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MANY ISSUES. MORE VOICES.

7/13/2019 2 Comments

South African Jews or Jewish South Africans? Millennials & Identity politics

BY MICHALYA SCHONWALD MOSS


​communal Matters
[trends & prospects]

exploring the concerns of the south african jewish community


In this article Michalya Schonwald Moss argues that one of the greatest crises facing Jewish Millennials in a post-Apartheid South Africa is their struggle to identify strongly as both Jewish and South African. 
THE Regional Nahum Goldmann Fellowship , held in South Africa in 2018, looked to bring together young Jewish leaders to examine their “responsibility to the Jewish community alongside their responsibility to be active citizens in the South African context”. It, however, soon became evident that there was a palpable discomfort in how these young community leaders engaged with their South African identities. Being a Jewish-oriented Fellowship, it was perhaps unsurprising that participants strongly identified with their Jewishness and Jewish heritage. For many, their relationship to South Africa proved to be more ambivalent and complex. 
"...it was the first time I had witnessed Jewish millennials clearly struggling with the dilemma of  ‘how to be Jewish AND South African in a post-Apartheid South Africa?’"

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4/10/2019 2 Comments

The Matter with the Myths – Buthelezi is the obvious ally for the Jewish Community

By dr Ruth Rabinowitz


​COMMUNAL MATTERS
[TRENDS & PROSPECTS]

EXPLORING THE CONCERNS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY


​In this article Dr Ruth Rabinowitz, former Member of Parliament for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), responds to a recent DafkaDotCom article by Laura Phillips. She argues that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has been unjustly characterised, and urges the Jewish community to examine critically the prevailing narratives about the IFP. She further argues that it is in the community’s best interest to foster a deeper relationship with Buthelezi.   
IN a recent DafkaDotCom article by Laura Phillips (13/02/2019), Phillips questions the Jewish community’s association with Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Before any debate about whether the Jewish community should identify with, let alone honour such an individual as Buthelezi, it is crucial to have an honest perspective on the facts around which Phillips builds her argument. As a Jewish representative of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), first in the Senate and then the House of Assembly, I spent years challenging the types of allegations Phillips levels against Buthelezi – what I came to term “the matter with the myths”. I tried then, as I do now, to show the chasm between true facts and the falsehoods that have been propagated about Buthelezi.  
"Discovering how easily fake news can be embedded in a populace smitten with an ideology that is served by it, one of my goals here is to present the “Matter with the Myths” about Buthelezi and the IFP."

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2/13/2019 2 Comments

The perils of realpolitik philanthropy

BY LAURA PHILLIPS


​Communal matters
[trends & prospects]

exploring the concerns of the south african jewish community


In this article Laura Phillips argues that the organised Jewish community's philanthropic relationship with Mangosuthu Buthelezi and King Goodwill Zwelithini is problematic due to both being implicated in some of the most brutal parts of recent South African history. She contends that when securing support for Israel is a primary motivation of local outreach efforts, South Africa's Zionists will inevitably find themselves with compromised allies. 
IN a recent article for DafkaDotCom (20/09/2018) Benji Shulman commends the South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) for its close relationship with the Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini, and presents SAFI’s initiatives in rural KwaZulu Natal as an example of how the Jewish community should act to advance its own interests when engaging in philanthropic activity. A month after the publication of Shulman’s article, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) paid tribute to Mangosuthu Buthelezi on his 90th birthday. 
"... though Buthelezi and King Zwelithini claim to promote development in rural KwaZulu-Natal, they are implicated in some of the most brutal parts of recent South African history".
​Extending their good wishes to the Zulu Prince, the SAJBD explained they had gathered to celebrate the Board’s long-standing relationship with Buthelezi and their joint development efforts in underprivileged communities. In response, Buthelezi thanked the “Jewish Community” for its good wishes and then lambasted the South African government for downgrading the South African Embassy in Israel. 

