Bitterly disappointed after a strike in the Israeli diplomatic corps scuttled a planned visit by Tzipi Livni to SA early in 2011, Zev and Avrom Krengel tried one last ditch Sunday morning effort to convince the Ambassador to pull out of the worldwide strike.
Ambassador Dov Segev-Steinberg would not budge and the brothers Krengel by all accounts made some outrageous statements and threats.
All hell broke loose in the Jewish media after documents purporting to be the minutes of the acrimonious meeting on 16 Jan were leaked to the Jewish Report.
MyShtetl speculated at that forces within an angered embassy were the source and we posed the question: “Did the Israeli embassy PULL A WIKI-LEAKS ON ITSELF?” This was later substantiated.
The minutes documented the Krengels threatened, among other remedies, to close down the embassy if the ambassador did not assist, despite the diplomatic strike. The ambassador refused, which scuppered the visit to SA of top Israeli politician and leader of the opposition in the Knesset Tzipi Livni.
The SAZF then DIS-INVITED’ THE AMBASSADOR from an important founding meeting as a result. That was when the embassy leaked the documents and in the wake of the ensuing media commentary the SAZF recanted after pressure from within the community. The ambassador sent his deputy to the meeting.
In a FRANK INTERVIEW WITH AVROM Krengel, MyShtetl was able to contextualise the circumstances and frustrations of the communal leadership that led to their uncharacteristic behaviour.
Avrom was open and forthright, to the extent that our story referred to it as a mea culpa.
Typical pattern of behaviour
The opposite approach was adopted by the Board and, in a media statement the next week, the SAJBD CONFIRMED IT WAS THE EMBASSY that had leaked the documents. Zev Krengel said that he seriously questions ambassador’s actions “from a moral and legal point of view.”
The Board’s refusal to accept it had acted inappropriately and rather launch a witch-hunt to establish the source of the leak of the minutes, was said at the time to be reflective of their well-known pattern of behaviour of hunting down and crushing dissenting voices.
The Cape Council of the SAJBD then BROKE RANKS and disassociated itself from the behaviour of their (then) national chairman Zev Krengel and issued a media statement to that effect.
Cape, KZN Boards, orchestrate peace talks
The (then) president of the national Board, Michael Bagraim of Cape Town, facilitated and mediated a meeting with the ambassador and Zev Krengel – which was also attended by Durban’s (then) vice chairman, now national chair Mary Kluk.
MyShtetl published the media release and orchestrated pictures of handshakes under the headline ALL SMILES AFTER MEETING hoping that this was to be the case.
In hindsight, this convenient way to bring an embarrassing situation to a close did not have the desired effect and animosity still persists between the two organisations and the embassy a year later.
All of the articles published on MyShtetl attracted massive readership and user-posted comments and we noted a higher than normal interest from certain geographic regions – particularly in Cape Town but also from Israel and the US.
A lot of understanding was reflected towards’ the Fed’s position after Avrom’s early mea culpa - but the later statement by the Board after what turned out to be a window-dressing meeting at the embassy was given no quarter by our famously feisty Shtetlers who are always looking to good governance of the community.
After all the dust had settled, a media statement (from someone we later found out was) Avrom and Zev Krengels’ Cape Town nemesis, David Hersch. MyShtetl published “KRENGEL BROTHERHOOD MUST GO” which included echoes from range of SA and Israeli Media on the issue which Hersch felt had embarrassed SA Jewry considerably. This led to so many user-comments that MyShtetl was forced to keep dropping some off to allow space for newer ones.
“I am calling on [Zev & Avrom Krengel] to resign,” wrote Hersch. “I write as a national vice-chairman of SAZF and former chairman of SAZF (Cape Council) and former member of the Board (Cape Council).”
Putting on a brave face - Bagraim sat between the warring chairman and ambassador in this picture released by the Board.jpg
