Great commemorations

This week, our community joined fellow Jews the world over in celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut. Every such anniversary is a special occasion, of course, but what made this year’s Israel independence day even more so is that it marked the 75th anniversary of the modern Jewish state. The national rebirth of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland is, indeed, a modern-day miracle, especially coming so soon after the unprecedented tragedy of the Holocaust. It represents the fulfilment of a 2 000-year-old dream of Jewish nationhood reborn and the affirmation of a connection to the land of Israel stretching back about 35 centuries. From the outset, it has also realised its core mission of providing a refuge for persecuted Jews everywhere, including Holocaust survivors and the hundreds of thousands driven out of other Middle East as well as North Africa countries shortly after the state’s establishment.

Even while we celebrate, however, we’re mindful of the very high price that the restoration of Jewish sovereignty has entailed. Not by its own choice, Israel has been at war from its very birth, and many thousands of its citizens, mainly young people serving in the Israel Defense Forces, have lost their lives as a result. Fittingly, therefore, Yom Ha’atzmaut is always immediately preceded by Yom Hazikaron, when those who died in defence of the state are remembered and honoured.

To a degree unusual in the diaspora, Zionism caught the imagination of the Jewish community in South Africa. Levels of religiosity might have differed significantly and within the Zionist movement itself, there were a range of different ideological approaches, but there was a shared enthusiasm for the Jewish national project. Zionism was embraced by Jewish communal bodies across the spectrum. They included women’s groups, the youth movements, and the full range of religious, cultural, educational, political, and sporting organisations. About 25 000 former South African Jews have since settled in Israel, in the process creating powerful additional ties to the state through family and other connections. Community surveys conducted by the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies over the past two decades continue to show exceptionally high levels of support for and connection to Israel throughout the community.

Yom Ha’atzmaut this year falls just one day before Freedom Day in South Africa, when South Africans commemorate the country’s first all-inclusive, non-racial elections 29 years ago. South Africa’s peaceful transition to multi-racial democracy following years of escalating violence and societal breakdown was also widely described as a miracle at the time. Like the birth of Israel, it marked the beginning of a hopeful new chapter in the nation’s history. As a proud South African and proud Jew, it was a stirring experience to celebrate both events in the same week.

This month, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies also reached a memorable milestone by marking 120 years of service to the South African Jewish community. Our commitment to the core goals of the Board’s founders remains steadfast – protecting Jewish civil rights in South Africa, and leading our community in identifying with and contributing to the building of a strong, prosperous and democratic South Africa.

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