Chief Rabbi Elect Warren Goldstein will spend 2004 in the office of the outgoing Chief Rabbi, Cyril Harris, learning the ropes of religious diplomacy.
Not bad for the 32-year-old Pretoria-born lawyer and co-author of the book African Soul Talk (Jacana). The work is a spiritually based dialogue Goldstein has held via e-mail with Dumani Mandela, grandson of former president Nelson Mandela. In it the two conduct heated debates about politics, culture, religion and nation-building.
Through the book Goldstein emerges as upbeat and outspoken, high on the virtues of the country’s Constitution. Committed to the African renaissance, multiculturalism and diversity, the world’s youngest chief rabbi-in-training is no sage-like elder steeped in the ghetto values of old.
In contrast Goldstein lives in an upmarket duplex townhouse in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Glenhazel, Johannesburg. He has a wife and two sons and functions as spiritual head of his neighbourhood Sunny Road synagogue.
He is a fourth-generation South African whose great grandfather emigrated from Lithuania to the small town of Bethal. Goldstein’s doctorate dealt with constitutional human rights law from a Jewish perspective.
How do you feel, taking up your position at such a young age?
South Africa is a young democracy, young people are making an impact on our new society from our cricket team to our members of the Parliament, many of whom are in their 30s. I represent a new generation of young Jewish leaders committed to the future and success of the New South Africa.
Do you think, as others have claimed, that anti-Semitism is on the rise?
Last week The Economist carried an article about the resurgence of anti-Semitism, well-documented throughout the world. By the way, an important exception is South Africa. We have one of the lowest rates of anti-Semitic incidents in the world. So that’s something to be proud of. Of course South Africa is very sensitive to racial prejudice and religious prejudice. That sensitivity has seeped into the atmosphere of the culture of our country. It’s very comfortable for Jews in South Africa as opposed to other countries across the world.
But if you say that the local community is to a greater degree free from the prejudices that exist outside, then why is it that we see more and more fences going up around synagogues, and we hear that there are Jewish Defence League members being trained in Israel?
The latter claim I know nothing about. There is no doubt that Jews are a target anywhere in the world. We saw that in Turkey, we see that in many different places — when the Malaysian prime minister called upon the Muslim world to destroy Jews he was given a standing ovation at an Islamic conference.
One has to be vigilant because Jews are a target wherever, and continue to be so. There were headlines in the Jerusalem Post of specific concerns for the South African Jewish community. It was subsequently clarified that they just felt we weren’t an exceptional risk, but a risk among others. The bottom line is that Jews all around the world are targets and the community has to do its best to protect itself.
Reading your book I came upon this quote about apartheid: “When national identity is based on ethnicity or cultural background then it will always be inward-focused and exclusive; it will always tend to be insular and xenophobic.” Could the same not be said of the state of Israel?
Two points on that one: Jewish identity is based around morals, values, beliefs, a certain world view. Jews don’t form a particular race. There are black Jews, white Jews, Indian Jews, African Jews, Arab Jews. Being Jewish is not a racial identity it’s a system of values. In fact my model when discussing with Dumani [Mandela] was for me the Jewish people in that we have held together even as people of different races, across different languages, and cultures. If you go to Israel today people who share the same value system from different parts of the world also share the same Seder [Passover celebration]. They’ve been separated for more than 1 000 years but there’s a common history and there’s a common value system.
Secondly, an important thing to understand is that the state of Israel was created in the aftermath of the Holocaust. I know that people don’t like Jews bringing up the Holocaust all the time, always saying we’re the eternal victims. But the bottom line is that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and there would have been more had Hitler had the opportunity to do so.
Hitler’s Holocaust was the culmination of 1 000 years of bloodshed in Europe. I say this a few times to Dumani in the book: Europe is drenched with Jewish blood from top to toe. To this day we have enemies who seek our destruction. So therefore the State of Israel was set up, I believe, to protect Jewish life because it was not secure anywhere else in the world.
The state of Israel is an affirmative- action state to protect a vulnerable people from genocide and persecution.
Do you see Jews having a divine right to the environment of Israel?
