From South African volunteer in the Six Day War to Lubavitcher Chabadnik in Israel; from national fencing instructor to Israeli film actor, and with eleven children – one of whom married a ‘Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist – “It’s been quite a ride,” Melech Thal told Israel Link from Israel’s northern city of Nazareth Elite in the Galilee.
Melech Thal
This “ride” now appears in an autobiography recently published by Amazon entitled “ King’s Journey”.
Melech’s genesis begins in the Eastern Cape town of Cradock, “in the days when the doctor was called to deliver the baby at home, and the husband was given the unnecessary task of boiling water – just to keep him out of the way.”
The farm ‘Waaikraal’ where Melech Thal grew up in South Africa’s Eastern Cape
At his Brit Milah, “when my Dad asked the mohel (person who performs a Jewish cicumsision) to suggest a Hebrew name for me,” he offered “Melech” after hearing “that my paternal grandfather’s name was Elimelech.” Besides said Reverend Sandler, “It means King” – hence the title of Melech’s recently completed autobiography:
En Garde!
It was during the Six Day War, “and there I was, aged 23, sitting in my digs in Port Elizabeth listening to the devastating reports from Arab sources; it was frightening. My Lebanese landlord mocked, “You Jews are going to get it this time.” I attended a meeting at the Synagogue, where appeals were made for donations. The atmosphere was incredible…people took out loans in order to donate. I sold my car and some possessions, and volunteered at the local Zionist Federation office to go to Israel.”
Within a few days, Melech was on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, a volunteer at kibbutz Ginosar.
Melech Thal being “run through” by a girl fencer from Wits at the intervarsity Fencing Tournament at Howard College, University of Natal, Durban
Months later, following Israel’s victory, and about to return to South Africa, “I saw an advert in The Jerusalem post for a fencing instructor.” Having been the fencing coach at the University of Natal (Durban), he applied for the job, “more out of the need to unwind!”
Judge Prof. Amnon Carmi
The next thing, Melech was facing the top Israeli fencer, Mickey Vardi, with District Court Judge, Amnon Carmi – also the Chairman of the Israeli Fencing Association – ‘presiding’.
After a few cut and thrusts, Vardi removed his mask, and said to the Judge “take him – he’s good.”
It was a proud moment when Judge Carmi personally introduced Melech to his first class of young students with:
“This is the first fencing instructor here since the time of the Romans.”
Melech was soon joined by his girlfriend from South Africa. After marriage and two children later – Daniela and Eitan – the couple divorced, “and they totally disappeared from my life. I had no idea where they were or how they were. It distressed me even though I had remarried another former South African, Sharon Wendel, and having become a Chabad chassid, was well on the way to having another eight children.”
Many years later, desperate to find my two ‘lost kids’, “I visited the headquarters of the Lubavitcher movement in Brooklyn and submitted a written message to the internationally revered Rebbe – Menachem Mendel Schneerson. I only asked for some assurance that Daniella and Eitan were alive and healthy.”
One needs to believe in miracles to believe what followed next!
Melech’s daughter, Daniela who he had last seen as a ten year old, phoned his mother in South Africa. They were living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
That phone call from his of daughter was the day he had submitted his appeal to the Rebbe!
Guns N’Roses guitarist, Gilby Clarke with his daughter, Francesca and wife, Daniela in LA.
In time, Melech would learn that Daniella had married Gilby Clarke, the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses – the famed American 1990s hard rock band – and that he had a grandchild, Francesca, and that Daniella had founded her own jeans Fashion House – ‘Frankie B’ – named after her daughter, “my granddaughter, Francesca.”
It was a long and emotional process to reconnect.
Close Up. Guns N’Roses guitarist, Gilby Clarke and wife Daniela, Melech Thal’s daughter.
In 1992 he started receiving e-mail letters from Daniella and Eitan, “which thrilled me immensely even though the letters were few and far between. I phoned them from time to time but found it difficult to establish closeness with them. Daniella phoned me one day to tell me she was married. She told me her husband’s name was Gilby Clarke. He played guitar in a rock band.” “So, who are they?” he asked.
