Number 36: Our father, Solomon Schkolne, z”l, was known as “Solly” or “Sol”. Especially towards the end of his 89 year life he preferred to be addressed as “Shlomo”, especially by his Grandchildren.  A highly principled man, he passionately involved himself in issues. He thought deeply, had strong convictions, a warm love of family and demonstrated compassion to all. He studied History, after returning from the Second World War, achieving his Master’s Degree Cum Laude before becoming a Lawyer.

From my earliest days I remember my father’s indignation and outrage at iniquities being perpetrated in South Africa. How can we as Jews,  he repeatedly exclaimed, who have experienced the Holocaust, Pogroms and such terrible discrimination through the generations, stand by when people are forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the name of separate development? He wrote articles and books, spoke in public, asserted himself in argument and debate, went out into the field of action. He did this always, fiercely and energetically.

Shlomo did what he believed was right  – even when not popular!  He fought (and lost!) a battle to allow a Reform Jewish girl enter Theodor Herzl School. He burnt a forest of alien trees and built a soccer field in its place when everyone said it can’t be done. In his seventies he moved from Orthodox to Reform Judaism, because he fundamentally disagreed with the Orthodox approach to women. 

We swam each early morning at Pollock beach in Port Elizabeth: He loved the energy and force of the waves; exhilaration of the cold water. The power of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto,  flow of Mozart, colour yellow of Van Goch’s Sunflowers. Afrikaans and Afrikaans poetry. His garden.

“Courage, Raymond, is the single most important quality: Churchill, Ben Gurion, Mandela”. But when I think of courage I think of him: his courageous stands; his courage in the face of life’s adversities – including very substantial health issues: heart; septicaemia; leg amputation.

He has left us a legacy of compassion and humanness, of steadfast principles and deeply embedded values.