Tributes to South Africa’s Mendel Kaplan

PETER KOHN

FORMER South Africans now living in Australia have paid tribute to global Jewish communal titan Mendel Kaplan, who died of a stroke last month, aged 73.

Kaplan was a major figure in world Jewry, especially renowned for promoting and mobilising the issue of Soviet aliyah after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Among his many roles, he served as chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency for Israel from 1987 to 1995, chairman of Keren Hayesod’s World Board of Trustees from 1983 to 1987, and honorary president of Keren Hayesod from 1995 until his death.

Kaplan was also national chairman of the Israel United Appeal (IUA) South Africa from 1978 to 1987 and vice-president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.

Veteran Jewish Communal Appeal volunteer Aubrey Krawitz of North Bondi, a long-time friend of Kaplan’s, met the South African icon at Rome airport just six weeks ago.

“He was on his way to Israel and I was returning to Australia -— he proudly showed me a new Israeli passport of his.”

Krawitz, 75, worked with Kaplan at South Africa’s IUA for 25 years, and said his father-in-law, Fritz Frank, was Kaplan’s mentor.

The retired Double Bay resident this week described Kaplan as “a giant among men … his loss is not just for South Africa, but for the Jewish world”.

Krawitz recalled that Kaplan, the first non-American to head the Jewish Agency, would “canvass around the world, flying his own plane”.

Retired Sydney businessman Doug Pillemer, meanwhile, remembered meeting Kaplan and discussing their common ancestry.

“Mendel had gone to a town in Lithuania called Shadova and had come back with pictures of the rabbi’s house and other Jewish points of interest.

“I encountered [Kaplan] in New York and told him my grandfather had come from Shadova and his father was a rabbi, so if he ever went on a trip to Lithuania again to let me know.”

A billionaire and philanthropist, Kaplan made his fortune in the South African steel industry. He was regarded as a quiet donor to the poor, who did not seek any publicity for his charitable contributions.

Since 1974, the Kaplan family has lived in Israel and South Africa.