Pretoria Jewry entered into the festive spirit

SUZANNE BELLING

A special outing was to see the festive lights in Lawley Street, Waterkloof – an upmarket suburb where homeowners decorate their houses with twinkling, blinking and extravagant displays of lights from reindeer, stars, bells, Santa Clauses, trees, candy treats, almost anything with a holiday spirit.

But surely the most novel of these had visitors – especially the Jewish ones –  oohing and aahing when they spotted two magenei david on the gates of a house, obviously belonging to Jewish residents.

In keeping with the festive spirit, which coincided with Chanukah, the six-pointed stars demonstrated the sharing of religious symbols in a unique and special way.

Every night at JAFFA, members of a different Jewish organisation were represented at public lightings of Chanukah lights, community singing and a visit by bochurim of the Rabbinical College of Pretoria and also by Rabbi Gidon Fox, of the Pretoria Hebrew Congregation.

The first day of the secular year of 2017 saw the annual scrumptious kosher braai for JAFFA residents and their families from Gauteng and many from other parts of South Africa and abroad.

Some 200 people participated in the braai arranged by catering manager Roy Levinson and his team, under directorship of Mark Isaacs.