(Author: David Saks, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) No-one was particularly surprised when Operation Cast Lead – Israel’s sustained offensive against Hamas in Gaza, commencing late December 2008 and ending in mid-January this year – led to a corresponding escalation of antisemitic activity worldwide.
(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) Feature image: View of Kommetjie, early 20th Century The year 2006 marked the centenary of the declaration by the French Court of Appeal that the evidence against Alfred Dreyfus was completely unsubstantiated; moreover, that no conclusive
(Author: Rebecca Feigelson, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) “…It naturally exists a fuelling of discontent in the minds of prisoners of other religious denominations when they find that man who calls himself Jew (whether he truly is or not) receives superior privileges both in exemption
(Author: Colin Eglin, Vol 64, #3, Chanukah 2009) Helen and I first met in June 1954, over lunch in the Oak Room of the Manchester Hotel that once stood at the corner of Strand and Burg Streets, Cape Town. I was about to become
(Author: Mary Kropman, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) Feature image: The old King Williams Town synagogue After his barmitzvah, my Father worked in my Zeida’s trading store in Ngwenya, Eastern Cape. He mastered the Xhosa language and would converse with the customers about their
(Author: Lana Jacobson, Vol. 64, #1, Pesach 2009) On 25 May 2009, the Spiegel/Stein-Lessing Wing for African Art in MuseumAfrica will be dedicated to honor two distinguished German Jewish pioneers of African art. After their marriage in the mid-1940s, Dr. Maria Stein-Lessing and Leopold
(Author: Honey Gluckman, Sol Cowan, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) The following is a response by two readers from the ‘Jewish Community’ to Daniel Macintosh’s article ‘Speaking out Against Injustice? Re-examining the SAJBD’s Response to Apartheid, 1948-1976’ in the Rosh Hashanah 2010 issue of
(Author: Bernard Duchen, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) I was born in Johannesburg, in December 1941, but grew up in Wesselsnek, a little coal mining village in the district of Kliprivier, in the Dundee/Newcastle/Ladysmith triangle of Northern Natal. From around 1840, this had become
(Author: Naomi Musiker, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) Feature image: Laying of the foundation stone of the Fordsburg synagogue, 1904, by Mrs L R Melman on behalf of the Fordsburg & Districts Benevolent Society. With her is her husband, Mr Melman. Most of
(Author: Hazel Dakers, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010) Feature image: Unmarked probable graves of Benjamin and Abigail Norden, Ramsgate Jewish Cemetery (author’s photo) Some years after the death of my South African grandfather, my aunts and my mother agreed to pass on to