SA Jewry not cowed by anti-Semitic thugs

DAVID SAKS

Last Saturday night, hundreds of community members, together with representatives of Christian organisations and other well-wishers, flocked to The Zone in Rosebank in Johannesburg to participate in the SAJBD’s ‘#KippasAgainstHate’ initiative. As requested, all men wore yarmulkes.

The initiative was organised in response to the previous week’s unprovoked attack on three kippah-wearing teenage boys at the same venue, which from comments made by the three assailants, appear to have been clearly anti-Semitically motivated.

Among the remarks reportedly made were: “Your [expletive] people are killing our innocent children.” The attackers were variously described as being “of Indian descent” or “Muslims”.

Charges of assault were laid at the Rosebank police station shortly after the attack. Since then, the SAJBD has been working closely with the police to assist in their investigation, including going through the surveillance footage with The Zone security.

Part of the incident was captured by CCTV cameras and the footage is currently being examined with a view to identifying the perpetrators. However, the SAJBD felt that a broader response was required. What was particularly noteworthy about the incident was that it was the first recorded anti-Semitic attack involving physical violence to have been recorded in South Africa in more than three years.

While some might see this as showing how relatively better off South African Jewry were compared with what confronted their counterparts elsewhere in the world, a more disturbing possibility was that rather than being an aberration, the attack signalled the beginning of a dangerous new trend.

According to SAJBD National Director Wendy Kahn, the decision to organise the ‘#KippasAgainstHate’ demonstration was to send out a forthright message that South African Jewry would not be intimidated by the actions of a few thugs, but would continue to proudly identify as Jews wherever they went.

The initiative was largely inspired by the August 2012 “Kippah Walk” in Stockholm, Sweden, in which Jews and non-Jews took to the streets wearing yarmulkes to protest against the rise of anti-Semitism in the country.

“We are very proud, and thankful, that in South Africa up until now, Jews can wear their yarmulkes in public without fear of being victimised. By coming out in our numbers wearing kippot, at the same venue where three young members of our community were targeted for doing so, we were asserting our right to be both proudly Jewish and proudly South African,” Kahn said.

In its media statement publicising the event, the SAJBD called on the public to respond to the attack by attending a movie anywhere in South Africa on Saturday night wearing a kippah or hat. “In this way we will demonstrate our commitment to fight against any form of prejudice and intimidation.

“As proud South African citizens our freedom of movement, religion and association are guaranteed by our Constitution,” the statement concluded.

In this regard, SAJBD Chairman Mary Kluk also stressed how crucial it was to deal decisively with incidents of this nature from the very outset, rather than doing so only when they had become a regular occurrence.

Kahn described the event as “a resounding success” and “a wonderful morale booster” for the community. While certain people had been sceptical about the initiative, the overall response from the Jewish public had been overwhelmingly supportive.

In addition to the many personal responses received by herself and other Board members, this was attested to by the scores of favourable comments left on the SAJBD’s Facebook site. The tenor of these responses was well summed up by a community member who wrote: “We (Jews/gentiles) proved tonight that South Africa is the most amazing country – that despite the effort of a few thugs, people of all creeds can and do socialise together. We proved that the ugly incident at The Zone last week was in vain, as 99 per cent of our people – South Africans – can and do live together, despite not always agreeing on everything (hey, who does?).”

A former South African now living in San Francisco commented on how much she missed the “togetherness” of South African Jews, and how important this was in ensuring peace and living in harmony with the greater society.

According to Kahn, not only local community members, but even a few expatriates living abroad had responded to the Board’s call by making a point of wearing kippot when going out on Saturday night.