She stood outside on the sidewalk between the kosher restaurant and shop in a Jewish area of Johannesburg, plying her handicraft. To the housewives sipping their coffee or buying groceries, she could have been any other street vendor, save for the ragged clothes and the pain and fear etched on her face. Joyce — not… More ▸
On a morning that began with charges that an Israeli shelling in Gaza had killed four Palestinian children and their mother — typically the kind of event that unleashes a torrent of anti-Israel condemnation at the United Nations — Arab and Muslim diplomats in this Swiss city remained focused on keeping the 2009 U.N. World… More ▸
Violent crime, political change and an energy crisis are fueling a growing sense of panic among South African Jews. Several weeks ago the Jewish community was shaken when a Jewish man in Johannesburg named Sheldon Cohen was shot to death while sitting in his car waiting for his son to finish soccer practice. In the… More ▸
South African Jewish leaders are fuming over a new initiative by Sydney’s Jewish community to help Jews emigrate from Africa to Australia. Zev Krengel, the national chairman of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, wrote a letter last month urging Jewish leaders to suspend Project Sydney, a joint initiative of the New South Wales… More ▸
Jewish groups are casting a watchful eye on the first preparatory meetings for what some are calling Durban II, the follow-up to the infamous U.N.-sponsored conference against racism in 2001. The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa on the eve of the terrorist attacks of Sept…. More ▸
South Africa’s Freedom of Expression Institute is biased against Israel, the Jewish community’s umbrella body says. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies lambasted the institute, the FXI, in a letter sent to its director, Jane Duncan, and to the media, citing instances of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias. The role of the nongovernmental organization, created… More ▸
The South African Jewish community has settled down and accepted the changes brought about by the country’s transformation to democracy in 1994, according to a recent survey. Conducted by the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town, the study found that the community now sees its long-term future in South Africa,… More ▸
A South African province is preparing to make Holocaust studies a mandatory part of the school curriculum. The Cape Town Holocaust Centre recently conducted a four-day workshop for some 50 people in cooperation with Kwazulu-Natal province’s Department of Education, training senior teachers, subject advisers and education officials who will provide support for the course. Holocaust… More ▸
The longtime chief rabbi of South Africa, Cyril Harris, has died of cancer at age 69. Harris, who was chief rabbi emeritus when he died Tuesday, led the Jewish community during South Africa’s historic transition from apartheid to a democratic order. His body was flown to Jerusalem for burial following a memorial service at Johannesburg… More ▸
For the past four years, Divote, an initiative of the South African Jewish community, has been bringing help and happiness into the lives of young Israelis affected by terrorism. Now the group’s efforts have been recognized with an invitation to the home of Israel’s president, Moshe Katsav, where group officials attended a bar/bat mitzvah party… More ▸
