With the death of Nelson Mandela last week at the age of 95, the world lost a true giant. His transformational impact on his country and its people, as well as on the rest of the world, will echo through the ages.
It is no exaggeration to say he, more than any single figure, brought down South Africa’s brutal and morally repugnant apartheid system, an outcome celebrated around the world.
Even more astonishing than the bloodless revolution he sparked was the bloodless aftermath.
South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which met in the post-apartheid years, and which adjudicated the racial tensions that had poisoned the country for so long, proved violent retribution need not inevitably follow massive social change.
As our article on page 34 points out, Mandela was a lifelong friend of South Africa’s Jewish community. That community helped him as a young man, then again when he faced life in prison for anti-apartheid activities — activities that had branded him a terrorist.
Those warm relations thrived to the end. The outpouring of grief from South Africa’s Jewish community has been deep and genuine, as has been the reaction from Jews around the world.
Not everyone loved Mandela. As the standard-bearer of the so-called liberation movement and as part of what was once dubbed the non-aligned block, Mandela counted among his friends such despots as Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat.
Thus pundits on the right — some of whom were apologists for apartheid — have derided the lionizing of the former South African president this week.
These critics forget that the United States once embraced murderous tyrants such as Saddam Hussein and Nicolae Ceausescu. So hypocrisy appears to be alive and well within the punditry.
No doubt Mandela’s alliance with Arafat understandably chafed Israelis and friends of Israel, and did not further the cause of Middle East peace.
Still, given the great work Mandela did overall, it is inexcusable that the Israeli head of state did not attend the late leader’s funeral this week. Instead six members of the Knesset represented Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated excuse that it would “cost too much” makes Netanyahu and Israel look even worse.
Soon enough the funeral guest list will be forgotten, as will the sniping about this or that political decision Mandela made. Instead, we will be left with his enormous legacy of accomplishment, one that should resonate with Jews everywhere.