Russell Gaddin – community leader of note

DAVID SAKS

He was chairman of the SA Board of Jewish Education from 1987-1992, during which time he was involved in a vital debenture campaign to rescue the Jewish day schools from a serious financial crisis. Thereafter he served two terms as president of the organisation. He was also much involved in the work of the IUA-UCF, both on a national and provincial basis, including as chairman of its Johannesburg campaign.

Gaddin’s firmly held position was that every Jewish family, regardless of its financial status, had to contribute what he termed its “Jewish tax” to the IUA-UCF. His communal service career culminated in his being elected national chairman of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies in August 1999. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001 and thereafter served two terms as national president (2003 – 2007).

SAJBD Chairman Mary Kluk described Gaddin as someone who was “passionately committed to the safety and wellbeing of the South African Jewish community, and who was just as whole-hearted in his commitment to Israel and the Zionist cause”.

There were few areas of Jewish communal activity in which he was not meaningfully involved, she said, whether in the realm of Jewish education, fundraising, advocacy for Israel, combating anti-Semitism, safety and security, the Jewish media or representing the community in the political and international arena.

Russell Gaddin was born in Johannesburg on February 8, 1938. After matriculating at Highland North High School, he established his own business, WIN Corporation, in which connection he subsequently served for several years as chairman of the Jewellery and Watch Distributors Association.   

As a senior office bearer within the SAJBD, Gaddin was intimately involved in various important communal initiatives. This included the cost-cutting rationalisation process that led to the establishment of the Beyachad Jewish communal centre in 2000 and, in 1998, the founding of the SA Jewish Report.

Prior to becoming national chairman, he was chairman of the SAJBD Gauteng Council and also of the SAJBD Country Communities subcommittee. 

Gaddin’s two terms as SAJBD chairman coincided with the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the outbreak of the so-called “Second Intifada” in September 2000. In the face of an ever-escalating media and political onslaught against Israel, he emerged as a forthright, sometimes pugnacious defender of the Jewish state, one who did not hesitate to slam the government for statements he regarded as being unduly biased.

When it appeared that the Maccabi Games in Israel might be cancelled because of the fraught security situation, he strongly opposed what he saw as an abandonment of the Israeli people at the time when the solidarity of the Jewish world was most needed, and he was at the forefront of those who successfully lobbied for the event to go ahead.   

Gaddin is survived by his lifelong partner, Battie, whom he met and married in Israel, and four children.