5. The Ascension of Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein and the traditionalist takeover of
5.2 Goldstein’s Initiatives
In 2005, immediately following his inauguration, Goldstein launched a series of seminars on ethics for Jewish health care professionals, lawyers, and businessmen.87 Around 2007, in a move that foretold a ministry heavily invested in mass communications, Goldstein launched his “Chief Rabbi on Air” half hour weekly SABC radio program, reportedly
80 See Warren Goldstein and Dumani Mandela, African Soul Talk: When Politics Is Not Enough, (Johannesburg:
Jacana Media, 2005); Milton Shain “South Africa,”, American Jewish Yearbook, 105 (2005), 536.
81; Warren Goldstein, Defending the Human Spirit: Jewish Law's Vision for a Moral Society, (Jerusalem:
Feldheim, 2005).
82 Cyril Harris, “An Optimistic Indicator of the Continuation of South African Jewry,” Jewish Tradition, Shavuot 5764, [June], 2004; Grossnass, interview.
83 “Rabbi Warren Goldstein: A New Generation Jewish Leader,” (feature article), Jewish Tradition, Shavuot, 5764, [June], 2004.
84 Charlotte Halle, “Native Son Is South Africa's New Chief Rabbi,” Haaretz, 17 December 2004, https://www.haaretz.com/1.4839703/
85 Ibid.
86 See details of the neighbourhood security service developed by the Office of the Chief Rabbi, the Community Active Protection – CAP, mentioned in Chief Rabbi’s Report: UOS Conference 2007 http://ww1.chiefrabbi.co.za/2007/08/uos-conference-august-2007-chief-rabbis-report, accessed on 14 December 2021.
87 Milton Shain, “South Africa,” American Jewish Yearbook, 106 (2006), 553.
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attracting a listenership of between 14,000 and 17,000 across the country.88 In 2009, in a joint venture with the Board of Jewish Education and head of OhrSom, Rabbi Ryan Goldstein, the Chief Rabbi instituted a Bet Midrash [study hall] program at Kind David Linksfield. For the first time students were exposed to an option of in-depth Talmud or in-depth Chumash [Pentateuch] study. In line with the classical Yeshiva method, students studied in pairs, before being taught by the teacher.89 This program reflected Goldstein’s belief that, irrespective of their level of observance, all students had the right to experience intensive Torah study.90 In January 2010 this program was expanded to include Cape Town’s Herzlia High School, and a few months later King David Victory Park in Johannesburg was added.91 In 2011, two new projects were inaugurated, namely Sinai Indaba and Generation Sinai. The first was led by the Office of the Chief Rabbi, in partnership with other rabbis, shuls, and outreach organizations. Held over two days at upmarket convention centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban -- with Johannesburg’s attendance numbering in the thousands -- it brought together international speakers from around the Jewish world to discuss current Jewish issues. Designed to provide a “Torah perspective,” the speakers were strictly Orthodox and selected by the Chief Rabbi with input from Chabad, Mizrachi, and Ohr Somayach, all of which participated in funding the event.92 The organizers were careful to include a fair number of women in the main line-up following a growing worldwide trend even among the strictest Orthodox organizations.93 In its inaugural year the venture was enthusiastically received by the Jewish press, with the Jewish Report calling it “a breath of fresh air which will be long remembered.”94
That same year the Chief Rabbi also introduced Generation Sinai, a coordinated mass parent and child learning session on the Friday preceding the Festival of Shavuot. At almost every Jewish day school across the nation parents came to learn a “pre-arranged piece of Torah” with their children, who had previously revised it at school. Calling it “probably the
88 “Chief Rabbi’s Report: UOS Conference 2007”, http://ww1.chiefrabbi.co.za/2007/08/uos-conference-august- 2007-chief-rabbis-report, accessed on 14 December 2021.
89 “Chief Rabbi’s Report: UOS Conference 2009,” http://ww1.chiefrabbi.co.za/2009/08/uos-conference-august- 2009-chief-rabbis-report, accessed on 14 December 2021.
90 See Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, interview by author, (Johannesburg, May 2017).
91 “Chief Rabbi’s Report: UOS Conference 2011,” http://ww1.chiefrabbi.co.za/2011/08/uos-conference-august- 2011-chief-rabbis-report, accessed on 14 December 2021.
