Community focus on financial aid

SHAUN ZAGNOEV

A second area of great activity on our website and Facebook page concerns the ongoing involvement of community members in hunger relief. On a daily basis, we have been posting write-ups accompanied by pictures of individual projects headed by Jewish people run under the CAN (Community Action Network) banner in and around Johannesburg. Check these out to see what our community is doing and where you could get involved.

Over the past weeks, the Pretoria Council SAJBD, working with council member Ciska Lewis of the Union of Jewish Women, has been rendering substantial assistance to its own constituents and the wider community. One of its projects is to deliver bread daily to needy families in the Silverton area and nearby townships. There have further been food deliveries to Moot area squatter camps, University of Pretoria residential students, and the various Sunnyside-Up Projects, bulk deliveries of badly needed hygiene materials to the elderly in the Sunnyside precinct and two local orphanages, and donations to the Pretoria Chevrah Kadisha. Kudos to our northern neighbours for once again rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done.

The Board continues to consult regularly with its counterparts around the world, sharing information and drawing practical lessons from one another. It was largely through this that we knew what steps to take right at the beginning to reduce infection in our community. Discussions have now been taking place on how the various countries are dealing with the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions. International Jewry also has to deal with the threat of the predictable outbreak of conspiracy theories blaming Jews, Israel, or both for the COVID-19 crisis. The Board has shared information on what is happening on this front in South Africa with other organisations working in the field. Fortunately, it hasn’t surfaced to any great extent locally. We continue to monitor the situation carefully, and ask that anyone who does become aware – online or in other circumstances – of COVID-19-related anti-Semitism to please let us know on sajbd@sajbd.org.

• Listen to Charisse Zeifert on Jewish Board Talk, 101.9 ChaiFM, every Friday from 12:00 to 13:00.