‘Israel isn’t optional, it’s a necessity’

“Rabbi [Doron] Perez said we don’t get over the pain, we take it with us and carry on, and that’s what we are doing tonight.” 

These words, delivered by Craig Pantanowitz, National Chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), at this year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Johannesburg, hosted by the SAZF on 21 April, set the tone for an evening that held memory and celebration in equal measure. 

Even as rain fell, nothing could dampen the spirit of a community determined to stand together, and to celebrate. If anything, it underscored what Pantanowitz described so clearly, “We carry the weight of yesterday’s Yom Hazikaron ceremony, the grief, the loss, the names, the faces, and we step forward into today. Not lighter, not healed, but stronger, more determined, and still standing.” 

Pantanowitz repeatedly returned to the idea of resilience rooted in history and identity. “Israel isn’t some optional extra in Jewish life. Israel is a necessity,” he said. “For most of our history, we lived without power, without the ability to protect our own children when the world turned against us. And we paid for that powerlessness. With our blood, again and again.” 

But the establishment of the State of Israel, he said, changed everything. “We aren’t speaking about some political idea or a place on a map. We are speaking about the single greatest transformation in our thousand-year Jewish history. We came home.” 

He described a nation “born in fire that has never stopped facing fire, and yet, it lives. It thrives; it grows.” A country that “turned desert into innovation, scarcity into ingenuity, and survival into strength, and one that doesn’t just endure, it builds, it creates, it dreams, and above all, we choose life over and over again”. 

That message of pride and gratitude was echoed by Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein, who called on the crowd to “look around and see our community gathered in such huge numbers to celebrate proudly as Zionists”. He reminded attendees of the privilege of doing so openly. “We live in a free country and that’s a blessing, that we can come as South African citizens, proudly Zionists, with our heads held high.” 

Reflecting on Jewish history, Goldstein spoke of survival against all odds. “There’s no record in all of the annals of human history of a nation that has survived, exiled for 2 000 years, scattered and persecuted, and then come back to its ancient homeland.” 

Both speakers were clear that joy and pain aren’t separate experiences. As Pantanowitz put it, “Tonight we don’t leave the pain behind. We carry it with us, but we don’t let it define us. We let it strengthen us.” 

Despite the rain, people stayed. They sang, they listened, they danced. It was, unmistakably, the true spirit of the Jewish people ‒ to gather, to remember, and to celebrate, no matter the circumstances. 

South African Friends of Israel spokesperson Bafana Modise delivered a message of support, “Since 7 October, you may have felt alone, but in South Africa, the Christian community stands in solidarity with the Jewish people.” 

As the evening drew on, Pantanowitz’s message returned to its core: resilience, pride, and an unbreakable bond. “Israel lives. Israel is strong. Israel is thriving,” he said. “And tonight, with full hearts, with lifted voices, and with an unbreakable spirit, we celebrate it. With pride, with gratitude, with joy, and with a love that will never, ever be shaken.”