Keeping the Jewish voice alive

Asking for money is an extraordinarily difficult thing for most of us to do. But the alternative, not asking for financial assistance to sustain the SA Jewish Report, would leave a deep and abiding hole in our community. In fact, it would take away our very voice.

The SA Jewish Report is the voice of the Jewish community. We do our utmost to ensure that nothing that is or could be important to the community goes by without informing you. And we, the SA Jewish Report team, are truly passionate about this.

We spend all our time, day and night, looking for stories that we believe would interest you, our readers. Then we do our best to give them to you in the best way possible, making them good reads and easy to consume.

Sometimes we might get it wrong. But we do our best to get it right because we are literally part of the community working for the whole because you are important to us. We believe you have the right to know whatever is out there of relevance to us.

It’s interesting that, while we try to give you information and opinions that we deem relevant, we sometimes upset certain elements of the community.

Last weekend, we had an opinion piece by Joel Pollak, editor-at-large at Breitbart News, on this page. I sought him out to write for us because he is a South African Jew. He now lives in the United States, but he was born here, grew up here, was educated here, and even married a South African woman, whose mother was Rhoda Kadalie, a struggle stalwart and former human rights commissioner. The point is, he is undoubtedly an expert on United States President Donald Trump, who is consistently creating news. So, Pollack fits a lot of criteria for someone whose voice would interest you.

It was therefore no surprise to me that at the same time that I was asking Pollak to write for the newspaper, our chairperson, Howard Sackstein, was asking him to be on a webinar.

Nobody doubts that Pollak is right-wing in his views, and our readers cross all political and religious spectrums. So, some of our left-leaning readers were angry that we gave him a platform.

Just a few weeks ago, we had Gershon Baskin, who is very left-wing in his views on Israel, write for us. Some readers voiced their anger at giving him space.

The point is: we call on these people for you. You don’t have to agree with everyone, but you have the right to read or hear what they say. And what they say could potentially inform you, which is why we get their opinions.

We ask many people to write opinion pieces for us. Some you may like, and others you may not. Some I may like, and others I may not, but giving a voice to people to offer you something you may not know that may guide, inspire, elicit anger in you, faith, or relief, is why we do it.

When there is an important meeting between leaders of our community and leaders of this country or Israel, we get the information to share with you.

When the videos of the Chabadniks who were refused permission to fly on Kenya Airways last week went viral in our community, we knew it was incumbent on us to find out what happened. Were they stopped because they were Jews, or was there some other explanation? This week, the story is in the newspaper for you to read.

Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his State of the Nation Address. So, we called on acclaimed and highly respected radio journalist and author, Mandy Wiener, to unpack the things he said for us in this week’s publication.

We have been through so much together – 25 years of giving you news. In the past five years, we survived the COVID-19 pandemic when our team worked totally remotely but did what we had to in order to keep you up to date on what was happening in our micro and macro world.

As we were finding out what happened on 7 October 2023, we were seeking out the stories that would connect us to the events. We made sure that any South African connection to Israel’s war on Hamas and other terrorist organisations was there for you to read.

We make sure that you know what our situation is in South Africa, leaving no stone unturned and ensuring that our haters don’t get away with anything. You have the right to know it all. We are intent on continuing to do this.

The point is, as a media house, we bring you what you can’t get elsewhere, and we do it with a passion few have for their craft. Our publication is different to most media outlets because, as I said before, we aren’t just writing for you as our audience, we’re a part of you.

We are the voice of South African Jewry. Truth is, we can’t do our jobs without you, both by giving us the information, stories, features, and news and now, by helping to keep our voice loud and clear.

The SA Jewish Report cannot survive without you. Surviving means continuing to give you everything you could ever want to know that will be important to you as a Jewish South African, whether you live here in Jozi or in the furthest parts of the United States, Europe, or Southeast Asia.

There are many in our midst who would love to see us disappear because we are a proudly Jewish newspaper that 100% believes in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. They don’t want us to keep giving you the information and stories we do. They want to shut us up. Please don’t let them take our voice.

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor