(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Knowing my fondness for old things Mervyn Smith, Hon. Life Vice-President of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, gave me a copy of the 104-page 1953 Rosh Hashanah edition of the Zionist Record, found
(Reviewer: Gary Selikow, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Nick Cohen comes from a left-wing family. His great-grandparents fled from the Tsarist Empire at the time of the pogroms, but their son, his grandfather, revolted. He became a Communist and married outside the faith.
(Reviewer: Ralph Zulman, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) The appointment of Tony Leon as South African Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay by President Zuma in 2009 came, politically speaking, as somewhat of a surprise. As leader of the opposition
(Author: Marcia Leveson, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) In terms of South African Jewish writing, this is a book I have been waiting for. Although Anthony Schneider immigrated to America at an early age and is therefore not strictly a South African author,
(Author: David A Sher, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) The Great Synagogue in Wolmarans Street, Johannesburg, can be seen as being reflective of and formative in the history of the Johannesburg Jewish community as a whole. The synagogue traces its roots as
(Author: Rose Norwich, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Following this year’s centenary celebrations of the Great Synagogue in Wolmarans Street, it is now more generally known that the first congregation to be established in Johannesburg was the Witwatersrand Hebrew Congregation. It was
(Author: Michael Bagraim, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Feature image: SA Jewish Board of Deputies – Cape Chairperson Li Boiskin and Executive Director welcome Prof Cyril Karabus at Cape Town airport, 17 May 2013 “Someone must have slandered Josef K., for
(Author: David Saks, Vol. 68, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2013) Up until the end of the last century, it was still not uncommon for the view to be expressed by acknowledged experts in the field that antisemitism was largely a spent force, still present at
(Author: Cecil Bloom, Vol. 69, No. 3, Chanukah 2014) In pre-revolutionary Russia, most Jewish composers wrote for their own people, using Jewish subjects; very few composed for the wider community. Some leading non-Jewish composers, however, did occasionally incorporate Jewish themes into their works. The
(Author: Naomi Musiker, Vol. 69, No. 3, Chanukah 2014) The creation of the Jewish Legion during World War I was largely due to the efforts of two Russian Zionists, Joseph Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Both were deeply influenced by the writings of Theodor Herzl.