Abe Abrahamson - a man with a smile who kept striding

Editorial - The SAJewish Report - www.sajewisreport.co.za

Abe Abrahamson - a man with a smile who kept striding

A person’s essence cannot be distilled into a few words. But certain phrases can point in the right direction. About Abe Abrahamson, former chairman of the Jewish Report’s board, who died on Saturday, a “profound sense of balance” would be fitting - between the deadly serious versus the hilarious and ironic; the intimacy of family versus the worldliness of business; the individual domain versus public, community involvement; and personal morality versus the “public morality” of politics.

Abe was the patriarch of a huge family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and equally, the consummate “man-of the world” in business, politics and community life.

We at the Jewish Report knew him since 1998, when he was part of the initial founding committee of the paper; for many years he was chairman, resigning in late 2009, when Stan Kaplan took over. His impeccable balance was always there: board meetings would be conducted with the utmost seriousness, but at the end of them, out would come a bottle of whisky and those present would spend a relaxed half-hour chatting about anything and everything.

Abe was the perfect chairman for a newspaper - strong and clear in his vision, yet with a profound respect for its editorial independence. He never attempted to bully the paper into carrying particular articles to his liking and understood that a newspaper is a living, breathing, robust thing, hard to keep up with.

It demands a personal relationship, a love affair with its readers - which can be tempestuous at times. Abe had that connection with the paper, but also brought a calmness, an ability to see the big picture - the wood, not just the trees.

A serious paper covering a wide spectrum of issues, news and open debate will inevitably sometimes enter turbulent waters and be attacked from various quarters when people, for their own reasons, may object to part of the content.

There may be attempts to control it or, in extreme cases, even shut it down - as we have certainly experienced. Abe was always outraged at these attempts. He believed passionately in the importance of the media’s independence. He was always ready to jump to the Jewish Report’s defence, as long as it stuck to its mandate of serving Jewry as a whole with quality content. “You can’t please everyone,” he would say, “nor should you try to.”

Abe’s infirmity eventually forced him to resign as chairman of the newspaper’s board, to the sadness of its members. But, true to his dignity and impeccable sense of duty, he did not simply send a letter to the board informing them of his decision: at the next meeting, he arrived in a suit and tie and was helped up the stairs to the boardroom. He sat down in his chairman’s seat and went through the agenda methodically until it came to the relevant item, then announced his resignation.

He loved a glass of whisky, particularly combined with a chat about something interesting. By an ironic twist of fate, after arriving in South Africa from (then) Rhodesia, Abe and his wife Anita lived for many years within 100 metres of a major outlet of a well-known whisky company on Oxford Road, Johannesburg, where a huge banner portrays an image of the “striding man”. At Abe’s funeral, the rabbi commented with a sorrowful smile that Abe was the ultimate “striding man”. With his passion for life and his intelligent, open mind, he “kept walking” until the last.

On Monday, when he was extremely frail, I asked if I could visit him. “Yes!” said Abe with a “twinkle” in his voice. “Come tomorrow. I’ll have a drink waiting for you!”

The next day he was too ill for visitors. Those last words epitomised him - despite his frailness, he projected a smile to the world and an invitation for a “l’chaim!” with a glass of wine or whisky. A gracious and welcoming host, an astute businessman, a man of immense integrity, insight and wisdom, Abe was not just a man, but a mensch for all seasons with a giant heart and giant vision.

We salute him.
Geoff Sifrin
Editor