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11/7/2018 0 Comments

LIVING TOGETHER IN HARMONY: THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERFAITH INITIATIVES TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY

​BY MARLENE SILBERT

​​
​COMMUNAL MATTERS 
​[TRENDS & PROSPECTS]

exploring the concerns of the south african jewish community


​In this article Marlene Silbert looks at the importance of interfaith spaces for the South African Jewish community. She focuses on an Interfaith-Intercultural Youth Programme, aimed at grade 10 & 11 learners from schools across the Cape Metropole, which she initiated under the auspices of the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative. She further discusses the potential that interfaith collaboration can hold for the South African Jewish community. 
 The Interfaith-Intercultural Youth Programme helps us understand and respect differences and make friends with one another. I have learnt not to react badly when people offend me unintentionally because they make uniformed statements. As ambassadors of the Interfaith Programme we should respectfully engage such people and help them to become informed and change their mind-set
​(Grade 11 learner, Herzlia High School).
RECENT estimates suggest that nearly ninety percent of all Jewish children in South Africa attend Jewish community day schools. Many also attend Jewish youth movements. De facto, this means that the vast majority of our children have very little, if any, meaningful engagement with the full diversity of broader South African society. And, of course, the converse holds true: there is very little opportunity for broader South African society to engage with and learn about Jews and the Jewish community, particularly at a younger age. 
"Prejudice towards Jewish South Africans can derive from not having any engagement or meaningful dialogue with members of the South African Jewish community."
​This is not just an issue facing the Jewish community in South Africa. It is, however, this social and cultural chasm within South African society that interfaith programmes try to address, some with greater success than others. 

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9/20/2018 0 Comments

The Ways of Peace: An Emerging Concept of Jewish Philanthropy in South Africa

BY BENJI SHULMAN


​communal matters
[trends & Prospects]

​exploring the concerns of the south african Jewish community


In this article Benji Shulman argues that a paradigm shift is occurring in how the Jewish community conceives of and engages around 'outreach' and social responsibility. He examines the strengths as well as challenges of the existing models, and proposes that the emergence of a third model, which he terms Darkhei Shalom, can be used to address the current limitations of Jewish philanthropy within the South African context. 
Our master taught: For the sake, the poor of the heathens should be supported as we support the poor of Israel, the sick of the heathens should be visited as we visit the sick of Israel, and the dead of the heathens should be buried as we bury the dead of Israel - The Talmud
​EARLY one November morning a group of young people is preparing to take part in one of Johannesburg’s major cycle races. They hail from Vosloorus, a township in Gauteng, and train regularly to ensure that they are fit enough to race. They are part of a development programme, and as such their kit and bikes are sponsored. At first glance this might resemble any other youth development initiative for aspiring sportspeople from a disadvantaged area. But it is, in fact, much more than that. The riders are Christian Zionist activists from the Hope of Glory Tabernacle (a local church) and members of the pro-Israel group DEISI (Defend, Embrace, Invest-In and Support Israel). 
"Jewry in post-apartheid South Africa have largely organised philanthropy around two different conceptual approaches; what I have termed Hessed and Tikkun Olam... programmes like Ride4Africa-Israel ...suggest the emergence of a third concept ... ." 
They are part of the team Ride4Africa-Israel and are riding with members of the Jewish community. They race side-by-side flying both the South African and Israeli flags proudly displaying their affiliation to the passing crowds. The money raised through the race is donated to an initiative that provides water and agriculture technologies from Israel to projects in their own community and others around Johannesburg. ​

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8/7/2018 4 Comments

South African Jewish Migration: To Diminish or Replenish

BY DAN BROTMAN


communal matters
[trends & prospects]

exploring the concerns of the South african jewish community

 
​In this article Dan Brotman argues that with the hemorrhaging of the South African Jewish community due to emigration, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies should take a proactive role in lobbying for immigration reform and supporting prospective Jewish immigrants. 
The Jewish Board of Deputies in Transvaal, Natal and the Cape were established around the same time or directly after Morris Alexander led a delegation of Jewish communal leaders to the Cape Parliament to lobby for changes to the Cape Immigration Restrictions Act of 1902. This law was detrimental to Jewish immigration, as it stipulated that prospective immigrants must speak a European language in order to be allowed to settle in the country. As Yiddish was not deemed a European language for immigration purposes, this new condition would have effectively put a halt to Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. 
 