“You probably won’t know the band.” She replied. “It’s called ‘Guns ‘n Roses’.” There was a long pause. Melech was dumbstruck.
“Guns ‘n Roses was in fact the top band in the world. I wished her mazal tov. I walked out of my shop to the opposite side of the mall, where my friend Bentzi owned a gift shop. He saw me just outside his store, paging through his poster stand. I wanted to see a picture of my son-in-law Gilby Clarke. Bentzi came out to ask me what I was looking for. He quickly found me a poster of Guns ‘n Roses. I must admit I was shocked. The group of long-haired, shirtless, tattooed musicians jarred my conservative sense of taste.”
So while Melech would get used to having a world famous musician son-in-law, Melech himself would emerge from local Nazareth photographer to national film actor.
Melech Thal as Rabbi (Admor) in the celebrated movie, ‘Fill the Void’.
He credits this to his having attended a drama course drama all those years earlier the University of Natal. A puppeteer wanting to break into film, offered Melech a small part in his first movie. Thirty-four movies later included Lemale et Ha’halal (Fill the Void), that focuses on Tel Aviv’s Haredi community, where Melech plays a rabbi embroiled in the life of an 18-year-old girl who is pressured to marry her older sister’s husband following the death of her sister in childbirth.
The movie achieved international acclaim winning an award at the 2012 Venice Film Festival as well as taking seven Ophir Awards, the equivalent of the Israeli Oscars.
Melech Thal visiting his family in Los Angeles.
Fame spread abroad. Touring Los Angeles with his reunited family, “we walked around Rodeo Drive, then to Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard.” Being in ‘showbiz’, “They took me to the all the Hollywood highlights. Later, we stopped at a glatt kosher restaurant. At a table not far from us, sat a rabbi with a group of his students. They were constantly peering in our direction. After a while they crowded around our table, and asked if I was indeed the actor from Nitzotzot Shel Kedusha. I was accustomed to being recognized in Israel, but as far afield as Los Angeles was something new. Daniella and Frankie laughed, and a few days later, a similar scene played out at another restaurant.”
Last Word
For the devoutly religious Melech, who started life as a farm boy in the Eastern Cape, he felt the need to express his thoughts on the upbringing of children – after all he did have eleven!
He concludes his autobiography:
“When I was a young man, I had proudly declared that just as Ha’Shem had granted us freedom of choice, it was only fitting I should one day allow my children the same freedom. They should be allowed to choose whether they want to be religious or not. At face value, this seems to be a perfectly noble principle but on closer examination we find a serious flaw. Choice, denotes an alternative; either this or that. If I offer my child an apple and a pear, he has a choice. If I offer him only an apple, he has no choice.
Melech Thal writer of The King’s Journey and his family in Israel
Living in a religious home, my child unavoidably comes into contact with the secular world outside, he will have experience of both worlds; the religious and the secular. He will then be in a position to choose between the two. If, on the other hand, I do not keep a religious home, my child will have no real choice. He will have very little concept of religious Jewish life and as a result he will most probably become secular; the only way he knows. In a way, I am in fact forcing him to adopt an irreligious way of life.
Keeping a religious home is however, no guarantee that a child will grow up true to the ways of Torah. A personal example has to be set in every aspect of Jewish life. Even with a thorough Jewish education, there is no assurance that the child will become religious. We have to pray to Ha’Shem continuously to guide our children and grant us peace of mind.”
If visiting Los Angeles and reengaging with his nearly lost children was like “closing a circle”, it was so in another way as well. Judge Amnon Carmi was right to choose Melech all those years earlier as fencing instructor. One of his students, Shlomo Ayal became Israel’s national fencing champion competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
“We did okay,” concludes Melech.
https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Journey-Melech-Thal/dp/9657238323/ref=sr_1_1ie=UTF8&qid=1516014534&sr=8-1&keywords=melech+thal
