Joburg Jews do the big walk to see the Boks

Johannesburg Jewish Springbok fans walked from all around Johannesburg to Emirates Airline Park on Saturday (31 August) so they could watch the Boks take on New Zealand while still keeping Shabbos.

More than 50 people walked from various areas to the Victory Theatre on Louis Botha Avenue, Houghton Estate, from where they all walked together to the stadium. Many walked for between two to three hours to be at the game, and they weren’t disappointed when the Springboks won 31 to 27.

Flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu played a starring role for the full 90 minutes in front of a 60 000-capacity crowd, contributing 16 points in his first ever Test against the All Blacks.

Waverley-based rugby enthusiast Dovi Finger described the walk as “the most incredible, most insanely amazing experience. About 50 people walked from Glenhazel, Oaklands, and Illovo. We had arranged to meet at the Victory Theatre at 15:00 from different areas around Joburg.”

The walk presented Harry Joffe with an amazing opportunity to watch a Test match for the first time since he started keeping Shabbos about 15 years ago. Having found out about the walk from a colleague who is “in the know”, Joffe says the walk “really showed me the power of our Jewish community. We could get a group to walk to the game, have drinks along the way, and really enjoy a fantastic experience.

“I even found a couple of people walking who weren’t shomrei Shabbos, but walked for the experience and comradeship. What I loved as well was how everyone had organised for someone to meet them at the game with their tickets so we didn’t have to carry them on Shabbos.”

Joffe and his friend of many years, Gavin Sacks, had never taken part in such a walk to a rugby game before.

Sacks did the walk despite not being shomrei Shabbos. What motivated him to take part was the chance to spend time with Joffe while walking to the game and then watching the spectacle live. “I didn’t visualise that most of the walk we were going to be with 40-plus people,” Sacks says. “This came as a complete surprise and a pleasant one as well.”

Trevor Trope was one of five “hyped-up and excited” Jewish friends who walked from Illovo to the game. “The experience was great,” he says. “You got a strong sense of people celebrating the game. We had a really good walk. It was actually less tiring than I thought it was going to be.” A drive from Illovo to Emirates Airline Park via the M1 is more than 10km.

Trope and Finger say it was nice to be able to keep Shabbos and not miss out on being at a big game. “It was great being part of a truly proudly South African moment,” Trope says. “Watching a Springbok game against a team as fantastic as the All Blacks isn’t your average Shabbos activity. It was made so much better by the fact that we won the game.”

Trope and Finger used words like “fantastic”, “incredible”, and “exciting” to describe the game. “The match really was a thriller,” Finger says. “I felt privileged and happy to be able to have been there.”

“We were lucky to win,” Trope says. “At one stage, it looked like we were in a situation that was quite precarious. We looked like we weren’t going to win it. Snatching a win at the last minute was a phenomenal turnaround.”

Sacks says the game was full of ups and downs, “At times, we thought the Boks were just not playing well, we were out of it, and were going to lose. At other times, it looked like we were coming back, getting on top, and I was thinking, ‘We’re going to win this.’ The greatest feature of the experience was the social experience, which reminded us of all the good stuff in this country.”

Joffe describes the day as “very special”, with people showing their love for rugby and Yiddishkeit all at once. Having arrived at the Victory Theatre at 15:00 with his friend, Joffe thought the walk wouldn’t pan out as he found only a couple of people there. However, an amazing sight soon greeted him when he looked up and saw 45 Springbok-jersey wearers singing and walking along Louis Botha Avenue. A truck filled with food and beverages for the walkers also arrived at the theatre.

“Then we walked up Louis Botha, turned left into Harrow Road, and then the truck came back with more drinks, biltong, and chips,” Joffe recalls. “All the way through, people were singing Springbok songs and the atmosphere was really festive. I found the walk amazing because first of all, I made some new friends and reconnected with old friends. It was nice to see the comradeship, and the response we received on the streets of Louis Botha and Harrow Road was also amazing.”

Says Finger, “A bakkie with beers, Coke, water, biltong, and droë wors stopped every 500m or so, which was incredible. Every car that drove past would hoot and shout, ‘Bokke!’ It was an amazing highlight of the whole experience. From the Victory Theatre until the final whistle was just great.”

Joffe had a work colleague scan him in at the entrance to Emirates Airline Park. “What I liked after the game was that seven or eight people had parked their cars there on the Friday afternoon to secure parking so they could drive themselves and other people home.”

This memorable day gave Sacks, who usually watches the Springboks from the comfort of his own couch, “a good reminder of why it’s good from time to time to actually go to a game and feel the atmosphere”.