On Sunday night, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) hosted its 50 th national conference in Johannesburg. Held every two years, these gatherings are an opportunity for the community to connect to honour members who had done so much either communally or for the greater South Africa – like the late Johnny Clegg, who we honoured this year – but also to take stock of where we are. This year we were fortunate to have a panel discussion comprising veteran business

Isaac Reznik (1936-2019), dubbed South African Jewry's 'Living Encyclopaedia' left a lasting mark in multiple areas of Jewish communal life. David Saks reflects on the varied, busy life of this unique personality. Isaac Reznik, who died on 25 October 2019 at the age of 83, was a unique figure on the Jewish communal scene. Whether as a journalist, editor, photographer, historian, radio host, Jewish communal professional, book dealer, political and social welfare activist, arch

'My Friend Joey' by Clark Zlotchew Dr Clarke Zlotchew is Distinguished Teaching Professor at State University of New York. He is the author of seventeen books, including anthologies of short fiction, translations from the Spanish of short stories and poetry by Nobel Laureates and literary criticism of Spanish and Latin American authors. His short stories have appeared in both his Spanish and English versions in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as in Jewish Affairs Joey Cla

Part of the legacy of the Anglo-Boer War are the innumerable artefacts made by Boer POWs in captivity. Gwynne Schrire looks at the Jewish background of one such item, along with those of other examples of memorabilia from the conflict. Gwynne Schrire, a veteran contributor to Jewish Affairs and a long-serving member of its editorial board, is Deputy Director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies – Cape Council. She has authored, co-written and edited over twenty books on aspect

Acclaimed historian Richard Mendelsohn relates how immigrant Jewish storekeepers were also victims of the British 'scorched earth' tactics during the Anglo-Boer War. Richard Mendelsohn is Emeritus Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town. His books include the award-winning Sammy Marks: ‘The Uncrowned King of the Transvaal’ , The Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated History , the first major general history of South African Jewry in fifty years (co-author

COMICS View the glass case, of doughnuts and baguettes. Behind the cigarettes, of my father’s front store, stood a newsstand, with two comic types. English slim ones Sunny Story booklets. American ones piled high. Captain America on front side. His round shield, weighing a ton. Red stripes & stars, blazing like a sun. Simple paper pictures entertain Dad’s sons. America so far away, would protect everyone. One summer’s night, my brothers walked to a neighbour’s home. In their

From 1943 to 1966, Herber House provided boarding facilities for Jewish children, mainly from the country areas, attending schools in Johannesburg. This is the 2nd part of former HH resident Stuart Buxbaum's history of the institution. Stuart Buxbaum holds an honours degree in Sociology from Wits University (1970) and an honours in Judaica from UNISA (1984). After working in the social research unit of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies in the early 1970s, he farmed for many y

SOMEONE ON THE CEILING Charlotte Cohen Charlotte Cohen is an award-winning short story writer, essayist and poet, whose work has appeared in a wide variety of South African publications since 1973. She is a regular contributor to Jewish Affairs. This story was first published in the SA Jewish Times Rosh Hashanah Annual, 1994. I loved visiting my grandmother when I was a child. The reason was simple. She spoiled me rotten: She took me to matinees. She played rummy with me. She

Bernard Levinson is a distinguished South African poet whose work has appeared in numerous scholarly publications and anthologies, including Jewish Affairs. Professionally, he is a psychiatrist based in Johannesburg. In the Pesach 2017 issue of Jewish Affairs , he describes being on the spot after Dillinger was killed. John Dillinger. That’s who I am. I am John Dillinger spread flat against the wall of our small tenement. I slowly edge to the window. I lift a corner of the cu

Our thoughts are with the Jewish community in Germany as well as the families of all victims, following the heinous attack in Halle, Germany. The attack was aimed at a Jewish community attending Synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. Attacks on religious communities during prayer is becoming an increasingly familiar tactic by cowardly terrorists who are consumed by hate for the so-called “other”. This global phenomenon of radicalism can and should be dea

