One didn’t have to be a rugby fan to be thrilled and inspired by the Springboks’ memorable victory in the Rugby World Cup final. In purely sporting terms, winning rugby’s premier crown for the third time was itself a great achievement, but there was a great deal more to it than that. Super Springboks show the way forward One didn’t have to be a rugby fan to be thrilled and inspired by the Springboks’ memorable victory in the Rugby World Cup final. In purely sporting terms, wi

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

Preparations for the Board’s biennial national conference, to take place at the Houghton Hotel on 10 November, have entered their final stretch. As suggested by the official title of this year’s event, ‘Unpacking Reality’, the aim is to honestly and rigorously explore various questions relating to the current situation in which our country finds itself. The main part of the conference will take the form of a panel debate, moderated by acclaimed journalist and author Mandy Wie

The SAJBD calls on our government to condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing rocket attacks directed against Israeli citizens over the past twelve hours. Thus far more than 170 rockets have been indiscriminately and relentlessly shot into towns and cities in the centre of Israel, home to more than a million civilians. Thirty-nine residents have been injured, including an 8-year-old girl. There’s never any justification for the deliberate targeting of innocent wome

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

Encouraging progress for new Country Communities body Earlier this year, it was decided to establish a new organisation, called the Small Jewish Communities Association (SJCA) to take over the work of the SAJBD’s Country Communities Department from the beginning of next year. At a meeting of trustees representing some of the smaller communities from various provinces on Sunday, encouraging progress was made in getting the SJCA up and running. While there remains much work to

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

People tend to be suspicious of change. As the thinking goes, if things have worked well enough in the past, why not carry on as before? On the other hand, circumstances inevitably do change, and when this reaches a point when the old ways of doing things are no longer sufficiently efficient and/or cost effective, then one is equally inevitably required to adapt to the new realities in order to remain sustainable. Nor is this necessarily a bad thing in the long term. Even if

People tend to be suspicious of change. As the thinking goes, if things have worked well enough in the past, why not carry on as before? On the other hand, circumstances inevitably do change, and when this reaches a point when the old ways of doing things are no longer sufficiently efficient and/or cost effective, then one is equally inevitably required to adapt to the new realities in order to remain sustainable. Nor is this necessarily a bad thing in the long term. Even if

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

Last week, proponents of an academic boycott against Israel at UCT, contrived (in defiance of university regulations) to send a statement entitled ‘South African Jews support the Academic Boycott of Israeli Universities Enabling the Occupation’ to all members of the UCT Senate. Last week, proponents of an academic boycott against Israel at UCT, contrived (in defiance of university regulations) to send a statement entitled ‘South African Jews support the Academic Boycott of Is

In a thoroughly duplicitous and misleading statement issued on Friday, a small Jewish fringe group sought to create the impression that support for an academic boycott against Israel is a view that enjoys significant support in the South African Jewish community. They were commenting ahead of a UCT Senate meeting where a boycott of Israeli Universities was to be discussed. In a thoroughly duplicitous and misleading statement issued on Friday, a small Jewish fringe group sough

Jewish Achievers Awards point the way forward Coming as it did at the end of a traumatic week for this country, this year’s SA Jewish Achievers Awards was a heartening demonstration of how much people from across the age and gender spectrum in our community are managing to accomplish. The resounding message that came through was that from an entrepreneurial point of view, there remains plenty of scope for innovation and creativity in South Africa, for all its current serious

Xenophobic violence against foreign nationals remains a serious problem in South Africa. Over the past decade the Board, with the ready assistance of the Jewish community as a whole, has on a number of occasions involved itself in relief efforts on behalf of victims of such unrest. Last week, our long-running hate speech case against Cosatu’s Bongani Masuku was heard in the Constitutional Court, and we are hoping very much for a ruling that will confirm our community’s inalie

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