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Had we been living in normal times, our 2023 national biennial conference would have taken the form of a celebratory gala dinner marking the South African...
With Israel’s war against Hamas and other Iranian-backed proxies poised to enter its ninth week, reports continue to stream in on the massive antisemitic backlash being...
Since the conflict began, members of the Board have been inundated by requests for interviews and comment. We have made every effort to accede to these...
This past week, inflammatory rhetoric by pro-Hamas factions, particularly in Cape Town, reached even greater heights of virulence. Over the weekend, there were violent attacks on...
After the moving and impactful demonstration in solidarity with the hostages in Gaza on Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg two weeks ago, the South African Jewish...
On Shabbat on 28 October, anti-Israel protesters descended on Jewish residential areas, waving Hamas flags and chanting inflammatory slogans. That they chose Shabbat for this demonstration...
We’re into our third week since the massacre of 7 October. Our grief and desolation hasn’t abated and our horror mounts as we continue to watch...
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has frequently criticised the South African government for its palpable anti-Israel bias, but the recent shocking response, not just...
To our brothers and sisters in Israel, our beloved community, and our treasured Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Bahai, and other religious allies, there are no words to...
In Jewish tradition, Sukkot represents moving from a time of judgement and solemn introspection to one of celebration and togetherness. It’s also a time when Jews...
The first week of the Jewish new year – 5784 on the Jewish calendar – has been an exceptionally busy one for the Board, with high-level...
I participated in a moving series of events in Mauritius last week held to mark the 83rd anniversary of the deportation and detention of nearly 1...
On Sunday, one of South African Jewry’s oldest and most esteemed communal organisations, the Union of Jewish Women (UJW) of South Africa, marked 90 years of...
Last week, I wrote about the value that Limmud has added to the intellectual and cultural life of our community. I can now report back on...
At the time of writing, we were looking ahead with much anticipation to this coming weekend’s annual Limmud festival in Johannesburg. Each year, Limmud offers our...
In my previous column, I expanded on the various ways in which the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) works to ensure that Jewish religious...
Looking for scapegoats in troubled times is intrinsic to the conspiratorial world view, and since Jews feature so prominently in such thinking, it’s common for them...
“You are the super Jews of the world” was how demographer Barry Kosmin summed up the results of the 1998 survey on the South African Jewish...
The purpose of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) is to act as “the representative voice of the South Africa Jewish community” but what...
As Nelson Mandela often emphasised, both before and after becoming president, the attainment of political freedom in South Africa would have little meaning if it didn’t...
Events in Cape Town over the past six months were the main subject of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ (SAJBD’s) meeting in Pretoria on...
In the first six months of this year, there were a number of concerning incidents of antisemitic threats and intimidation against the Jewish community and its...
As the name indicates, the Conference for Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference, as it’s generally known) was established to facilitate the process of restitution and...
There have been a string of verbal attacks and demonstrations harassing, threatening, and villifying Cape Town Jewish institutions and leaders this year. Certain opposition political parties...
The past week has provided yet more evidence of how overtly antisemitic modes of thought and the heavily conspiratorial worldview that invariably goes with it has...
When I was growing up, I felt like I was living in a post-antisemitism world. In the wake of the Holocaust, people understood the horrific consequences...
Cape and national representatives of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) participated in a memorable evening on 24 May to celebrate the opening of...
Over the past two months, the Cape Town Jewish community has been targeted by a series of threatening, inflammatory, and not infrequently overtly antisemitic demonstrations, both...
This year, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) marks 120 years of serving the South African Jewish community. The history of the Board is...
The coronation over the weekend of King Charles III was a leading news story even in countries with little or no affiliation to Great Britain. The...
To be a realist is usually interpreted as the ability to acknowledge where things are going wrong without sugar-coating matters, but the opposite can also be...
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 week, Yom Hashoah ceremonies were held under the auspices of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) in all the major centres. I thank...
Two weeks ago, I reported on how factions of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) group at the University of Pretoria (UP) were protesting against “the presence...
When “Israeli Apartheid Week” (IAW) was first introduced on our university campuses, it posed many complex challenges for Jewish students. Should the invective of the other...
At the time of going to print, a “peaceful protest against the presence of Zionism on university campuses” has just taken place at the University of...
Anti-Israel factions have long been pushing for South Africa to downgrade its embassy in Israel. A resolution to this effect was taken at the 2017 ANC...
Every year, a high-powered delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations (COP) visits a particular part of the world, meeting political leadership...
As reported on the front page of this issue, earlier this week, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies briefed the Jewish community on the Board’s...
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) continues to come under heavy fire locally and internationally for its decision to withdraw an invitation to the Tel Aviv...
