Fleeing persecution in the years after Hitler came to power, some German Jews looked to South Africa as a country of refuge. But according to a new exhibit on German Jewish immigration to the Cape region in the 1930s, the welcome they received was far from warm. Titled “Seeking Refuge,” the exhibit at the Cape… More ▸
Jewish, gay and black students reportedly have been beaten up by right-wing vigilante groups at a South African university. Stellenbosch University, in the Western Cape region, was a stronghold of the country’s white Afrikaans community during the apartheid era, but since the transition to democracy has opened its doors to all. The national Sunday Times… More ▸
At a time when most Jewish leaders in South Africa are keeping a low profile on the war in Iraq, Judge Richard Goldstone has called the U.S.-led coalition attack “unlawful under international law.” In interviews published Sunday in two major newspapers, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Independent, Goldstone added that the war is also… More ▸
An Israeli exhibition designed to promote coexistence and tolerance has arrived in Cape Town, its ninth stop on a worldwide odyssey that thus has far taken it to cities such as Belfast, Sarajevo, Berlin and Zurich. The brainchild of Jerusalem’s Museum on the Seam, it consists of 36 giant posters by international artists whose mission… More ▸
One of South Africa’s largest Orthodox congregations has settled a dispute with the country’s Union of Orthodox Synagogues that almost led to its withdrawal from the umbrella organization. South Africa’s Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation — also known as Marais Road — has had an acrimonious relationship for years with the UOS, which culminated… More ▸
If not for timely interventions, a synagogue in the South African coastal city of Port Elizabeth might have joined the scrap heap. Instead, the Port Elizabeth Orthodox Hebrew Congregation has just marked its 90th anniversary. The celebration, which took place during Chanukah, included a 90-year-old member of the community kindling one of the lights on… More ▸
A controversial conversion has reignited a dispute over Orthodox Jewish standards between South Africa’s Orthodox establishment and one of the largest Orthodox congregations in the Southern Hemisphere. Attempts to paper over the cracks between the Beit Din, or the Jewish law court, the Union of Orthodox Synagogues and Cape Town’s Green and Sea Point Hebrew… More ▸
A dispute over Jewish standards may lead Cape Town’s largest Orthodox congregation to withdraw from the country’s Union of Orthodox Synagogues. Cape Town’s Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation was supposed to vote on a resolution to withdraw from the UOS and set up its own rabbinical court, or Beit Din, at a general meeting… More ▸
A little bit of Durban has come to Johannesburg. Mirroring the efforts of anti-Israel demonstrators to prevent Jewish groups from participating in sessions of last year’s U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted an ecological workshop Wednesday by Keren Kayemeth Leisrael-Jewish National Fund at the World Summit for Sustainable Development. Despite the… More ▸
If pro-Israel activists hoped that the U.N. conference on sustainable development would pass without the anti-Israel attacks that characterized last year’s U.N. summit against racism, they have been proven wrong. On each of the conference’s first two days, Palestinian supporters attempted to turn a parallel meeting of nongovernmental organizations also taking place in Johannesburg into… More ▸
