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
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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