Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion; Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization; and British Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie, were among the Jewish leaders from many lands who have sent messages of greeting to South Africa’s largest Jewish newspaper, the Southern African Jewish Times, on its silver jubilee which it celebrated with a special issue published today.
In his message of greeting, Premier Ben-Gurion saluted the Jewish Times as “a sound and sober organ of South African Jewry and the whole Diaspora” and lauded the support which Israel receives from South African Jewry, “one of the most devoted and open-handed Jewish communities in the world,” Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir hailed the work done by the Southern African Jewish Times in “strengthening the happy bond between Israel and the Jews of South Africa.”
Sir Roy Welensky, Prime Minister of the Central African Federation, who is himself a Jew, congratulated the Jewish Times on rendering a service “directed not only to the Jewish people of Southern Africa, but to the work of fostering goodwill and a good relationship between Jews and non-Jews.” This note is also echoed by the Provincial Administrators of the Republic of South Africa and by the Mayors of the major South African cities, who warmly commended the role of the Southern African Jewish Times in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between Jew and non-Jew.
Leon Feldberg, editor of the Southern African Jewish Times, who founded the paper 25 years ago, and who has directed it ever since, told of the hurdles overcome by the paper in its climb to its present prestige.
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.