We believe that God gave us that divine right. People may not accept that claim, and I understand if they don’t come from our value system or our framework of belief then they may not accept that. But one thing is indisputable, that more than 3 000 years ago Jews were living in the land of Israel and that the land of Israel has a historical connection to the Jewish people, which runs for 3 000 years. Jews throughout the world have prayed three times a day for a return to Zion and a return to Jerusalem.
Much has been made of the fact that you are a fourth-generation South African. Would you encourage young South African Jews to immigrate to Israel the way previous leaders have encouraged it?
The community policy has always been encapsulated in the phrase, “go home or stay home”. And as South Africans and Jews we have two homes and that has always been the approach. I say to Dumani in the book: Why can one not embrace many loyalties, a love of many things and a commitment to many things? I see absolutely no contradiction in loving South Africa, being devoted to South Africa and pouring one’s energies into making the New South Africa a successful country, while at the same time being connected to the land of Israel and the Jewish people. The two loyalties come together.
And in your own life is part of your fulfilment moving to the state of Israel?
My mission in life is to do the most good that it is possible to do, and I know it sounds idealistic, but that is my truth. I have to live in a place where I can make the greatest contribution as a Jew, as a South African and as a human being. For me that place is South Africa and, therefore, I am devoted to serving the South African Jewish community and serving the society. South Africa has one of the largest, most established Jewish communities in the developing world. I think it’s very important for us to engage with the government and to persuade the government to understand where Jews are coming from and where Israel is coming from.
What is your opinion of “the wall”?
I’m not going to avoid the question, but one thing that disturbs me is the focus on Israel around the world and particularly in South Africa. If you look at the South African context, at Africans north of our border: in the Congo in recent years three million people have died. I would like to do an exercise: let’s look at the amount of words consumed on the Middle East versus the Congo. One doesn’t want to weigh numbers versus numbers, but the scale of disaster in the Congo dwarfs the Middle East by millions lost. There needs to be a sense of proportion. I don’t like to blame the media because I think the media is reflecting what the public is interested in hearing. People ask, “Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitism?” Well, it’s not if it’s in proportion. Anti-Semitism is disproportionate criticism of Jews and a disproportionate focus.
If you have a look at opinion surveys, the Israeli people overwhelmingly want to make peace, and throughout the 50-plus years-plus of the history of the state Israelis have attempted to make peace. The Jewish mindset is a vulnerable mindset. We have seen six million of our people murdered — the culmination of a 1 000 years of pain and bitterness. Israel is on a tiny strip of land, surrounded by neighbours who have declared their intention of destroying Israel. Israel has gone out of its way and has been met halfway by moderate states that have made peace with Israel. But one must understand the entire Palestinian-Israeli question in the context of that Jewish vulnerability of another Holocaust. A number of commentators have noted that if Israel makes one mistake or loses one war there is no doubt there will be another Holocaust.
If you are in support of the new Constitution then are you also in support of bringing Orthodox Judaism in line with those precepts — say eradicating liturgical condemnations of homosexuality and marrying gay couples, ordaining female ministers, et cetera?
In the book what I was saying to Dumani is that as South Africans if we are to build this nation we need to build a nation around a value system, around a shared common moral vision. There are so many ideas about what is right and what is wrong — there are many different cultures, many different religions, many different norms within South Africa. So how do you begin to find some set of common norms around which we can build a society?
We have two different documents in this country that are widely accepted across the board. The one is the new Constitution, which was the culmination of a democratic process. The other is the Bible, and here Dumani and I clashed a lot because Dumani felt it was Eurocentric. I said not at all, that’s insulting to his fellow South Africans who accept the Bible and who are not Eurocentric. They have chosen to follow it in whatever form. So that is a document that many South Africans hold to be valuable.
Statistics indicate that the vast majority of South Africans are religious and hold strong religious beliefs. So I said: Instead of having a Bill of Rights let’s have a bill of morals, a bill of values. Within the society you have people who passionately believe in the Constitution and those who passionately believe in the Bible. Of course there are going to be areas of clash, some of which you’ve mentioned. As South Africans we have to say there’s the level upon which the state operates and there’s the level of private morality. Where the two clash one has try to concentrate on nation-building through values that we can all agree upon.
The book said: Go out there and formulate, in your businesses, in your families in your communities. Let us, as a South African society, start addressing the needs of the soul.