News

    • Zev Krengel (5a)

    Keep your distance and stay at home, plead communal leaders

    Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!
    Jewish communal leaders pleaded with certain members of the community to cease weddings and private minyanin (prayer quorums of ten men) in a desperate bid to halt the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus – to no avail.
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    • ChiefRabbi

    Keeping us together

    Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!
    We are living in unprecedented times. The entire world is hunkered down. People aren’t at work, children aren’t at school. Our daily lives have been disrupted in the most profound and unsettling way. There are many people suffering physically and financially, many whose lives and livelihoods are at risk.
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    • TaliSAJews

    SA Jews step up to the plate

    Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!
    A crisis is a time when many people only look out for themselves, but as lockdown loomed over South Africa, many South African Jews saw it as their duty to help others. These are just some of them.
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SA News

Israel News

    • Paula

    Israel to go on full lockdown

    Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!
    I write this hours before Israel goes into a full lockdown (on midnight, Wednesday 25 March). Still, it hasn’t been easy living under a partial one until now. Restaurants are closed, but you can walk or drive to one for takeaways. Soon that will stop, and only home deliveries will be possible. There’ll be no public transport, although the trains already ceased working days ago.
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    • Paula

    Under lockdown, Israel focuses on creating a government

    Mar 19, 2020 Go comment!
    Israeli coalition talks have begun in earnest. On Monday, Benny Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White Party, was tasked by President Reuven Rivlin to try and form a government after he received the backing of 61 members of Knesset (Parliament).
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    • Paula

    Israel’s travel ban causes panic and confusion

    Mar 12, 2020 Go comment!
    A friend contacted me this week to ask if reports that Israel was isolating itself from the rest of the world because of the coronavirus were fake. They aren’t. Jerusalem has announced a 14-day home quarantine for all travellers arriving from abroad, and non-Israeli citizens have to show they have a place to self-quarantine before they’ll be allowed into the country. It doesn’t matter where you are travelling from – South Africa included – you need to go into isolation for two weeks. This means staying in your bedroom, or moving around your apartment with a mask on, but not going outside under any circumstances. You could get a seven-year prison sentence if you disobey this order.
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    • bibi wins

    Netanyahu waves wand, but election stalemate still in place

    Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!
    Israel has two options, either incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is able to form a coalition government, or the country heads to an unprecedented fourth election.
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    • Paula

    Third Israeli election in a year – one big yawn

    Feb 27, 2020 Go comment!
    Israel has never held two successive elections, let alone three. And with most people in Israel believing next Monday’s ballot won’t break the deadlock, the country seems headed to a fourth election. Maybe I can just re-publish this column again next week? And then again in a few weeks’ time?
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    • Paula

    The real battle behind Israel’s elections

    Feb 20, 2020 Go comment!
    I have a confession. I drive on Shabbat. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s necessary to state here to explain the following story.
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World News

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LET OUR PEOPLE GO!
Chief Rabbi reiterates his call of a year ago for Jacob Zuma to stand down in this Pesach Video, likening the SA saga of today to our flight from Egypt 3329 years ago. “With that freedom comes a voice” he says. He will be marching in Pretoria on Friday.  

Religious News

    • IlanHerrmann (2)

    Who is the ultimate winner of coronavirus?

    Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!
    Coronavirus has three winners: the makers of sanitiser and masks, pharmaceutical companies, and the third isn’t so clear.
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    Moving forward when time stands still

    Mar 19, 2020 1 Comment
    Usually during this time of the year, my wife and I are deeply engaged in getting ready for our annual Pesach retreat. We refer to it as the “PPPPPP” (Post-Purim Pre-Pesach Preparation-Period), but now the last two words seem to have become something like “pandemic plague”.
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    • Parshas Ki Tetze - Rabbi Yossi Goldman

    Picking up the pieces

    Mar 12, 2020 Go comment!
    “It’s too late. I’m too far gone.” How many times have we heard those words? Or, worse still, said them?
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    • RabbiAriShishler

    How to tackle terror

    Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!
    Israel is a world leader in counter terrorism, because, sadly, the country has had so much experience. Jews were the earliest victims of terror, experiencing it as much as 3 300 years ago, not long after we had escaped Egyptian oppression. We’ll read about that incident at shul this week, as we do annually on the Shabbos before Purim. This special Torah portion, Zachor, offers valuable insight into the nature and psychology of terror, and how to fight it.
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