October 22, 2026 Summer has certainly arrived, and with it a feeling of renewal and vitality throughout our special community. On Monday, at the first sitting of the newly elected South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) Gauteng Council, Danny Mofsowitz was unanimously re-elected as chair for the region. She took on the job at an extremely challenging moment, when few were prepared to step forward and fill this role. She has been exceptional, guiding this community wit

October 15, 2026 Last weekend the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) elected a new Gauteng Council. Voting took place throughout the day at our Gauteng Council Conference, the first half of a rare double event that ended with the Great Mayoral Debate, where more than 400 community members heard from this year’s Johannesburg mayoral candidates. Twenty people were nominated for 15 seats on the Gauteng Council, and more than 150 delegates from the affiliated organis

October 8, 2026 This weekend, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) will hold its Great Mayoral Debates. These traditional pre-election events give our communities in Johannesburg and Cape Town the chance to hear directly from the mayoral candidates and their parties and to hear them address our concerns. The Johannesburg debate will take place on Sunday evening, 11 October, and will be moderated by journalist-writer Mandy Wiener. Democracy is about more than vo

September 17, 2026 A shana tova once again to our community. As we stand in the early days of 5787, it is worth pausing to consider what the year ahead is likely to ask of us. It looks set to be a significant one politically, with important elections in Israel, South Africa, and the United States in the coming months. Each of these has the potential to affect our community in ways large and small, and each is of real interest to us. In two of them, though, we are spectators.

Jewish or September 10, 2026 In July, a political commentator on Power FM stated that the Democratic Alliance had chosen Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille because “the Jews” were unhappy with Johannesburg. The assertion that we Jews are a secret controlling power, manipulating local politics for our benefit, is obviously false and blatantly antisemitic. Unfortunately, the interviewer didn’t challenge the guest on this bigoted conspiracy theory. The SA Jewish Board of

September 3, 2026 It has been a week in which the South African Jewish community has stood in full view of the country, in the courts, on the street, and around the Shabbat table. Looking over last week’s events, what struck me most wasn’t any single story but the pattern running beneath all of them: a community increasingly comfortable being seen. In Cape Town, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ Equality Court case against Turkish-born politician Mehmet Vefa Dag re

August 27, 2026 I was in my happy place last weekend. Together with hundreds of fellow participants, I attended the annual Limmud event in Johannesburg, following on from the Cape Town gathering a week earlier. We are blessed with a heterogeneous community, one that holds a wide diversity of political, religious, cultural, and social views, and nowhere is this better celebrated than at Limmud. Over the years it has become a cornerstone of our communal calendar. It is a rare s

August 20, 2026 The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) is a national body with a presence around the country. The majority of South African Jews live in Johannesburg and Cape Town, but we are also present in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Gqeberha, and Pretoria. These smaller communities are often key in representing our voice and protecting our rights. That is true nowhere more than in KZN, where I joined National Director Wendy Kahn last week for the annual general meetin

August 13, 2026 By Karen Milner This weekend, we witnessed a momentous moment for our community. Rabbi Doron and Mrs Shelly Perez met President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings to express their appreciation for the government’s tireless efforts to facilitate the return of their son Daniel’s body, allowing him to be brought home to Israel and laid to rest with dignity. Daniel was one of our own. He and his family were born and raised among us, and they have remained an

August 6, 2026 By Karen Milner Every so often, we get to open our doors and show gratitude to the people who have stood beside us. On Shabbat, the Board hosted an extraordinary evening in honour of US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III, the US embassy, and the members of his diplomatic team who have supported us through some of the most difficult years our community has known. The evening began with us walking together to a Friday-night shul service. From there, the ambassador

July 30, 2026 By Karen Milner On Sunday 26 July, more than a hundred members of our community pulled on shirts that proudly declared “Jews 4 Jozi” and joined the tens of thousands who took part in Walk the Talk. What made it especially poignant is that, for the first time ever, the walk moved through the city itself, through the central business district, the streets of Doornfontein, Bertrams, and Troyeville. A geography that is precious to so many of us and yet has come to

July 23, 2026 By Karen Milner Last Friday, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) had a rare and important opportunity. We sat down with the heads and commissioners of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), an institution with which we share a long and storied history. The SAHRC and the SAJBD have worked together on a number of significant cases over the years, none more so than the Masuku hate speech matter, which the commission took all the way to t

July 16, 2026 By Karen Milner This week, alongside our incredible community volunteers, we packed and delivered hundreds of food parcels to members of the Congolese community in Johannesburg who are facing severe humanitarian hardship. This is a community with almost nowhere to turn. There is no citizen registry, little support from their official representatives, and precious few safety nets. We were alerted to their plight by a trusted partner with whom we have worked sinc

June 25, 2026 By Karen Milner There is a sense of anxiety that has gripped not only our community but all of South Africa this week. The fear that xenophobic violence will erupt again, as it did in 2008, 2015, and 2019, sits heavily with us all. Against that backdrop, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) was invited to an interfaith meeting convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa to brief religious leaders on the government’s strategy for managing the situation.

June 11, 2026 By Karen Milner Next week, South Africa marks the 50th anniversary of the 16 June Soweto Uprising, a day that is a defining part of the moral architecture of this country’s history. Few in our community are aware that one of our own is woven into that story, not at its periphery, but at its heart. Dr Melville Edelstein was a Jewish social worker who had dedicated his professional life to black South African communities. On 16 June 1976, he was in Soweto to host

June 4, 2026 By Karen Milner This week, members of the Gauteng and Cape Town leadership of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) represented the South African Jewish community at the American Jewish Congress (AJC) Annual Global Forum in Washington, DC. The AJC is one of the oldest and most important Jewish advocacy organisations in the world. Founded in 1918, it was built on a conviction that has lost none of its urgency in the century since: that the security a

May 28, 2026 By Karen Milner Every so often, a community does more than simply show up. On Sunday, 24 May, in Cape Town, ours did exactly that. British fitness coach and marathon runner Yoel Levy ran the Cape Town Marathon in a Batman suit. He has been doing so at some of the world’s most prominent races, which now includes Cape Town. Levy was moved by the haunting images of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the two young brothers murdered in captivity in Gaza. Running in costume, beca

May 21, 2026 By Karen Milner Last week brought concerning news from a place where young minds are meant to be nurtured and challenged. St Mary’s School in Johannesburg postponed an address by Klaas Mokgomole, an expert on Israel-Palestine relations, after organisers were advised that the event would attract protesters and thereby pose a security risk to pupils. It is a troubling development that, regrettably, follows a pattern we have come to know all too well. The Boycott,

It is with profound sadness that we learnt this week of the passing of Abraham Foxman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League, tireless campaigner against antisemitism and other forms of hate, and, not incidentally, a Holocaust survivor himself. Abe was, quite simply, a legend. A towering figure in the history of the Jewish people and in the broader struggle for human dignity and decency. He believed that the world could be made better and that hatred could be defeated

May 7, 2026 By Karen Milner This week brought confirmation of something our community has long been anticipating: 4 November will be election day. Following the watershed national elections of last year, these municipal elections carry a weight that is difficult to overstate. They represent, in my view, one of the most consequential and defining moments of our post-apartheid democracy, a moment in which the choices we make as citizens will shape the character of our cities f