Combined with a memoir of growing up in apartheid South Africa before moving to the UK, Harold Behr reflects on the antisemitic legacy of one of Dickens' most notorious - and controversial villains Harold Behr Dr Harold Behr is a retired child psychiatrist and group psychotherapist. He emigrated from South Africa to the UK in 1970 . I became aware of Fagin when I was given the story of Oliver Twist in comic book form. This was one of many graphic stories published under the

I found a news article in The Star newspaper last week particularly eye-catching. It related how 21-year-old Antoinette Nthabiseng Thabapelo has initiated a programme, Adopt a Son. Her aim is to change the patriarchal narrative around boys in her community of Bekkersdal, west of Joburg. The programme involves providing mentors for serious, hard-working boys from underprivileged backgrounds between Grades 1 and 12. Thabapelo hopes that it will help the boys become better men b

In January 1997, as chairman of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, I was sent to London to take part in one of the most important meetings of the post-Holocaust era. After eighteen months of tortuous and often secret negotiations that occasionally flared up into much bitterness, the Swiss government had finally agreed to the establishment of a “Holocaust Memorial Fund”, the purpose of which would be to compensate Holocaust victims and their families and ensure that there was fu

Coinciding with South Africa’s Women’s Month, the SA Jewish Board of Deputies recently hosted a delegation from the Israeli peace movement ‘Women Wage Peace’. Consisting of two Jewish, one Christian Arab and a Muslim Arab woman, the delegation engaged with government, civil society, academia, business, young people and the media, sharing their important messaging of peace-building through dialogue. Yanir Grindler is the Political Liaison officer at the SA Jewish Board of Dep

On 16 June 2019, a new memorial for the victims of the massacre that took place near Birzai, Lithuania, was unveiled. Located in the Astravas Grove in the Pakamponys forest four kilometres outside the town, it is the third memorial in Lithuania to bear the names of the victims at the massacre site. Dr Veronica Belling is the author of Bibliography of South African Jewry (1997), Yiddish Theatre in South Africa (2008), and the translator of Leibl Feldman's The Jews of Johannesb

Welcome to the first Jewish Affairs ‘Quirks and Curiosities’ feature! It is envisaged that this will be a regular item looking at some of the more unusual, even eccentric aspects of the Jewish South African legacy. Located directly opposite the Sydenham shul, the Yad Aharon and Michael Jewish Food Fund has grown into one of Johannesburg Jewry’s most important social welfare organisations. Much of the wherewithal for carrying out its mission comes from donations in kind from

“The ten fateful years between 1939 and 1948 changed the Jewish people and the course of Jewish history (M E Katz)” It was during this disruptive, destructive and chaotic decade for European Jewry that, in a historical contradiction, there was a flowering of creative and brave leadership in the South African Jewish community. To quote Katz again, “The instrument that emerged to meet the educational needs of Jewish group life in the open society of the post war western world w

In the Auschwitz Infirmary A line of naked stick-men; he in front Eyes longingly a pair of chamber pots, When told to, on the one he’s told to, squats, In sixty seconds, though, can only grunt. By squirting out a dysenteric mess His aim (excuse the pun) had been to stayIn the infirmary a further day; Instead, he’s kicked aside and told to dress. Another, with his entrails in a knot That tightens every second, quells a howl, Loses the bid to cow his brimming bowel, Sullies a N

David Saks is Associate Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and editor of Jewish Affairs. He is the author of a number of books on South African political, military and Jewish history, including Boerejode: Jews in the Boer Armed Forces, 1899-1902 (2010). Editor’s note : To mark the centenary of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, Jewish Affairs devoted its Spring 1999 issue to examining the Jewish role in the conflict. The issue quickly became one of the mos

To create lasting peace, women’s voices are critical. Men alone won’t bring about peace and it’s about time that we all realise that. This is not just opinion - it’s in the numbers. From conflict prevention and conflict resolution to post-conflict reconciliation, studies have borne out that women’s meaningful participation in peace processes significantly increases the likelihood of a negotiated settlement lasting longer than 15 years. ‘Meaningful participation’ does not simp