Page 8 LJ Today
In Memory
November/December 2019
‘He lived a full, active and varied life’ Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah on long-term Brighton minister Rabbi Charles Wallach
Rabbi Charles David Wallach was born in Johannesburg in February 1950, the first child of Ida and Heinz. Charles’s sister Ruth was born when he was four years old. Sadly, Ruth died of cancer in 2018. Heinz Wallach was a German refugee, who fled to South Africa with his parents in 1938. Ida’s story was similar to Anne Frank’s; except of course she survived the war in Holland being hidden in various places by the Dutch underground. In 1945, she too left for South Africa with her sister and soon after met and married Heinz. Charles had a happy childhood in South Africa although the consequences of the Holocaust meant that he didn’t have any ‘extended family’. And so, the circle of German Jewish immigrants in Johannesburg became his ‘surrogate’ aunts and uncles. Following his barmitzvah Charles began to help the disabled rabbi of his Reform synagogue, Temple Shalom. As early as 14, he decided that he too wanted to become a rabbi. Charles’ school days at King Edward VII State High School were followed by Habonim and then a BA degree in Hebrew and International Politics at Wits University. After graduating, he came to England to study to be a rabbi at the Leo Baeck College in London. Charles was ordained in 1975 along with Britain’s first woman rabbi, Jackie Tabick. Charles returned to Johannesburg for two years to be one of the rabbis serving the six Reform synagogues there.
He then came to England once more, in 1977, to take up his first position here as rabbi of Liberal Judaism’s Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue (BHPS). He served the community for more than 10 years, between 1977 and 1988, and he and Marilyn were married at the shul in 1979. During his tenure at BHPS, Charles and Marilyn shared a passion for doing all that they could to develop Jewish life. Very active in the Brighton branch of the Campaign for Soviet Jewry, in 1986, they went on a mission to the then USSR to help the Refusniks who wished to emigrate to Israel. Charles was also a keen member of the Brighton and Hove JIA Committee. In 1983, the couple adopted their two daughters, Maxine and Beverley. Maxine now lives in London and has six children, Chana, Chaim, Ben, Avi, Lillie and Ollie. Beverley lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband, David, and has three children, Joshua, Eli-Moshe and Ilana. Recently, Charles and Marilyn became great-grandparents. Charles was delighted that the new arrival in the family was named Hayley Anne Ruth for his beloved sister, whose passing he mourned acutely. In 1987, the young family relocated to Perth, Western Australia, where Charles was rabbi of Temple David Progressive Synagogue for seven years. Deeply committed to Israel, they then decided to make Aliyah and settled in Jerusalem. Charles led conversion classes at two Jerusalem shuls and became part-time rabbi of a small Reform community in Nahariya. Meanwhile, both he and Marilyn taught English to Israelis at various government ministries including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Charles also completed the Tour Guide course. Charles never got the chance to become a tour guide in Israel. In 2000, he was urgently called back to South Africa to step in as rabbi of Bet Menorah in Pretoria when the congregation unexpectedly parted company with their own rabbi. Intended only to be a temporary position, Charles stayed there for two years before becoming rabbi of Johannesburg’s Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue - the senior
Reform congregation in South Africa – for five years. Charles also became executive director of the South African Union for Progressive Judaism and was very active in the South African Zionist Federation. Charles and Marilyn’s next stop was a return to England where Maxine was living with her six children. Charles became rabbi of Brighton & Hove Reform Synagogue from 2007 to 2011. Back on the south coast, and hugely committed to interfaith engagement, Charles was involved in a range of activities including for the South East England Faiths Forum. Following his retirement in 2011, Charles continued to work as a rabbi: sitting on the Reform Beit Din in London; conducting weddings abroad; and from 2009 volunteering at Jewish Care’s Hyman Fine House in Brighton, where his contributions included leading Shabbat and festival services. He also became an NHS Mental Health Chaplain. More recently, Charles was appointed as the ‘foster’ rabbi of a small Reform congregation in Darlington. Meanwhile, he and Marilyn also continued to enjoy spending time with their family, through making regular trips to London and Florida. Nevertheless, ever dedicated to his rabbinic vocation, Charles always managed to mix business with pleasure by teaching and taking services at Beverley’s congregation in Miami whenever they visited. Charles packed an awful lot into his 69 years and, in particular, into the 44 years since his ordination. “Not one to relax”, Marilyn told me that, blessedly for Charles, despite his illness, “he managed to do all the things that were important to him in the last two weeks of his life”. He went up to take Shabbat services in Darlington in August and, the following week, he led the Shabbat morning service at Hyman Fine House. On the day before he died, feeling extremely unwell, Charles nevertheless took a taxi to visit a person with mental health issues whom he had been supporting for several years. Charles lived a full, active and varied life leaving his loved ones with many special memories. Marilyn summed up her husband with these words: “A very dedicated and learned Rabbi, who will be sadly missed by his family, friends and ex-congregants around the world.” • Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah is rabbi at Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue