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South African Jewish women of valour
“A woman of valour, who can find? Her worth is far beyond pearls.
“She gives generously to the poor; her hands are stretched out to the needy.
“Her mouth is full of wisdom: her tongue with kindly teaching…’
SUZANNE BELLING
These verses from Proverbs 31 extol the many virtues of a woman, but they hardly touch the surface of what women have achieved today.
Just in the area of giving back to community, South African Jewish women have excelled.
Ann Harris has demonstrated throughout her life how a woman can remain an observant Jewess, while retaining a modern outlook and independence. Originally from Manchester, UK, she married Cyril Harris, who became Chief Rabbi of South Africa.
She practised as a solicitor before coming to South Africa. She took the community by storm with her outspoken addresses and actions in championing human rights and fighting for social justice.
She was part of a team running the Wits Law Clinic for 10 years from 1989, the last three as acting director. She became chairman of OSSAC (Oxford Synagogue Skills For Adults Centre), which teaches a variety of skills – from literacy to computers.
Ann caused a stir in 1990 when she visited Lusaka at the invitation of the Five Freedoms Forum to meet with the ANC.
She lives in Cape Town and is currently president of the African Jewish Congress, a founding board member of Afrika Tikkun, a trustee of the SA Holocaust and Genocide Foundation and chairman of the board of trustees of the Chief Rabbi CK Harris Memorial Foundation.
Achiever par excellence, Marlene Bethlehem, says: “Helen Suzman was my inspiration.”
Marlene has had three overlapping public careers – sportswoman, Jewish communal leadership and South African national involvement.
Her local Jewish communal career spans several organisations, all in leadership capacities and she was the first-ever national chairman and president of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies.
She joined the Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society in 1964, becoming chairman of the national executive, later president and is now honorary life vice-president.
On a national level, she was a peace monitor during the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. She was also an observer to the 2006 Palestinian elections.
In 2003 President Thabo Mbeki appointed her as deputy chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, a post she held for 10 years.
Between 1959 and 1962 she played on the overseas professional tennis circuit. In 1961, she reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon and followed this up a year later by winning the Wimbledon Plate in the ladies’ singles.
Marlene’s most recent honour was being chosen as president of the New York-based Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and spoke in Hannover, Germany on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this year.
Although she started her career as a top model, Reeva Forman became a formidable business leader and entrepreneur.
In 1994 she was chairman of Temple Israel in Hillbrow. She was instrumental in saving the premises as a place of worship.
It is today a heritage site, as well as an outreach centre in the area to Jews still living there and, with Afrika Tikkun, for the disadvantaged. Reeva became one of the founding members of Afrika Tikkun.
An honorary life vice-president of the SA Zionist Federation, she is well known in the community for initiating the Israel Now tours to help South African opinion-makers understand the reality on the ground in that country.
She joined the SA Jewish Board of Deputies in 1998 and in 2002 began her ongoing Zionist activism.
She won the SA Businesswoman of the Year award in 1983 and was the first woman in South Africa to be invited to join the Young Presidents Organisation.
Marcia Parness has devoted herself to Zionist activities since her youth, focusing primarily on education and outreach.
She is now honorary life president of the SA Zionist Federation and of the Women’s Zionist Organisation of SA and an honorary life member of the World WIZO Organisation in Israel.
She was the first woman chairman of the Student Zionist Association at Wits. She has been active in various aspects of SAZF and WIZO work ever since, holding many offices.
Marcia’s compassion is illustrated by her being a founder member of the Shalom Bayit Committee, established to educate Jewish women to identify family abuse, and ways in which to prevent it.
Apart from their manifold other activities, three women have distinguished themselves in commemorating the Holocaust and bringing its lessons to many South Africans.
All three were founders of different centres – Myra Osrin, former director of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre, the first in the country, Tali Nates, director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Mary Kluk, director, Durban Holocaust Centre.
Myra was previously chairman of the then Western Province Zionist Council and Bnoth Zion. She was also a previous joint winner of the SA Jewish Report Lifetime Achiever Award in 2001, with her late husband, Eliot.
Mary Kluk, who followed Marlene Bethlehem after a few years as the second woman chairman (and now president) of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, has lived her entire life in Durban.
She was previously chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the Board of Deputies.
She is a member of the executive committee of the World Jewish Congress
She has always been actively involved in fund-raising projects both in the Jewish and broader communities including the Highway Hospice.
Avital (Tali) Nates – also a former Jewish Achievers winner, was born in Israel, where she met and married South African Clive Nates in 1985 and they returned to this country.
Her father, Moses Turner, and uncle, Henryk Turner, were spared during the Holocaust as their names appeared on the famous list of Oskar Schindler – the rest of the family perished.
The JHGC seeks to raise awareness of the evils of genocide, focusing on the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The South African national curriculum for grades 9 and 11 includes Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and a suggested theme on Genocide: a case study of Rwanda.
The JHGC assists provincial education departments, schools and educators with its human rights curriculum.