The Wolf legacy of learning

The passing of Jeffrey Wolf this week has highlighted the end of an era in Jewish education. It also reminds me of the extraordinary value our community places on education. He and his late twin brother, Elliot, were part of the fabric of Jewish education in South Africa. As far back as I can recall, their names have been associated with King David Schools, and probably always will be. 

That is no small thing in a community like ours, where education is seen as one of the most important gifts we give our children. In South African Jewish life, that’s often meant sacrifice: parents prioritising school fees, grandparents helping where they can, and communal structures stepping in when families need support. We don’t treat education as a luxury, but as a responsibility, a lifeline, and a way of ensuring continuity. 

As my beloved parents used to say, “They can take everything from you, but they cannot take your education.” I am sure they aren’t the only Jewish parents who said or still say that. For this reason, we make it our business to do what we can to educate our children. For most of us, it is way more important than most other things.  

I guess it’s why there are so many lawyers, doctors, accountants, actuaries, and other professionals in our community. 

Jeffrey and Elliot Wolf seemed to embody that belief. Their example was not only about the schools they served, but about the importance of giving children a strong foundation, a sense of belonging, and the confidence to make something of themselves. In that way, their work was never only about academics. It was about helping to shape young South African Jews who would go on to carry those values into the wider world. 

They also remind me of the role teachers play in all our lives. The best teachers do far more than deliver lessons or prepare pupils for exams. They notice us, challenge us, encourage us, and sometimes believe in us before we believe in ourselves. Years later, we may not remember every fact they taught us, but we remember how they made us feel about learning, about ourselves, and about what was possible. 

I recall my Standard 3 (Grade 5) teacher at King David Linksfield, who was then Miss Friedland and who marvelled at my ability to write stories. Need I say more, considering the career I chose and am still involved in so many years later? She influenced my life and the choices I made. 

That is why educators like Jeffrey and Elliot leave such a lasting mark. Their influence does not end when a school bell rings, or even when their lives come to an end. It continues in the people they taught, the choices those people make, the families they raise, and the communities they help to build. In that way, great teachers remain alive among us, nurturing our lives long after they have left the classroom. 

The ever-wise late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote, “The influence of good teachers stays with us. They are the people who really shape our lives.” He also said, “There is only one way to change the world and that is through education.”  

That belief in education as the foundation of a life is precisely why the state of schooling beyond our community should matter deeply to us. 

In South Africa, it is obligatory to go to school. However, getting children into schools has not translated reliably into getting them to learn effectively. It seems that access to education has expanded, but the system has not succeeded in delivering consistently high-quality education. 

A recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, conducted by the University of Pretoria and commissioned by the Department of Basic Education, found that 81% of South African Grade 4 pupils could not read for meaning. That finding points to a severe foundational literacy crisis: if children cannot understand what they read, every other part of learning becomes harder.  

It also exposes the deeper problem in our schooling system, where a minority of strong schools can produce excellent outcomes while millions of children still reach high school without having mastered reading, writing, and basic mathematics. 

Those of us with access to Jewish or other private schools are largely shielded from this crisis, but that protection comes at a significant cost. 

Still, the country’s future cannot depend only on a small minority of children in well-resourced schools, which is why fixing foundational learning in government primary schools is so urgent. 

There is so much emphasis in our system on matric and matric results, but the reality is that if we haven’t concentrated our resources on Grade R to Grade 3, we make it unbearably difficult for those children to catch up. So, we have to focus on those first years of school to ensure that our children can read, write, and calculate by the end of Grade 3.  

What does that take? It takes exceptional teachers. It takes people who are not churners, but who are passionate about building young minds. It takes people who choose the profession because they can really make a difference in young lives. It takes teachers who see each individual child as someone with potential and ability. It takes people like Elliot and Jeffrey Wolf.  

That is why Limmud in Johannesburg this weekend feels like such a fitting continuation of this reflection: a community choosing, once again, to gather around learning. 

For me, Limmud’s greatest gift is not only the calibre of local and international speakers, but the chance to spend a weekend thinking, questioning, and debating together. 

At a time when education in this country so urgently needs attention, there is something powerful about a community that still treats learning as a shared responsibility and a lifelong privilege. 

That, perhaps, is the most meaningful tribute we can pay to educators like Jeffrey and Elliot Wolf: to keep learning, keep teaching, and keep insisting that every child deserves the foundation to do both. 

Shabbat Shalom!  

Peta Krost 

Editor