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That grandfather is Richard Goldstone, one of this nation’s most eminent jurists and head of a United Nations investigation that said it found evidence of war crimes during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Many of his countrymen not only took issue with the findings, they called the judge a traitor who had sold out his Jewish brethren.
Next month, Judge Goldstone’s grandson is to celebrate his bar mitzvah at Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, an Orthodox synagogue in Sandton, a Johannesburg suburb. Ordinarily, this would be nothing but a joyous event, signifying the boy’s ascent into manhood.
But Jewish leaders here recently began to speak darkly among themselves of threatened disruptions to the ceremony. Their concerns were taken to the synagogue, and the anxieties of its leadership were then shared with the family.
In an e-mail message on Friday, Judge Goldstone, who is a visiting professor atGeorgetown University Law Center, said, “Because of the threat of protests at my grandson’s bar mitzvah, I agreed in discussion with leaders of the Sandton synagogue that in the interests of my grandson, I would not attend the services.”
The source of those threats carries an air of mystery. The story was first reported in theSouth African Jewish Report. No one quoted in the article took responsibility for the threats or reliably pointed a finger elsewhere.
The South African Zionist Federation has been among the most vocal critics of the so-called Goldstone Report on the war in Gaza. On Friday, Moonyeen Castle, the chairwoman of the organization’s Western Cape Council, said the anger at Judge Goldstone was so great that it would “result in an almost certain barrage of protesters” on the day of the celebration.
If so, the protesters may have to come from within the synagogue itself. Others would find that the large white building was accessible only by a single narrow street, and private security guards would allow congregants to enter through a zigzag course of yellow iron gates.
But whatever their source, the threats were evidently taken quite seriously. Several Jewish leaders stressed Friday that the decision ultimately rested with the family — that no one had actually barred the judge from this happy event.
Warren Goldstein, the chief rabbi of South Africa, said he had been involved in discussions about the possible disruptions to the ceremony. A severe critic of the Goldstone Report, he has written that the United Nations has an “anti-Israel agenda,” and that the investigation was “merely a cover for a political strategy of delegitimizing Israel.”
But on Friday he issued a statement saying that he, like most involved, believed the judge should be allowed to attend: “It is simply a question of decency and compassion to the bar mitzvah boy not to ruin his day.”
Judge Goldstone, 71, is certainly no grandpa retreating into retirement. After the end of apartheid, he served on South Africa’s highest court until 2003. He was also the chief prosecutor for the United Nations’ war crimes tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
In early 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council selected him to lead an investigation into possible violations of international law during the three weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. He said he was “shocked, as a Jew” to be chosen.
The Goldstone Report, released last September, concluded that, based on the available evidence, both Israel and Hamas had taken actions amounting to war crimes. But the findings focused mostly on the Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israellater said, “We face three major strategic challenges: the Iranian nuclear program, rockets aimed at our civilians and Goldstone.”
Here in the judge’s home country, many Jews suddenly viewed him as a heretic. He was accused of faulty reasoning. He was accused of being co-opted. He was accused of being the worst kind of anti-Semite, a self-hating Jew.
But does that justify keeping him from the bar mitzvah?
“I want to speak as a grandfather,” said George Bizos, a well-known lawyer and friend of Mr. Goldstone. “I am shocked that pressure would be put on a grandfather not to attend an important ceremony in his grandson’s life. Those applying the pressure ought to hang their heads in shame.”
Justice Arthur Chaskalson, who served with Judge Goldstone on South Africa’s Constitutional Court, said the threats “reveal a level of bigotry and intolerance meant to shut down any diversity of opinion.”
He said he hoped his friend would reconsider — and come anyway.
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