Deal with anti-Semitism decisively

MARY KLUK

At one point in the seder, we symbolically open the front door of our homes. Among the many reasons for this, we thereby demonstrate our trust in G-d’s enduring protection and our own commitment to fulfilling our Jewish destiny regardless of what might be happening in the world outside.

During the past week, our community was called upon to take a stand against those who would seek to deny its members their right to publicly identify with their Judaism.

Following on the previous week’s attack on three kippah-wearing Jewish teenagers at The Zone in Rosebank, the Board issued a call to all South Africans to attend a movie the following Saturday wearing a kippah or hat in order to demonstrate their “commitment to fight against any form of prejudice and intimidation” and to assert the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of all South African citizens to freedom of religion and association.

We were thrilled with the response. On Saturday night after Shabbat, hundreds of members of our community, along with many non-Jewish supporters, arrived to participate in the SAJBD’s #KippotAgainstHate initiative. The event was a heartening assertion of communal solidarity and pride in our Jewish heritage.

Some have asked me whether the initiative did not amount to overkill on our part. After all, this was the first recorded case in three years of an anti-Semitic attack involving physical violence in South Africa, one, moreover, in which none of the victims were seriously hurt.

My response in such cases has been that it is precisely at this time, when such incidents are still a rarity that we need to take a strong, public stand. It would be short-sighted in the extreme to wait until acts of violent anti-Semitism have become common-place before doing so.

Rather, we need to deal decisively with such acts from the very outset with a view to preventing further such incidents in the future. Once a trend has set in, it is that much harder to eradicate it.

The targeting of people visibly identified as Jewish in public spaces, is something that many Jewish communities around the world, especially in Europe, are now struggling to deal with.      

It has become so bad that in certain countries, even rabbis are advising people not to wear yarmulkes in public, or if they do so, to at least disguise them with other head coverings. For example, sometimes religious Jews – in the UK, France and elsewhere – wear baseball caps over their kippot.

It would be a very sad day for our community were such a situation to develop in South Africa, and we will do everything we can to ensure that such a day never comes. 

In closing, I wish everyone a Chag Pesach Kasher v’Sameach. May we all enjoy the wonderful experience of being with family and friends at a time when we rejoice in our Jewish heritage and pass those precious values and traditions over to the next generation.     

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