Appreciation of the devoted service which Simon M. Kuper, chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, has rendered South African Jewry was expressed this week at meetings of the executive councils of the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies, at which presentations were made to him and Mrs. Kuper on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary.
Born in Johannesburg in 1906, Simon Kuper has been a leading figure in communal work for many years. A barrister by profession, his legal prowess won him elevation to King’s Counsel in 1946. Active in Zionist work from his student days, he served as chairman of the S.A. Youth Council, then as chairman of various committees on the Executive Council of the S.A. Zionist Federation, and was elected vice-chairman of the Federation.
Active at the same time in the work of the S.A. Jewish Board of Deputies, he became chairman of the Board in 1944 and proved to be one of the outstanding incumbents of that position in the period he held it, from 1944 to 1949. In 1950 he was elected chairman of the S.A. Zionist Federation, a position to which he has continually been re-elected since.
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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.