Exercising precious freedoms

On Sunday 26 July, more than a hundred members of our community pulled on shirts that proudly declared “Jews 4 Jozi” and joined the tens of thousands who took part in Walk the Talk. What made it especially poignant is that, for the first time ever, the walk moved through the city itself, through the central business district, the streets of Doornfontein, Bertrams, and Troyeville. A geography that is precious to so many of us and yet has come to feel like foreign territory. 

I have written often in this column about the threat of shrinking spaces for our community, and about the need to stand our ground against every attempt to isolate or other us. So to stand on those streets and declare openly that we are Jewish, that we are proud Joburgers, and that we belong, matters enormously to who we are. South Africa, and Johannesburg in particular, remains a place where we can identify openly as Jews. Heartbreakingly, that is no longer true in many cities around the world. It was powerful, then, to see a group like ours this weekend identifying loudly and publicly, exercising a freedom that is precious and far from universal. I congratulate every one of our Jews 4 Jozi, and I hope that next year we return in even greater numbers. 

The event highlighted the best of Joburg and its famously warm people. The spotless Gautrain, the renovated Park Station, the excellent rail service, the bands, the dance troupes, the vendors lining the route. All of it was a reminder of what Joburg once was and what it can be again. The Jozi My Jozi organisation does remarkable work cleaning up, revamping, and securing the inner city, but this work cannot be left to the private sector alone. We have a responsibility to take up the mantle as a community and to lend our weight to the task. The first place we must do so is at the ballot box, in the municipal elections on 4 November. 

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is running a campaign to get as many of our community, and as many South Africans generally, registered to vote. If you haven’t yet registered, please do so. The Board will also host two pre-election debates, one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town, giving the various parties a platform to address our community and us the chance to question them on the issues closest to our hearts. On election day, as it always does, the Board will lead an interfaith observer mission under the “Make Us Count” banner. This is how the Jewish community becomes an active participant in our democracy, safeguarding open debate and free and fair elections. 

Walk the Talk reminded us of what Joburg can be, and of who we need to be as a community. We must harness these feelings into action. Register to vote, vote, and do our bit to move our country in a better direction and to reclaim all of our spaces.