Chance or Besheert? A Gerus from Goldfus

Even though 54 years have passed, Gill Levy (nee Gass) remembers the day clearly.  She had been a 15 year-old pupil at Johannesburg’s Menorah Girl’s High School in 1970, when her teacher, Carol Stern, announced to the class that she was getting married. The girls’ excitement was heightened when Carol, who was one of the founding teachers at the fledgling educational institute, requested that they attend her huppah and form a Guard-of-Honor as she and her new husband walked down the steps of the shul.

Like millions of other diaspora Jews, following the outbreak of war on October 7^th 2023, Gill and her husband Ron, were constantly checking updates of news events as they unfolded in Israel. One evening they were watching CNN, when interviewee Brigadier-General Dan Goldfus of the IDF was introduced. His name rang a distant bell and then she remembered that Carol had married a man by the name of Chaim Goldfus. As Dan spoke, Gill detected that the imposing Israeli soldier had a trace of a South African accent and she wondered if there was any connection between this war hero and her old teacher. Intrigued, Gill called her ex-classmate Dina Barnett, now living in Jerusalem who confirmed that Dan was indeed the son of Carol and Chaim.

A few weeks later Gill’s brother-in-law Jules Urdang traveled from South Africa to Israel as part of a JNF and South African Zionist Federation solidarity mission. On his return, he mentioned that during one of the group’s activities, a larger-than-life soldier walked into the room and introduced himself as Dan Goldfus. He had made a huge impression on the members of the group.

Just a week later, Gill’s sister and Jules’ wife Stephanie, also traveled to Israel, to show solidarity and to volunteer at Leket Yisrael and do some fruit picking. Her son Jonathan had asked her to buy a number of items from Pull&Bear, so with just hours remaining before her return flight, she popped into the branch at the Ra’anana Mall, together with her cousin Gail Shapiro.

As the two were browsing around and chatting at the very back of the store, a stranger approached them and asked if they were from South Africa. (Ra’anana is so infused with South African Olim and visitors that it is almost the equivalent of asking the same question in Cape Town!) Carol actually mentioned that she did not usually engage with South Africans in Ra’anana because there were just so many of them! The three struck up a conversation during which the lady introduced herself. “Lovely to meet you,” she said, “My name is Carol Goldfus.” Astounded, Stephanie confirmed that she was the same Carol Stern who had taught her sister Gill so many years before. She reminded Carol that her sister had attended her wedding 54 years before and mentioned that her husband Jules had met Dan. The tears flowed and the hugs were tight.

Yet knowing that Carol lived in Jerusalem, Steph wondered what Carol was doing at the back of a clothing store in Ra’anana.  She explained that she had traveled there to take Dan’s daughter Arielle out as a Savta’s birthday treat and that they had popped into the store to choose a gift. Then Arielle appeared and Stephanie told her that her husband had met Dan very recently and that he had been so impressed by her father.

Arielle had not seen her father since before Rosh Hashanah and was so touched to have made this round-about connection with him. And Steph felt that God had guided her there to tell her that so many people across the world were in awe of her father.

At that moment, when all those disparate cards fell into place, Arielle had received an ethereal gerus* from her dad. Chance or besheert**?

*A Yiddish term for greetings or regards

**By Divine will

Pictures courtesy of the Goldfus and Urdang families