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Facebook isn’t a place for a nice Jewish boy, let alone a rabbi. That’s rich coming from me, a rabbi with a significant social-media presence. I...
This year has catapulted us out of our comfort zones, leaving many feeling anxious and emotionally depleted. Yet there are also those who have actively sought...
(JTA) Here are some important Hebrew words and terms you may encounter over the high holiday season, which starts with Rosh Hashanah on the evening of...
The year is coming to an end. As is customary in media all over the world, there must be at least one column in each newspaper...
Who would ever have thought when we went into lockdown on Pesach, we would still be reeling from the effects of COVID-19 at Rosh Hashanah? My...
They say my zaydeh used to stamp on the grapes himself to make his wine. I never knew whether to believe them or not, but the...
Calmness, self-acceptance, renewed energy, positivity. All states many are craving in a year that’s been defined by unprecedented change and anxiety. The SA Jewish Report looks at some...
I’m not a writer as such. Words for me wait to find expression through song, voice – physical, or poetic form. However, it’s interesting that when...
Remember the time when we left Egypt because G-d saved us with all those plagues? Back then we weren’t much of a nation, but after leaving...
When South African-born pilot Tal Becker, 64, touched down at Ben Gurion Airport on the return leg of the historic, first-ever direct journey from Israel to...
Following a year-long search, Dinah Unterslak has been appointed as the permanent principal of the Yeshiva College Primary School. Unterslak is a speech therapist by training...
Johannesburg’s youngest progressive shul, Beit Luria, celebrated its first birthday with Rabbi Julia Margolis and the congregation via Zoom on Sunday 6 September. The shul’s cantors,...
Kol hakavod to Rabbi Menachem Bombach, whose visionary actions are highlighted in a recent edition of the SA Jewish Report (28 August 2020). He grew up...
I don’t know whether Suraya Dadoo’s opinions are based on personal experience of Palestine/Israel. Her arguments make me suspect indoctrination. I worked in Israel from 1954...
South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) National Director Wendy Kahn participated in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) National Community Directors’ Forum last Thursday, giving thanks...
Historians use the term BCE (Before the Common Era) for events preceding the birth of Jesus, and CE (the Common Era) for the last 2020 years....
It’s official – I’m finished my second set of prelims. I can now focus on preparing for arguably the most important exams of my life –...
In preparation for this year’s Rosh Hashanah Appeal, the clarity with which I saw “Yad Hashem” (the Hand of Hashem) was indescribably awesome and humbling! The...
United Herzlia Schools (UHS) is a formidable institution as it celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, but when community leaders came together in 1940 with a...
For many Cape Town Jewish couples, United Herzlia Schools (UHS) was not only where they got their primary education, but the place they met their bashert...
Shireen Sapiro was water-skiing with her family shortly before representing South Africa in swimming at the junior nationals at the age of 13, when she fell...
When tennis champion Angela Buxton died last week at the age of 85, she was lauded as a “pioneer against prejudice” on and off the court....
The month of Elul is a time of repentance in preparation for the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The word elul means search,...
With winter behind us and spring in the air, it appears as if the community is dropping its guard and behaving as if the coronavirus pandemic...
The building that used to be the ohel of the Jewish cemetery in Springs, Gauteng, is reported to be in a dire state, with vagrants occupying...
As the blossoms emerge at the beginning of September and we move into Spring, we’re all feeling a little better about the world. I know the...
On 18 August 2020, the Lithuanian Supreme Court issued a final ruling denying the review of the merits of a complaint alleging that the Lithuanian government...
The village of Oranjeville in the Free State boasts a healthy ratio of two churches to two bars. It has a tarred road, with more potholes...
With over 25 million cases, some 861 000 deaths and a monthly loss of some $375 billion across the global economy, COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc...
A family reunion under COVID-19 is certainly a special occasion, but when 53 members across five branches of a family come together after 160 years, the...
To watch a Barmitzvah boy finally get called up to the Torah, or to stand in (socially distanced) support next to someone reciting Kaddish for a...
The Cape Town Jewish community lost out on a property in a case in which they were a casualty in a much bigger war. This week...
Think you can sound a stupefying shevarim or that your tekiah is the talk of the town? Does your tekiah gedolah last from Rosh Hashanah until...
After five months of silence and stillness, the sound of prayer is once again reverberating around shuls across South Africa as doors are opened to welcome...
Many Jews lost treasured heirlooms and assets when they were systematically looted by the Nazi regime. Finally, their descendants have a chance of reclaiming these prized...
As Women’s Month draws to a close in South Africa, it’s clear there is much work to be done in this country to protect the lives...
Thirty-three gravestones have been vandalised in the Jewish cemetery of the town that was once called “the Jerusalem of South Africa”, demonstrating the uphill struggle to...
There is a part of me that feels that we should cancel Rosh Hashanah this year. Or at least postpone it for the time being. We...
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, has openly acknowledged Israel’s right to exist in peace and security as a Jewish state, and...
A new non-fiction book, described as a detective story and a thriller, explores the life and motivation of a low-ranking SS Nazi officer, whose name would...
