(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026) Said Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty, but the crown of a good name is above them all [1].” Sir Moses
(Author: Steven Katzew, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn 2026) Picture the scene: the 27th of July 1974, Ellis Park, Johannesburg, considered the fortress of South African rugby. A crowd of 75 000 predominantly South African supporters hoping for the salvaging of some pride by the
(Author: Joanne Fedler, Vol. 80, #1, Autumn 2025) Editor’s note: January 2025 saw the passing of the distinguished South African artists and cartoonist Dov Fedler. We thank his daughter Joanne for this insightful and heartfelt tribute to her father, which provides at least
(Author: Charlotte Cohen, Vol. 80, #1, Autumn, 2025) Molly Cohen passed away just 9 days short of her 100th birthday which would have been on 18 November 2013. Prior to her death, she was the last surviving Ochberg Orphan in Cape Town. ‘Connections and
(Author/compiler: Ruth Coggin, Vol. 79, #2, Summer 2024) The passing of Rose Norwich on 26 August 2004 at the age of 103 years brings to a close a remarkable life characterised by service to humanity in general and the Jewish community of South Africa in
(Author: Clark Zlotchew, Vol. 79, #1, Winter 2024) My mother’s father, Nathan Granoff, was a glazer in Jersey City, New Jersey, and had been one in the land of his birth: the Ukraine. In his youth this region was part of the Czar’s
(Author: Paul Trewhela, Vol. 78, #3, Winter 2023) Already as a young woman, Tanya Litvinov found herself at the harsh juncture between literature, art and the totalitarian society of the Soviet Union, where her parents were members of the precarious political elite. When
(Author: Steven Katzew, Vol. 78, #2, Winter 2023) From time-to-time fingers are pointed at the South African Jewish community generally, and in particular its institutions and leadership under various guises, for lack of sufficient resistance to the policy of systematic racial discrimination
(Author: Jeremy Gordin, Vol. 78, #1, Summer 2023) Gone too from the world, Averroes and Moses Maimonides, dark men in mien and movement, flashing in their mocking mirrors the obscure soul of the world, a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend. Ulysses,
(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 78, # 1, Summer 2023) One finds when growing older that what is general knowledge to one person is unknown to those younger. This I discovered when I spent some time recently in Cape Town’s Chris Barnard Hospital. Suspended from the high-ceilinged