(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 64, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2009) Early travelers’ tales often have to be taken with a pinch of salt. That pinch must be added to a kernel of truth, wrapped in a shell of plagiarised information and covered with a
(Veronica Belling, Vol. 64, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2009) The commandment to care for the widow and the orphan, the most vulnerable members of society, is one of the most basic precepts of Judaism. Although the oldest Jewish organisation in South Africa, Cape Town’s
(Author: Barbara Brown, Vol. 64, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2009) Editor’s note: During the 1950s, a little remembered trio of Jewish Labour Party MPs – Alex Hepple, Hyman Davidoff and Leo Lovell – vigorously opposed the mounting tide of apartheid legislation. Lovell’s life and
(Author: Leila Bloch, Vol. 73, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2018) It is important to preserve memories while there are people around to share them with us. This is the function of the Jewish Digital Archive Project (JDAP), a community project sponsored by the Kaplan-Kushlick
(Author: Ellie Isserow, Vol. 73, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2018) When the call went out from to Jews all over the Diaspora to help build and defend the new-born State of Israel, 810 South Africans volunteered. I was one of them. We formed the
(Author: Glenda Woolf, Vol. 73, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2018) I remember well that first Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Bloemfontein. The most lasting memory I have is the prediction my mother made about the future. Other memories too, come flooding back. So, to
(Author: Bernard Levinson, Vol. 64, #3, Chanukah 2009) Group 4. It sounds like a high powered enclave of politicians meeting in the Swiss Alps, deciding the fate of the world… At the end of the Nineteenth Century, certain like-minded Impressionists met at the same
(Marcia Leveson, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) In November 2008 Joseph Sherman, Yiddishist par excellence, visited Vilnius, a centre of lost Jewish culture. He was overwhelmed with emotion. Perhaps it is fitting that this so rewarding returning to roots should have been one of
(Volume 64, #3, Chanukah 2009) Editor’s Note: The Jewish Chronicle, organ of UK Jewry, enthusiastically backed the British war effort in South Africa. Its wartime issues regularly carried war news, specifically relating to the Jews on active service. The example of the latter was played
(Author: Milton Shain, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) Late in 2008, I was struck by two virtually concurrent news headlines: the South African Jewish Report of 19 September led with the headline ‘Low anti-Semitism in SA – but don’t be complacent’, and a week