“Dialogue” is the word that I associate with judge Henry Shakenovsky of Ramat Hasharon, who left this troubled world a poorer place devoid of his wise counsel on August 8 at age 95. “Resolution is best achieved by listening and understanding the other side,” he publicly expressed at a meeting over two decades ago when I first got to know him. It’s a credence that he always adhered to and followed through by example. He impacted many to follow this path, myself included.
Apexed with a wad of white hair, Henry would, like a lighthouse, illuminate any place by his presence. But it was much more his personality and erudition than his appearance that would hold the floor. Armed with a vocabulary that he masterfully marshaled to be so powerfully persuasive, it was little wonder that he excelled as a barrister/advocate at the South African Bar and in later years, even following his aliyah, as an acting judge in South Africa’s Constitutional Court. Often when I was trying to make arrangements with him, he would say, “Apologies, I will be in South Africa presiding in a case.”
