(Author: Karen Milner, Vol 78, #3, Spring-Summer 2023)
EDITOR’S NOTE
In April 2023, the SA Jewish Board of Deputies became one of a select group of communal organisations to mark 120 years of service to the South African Jewish community.[1] Under normal circumstances, the Board’s national biennial conference this year would have taken the form of a celebratory gala dinner. Instead, as much by choice as necessity, a low-key, online-only event was held to allow for the leadership to report back to its affiliate bodies and the community at large on the Board’s activities over the previous two years.
The conference took place on 3 December and was immediately followed by a meeting of the SAJBD National Executive Committee to elect the office bearers for the next two years. Professor Karen Milner was re-elected for a second term as national chairperson, the other elected office bearers being Zev Krengel (President), Mary Kluk (Vice President), David Kuming (Treasurer) and Vice-Chairs Tzvi Brivik, Danny Mofsowitz and Susan Abro.
In view of the radically changed environment in which SA Jewry finds itself following the 7 October terrorist attacks on southern Israel and their ongoing consequences, we publish here in full Professor Milner’s address summing up the SAJBD’s core activities from the closing months of the Covid-19 pandemic to our present turbulent times.
National Chairperson’s Report – SAJBD National Conference, 3 December 2023
We are not living in normal times so this is not going to be a normal Chairperson’s speech. Instead, this is a speech from the heart, taking stock of where the Jewish community finds itself, before and after the events of 7 October, which fractured our world.
Last week began Gender Based Violence Awareness week. I would like to start this speech by dedicating it to our sisters in Israel, who were raped and murdered while once again the world has largely stood silent. Israel has not been silent, and we will not be silent as, through our rage and grief, we bear witness to the crimes of Hamas.
When I was first elected to the role of National Chairperson, many people asked about my vision for the Board and I struggled to articulate it. But over the past two years and particularly the past two months, I am now able to articulate it clearly. My vision for the SAJBD is to enable us all to live authentically as proud Jews and as proud engaged citizens in our beautiful, complicated, broken country. It is to make the words from the Freedom Charter ‘We the people’ feel like it rings true for us all – that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
Every single project, activity, press statement and initiative under my leadership has been dedicated to that vision. I was elected national chair as the country and our community were reeling from the effects of Covid. Our community was disproportionately affected, and we wondered how we would recover. And beyond our community, starvation was once again a specter in our streets. I am proud of how we took the lead in Covid relief, supporting soup kitchens, food gardens and various other projects to help the worst affected. Proud Jews and engaged citizens do not let their fellow South Africans starve.
Post-Covid, we carried through this active citizenship, helping with some of the worst disasters in this country, particularly the horrific Boksburg disaster, floods in KZN and the terrible fire in the Johannesburg inner city.
Another way we have solidified our positions as involved citizens and proud Jews is through the marvelous Mensches in the Trenches book. So many South Africans across all races and religions have been touched and inspired by the stories of the lesser-known Jews who played a meaningful role in the struggle against Apartheid. The book is a must read and an absolute inspiration, especially now, to teach us how to be a mensch in a country whose government are very far from mensches.
Another area very close to my own heart is the work we have done with the universities. We sounded the alarm many years ago about the dangers of antisemitism on campus, which has now taken root in the US, UK and European campuses. We have proactively engaged with students bringing SAUJS and SRCs together, fundraising enormous amounts to address student debt, and collaborating with UJ to provide a learning centre with computers and WIFI for a school in Gwakani.
Over the past 2 years, our students have had a place in student life on SA campuses. While this may be tested next year; we have something to build on. We also do not forget the Jewish side of our students either. Wendy Kahn has fought like a mother bear protecting her young to support students, interns and community placements to not have to compromise their Judaism in pursuit of their careers.
In a similar vein, we are currently assisting a number of rabbis with obtaining visas. it has been a complex project to pursue which has continued through this crisis period. ..
Finally, I come to the hardest part of my speech, how to live as a proud Jew and engaged citizen in light of our government’s hostility after the 7October atrocities.
I am not going to detail the government, ANC or DIRCO’s appalling statements, nor our every response – you are all too aware of them. But I will provide some chizuk through a phrase I learnt from a colleague– If Israel is a startup nation, South African Jewry are a DIY nation.
In the absence of a functional welfare system in South Africa, we have the Chevra Kadisha, when our ambulance and health services collapse, we have Hatzolah, in the face of overwhelming Black student debt, we raise money for fees. And now, in the face of our government’s shameful international relations policy we have our own pride.
Our government did nothing after October 7, but Ponte was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag. Our president said nothing about the victims of 7 October in a speech on the Middle East, just a week later, and we called him out loudly and proudly in the Sunday Times. Our International Relations Minister had a cozy chat with Hamas and we issued a PAIA application to find out what was said. Our national broadcaster allowed Hamas to lie on our TV screens, and we protested outside their offices – forcing them to acknowledge the child hostages.
interview with a Hamas spokesman who claimed that no
children were being held hostage in Gaza, 3.11.2023.
Our government barely call for the release of the hostages, but our balloon and beach campaigns in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town have gone viral. In the face of overwhelming press hostility, we have made sure our voices are heard – from Phala Phala radio to the SA Jewish Report to 702, to Newsroom Africa, Sunday Times, Citizen, Daily Maverick, BBC, Voice of America, and many more.
And in all of this, we have not been alone. Despite global Jewry facing similar and even worse challenges, our friends in the World Jewish Congress, US state department (through Deborah Lipstadt) and other global Jewish organisations have opened their doors to us. We also have many friends in South Africa, some of whom have fought shoulder to shoulder with us and others who are just not buying our government’s rubbish. But, we are in for a tough road ahead. We will continue to engage with Israel on bringing their ambassador back to SA. And with SA on returning our ambassador to Tel Aviv. We are hoping the rise in antisemitism has plateaued, but we know next year we are going to have to deal with still more hostility against our community at a personal, professional, business and political level.
But we are not going anywhere. SA belongs to all who live in it, and despite everything, communal life in SA is thriving – the shuls are full, kosher shops and restaurants are doing brisk trade; our youth camps are back, and the Jews of SA are still punching way above their weight!
[1] Its sister organisation, the SA Zionist Federation, preceded it by a few years, reaching that milestone in 2018. The oldest still functioning Jewish organisation remains the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, founded in 1841. Other communal bodies established before the SAJBD that are still active include the Chevra Kadisha, Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society and Jewish Free Loan Association – Gemilut Chesed (formerly the Witwatersrand Hebrew Benevolent Association) in Johannesburg. Religious congregations founded before the SAJBD that are still extant, albeit in certain cases just barely, are those of Port Elizabeth, East London, Pretoria, Durban, Kimberley and Oudtshoorn. The Bloemfontein congregation was founded a year after the SAJBD, in 1904.
