him, and hold on to him as if drawn to their saviour.

Herby’s list of patronages and directorships included the Worcester School for the Deaf and Blind, Medunsa University, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York, where Herby was the only South African on its board.

Herby would often say that you don’t fundraise, you “friend-raise”, that life was about relationships and connections between people. Regardless of whether you were the chief executive or car guard, Herby would treat you with the same respect.

Always immaculately dressed and in later years with a dapper cane, he was as much at home in the boardrooms of Johannesburg as he was in the bush, where he would describe his hand reared elephant “Jabulani” and how it would smell his cologne in the Kapama Game Reserve.

When I gave a public speech, Herby would often lead a standing ovation and would tell whoever would listen that he was my mentor and taught me everything I knew. In truth, I could never aspire to be half the man that Herby was, a giant of his people, who served the people of South Africa, its Jewish community, and world Jewry with such honour and distinction.

In 1986, Herby gave me a gold Cross pen with a Star of David on its clip. It was accompanied by a note that applies more to Herby today than it ever did to me. The note read:

“The Jews have always faced a dual challenge, having to fight their oppressors and to fight for the preservation of their singular identity”. How poignantly was this expressed in Alterman’s The Battle of Granada, a poem that portrays the remarkable Shmuel Ha’Nagid (Samuel the Governor), Hebrew poet, scholar, statesman, soldier, who 900 years ago was leader of Spanish Jewry and at the same time chief minister of state for the Berber King of Granada and commander of his army.

Alterman sets a battlefield scene where Samuel, the Jewish general, is being addressed by a Spanish commander. The Spaniard tells him in this rough translation of Alterman’s exquisite Hebrew that apart from the military campaigns of Granada:

“…you have another war,

a war of your own,

an unending war.

It is the war of your people whose shepherd you are

It is the war of your language whose host you command.

It is the war of your children

whose teacher you are

to teach them the meaning of your antiquity…”

Herby leaves behind a loving wife and two beloved sons. His memory will forever be a blessing on the people of South Africa.

• Howard Sackstein in the chairperson of the SA Jewish Report.