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André Ungar (July 21, 1929 – May 5, 2020) was a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, doctor of philosophy, liturgist, social activist, and rabbi who lived in England, South Africa and the United States.

Life

Ungar was born and raised in a prosperous Orthodox family in Budapest. The family survived the Holocaust by going into hiding under pseudonyms in a non-Jewish quarter of the city. In January 1955 he arrived to take up an appointment as rabbi of the Jewish Reform Congregation in Port Elizabeth. He considered Jewish opposition to apartheid was mandatory in terms of what they themselves had experienced during the Holocaust. In November 1956, he openly took a stand against the Group Areas Act which racialized urban residential planning, arguing it was akin to the ghettoization he had himself experienced in Hungary. He further criticized South African Jews for what he considered to be the neglect of their moral responsibilities in failing to challenge apartheid, writing:-

Personal memories of oppression must still be vivid in the minds of very many. There can hardly be a Jewish family in South Africa that has not lost near relations when Hitler’s racialism reached its logical culmination in mass slaughter. Both through cruel oppression in the tumult of many centuries, and through recent personal experiences and involvements, the Jews of South Africa should be historically and psychologically well equipped to recognize oppression and persecution whenever they occur, stand by the victims, and fight against those who by action or connivance, through inhumanity or stupidity or both, help maintain such a system.'

He subsequently found himself in conflict with members of his own congregation and more broadly, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and resigned his post in October 1956. Shortly afterwards the South African government revoked his temporary residence permit.

Rabbi Ungar was the author of Living Judaism (Reform Synagogue of Great Britain: 1958), and Judaism for Our Time (RSGB: 1973); and various articles on the subject of Jewish philosophy. His alternative, poetic translations of the Amidah have appeared in all editions and versions of Siddur Sim Shalom, of the Conservative Jewish denomination.<ref>"About Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley".

Notes

Citations

1. "André Ungar Obituary".
2. Manoim 2019, pp. 16–17.
3. Gilbert 2010, p. 48.
4. Gilbert 2010, pp. 48–49.
5. Fischkopf 2011. sfn error: no target: CITEREFFischkopf2011 (help)

Sources

• Fishkoff, Sue (14 January 2011). "A half-century later, rabbis recall marching with Martin Luther King". Jewish Standard.
• Gilbert, Shirli (Spring–Summer 2010). "Jews and the Racial State: Legacies of the Holocaust in Apartheid South Africa, 1945–60,". Jewish Social Studies. 16 (3): 32–64.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
• Manoim, Irwin (2019). "The loud-mouth rabbi who was told to go". Mavericks Inside the Tent;The Progressive Jewish Movement in South Africa and Its Impact on the Wider Community. University of Cape Town Press. pp. 15–25. ISBN 978-1-775-82264-6.
• Palmer, Joanne (14 May 2020). "Remembering Rabbi Andre Ungar". Times of Israel/Jewish Standard.

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