In June 1941, an unpretentious monthly bulletin called Jewish Affairs made its first appearance in South Africa. It came out at a time of unprecedented stress for the Jewish community, when radical right-wing antisemitism was at its height and people everywhere were worrying about the fate of family members and friends back in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Published under the auspices of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the primary purpose of Jewish Affairs was to keep the community informed about the work of the Board, as well as important developments in wider society during this unsettling time.
Within a few years, however, the scope of the publication had been broadened to encompass a wide range of subjects, so that before long, it was regarded as South Africa’s leading Jewish historical, cultural, and current affairs journal.
For a relatively small community, South African Jewry has produced a remarkably extensive literature on its own history. Whether relating the story of the community as a whole or focusing on particular segments of it, the past few decades in particular have seen the publication of a steady stream of books, journal articles, demographic surveys, and more recently, online publications.
Jewish Affairs has long served as one of the most important vehicles for this kind of material, as well as on topics of Jewish interest in general.
One of the great advantages of Jewish Affairs is that it has allowed for its subjects to be explored in a significantly more in-depth and extended manner than is the case with other local Jewish publications which have invariably been limited by space and other constraints.
Even in cases where submissions far exceed the official 6 000-word limit, it has been possible to publish them in serial form. Over the past several years, for example, Jewish Affairs has brought out (in five and three parts respectively) the full war-time testimony of Holocaust survivor Don Krausz and Stuart Buxbaum’s memorable history of South Africa’s first Jewish boarding school, Herber House.
Since 1999, I have been privileged to have served as the editor of Jewish Affairs, and as such, it has befallen on me to guide the journal into the digital age.
For a while, it was possible to continue bringing out Jewish Affairs in hard copy while gradually establishing an online presence, but in the end, it was recognised that the survival of the journal was predicated on adapting itself to the new world of online publishing and communications.
The last hard copy issue of Jewish Affairs appeared in early 2019, since then it has appeared exclusively online. Until recently, it has appeared as a subsidiary category on the main SAJBD website, but last week, it entered an exciting new era with the launch of its own website – www.jewishaffairs.co.za.
Much as the demise of the traditional printed magazine is to be regretted, the new electronic format is enabling the journal to reach a truly global audience. It’s also finding a new readership for previously published material that since its original appearance, has been consigned to archives and research libraries, to be only occasionally accessed, if at all, by the dedicated few prepared to make the effort to rediscover it.
Those visiting the new site can get a good idea of the range of topics on offer by browsing the “categories” section. Rather than being presented chronologically, all articles that have appeared over the past 12 years have been grouped in specific categories according to their subject matter.
The next challenge for Jewish Affairs is to spread the word and build on its existing online subscription base. Subscribing comes at no cost, and allows those who sign on to receive regular bulletins on the latest posts. To do so, go onto the site or send an email to sajbd@sajbd.org.
- David Saks is the associate director of the SAJBD and editor of ‘Jewish Affairs’.
