Unsung heroes

When people take risks to save lives, they are heroes. They may escape public exposure or even the notice of their friends and family, but that doesn’t diminish their incredible selflessness.

A hero is defined as a person of “distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities”. I believe someone who isn’t known for those deeds is just as much – if not more – of a hero.

On Tuesday, my former colleague, Derek Watts, who I worked with for seven and a half years at Carte Blanche, passed away from cancer.

There are many who would call Derek a hero because week in and week out, he would publicly challenge the bad guys on M-Net’s weekly current affairs and investigative programme. When people were duped, betrayed, conned, or harmed, he would go in and fight the good fight for justice. And he always did it with a friendly smile on his face and a ready throaty laugh, but nevertheless holding the baddy to account.

People may have feared Ruda Landman, Derek’s erstwhile co-presenter on Carte Blanche, arriving at their doorstep, knowing if they had done wrong, it wouldn’t end well. However, they didn’t fear Derek, believing him to be their buddy. Derek would appear to be just that, remaining charming throughout the interview, but he still always got the baddies tied up in knots on camera, and justice was always seen to be done.

Derek had a clear sense of right and wrong, and took on the challenge of outing those who had crossed the line. He did it because he believed that doing the right thing and justice should prevail in this country for all South Africans.

To many, he was a people’s hero. And wherever Derek went, people would stop him, even in the middle of a difficult conversation or meeting. Derek would never embarrass people, especially those who just wanted to rub shoulders with him. He would stop and give them time before getting back to his sometimes not-so-patient colleagues, friends, etcetera. Yes, I was often one of those, and I have to admit that I marvelled at the way Derek always made time for strangers.

Derek was a guest on one of our most popular SA Jewish Report webinars, about his aunt, Sylvia Raphael, who was a South African-born Mossad superspy.

She was known to have operated in Cairo; Mogadishu; Asmara; Djibouti; Beirut; Amman; and Damascus. In fact, she is said to have replaced Eli Cohen in Damascus, an agent who infiltrated the top echelon of the Syrian government and was publicly hanged in 1965.

Sylvia was a heroine, many of whose courageous deeds will never be revealed, but they were all done to help the Jewish state and its people.

In this week’s story, which goes behind the scenes of Israel’s most recent Ethiopian rescue operation (page 5), there were numerous heroes. They did what they did to save the lives of about 200 Israelis and Ethiopians eligible for aliya. Will we ever truly know what each hero did to save lives? It’s unlikely, but if one of them made the wrong move, it might have been detrimental to the whole operation. For them, it may well have been another day at work.

Dr Irwin Krombein is a hero (page 7). A medical doctor who has focused on helping underprivileged Cape Town communities, the doctor didn’t think twice about heading out to help people in Mitchell’s Plain in the middle of the taxi strike earlier this month. It was in between shifts that he was attacked on the road by protesters. They didn’t care that he had effectively risked his life to give medical care to people during the strike when so many doctors and medical staff stayed home. They didn’t ask.

Craig Nerwich is also a hero (page 1). Craig, who loves extreme swimming, lost his brother in a drowning accident. While this was devastating for him and his family, Craig decided to get something positive out of it by swimming the English Channel in his brother’s name.

Not only did he do it to honour his brother, but to raise money to enable underprivileged children to get essential swimming lessons. Funds raised will also go towards the National Sea Rescue Institute’s drowning prevention campaign. The most recent statistics show that more than 1 500 people drown in South Africa every year, which works out to about four people a day.

If the money that Craig raises can prevent even just 10 drownings a year – and hopefully it will be more – that’s 10 lives saved. How many of us can say we have saved 10 lives? What a hero! No wonder so many within our community have bought into his passionate swim for life.

It was a privilege to be included in a WhatsApp group set up to follow Craig’s swim. It was so evident how this man has inspired so many with his swim. It was beautiful!

Heroes have a way of inspiring us, but so many go unsung.

For example, I look at our own journalists, who take risks to ensure that we bring you the story. You’re never told about the volatile events they brave, you simply hear what happened there because the reporter isn’t the story, we simply tell it.

I know we all know of the incredible work that Hatzolah does, but we never hear about the one volunteer who risked life and limb to save a person’s life.

Heroes truly don’t do the right thing or take risks for the kavod, they do it because they want to and because for them, it’s the right thing to do.

The truth is, we have many heroes in our community. And they are inspired by others to go the extra mile.

This weekend, when many of us will gather at Limmud, we’ll hear inspirational stories about heroes. I look forward to seeing you there.

Shabbat shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor