A man who is credited with raising the status of South African Jewish civil servants is leaving his position as director of the country’s main umbrella organization for a position in Cleveland.
Seymour Kopelowitz, national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, will be based in the Cleveland Jewish federation and work in Jewish education.
“This is a major professional advancement for me personally to further my career in one of the foremost Jewish communities in North America,” he said.
Before moving to Johannesburg, Kopelowitz was the principal of Herzlia-Weizmann Primary School in Cape Town for 10 years. He also taught at the former Carmel College in Durban.
“We are delighted to learn of his stature in the Jewish communal world,” said Stephen Hoffman, executive vice president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.
“We are even more thrilled that we were able to convince him to come to Cleveland.”
Marlene Bethlehem, national chairwoman of the Board of Deputies, said she accepted Kopelowitz’s resignation with regret.
“He has been personally responsible for elevating the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to the current high level of influence it now enjoys. He has been a loyal, extremely hard-working and dedicated professional.”
(JTA Intern Nehama Miller contributed to this report.)
CORRECTION: In the story sent out Thursday on the Jewish Agency’s work for Kosovar refugees he title of rabbi was inadvertently left off of Kenneth Hain’s name in the last graf. The graf should read:
Rabbi Kenneth Hain, the incoming president of the Orthodox movement’s Rabbinical Council of America and a member of UJC’s Rabbinic Cabinet, said the visit to the camp “triggered all the memories of the Holocaust, and the instinctive Jewish response to people in need.” Meeting the Jews from Serbia later, he added, “reminded me of what is all too often forgotten — that bombings hurt innocent people.”
CORRECTION: In the story on assisted reproductive technologies sent Wednesday, replace graf 18 with the following:
Lois Waldman, the director of the AJCongress’ commission, said Jewish organizations can play a siginificant role in informing the Jewish community. They can steer families to accurate sources of information on the procedures’ risks and benefits, and they can educate the Jewish community as a whole to participate in public discussions around legislation on the issues.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
