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Making our voices heard

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

When Nelson Mandela started his journey in politics, he began with the youth. Mandela along with Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo established the African National Congress Youth League. The league’s aim was to inspire the youth to take a stand against segregation. In the past, present, and future, the youth have been and always will be the most active group in society.
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The angel behind the network

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

When Glynne Wolman started The Angel Network in 2015, she never imagined that it would one day play a vital role in helping others during a global pandemic. Yet today, the organisation is on the frontlines of the humanitarian crisis that has worsened under lockdown in South Africa.
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Bassin, Boikanyo, and being her brother’s keeper

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

For Marilyn Bassin, giving is a way of life. A physiotherapist by training, she has worked with indigent children for nearly 30 years.
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The superhero who staves off starvation

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

“I wonder what Madiba is thinking about what is happening to all his children this year,” was the thought foremost on Helen Fraser’s mind when she spoke to the SA Jewish Report amidst her endless efforts to ensure that children in underprivileged communities don’t go to bed hungry.
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Virus unsettles the world and religious practice

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

“We are slowly but surely entering into a new world order, one which will challenge us in many ways and give us many opportunities,” says Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, the dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. “We had better seize these opportunities with both hands. This is especially true for Jewish law.”
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How to keep love alive when we can’t leave

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

COVID-19 has taken a toll on many interpersonal relationships, and while some are flourishing, others are falling apart.
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Miraculous recoveries at Highlands House

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

If an old-aged home is hit with COVID-19, the expectation is that most residents won’t recover and the virus will spread like wildfire. But Highlands House Home for the Jewish Aged in Cape Town has turned that belief upside down with all 14 residents who contracted coronavirus making a full recovery over the past few weeks.
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ORT SA drive to connect the unconnected

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

ORT South Africa is urging the public to donate devices no longer being used to help bridge the digital divide for students.
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Bethlehem honoured for ‘remarkable’ leadership

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

“I want to pay tribute to the thoughtful and visionary leaders with whom I have been fortunate to work these past four years,” said Marlene Bethlehem, the outgoing president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC), at the Zoom meeting of its board of trustees on 8 June.
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SA Jews meet crisis head on

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

As lockdown eases and people around the country tentatively start going back to “normal” – at least as far as circumstances allow – we understand that COVID-19 and the dire effect it has had on the economy will be with us for a long time to come.
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Avoiding bringing your agenda to news

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

One of my least favourite biblical stories takes place about a year after the children of Israel fled Egypt. During that time, they are said to have witnessed the magical splitting of the sea, received the ten commandments, and formed a complex judicial system.
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Back to what really matters

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

On the crisp Tuesday morning of 2 June 2020, I walk through the gates of Yeshiva College for the first time in more than three months.
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Israeli embassy supports Afrika Tikkun

Jun 11, 2020 Go comment!

The Israeli Embassy in South Africa has lent its hand to Afrika Tikkun, an agency of the Solidarity Fund, so it can up its support for communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Opening shuls in two weeks way too early, expert warns

Jun 04, 2020 Go comment!

Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein announced on Tuesday, 2 June, that he would wait another two weeks before deciding whether to reopen shuls in South Africa. However, medical expert Professor Barry Schoub, says that “to countenance opening shuls at this stage of the epidemic in South Africa is unequivocally highly dangerous and a life-threatening risk to the community at large”.
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Board lays criminal charge against antisemitic Instagrammer

Jun 04, 2020 5 Comments

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has laid criminal charges against Simone Abigail Kriel for posting antisemitic and inflammatory messages on her Instagram profile on 16 May 2020.
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Gathering physically isn’t essential, preserving life is

Jun 04, 2020 Go comment!

Like the United States president, President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared that places of worship are “essential places that provide essential services”, and must therefore reopen.
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Jewish groups express outrage over racist police brutality

Jun 04, 2020 1 Comment

(JTA) Jewish groups are expressing outrage over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed last week by a Minneapolis police officer who has subsequently been charged with second-degree murder, and solidarity with the sweeping national protests that have followed.
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Stamping out police brutality

Jun 04, 2020 Go comment!

Against the backdrop of the civil unrest that followed the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman in the United States, South Africans are recognising an increase in violence by our own law enforcement agencies. There are alleged to have been 10 deaths at their hands since the start of lockdown, and many people have complained about the security force’s excessive actions and abuse of power during the lockdown. A few communal leaders have added their voice to this outcry:
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ISIS-linked rebels in Mozambique a threat to SA security

Jun 04, 2020 1 Comment

The fast-growing Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-linked rebel insurgency in Mozambique – coupled with a porous border with our northern neighbour – is extremely disturbing, say local experts who fear the worst.
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Make sure our new reality is better than the old

Jun 04, 2020 Go comment!

The images of schools opening this week looked more like something from science fiction movies than reality. They brought home the fact that no matter how much we long for our old normal, this new reality is as far from normal as we can get.
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