Fighting Hate

Last week, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) met with the Mthakazi Liberation Front, an organisation which inter alia seeks to promote public awareness of the massacres carried out against the Matabele people in Zimbabwe during the 1980s.

Constitutional Review 2016

The law-making process in South Africa allows for civil society to comment and give input into proposed new legislation, including an  annual review of the Constitution. 

The ‘Kol Isha’ Question – An issue for our community to decide

On 20 June, the SAJBD Cape Council will be facilitating a colloquium for its affiliate organisations to debate the question of women singing solo at Yom Hashoah, hopefully the outcome of which will be a working solution for the  Cape Jewish community’s continued all-inclusive commemoration of the Holocaust.

SA Human Rights Commission

For the last few years, the Board has always had at least one – and usually several – cases before the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). This is not so much due to an upsurge in antisemitic hate speech as to the fact that the process of finalising a complaint, from the date it is lodged through to when a ruling has been made and formally signed off, is inevitably a lengthy one.

Yom Hashoah ceremony in Johannesburg

The stand-out feature of last week’s Yom Hashoah ceremony in Johannesburg was undoubtedly the large number of school learners in attendance, comprising over half the estimated 2000 people present.

Legislating against Social Media racism

There exist on the statute book various important pieces of legislation aimed, as a whole or in part, at preventing incitement to hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed or other such grounds.

Exams Alert (2)

The Board is engaging with the relevant universities to address cases of exams being set on Yom Tov or Shabbat.

Bertie Lubner

When Philip Krawitz, himself a highly regarded businessman, philanthropist and Jewish communal leader, was asked recently to give a talk on the part played by Jews in building the South African economy, he decided to focus on those who in addition to economic success made significant contributions in the philanthropic field.