Expert insight on antisemitism

This past week, our community was united in profound grief as we mourned the tragic recovery of six executed hostages. Synagogues across the country lit Yizkor candles and displayed their images, a poignant tribute to lives brutally taken. On Sunday, 8 September, in a powerful show of solidarity, the South African chapter of Werun4theirlives hosted a memorial run in Johannesburg. Participants wore images of the six on their shirts, visibly sharing the weight of this sorrow with the world. Werun4theirlives organises such runs every Sunday in cities around the globe, and this week’s event was particularly moving. The collective display of unity and remembrance, both in our shuls and at the run, offers small but significant comfort as we struggle to cope with the ongoing horror and brutality of the situation.

This coming week, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) will host Dr David Hirsh, an international expert in contemporary antisemitism. Dr Hirsh is the academic director and chief executive of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, where I am a fellow, and a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has been instrumental in our previous efforts to combat antisemitism, and was one of the expert witnesses we brought out to testify at our landmark Masuku hearing in the Equality Court. Ultimately, the Constitutional Court upheld previous findings of hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission and Equality Court against former Congress of South African Trade Unions International Relations Secretary Bongani Masuku.

A few years prior to that, Dr Hirsh testified on the Board’s behalf in another high-profile hate speech case, namely the equally long running – and from the point of view of South African jurisprudence just as significant – Radio 786 matter. Much of the success we achieved in those two cases can be attributed to his erudition and expertise, as well as the respect for and scrupulous adherence to fundamental scholarly norms and standards that characterises all his work.

The Masuku trial was, among other things, concerned with the linkages between anti-Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric and antisemitism. Among the important outcomes of this landmark case, the right of our community to identify with and express support for Israel without being subjected to antisemitic abuse was confirmed. The question of how and when anti-Israel sentiment becomes antisemitism is one that we deal with on a weekly basis at the Board, and has become ever more important in the 11 months since 7 October and the Gaza war. It’s thus ever more important that we host guests of the calibre of Dr Hirsh, and avail ourselves of the opportunities to learn from one of the world’s foremost experts on this topic.

Dr Hirsh will be visiting Cape Town from Thursday, 12 September, where he will host a book launch and speak at the SAJBD Cape Council Conference on 15 September. In Johannesburg, Dr Hirsh will deliver a keynote address at the Gauteng Council Conference on 15 September, and host a book launch on 16 September. Email sajbd@sajbd.org if you are interested in attending any of these events.

I strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of these opportunities to hear from Dr Hirsh, one of the world’s foremost experts on antisemitism. His work offers essential insights into the challenges we face as a community, and provides invaluable guidance for addressing them.

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