92 Ibid.
93 Ferziger, Beyond Sectarianism, 195-210. See also discussion in chapter 1.
94 “A gathering good for the soul” (editorial), SAJR, 24 June 2011, https://4crdug1m1izqix01u1hvesh1- wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/24-june-2011.pdf . The same edition devoted four pages (2-4,6) to reports on the content of the sessions. The event was, in the main, sponsored anonymously. As we shall indicate below, the initiative was almost certainly in response to the Limmud conference, to which UOS rabbis had been banned from attending by the Chief Rabbi and the Beth Din.
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single largest Torah learning event that a community has ever experienced,” Goldstein reported that between 8,000 and 9,000 students and between 3,000 and 4,000 parents participated at the inaugural event. Johannesburg’s Jewish community radio station, Chai FM, provided live coverage. 95 These initiatives were accompanied by high levels of media publicity, heretofore uncommon for the Office of Chief Rabbi.96 As we shall discuss below, Goldstein consciously chose to market his activities, claiming it would add prestige to his agenda of spreading what he regarded as Torah values. He was unabashed in his aims of drawing international acclaim for South African Jewry in general, and his projects in particular.
Two projects in 2013 catapulted South Africa’s Chief Rabbi into the international arena. The first was the publication of a book titled Legacy: Teachings for Life from the Great Lithuanian Rabbis which Goldstein had jointly authored with the popular Orthodox historian Rabbi Berel Wein.97 One function of this book, as Goldstein admitted, was to set out his “moral and strategic vision” for the “Jewish community’s internal challenges.”98 Another function, equally important, was to pay tribute to the authors’ mentors, who in Goldstein’s case was Rabbi Azriel Goldfein, whose teachings and anecdotes are frequently cited in the footnotes. Visual expression of this intention may be seen in the book’s inside cover. It displays a photograph taken in the 1950s of a young Goldfein in conversation with his colleague Avraham Tanzer as they walk alongside America’s greatest Torah sages, all of whom studied and lectured at Lithuanian Yeshivas. By using this photograph, the co-authors attempt to broadcast the message that South Africa’s Chief Rabbi was a true heir to the Lithuanian legacy.99 Wein’s reputation as conservatively Orthodox with no formal ties,
95 “Chief Rabbi’s Report: UOS Conference 2011”; Alison Goldberg “History made with Generation Sinai,” SAJR, 10 June 2011, https://4crdug1m1izqix01u1hvesh1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/10- june-2011.pdf
96 As noted, Bernard Casper initiated annual radio broadcasts (see Casper, Broadcasts and Papers), and Harris occasionally appeared in the media, but their projects had little advertising or publicity.
97 Berel Wein and Warren Goldstein, Legacy: Teachings for Life from the Great Lithuanian Rabbis, Jerusalem:
Maggid, 2012.
98 Bayla Sheva Brenner, “Conversing with Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein”, Jewish Action, Winter 2013, https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/people/conversing-chief-rabbi-dr-warren-goldstein.
99 For reviews, see Wallace Greene “The Legacy: Teachings for Life from the Great Lithuanian Rabbis” (Book Review), Jewish Book Council, December, 2013 https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-legacy-teachings- for-life-from-the-great-lithuanian-rabbis; Kimberly Hay, “On Torah Values and the Courage to Rebuild: A Review of The Legacy,” Kol Hamevaser, 6:6 April 28, 2013: 21-22, https://repository.yu.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12202/4891/Kol%20Hamevaser%206.6-holocaust-
catastrophe%20April%202013.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y; Allan Jay Gerber, “The Kosher Bookworm: The legacy of the great Lithuanian Rabbis: another Berel Wein classic,” The Jewish Star, December 27, 2012 https://www.thejewishstar.com/stories/The-Kosher-Bookworm-The-legacy-of-the-great-Lithuanian-Rabbis- another-Berel-Wein-classic,3766.
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either to modern Orthodox or to Haredim, but embraced by moderate elements of both, might very well have appealed to Goldstein’s self-portrayal as non-sectarian.100 Over the course of the year the book enjoyed some measure of success and was launched in Israel, England and the United States.101 These events brought the Chief Rabbi into contact with major Jewish figures in the global Orthodox community.102