Dear Community Members We hope and pray for a successful and inspiring year for our Jewish Community. Unfortunately, we find ourselves once again approaching the year with trepidation. The COVID pandemic still remains at the forefront of our minds and determines our decision making. The second wave has swept through South Africa, and affects us all. Many of our schools have taken the decision to delay the start of the school year with the aim of containing the spread of the v

The SAJBD mourns the passing of Holocaust Survivor Mascha Schainberg. We got to know Mascha when she travelled to Poland in 2015 to represent South Africa at the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. She was a true inspiration to all who met her. We extend our condolences to the her family. Below is a tribute from the SAJBD’s Yom Hashoa’s 2015 commemoration. I was absolutely devastated to learn about the passing of Holocaust Survivor, Mascha Shainberg. I met Mascha

SAJBD welcomes Mcebo Dlamini apology Today (14 December), the former Wits SRC President Mcebo Dlamini and the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) engaged in mediation facilitated by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). The mediation took place at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre (JHGC). This was in response to comments made by Dlamini in 2015, in which he showed admiration for Adolf Hitler and delved into stereotypical antisemitic tropes about Jews. The SAJBD

The SAJBD joins the global Jewish community in mourning the sudden passing of former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks , z"tl. The SAJBD joins the global Jewish community in mourning the sudden passing of former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks , z"tl. Combining formidable intellectual gifts with exceptional abilities as a writer and communicator, Rabbi Sacks devoted himself to bringing the moral, ethical vision of Judaism not just to his fellow Jews but humanity at large. At a

Protection order against Lamprecht granted by court Today, the Randburg Magistrate Court issued an interim protection order against white supremacist and Nazi sympathiser Jan Lamprecht following an application by Prof Karen Milner, Gauteng Chair of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD). This follows a charge of crimen injuria brought against Lamprecht by Prof Milner in July. On 13 October, Milner applied for a protection order after Lamprecht had posted her personal details

Sentencing of Letsoalo sets important precedent. Today, the Randburg Magistrates Court sentenced Matome Letsoalo to three years imprisonment, suspended for five years, for threatening and antisemitic tweets that he posted in June 2018. This follows Letsoalo’s pleading guilty last Friday to a charge of crimen injuria lodged by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD). In pronouncing sentence, presiding Magistrate Barnard stressed that hateful statements of the kind made by the

OPINION | South Africans supporting the boycott Israel movement are on the wrong side of change. Read article here

A new book on the SA Progressive movement throws welcome light on a previously neglected aspect of local Jewish history . Of all South Africa’s minority groups, the Jewish community is “among the most thoroughly dissected and psychoanalysed” observes Irwin Manoim at the beginning of Mavericks Inside the Tent – The Progressive Jewish movement in South Africa and its impact on the wider community, his ground-breaking history of the Progressive Jewish movement in this country. H

How Andre Ungar became the only rabbi forced to leave South Africa for opposition to Apartheid. Irwin Manoim is a researcher attached to the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at UCT, with an interest in exploring neglected aspects of South African Jewish history. This article is an extract from a chapter exploring Jewish attitudes to apartheid, from his recently published book Mavericks Inside the Tent , a history of the Progressive Jewish movement in South Africa and its impa

How a Jewish family, the Ginsbergs, were instrumental in making rooibos one of the world's most popular herbal teas and an important export item for South Africa Boris Gorelik is a Russian writer and researcher and faculty member at the Institute for African Studies - Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He has an MA in linguistics from Moscow State University (2001). . The beginnings of the rooibos trade, one of the youngest tea industries in the world, were undistinguished.

'A drop of milk' by Clark Zlotchew When we were kids Grandma Rosie always cooked a big vat of chicken soup when we visited. I still remember the mouth-watering aroma, and the wonderful taste rolling across my tongue, and the warmth it produced in my stomach. Funny how those experiences of so long ago stay with you. One day, when I was six years old, instead of being seated at the dining room table, I wandered into the kitchen while Grandma was ladling the soup into bowls. As

The latest compilation by archivist J-p Burke of recent publications of South African Jewish interest. Juan-Paul Burke is the Librarian and Archivist for the Pretoria Hebrew Congregation. He has previously worked for University of Cape Town Libraries in their Jewish Studies Branch Library housed in the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research. This is a follow on from the bibliography presented in JA Pesach 2019 Articles, Theses & Books pertaining to SA Jewry and Jewis

A woman of passion, intelligence, flair and courage, Helen Aron was an acclaimed documentary and art photographer of Johannesburg’s disappearing past. Kathy Munro is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. Having trained as an economic historian, she now researches and writes on historical architecture and heritage matters and has a regular book review column on the online Heritage Portal. She is Vic

A program for a 1955 concert recalls how famed Jewish entertainers performed in South Africa on Israel's behalf. . 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 aspects of South African Jewish and Western Cape history. The following article is based on a copy of a 1955 concert programme o

In 1998 , a plaque was unveiled by the University of Vienna’s Medical Faculty in memory of teachers and students exiled or murdered under the Nazi regime. A participant reflects on the occasion. Emeritus Professor Isidor Segal is Master of the World Gastroenterology Organisation and Consultant (retired) GIT Unit, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia. On the morning of 6 September 1998, delegates to the World Congress of Gastroenterology were invited to a symposium enti

The story of immigrants Reuben and Sophia Newstead and their part in establishing the Claremont shul, framed as an imaginary first-person memoir by their grand-daughter. Charlotte Cohen , a regular contributor to Jewish Affairs , is an award-winning short’ story writer and poet, whose work has appeared in a wide variety of South African publications since the early 1970s. . The passage was a nightmare. Hundreds of Jewish emigrants Litvaks packed like sardines onto a vessel th

The trick to surviving the Covid-19 pandemic is choice, coupled to a vigilant guard over what you allow yourself to think, says Dr Edith Eger. “In these times, pay a lot of attention to what we think, as what we think, we create. Pay attention to what you focus on because the chances are that (which you focus on) is what will happen,” she says. Eger is a 92-year-old psychologist, based in the US. Born in Hungary in 1927, she’s the author of the best-selling The Choice, which

Long-serving Jewish Affairs editorial board member Judge Ralph Zulman, who passed away on 8 August 2020, combined a stellar career on the Bench with over three decades of service to SA Jewry... The editorial board of Jewish Affairs was saddened to learn of the passing earlier this month of long-serving board member the Honourable Justice Ralph Zulman. Judge Zulman combined a stellar career on the Bench (culminating with his appointment to the Appellate Division of the Supreme

The SAJBD notes the statement issued by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) describing the agreement between the UAE and Israel to normalise relations is “regrettable”, on the grounds that the Palestinian people had not been “engaged”. The statement by Dirco is unfortunate. In fact, the existence of diplomatic relations between the UAE and Israel creates an official framework within which such matters can be formally and constructiv

LIZA ESSERS initially rose to prominence in the commercial and financial sector in South Africa receiving a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and working as a strategic consultant for the leading global professional services company Accenture, as well as in private equity. In the seven years prior to becoming the owner and director of Goodman Gallery in 2008, she was an independent art advisor and curator specializing in the conceptualization, development and production of v