Dr Israel ‘Boomie’ Abramowitz, who passed away this week in Perth, Australia at the age of 91, was a true gentleman from the old school of Jewish communal leadership in South Africa. In the course of a long and distinguished communal career, he can truly be said to have epitomised the particular strengths that have made the South African Jewish community so respected a component of global Jewry. All this he achieved while simultaneously pursuing his career as an eminent vascu

Douglas Davis, born in Pretoria, was exiled from South Africa in the mid-Sixties. He has since lived all over the world, including 10 years in Israel, where he was a senior editor of the Jerusalem Post. He was subsequently based in London as the paper’s European correspondent. I didn’t know what to expect, but there was no doubt that the figure striding confidently into the car park of the Jerusalem Post was Denis Goldberg. He looked completely at ease; as though he belonged;

With the number of Holocaust survivors alive today dwindling, the poignancy of having more than 100 Auschwitz survivors and their families under the same roof will remain with me always. This was at the formal commemoration ceremony at Auschwitz in Poland of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp on 27 January. The courage of these extraordinary men and women, all with a number tattooed on their arms, is a source of constant inspiration. But the reality of life be

Global anti-Semitism is on the rise, 75 years after Holocaust Read article here

What all anti-Semites agree on is that Jews have excessive power that they use to secretly manipulate global events for their own nefarious purposes On November 1 2005 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing January 27 as international holocaust remembrance day. That date was chosen because it was on that day in 1945 that the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and most infamous of the death camps set up by the Nazis during World War 2. This y

The Jewish community's political behaviour during the apartheid years has long been the subject of vociferous debate. 25 years after South Africa's transition to democracy, Jewish Affairs editor David Saks revisits the issue. David Saks is Associate Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and editor of Jewish Affairs. This article is adapted from his presentation at Limmud in Johannesburg on 18 August 2019. Even before South Africa’s transition from white minor

#IM STAYINGInspired by the South African Jewish community Over the past few weeks, a new movement has emerged on social media: #ImStaying – with almost 800 000 members at this point. The Facebook Page provides daily inspiring and uplifting stories of fellow South Africans who have experienced the special and positive aspects of life in our country. I have my own #IMStaying story which I am choosing to share on this platform. On the 20th of September, my cousin, Adam Rabinovit

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