It never
ceases to amaze me how many new pieces of information I can learn about my
grandparents or family history. In truth, for Jews, the family history connects
with the history of Israel,
the history of the Jews and goes all the way back to Avraham and Sarah, the
first Jews.
For anyone
paying attention to the news, it is now 100 years since the Balfour Declaration
and there are a variety of events taking place to commemorate this. A few days
ago there was a talk given by Sir Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Here in Israel,
Telfed hosted an event to celebrate the Centenary of the Balfour Declaration.
The event
took place in the Arts and Music Centre in Raanana. When my mom noticed who the
guest speaker was she became very excited and eager to attend. The guest
speaker was Philip Weyers, executive director of the General Smuts Foundation
in South Africa
and great grandson of General Jan Smuts. Now came a surprise for me, had I
known this and it slipped my mind? I'm not sure.
As it turns
out, my late grandfather, Prof V.L. Granger was a friend of Janny Smuts, the
son of Jan Smuts. His mother, my late great grandmother was friendly with Ouma,
the wife of Jan Smuts. Always an opportunity to learn something of interest
about one's family. It certainly serves as a reminder as to how important it is
to have contact with one's grandparents and to take an interest in learning
about their lives. You never know what interesting person was a friend or
connection of your grandparent.
Well, equipped
with this new insight about my family and their connections, off we traveled to
Ra'anana. It's quite different to Jerusalem,
for anyone who is sensitive just the energy itself is tangibly different. It
was also quite amusing to hear so many with South African accents or speaking
the odd word in Afrikaans. I've begun to become accustomed to hearing American
accents, Israeli accents. Hearing Afrikaans is a novelty in Jerusalem, and hearing so many speak with
South African accents is intriguing.
I was impressed
that the Mayor of Ra'ananna, Zev Bielsky was the host. After some introductory
speeches, relaxing to the classical music played by a South African Oleh, we
had the opportunity to watch a short video taken in Israel around the time of the
Balfour Declaration. Yes, there were Jews in Israel
(or Palestine
as it was called then) prior to WW2.
Finally the
main speaker began. He has a wonderful sense of humour and I totally enjoyed
hearing information about General Jan Smuts that I had never learned in South
African History as it was taught at school. To my amazement and delight, I
learned that Jan Smuts was a friend to the Jews. He was a good friend of Chaim
Weitzman and had a belief that the Jews belong in Israel. Well he would have called
it Palestine as
was the name given by the Romans and in use at the time, but I prefer to call
our Holy Land Israel.
I learned
quite a few details about the Boer War and other aspects of South African
history that I had not known before. Why were these interesting facts left out
of our classes at school?
When the
speeches ended and we began to file out of the theatre, it was fun to meet in
person some people I had spoken to on the telephone or corresponded with via
email. While most of the guests milled around and enjoyed a biscuit or cup of
tea or coffee, we raced off to the bus station to get the last bus back to Jerusalem.
