Be proudly Jewish, Ichikowitz tells Rising Stars

For Ivor Ichikowitz, the chairperson of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, there’s no better time than now for young Jewish South Africans to be loud and proud about their Jewishness. This is why the Ichikowitz Family Foundation has become the sponsor of the Rising Star Award at the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards.

“So many young Jewish South Africans aren’t necessarily recognised for their work,” he said. “There are many who do stuff that’s never celebrated because there’s the sense that we have to hide our Jewishness here,” said Ichikowitz, “This is a time for young South African Jews or any Jews in South Africa not to hide their Jewishness.”

He believes the Rising Star Award speaks to the values of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation “of citizenship, heritage, and conservation”. The foundation, Ichikowitz said, was founded on the belief that Africa’s potential could be unlocked through education, respect for human rights, a better understanding of Africa’s history, and the conservation of its rich biodiversity. “It’s committed to the kind of active citizenship that promotes the preservation of Africa’s heritage, the conservation of its environment, and the empowerment of Africa’s youth,” he said.

“The Rising Star Award speaks to our belief that the Jewish community in South Africa is small in scale, but disproportionately influential in terms of business, science, and civil affairs,” he said.

“The beauty of this award is that it’s a very broad category. It encompasses many different things. The age group of the award – under 25 – is exactly the generation that needs to be reassured that there is a future for them in this country, and a future for them to be proudly Jewish.”

Ichikowitz said this demographic could contribute and set examples of positively contributing to the South African landscape and shifting the tides.

“It’s this generation that’s going to take leadership of the continent, but not in 10 years, in the next three to five years,” he said.

It’s this ethos that his family foundation has tried to uphold through various projects over the years, Ichikowitz said, such as helping run the Tefillin Bank with Chabad, and a project called Jewish Memories of Mandela with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, whose purpose is to show that Jews aren’t guests in South Africa but active contributors.

The foundation also has a project called the African Youth Survey, in which they research the youth in 18 countries across the continent to see what youth in Africa are feeling and experiencing, and provide a crystal ball into the future of the continent.

According to Ichikowitz, there has been a massive migration of young Jewish South Africans to other countries because they believe there’s no future for them in South Africa, but “we believe exactly the opposite. We believe that South Africa has always respected its Jewish community.

“To make sure that the community is sustained, we have to encourage young Jewish South Africans to come out loud and proud, to tell the world about what they do, and to be a lot more visible and engaged as a community, not just as citizens of the country, but as Jewish citizens of the country, because we’re absolutely an important part of this tapestry,” he said.

Ichikowitz said the foundation was sponsoring the Rising Star Award because it and the family wanted to make sure that young Jewish South Africans weren’t just recognised in their community but on a larger scale so that they could show others that there is a future in South Africa.

“We need to change this narrative that there isn’t a future for young Jews in South Africa, that there isn’t a future for people who want to be proudly Jewish in South Africa, and that this country doesn’t value us because it’s not true,” he said.

For Ichikowitz, a rising star is a young person who has a sense of community and believes that their Jewishness and the heritage that comes from it is part of the contribution that they make to their society. A rising star is also somebody making an impact on the lives of others in whatever way, whether through business, social entrepreneurship, charity, or solving social problems.

“A lot of what we do is aimed at making South Africa the best place to be a Jew in the world,” Ichikowitz said. “We believe this helps drive it.”