Jewish Life Digital Edition November 2014 | Page 8

LETTERS SAY WHAT? HAVE YOUR SAY… fEmail the editor at [email protected] WIN Our star letter writer wins a copy of Blood Money – The Cyril Karabus Story, by Suzanne Belling (Jacana) TV has taught us to glorify violence, the gun. Any sixyear-old can pull a trigger. The label attached to the Shoah is that Jews went like sheep to the slaughter and so magnified the brave souls that acquired arms and offered violent resistance. Little attention is paid to the moral resistance that was offered by the millions of unarmed and ‘helpless’ victims. Even the executioners recorded instances of Jews facing death with fortitude. Of a father standing at the edge of an execution pit and holding his little son in his arms, quietly comforting the child and pointing to the heavens. Of a ‘Sondercommando’, a person who worked at the gas chambers and crematoria, overcome by the fact that he was assisting in the elimination of his own people, he entered the gas chamber with the intent to die together with his Jews. They forced him out, telling him that he must live to bear witness. The countless others who refused to abandon their humanity, did not betray or steal. Who continued to assist and comfort while they had life. Who chose to die with dignity. Those who refused the Russian offers of arms upon liberation in order to wreak havoc among the local civilian population and insisted they would stay in the camp and say Kaddish instead. Who were not prepared to turn into murderers. Who insisted on presenting a high moral profile, even at the risk to their lives. DON KRAUSZ – CHAIRMAN ASSOCIATION OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN JOHANNESBURG I was recently in Joburg, visiting from Tiberius. I am very impressed by the unity in your community and by The Shabbos Project. Shalom ESTHER FEIN I have enjoyed reading Jewish Life to this point, but feel your monthly legal slot does not belong in your magazine. As no mention is made of the severe mental trauma on family, children and society as a whole, this feature belongs in a law magazine. If short on content, change JL to a bimonthly print. Yours faithfully YOSSI FREEMAN Thankfully, we are never short on content. The family law column is included in our mix because of the value it adds. Mention is frequently made of the trauma of divorce. Riva responds more fully: “Murderer, murderer! You are under arrest.” The shock of being nabbed at Dubai Airport was almost too much for the ailing 77-yearold Professor Cyril Karabus, world-renowned paediatric oncologist en route home to Cape Town. This is the story of Cyril’s fight to prove his innocence, with worldwide support from lawyers, medical associations, doctors, businessmen and politicians, to secure his release from jail and his nine-month confinement in the UAE. Email the editor at letters@jewishlife. co.za with your views and opinions or post your comment on our Facebook page, www. facebook.com/jewishlife I feel so strongly that we should look and listen for the good, and then we’ll bring more G-dliness here on earth. Look for those who love us and Israel and not expect antiSemitism; be more consciously grateful for the many miracles. Thank you, JL, for making us so proud of our Jewishness. EDNA FREINKEL Dear Mr Freeman You are correct that divorce is a huge trauma, not just to the parties getting divorced but also to the extended families, which I have emphasised in many of my articles. Unfortunately, divorce is a reality in so many lives that it is important for people to have some basic understanding of the process, because knowledge is power. While the articles are brief, they lay the groundwork for a basic understanding of the legal process as well as the effect and trauma involved. It is precisely because of the trauma involved in a divorce that I am a fierce proponent