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April 30, 2014

Julian Rachman

Julian Rachman's family reached South Africa from Europe in two branches. On his father's side, his grandfather was born in Russia and, through an arranged marriage, wed a woman in Lithuania. His grandfather studied in Vilnius and Berlin, became a rabbi, and worked as a ritual slaughterer. After a falling out with his wife's uncle left him without work in a small town, he heard about South Africa, took a pulpit rabbi position in the Cape, and later brought his family over around 1934. Julian's mother's side came from Berlin, where his mother lived until age eight and witnessed Kristallnacht. When the Germans shut down the newspaper where his grandfather worked, that family also left for South Africa, arriving on one of the last ships in 1938.

Julian grew up not in South Africa itself but in Namibia, then administered as a mandate of South Africa, where his father served as rabbi of the town. He described an idyllic, almost Mark Twain-like childhood in a small society of fifty or sixty Jewish families who knew one another and spent the Jewish holidays together, centered on the synagogue. After graduating as an engineer, he watched unrest in a township near Johannesburg in 1976 and, uncomfortable with apartheid and fearing conflict, decided it was time to leave permanently. After marrying, he and his wife Claire briefly considered Israel, spending about a month there, before immigrating to the United States and settling first in New Jersey.

The Rachmans found New Jersey too driven and impersonal, so Julian sought work elsewhere and moved to Dallas in 1979, drawn by a city that reminded Claire of South Africa. They knew one person, Joan, who hosted them their first week. In Dallas they built a life among both South African and American friends, working together on Jewish Federation campaigns. Claire taught Hebrew at Temple Shalom for about 27 years, and Julian's parents later joined them, with his rabbi father active in the community. Raised Orthodox, Julian helped establish a shul and served on the board of a Jewish school. He and Claire raised four children, celebrated the holidays with large Seders, and maintained strong ties to Israel. A proud American citizen, he reflects gratefully on the country and its support of Israel.

Julian Rachman's family reached South Africa from Europe in two branches. On his father's side, his grandfather was born in Russia and, through an arranged marriage, wed a woman in Lithuania. His grandfather studied in Vilnius and Berlin, became a rabbi, and worked as a ritual slaughterer. After a falling out with his wife's uncle left him without work in a small town, he heard about South Africa, took a pulpit rabbi position in the Cape, and later brought his family over around 1934. Julian's mother's side came from Berlin, where his mother lived until age eight and witnessed Kristallnacht. When the Germans shut down the newspaper where his grandfather worked, that family also left for South Africa, arriving on one of the last ships in 1938.

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