To all the winners

Attending the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards is undoubtedly the best medicine any one of us could ask for. How can you feel depressed and downhearted when you see the calibre of those in our community? I can’t.

How can you possibly be surrounded by more than 800 or so of your closest community pals and not feel happy?

More than anything, it’s not just the success of our winners that stood out, but the achievements of every nominee who was put forward. There wasn’t one person who wasn’t deserving of kavod. There wasn’t a nominee who wasn’t making our community proud by standing up above the parapet and doing incredible work. Not one!

We spent time working on the profiles of all nominees, as seen in the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards magazine that accompanies this week’s newspaper, and so the prowess of each one became evident.

To be honest, after that I was grateful I had nothing to do with judging the awards because that must have been an impossible task. So, I salute the judges for selecting their winners. It’s no mean feat, that’s for sure!

This year’s event was particularly inspiring because not only did we look at this year’s accomplishments, but we also looked back on 25 years of the SA Jewish Report’s history and that of the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards.

As Jews, we have touched every part of this country, every industry, profession, trade, you name it, and we have done well over the years. Ours is a community that not only looks after itself, as is evident at our annual awards ceremonies, but looks after those in need around our country.

Every single one of this year’s winners, not just Sivan Yaari who won the Humanitarian Award, gives back to society in some huge way. Even our rising star award winner, Josh Weinberg, does a great deal to help his community and others.

One of my childhood mentors once said to me that though people belonging to a church must give 10% of their earnings to their church, Jewish people give at least that away. Only, he said, instead of giving it to our house of G-d, Jews give it to charity and people in need. Also, although it’s somehow expected of us, he said, we don’t need to be asked. It’s part of who we are. A disclaimer here: I’m not saying that other religious groups don’t give charity freely, I’m simply saying that we do.

I cannot tell you how halachically true my mentor’s words were, only everyone I know doesn’t make a big deal about giving, they just do it. And then they give again when they get the calls for this or the other crowdfunding or Charidy Day. It’s how we roll.

Looking back, most of us are the descendants of penniless refugees who escaped pogroms in Lithuania or other eastern European countries, or the Holocaust. They came with nothing, and so many of them built successful lives here. Nobody made it easy for them or gave them a leg up. Nobody gave them handouts of readymade businesses.

They were brave, smart, took calculated risks, and built their lives from the ground up. As a result, so many of them built empires.

As our wise chairperson, Howard Sackstein, far more eloquently and passionately put it, we did good. And today, there are many captains of industry, law, politics, medicine, and numerous other arenas, who have led this country in a massive way.

Our haters may dismiss us and denigrate us, but we won’t back down. We won’t shy away. We will not make as if we are nothing. We have so much to be proud of. We have everything to be proud of.

Though our government and our haters may have lots to say about us and who we can or can’t support, we had at least one minister from the African National Congress (ANC) and another top-level ANC leader at our Absa Jewish Achiever Awards. I don’t believe any of this was lost on them or the other political leaders who were there.

Every year, in the run-up to the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards, I wonder if there are still people we haven’t nominated, and then they come out in their droves. I’m blown away that 25 years on, we had a record number of nominees this year. We had 850 nominations. That’s 850 Jews who people believe are worthy of being honoured for their achievements. Isn’t that astonishing?

It’s interesting that this year, our winners fell into a couple of categories: retail giants, politicians, and entrepreneurs. I would hesitate before claiming that this is where the Jewish community excels, because that wouldn’t be true. A few years ago, we had several legal minds who won, and in another year, we had advertising and marketing kings, and then entertainment giants before that. I think those who want to put us into boxes may find that difficult.

A lot of what sets us apart is that we rarely fit into boxes. We work outside and around the boxes. We don’t naturally always agree with each other on how we do things, but that’s part of what makes us who we are.

We’re a hodge podge of ambitious, educated, family-oriented, committed, and passionate people. If you think of us as a family unit, we’re a dysfunctional but loving one.

Here’s to all our winners!

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor