Mandela – a modern Joseph
WELL over 1000 members of the South African Jewish community turned out to remember Nelson Mandela, converging on Oxford Synagogue in Johannesburg on Sunday night.
Among those addressing the congregation were former president Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded the late anti-apartheid activist as head of state in 1999.
Mbeki spoke about the creation of a non-racial South Africa, and appealed to the audience to not only celebrate Mandela’s life, but to live up to the standards he set.
“This becomes a central task,” said Mbeki, “that we reflect on what needs to be done to sustain his legacy, to ensure that we do not betray what he and others sacrificed for, what he and others stood for.”
Chief Rabbi of South Africa Warren Goldstein also took to the pulpit, drawing a comparison with the biblical figure Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in prison before emerging to lead a nation.
Rabbi Goldstein said of Mandela,“He lived in jail for 27 years and was able to put all of that behind him so that the family of South Africa would not be torn apart.”
Among others who paid tribute to the late president was deputy director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) David Saks, who has authored a book Jewish Memories of Mandela.
Speaking to The AJN this week, he noted that from Mandela’s arrival in Johannesburg in 1941, he was “totally associated with Jewish individuals in all fields”, having Jewish lawyers, for instance.
Following his release from prison in 1990 and subsequently as president, Saks said Mandela met with the SAJBD on a continual basis, and took time for individuals in the community.
He would visit Jewish leaders when they were sick, he attended the chief rabbi’s book launch, and Saks recalls that when a bar mitzvah boy wrote to him, he came along to his bar mitzvah.
“He valued every single human being. He saw intrinsic value and worth and treated everybody with great dignity and compassion,” Saks said.
On the Middle East, Saks said that Mandela was very much a two-state solutionist. “The same rights had to be accorded to the Palestinians in the occupied territories. They also needed a homeland; independence.”
Saks also spoke of Mandela’s enduring legacy for South Africa and the world.
“The lessons are of acceptance, of recognising the intrinsic worth of all human beings, to act with compassion and justice … To put the injustices of the past – not to forget them – but to put them behind you in order to go forwards.”
PHOEBE ROTH