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On Freedom Day, Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), at the invitation of the MEC for sports, arts,...
My wife gave me this idea. I gave it context. And I love the theme. Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived...
Last week brought with it the disturbing news that armed robbers in Johannesburg had invaded a shul after a service and tied up and robbed those...
When the country went into lockdown in March last year, it was obvious that the traditional, countrywide Yom Hashoah ceremonies couldn’t be held, and that the...
I’m generally enthusiastic about whatever it is that I do. I’m either putting on weight or losing it. I’m never maintaining it. I’m either building up...
For as long as I’m able to remember, we have always added a number of prayers into our Shabbat morning service. Aside from what was prescribed...
At the beginning of each year, Jewish university students are confronted with the challenge of responding to Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), a malicious and mendacious anti-Israel...
I blame my mother-in-law. She is the one that started all this, and it’s thanks to her I was placed in mortal danger when making a...
One of the few good things to come out of the Oprah interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on 7 March were the spectacular memes....
One of the few rays of light in a very bleak year was how in 2020, no fewer than four countries – the United Arab Emirates...
A year ago, on 5 March, it was announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in South Africa. I remember so vividly that...
I remember quite clearly my first day of matric. My mom positioned me in our garden, made me pose for some “last first day” photographs, and...
On 24 February, an article appeared in The Times of Israel claiming that 11 ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) had tested positive for COVID-19 on landing in Israel....
Having just celebrated Purim (duly adapting its laws and customs to COVID-19 conditions), we are now looking ahead to Pesach less than a month away. From...
Tribute to Veronica Phillips, o”h When Holocaust survivor Veronica Phillips, who sadly passed away earlier this week, was the guest speaker at the Johannesburg Yom Hashoah...
Sunday wasn’t a day for bald people to be outside without a hat. But I was, and although it was good to walk around a nursery...
Last year’s COVID-19 lockdown rendered impossible the traditional Yom Hashoah commemorative gatherings. Instead, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), working with the South African...
I’m not sure we need Purim this year. I felt the same about the high holidays back in 2020, when we were much younger, thinner, and...
‘’If you want this, or are doing this now, then you need to join me,” says Shelley Trope-Friedman, the new president of WIZO (the Women’s International...
The Elise WIZO Gift Shop sadly closed its doors at the end of 2020 after being a well-known feature of Johannesburg Jewish life for many decades....
Biz hundert un tsvantsig (may you live until 120), as Jews like to say when wishing each other a long life. The South African Jewish Board...
News that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine isn’t effective against the “South African” variant came as a terrible blow. The first consignment had already arrived in the country...
On 27 January last week we marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day – the first and hopefully the last to be held in pandemic conditions. The United...
I can’t anymore! I actually can’t, with everyone watching President Cyril Ramaphosa and worrying that he looks tired. Or that he has bags under his eyes....
Ever since coping with COVID-19 became part of our daily reality, it has been routine to conclude one’s correspondence by wishing the other person good health...
Can we please speak about outrage for a minute? Because I’m convinced that emotional responses say more about us than we would like them to. And...
South African Jewry has long been regarded as a model diaspora community. We are famed for our excellent communal infrastructure, high level of identity and involvement,...
We need to give schools a break. They are forced to find a perfect balance between trying to educate our children, keep them and the teachers...
The closing weeks of 2020 brought with them the long-anticipated onset of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in South Africa. Over the December period, the...
I was fortunate to go to Umhlanga in the last week of November on a celebratory holiday after finishing matric. For the few days I was...
The happenings at the Capitol building left most sane people winded. And whereas many were quick to blame 2021 for letting us down so spectacularly and...
The night before 25 November was agonising. It was filled with messages from friends, all detailing the amazing things we’d be doing instead of studying because...
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth, a double chin and stick-out teeth,...
At the beginning of 2020, no-one could have predicted the unprecedented set of challenges that South African Jewry would shortly be confronted with, both to the...
If there is one event that we attended in abundance in 2020, it has been funerals. Larger and more conventional ones early on in the year,...
The annual Absa Jewish Achiever Awards held last Sunday showed once again how even in the most trying times, Jewish community members from across the age...
The Union of Jewish Women (UJW) has tackled the COVID-19 pandemic with passion, creativity, and incredible generosity. Beneficiaries in rural and urban areas across South Africa...
It’s that time of the year when we are asked to consider the past 12 months, and then look towards the next. It’s never easy to...
On Friday, starting at 12:10, 101.9 Chai FM will be broadcasting the third in a four-part radio series, titled Abraham’s Children that looks at similarities and...
Monday was International Tolerance Day. It was apparently borne in 1996, when the United Nations General Assembly invited UN member states to observe the day each...