Alexander and his counterparts prevailed, and Yiddish was recognised as a European language for immigration purposes, and as a result the South African Jewish community continued to grow in numbers. Following his successful immigration lobbying efforts, Alexander went on to form and lead the Cape Jewish Board of Deputies in 1904 and South African Jewish Board of Deputies in 1912. According to Percy Cowan’s 1929 piece entitled The Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa, the Jewish Board of Deputies in all three regions dealt directly with immigration issues pertaining to the Jewish community. The Cape Board specifically “dealt with a number of immigration cases, with the result that many deserving immigrants were allowed to land who would otherwise have been sent back to the countries whence they came." 
"​Between 1981-2005 alone, 40% of the South African Jewish community emigrated for a variety of reasons..."
Although the SAJBD’s activities today primarily focus on combatting antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments and expressions in government and civil society, I argue that it is once again necessary for the SAJBD also to ‘return to its roots’ and assist with Jewish immigration to South Africa, which will replenish our community’s diminishing numbers.

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4/25/2018 0 Comments

where does the boundary Lie between Anti-Zionism ANd Antisemitism?

BY DAVID SAKS

COMMUNAL MATTERS [TRENDS & PROSPECTS]:

EXPLORING THE CONCERNS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY


In this article David Saks argues that the current surge of anti-zionism in South Africa has antisemitic influences. 
PERHAPS the most fiendishly difficult question that Jewish rights groups must grapple with today is where the boundary lies between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. A perception has been created by anti-Israel activists that the Jewish community rushes willy-nilly to label as antisemitism that which is in fact legitimate criticism of Israel. This is untrue. Instead there is an acute awareness of the need to make a clear distinction between the two, and so far as the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) is concerned, the record shows that it has been scrupulously careful in this regard. 
 
This being said, it is inevitable that attacks ostensibly only against Israel sometimes spill-over into hatred against Jews. No-one can reasonably accuse Jews of ‘crying antisemitism’ when they take action in such instances (although many do). And when anti-Israel sentiment takes on so extreme a form as to amount to inflammatory propaganda, it is understandable that the Jewish community should come to the defence of Israel. It is an attack on something that the great majority of Jews around the world passionately identify with.      
"What purports simply to be anti-Zionism frequently turns out to be fuelled to a greater or lesser extent
by residual anti-Jewish feeling". 

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3/12/2018 1 Comment

what are the boundaries for constructive debate in the south african Jewish community?

​
​BY ADINA ROTH


​communal matters [trends & prospects]:

exploring the concerns of the south african jewish community


​In the first of our three inaugural articles, Adina Roth explores the concept of Machloket l’shem shamayim and looks at what our textual tradition might suggest about the possibility of deepening debate and conversation in the South African Jewish community. 
Every argument that is for the sake of heaven is destined to endure.
And every argument that is not for the sake of heaven is not destined to endure.
What is an example of argument for the sake of heaven? The arguments of Hillel and Shammai.
And not for the sake of heaven?  Korach and his congregation
​ (Avot, 5:17).
Machloket l’shem shamayim, an argument for the sake of heaven, is an invisible yardstick put forth to distinguish between arguments considered worthy, and those seen as unworthy. What place could the concept of machloket l’shem shamayim or – argumentation for the sake of heaven – have in the South African Jewish community? Can this concept help establish the boundaries as well as the possibilities for acceptable discourse and debate in our community?
 
While the right to freedom of speech, as enshrined in the South African Constitution, ensures that anyone can raise an argument in our community, the way in which arguments are received, explored and discussed within the community is influenced by communal culture and norms, social pressures and consensus; a host of factors far more complicated than the right to freedom of speech. No one wants to be ostracised for exercising their inalienable right to free speech. That said, intuitively we might understand that some arguments are edifying and do much to advance the ethics of a community or culture while others can be destructive. The boundaries of what is and what is not a worthy – or edifying – argument, however, can become subjective. When it comes to communal engagement around issues of contention, we are in the realm of sociology as much as law; subjective narrative or poetics as much as absolutes. The question becomes, is it possible to share the value of macholket l’shem shamayim across the community so that a space of constructive, rigorous and more forthright dialogue can be opened up?

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