It is with disgust but without surprise or shock that South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) has learned of the comments by Reuben Wagenheim, the President of the Marais Road Synagogue, relating to the genocide currently being perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank. We note also that he has proffered an apology for any offence that his words may have caused.
Mr. Wagenheim concluded his newsletter, covering a reasonable parochial account of current events in the Synagogue, with a sanctimonious religious invocation to commit genocide:
“…All credit and honour… to the heroic soldiers of the IDF and the authorities of Israel, who are following the Biblical injunction (1 Samuel 15:1 – 34) … G-d says ‘now go and strike down Amalek (read Hamas) and utterly destroy all that they have, have no pity on them but kill every man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and ass’.”
We are unsurprised by his words, for Zionism has characterised itself by the use of language which is best described as obscene in its violence. That he should choose to quote the most controversial line in the bible for the most despicable of purposes is less of a shock than it ought to be.
In February 2025, South Africa deposited with the Security Council a dossier consisting of publicly available material and which is evidence of genocidal conduct by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. We advise Mr. Wagenheim to study it. Would he be shocked that Jews could use such language? Or, given his own words, would he find the obvious mens rea, the intention to commit genocide, quite appropriate?
The President of the Marais Road Synagogue has in fact decided to align himself exactly with that material. Even worse, he instructs his fellow congregants to participate in the sentiment—as if this is how all Jews are expected to regard Palestinians. Ironically it is also as though Mr. Wagenheim had set his mind to providing a justification for genuine antisemitism; if this is an expression of how Jews are expected by their religious leaders to view others, what better reason can there be for hating Jews?
Mr. Wagenheim afterwards ‘apologised’ but his apology is quite obviously an exercise in public diplomacy: ‘Upon reflection, I recognize that my words could be construed as a call to genocide. I deeply regret this and the offense and hurt it may have caused. I am a layman, not a bible scholar and I regret the way I chose to express myself.’
His claim, in other words, is that as a layman he did not know he was calling for genocide—that such was not his intention. One wonders what else he could have meant by ‘…utterly destroy all that they have, have no pity on them but kill every man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and ass’. His apology does not indicate any remorse with respect to the violence inherent in his ideology. Instead he resorts to various bromides: ‘I fully embrace our traditions and core principle of shalom / peace among all humankind.’ Such sentiments are obviously quite incompatible with Zionism but are trotted out, regardless.
It is a characteristic of Zionist rhetoric to accuse anti-Zionists of using violent language. The SAJFP states its anti-Zionism in its core values, and because we regard ourselves as a part of the broad peace movement we make a point of using the language of human rights and dignity. Both by his original statement and by his ‘apology’, Mr. Wagenheim reveals where the true violence resides—at the heart of Zionism.
For this reason another part of his ‘apology’ is questionable. He writes, ‘the content of that newsletter reflected my personal views and was not representative of the Shul committee or our broader community.’ The tone of the letter suggests otherwise; a long list of communal events followed in the most routine way with a renewed commitment to genocide. Given the horror of what is unfolding in Gaza, the support for it which he expresses in his newsletter and the obvious duplicity of his ‘apology’, it falls on the community itself to distance itself from such leaders and to call for his resignation.
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