Chutzpah into action

By the time you read this, South Africans will have voted. I wrote it before the polls opened, so I cannot tell you what the elections have brought. What I can tell you is that the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (the Board), as it has done for many years, hosted an elections observer team. This year 141 volunteers from eight provinces, including a number of foreign nationals, gave their time to help make sure the elections were free and fair. The team is multi-faith and inter-communal, which is fitting for the work it does. We are very grateful to every one of them, and proud of the role they, and the Board, play in our democracy. A special word of thanks goes to the Board’s professional staff, who carry the mammoth logistical task of making the mission happen. That includes making sure that even the most rurally located observer receives a bib, credentials, and an information pack. 

Many of you will also have seen the Board’s election participation posters around our neighbourhoods. Slogans such as “First the vote, then the braai”, “Your money prints the ballots, use it”, “Can name every problem in the city, can’t name his voting station. Don’t be that guy”, and “Regrets last longer than the queue” were plastered all over. They caught the eye and were an important part of our final push to get the community to the polls. I can only hope they worked. My favourite, “Turn your chutzpah into action”, goes well beyond elections. It is a credo I think we should all try to practise. 

Last weekend the Board’s national director, Wendy Kahn, and I had the honour of attending the annual memorial of the South African Jewish Ex-Service League. The service remembers the courage and sacrifice of those who served in our country’s military. Jewish veterans attend, and so do representatives from outside our community, and serving soldiers form the guard of honour. This year the address was given by Avrom Krengel, president of the South African Zionist Federation. 

Krengel spoke about two battles. The first was Square Hill, fought by the 1st Battalion Cape Corps in September 1918 as part of the Battle of Megiddo, only weeks before the end of World War I. The offensive broke the Turkish and German forces in the Middle East and gave Britain control of the region. 

The second was El Alamein. In July 1942, the 1st South African Division was among the forces that held the line and stopped the German advance across North Africa. The South Africans held firm against overwhelming odds. A few months later, the same division fought under General Bernard Montgomery at the Second Battle of El Alamein. That battle is counted with Stalingrad and Midway as one of the three turning points of the war. Once again, these were South Africans fighting in a foreign land, and if they had failed, the Jewish community there could have been wiped out. 

We are the beneficiaries of all that courage, and we honour their sacrifice. In their memory, we pray for peace, so no young man or woman will ever have to give up their life in war again.