Celebrating Pesach in neighbouring Zimbabwe

SUZANNE BELLING

“We send matzah meal, matzah, wine, grape juice and teiglach,” said Rabbi Silberhaft, who did not make his annual pre-Pesach trip to Zimbabwe because he recently returned from Harare, where he conducted the funeral of Sam Benatar, veteran leader, former president of the Zimbabwe Jewish Board of Deputies and chairman of the AJC Zimbabwe Fund.

“The community can now manage its own distribution of these items for Passover. Historically, especially when the Jews living in Harare and Zimbabwe were in distress, I flew up to oversee the project,” he said.

As the situation with South Africa’s northern neighbour improved, there has been an increase in people observing kashrut, especially over Pesach.

Zimbabwe has always had to import its Pesach foods, according to Rabbi Ben Isaacson, who was spiritual leader in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, first in Harare for five years and then in Bulawayo for seven, before returning to South Africa.

“As far as I can remember, we were able to buy matzah, but most of the Pesachdike food was imported.” He recalled making “old-fashioned” seders without the availability of sophisticated products on the shelves of the supermarkets in Johannesburg and Cape Town today.

That was when the combined community of Harare and Bulawayo was over 800 souls, whereas today only 240 Jews remain, with 160 in Harare and 80 in Bulawayo.

But, says Rabbi Silberhaft, there is a renewed interest in keeping Pesach.

“Apart from the items sent by the Zimbbawe Fund, I have been given personal lists from people for their own account. Items include oven cleaner – to kasher their ovens, gefilte fish in bottles, tins of tuna and chocolate.

“People are cleaning out their homes and about six members of the community are totally observant.”

These families include the Kablys – Yosi, Gwynneth and daughter Kameya – who keep a kosher home against all the odds. As they are pescatarians, they only eat fish and not meat.

As there is no longer a resident rabbi in either Harare or Bulawayo, Yosi, is the baal koreh, and Gwynneth is co-chairman of the Sharon Jewish day school with a handful of Jewish children.

“I make everything from scratch, except for the meals from the increasing supply of the few kosher tinned foods available from the South African-based supermarket,” says Gwynneth.

A talented self-taught cabinet maker, Yosi crafts the magnificent chairs, tables and beds in their home and teaches Kameya Hebrew, which she speaks like an Israeli child.

“With the increasing hostility towards world Jewry, Yosi also has been appointed security officer, responsible for Jewish life and the Jewish way of life,” Rabbi Silberhaft said.

There are no official communal seders in Zimbabwe, except for two at Savyon Lodge old-age home in Bulawayo and private community seders among Israelis who usually do not attend synagogue or participate in the activities of organised Zimbabwe Jewry.