Message from the Board of the SA Jewish Report

There are moments when words fail you because language is inadequate to express the pain, the disbelief, the anguish, and the trauma of loss. This is one such moment. 

The SA Jewish Report has lost one of its most insightful and analytical writers, but we have lost much more than a colleague; we have lost a friend. 

The disbelief over the tragic events of Friday underlies the love and respect people had for Steven. Why Steven, impossible, he had no enemies, he was gentle and loved? The pain for us is immense, but for his family it is unbearable. 

The thing about Steven was he could never say no. No matter what we asked him, he always said yes. He appeared on our webinars, wrote articles and analysis in the SA Jewish Report, and offered wisdom and insight. When I wrote an article, he would always call to say how much he enjoyed it and wanted to discuss the contents. 

In an academic world, where being Jewish and a Zionist is often discriminatorily toxic, Steven wore both badges with pride. 

He was an expert in everything – Russia in Africa, China in Africa, Iran in Africa. There was hardly a subject you could throw at him of which he was not a master. But with it came a casual informality. Often in a t-shirt and shorts, Steve would attend SA Jewish Report meetings and lunches. He would thank me for allowing him to write for us, a ridiculous notion given the enormous value he added to us, our readers, the community, and South Africa. We were all enriched by having Steven in our lives. When the SA Jewish Report suffered financially after Absa’s decision to withdraw from the Jewish Achiever Awards sponsorship, Steve told us not to worry, he would write for us for free. He was a gentleman and a mensch who loved his family, his wife, and his daughters. 

Steven’s murder, with its inexplicable brutality, has shocked us all, but truthfully, 27 000 South Africans will be murdered this year alone, each of them a parent, a child, a sibling. Our society is horribly violent, and to many, the sanctity of life is meaningless. We all have to take a stand against the culture of lawlessness and violence that permeates our nation. For each of these killings, we should be as shocked and angered as we are about Steven. We may not know and love the victims as we did Steven, but a society that cannot value the lives of its own citizens is not a society worth respecting. This is one of the lessons our community must impart to the rest of the nation. 

As the tragedy unfolded on Friday evening and the early morning of Saturday, I was enormously grateful for the work of the CSO and CAP, who serve our community so well. These two organisations have done so much good for our community and for all of South Africa. We do not appreciate them enough and we do not appreciate the heroes who put their lives on the line every single day to keep us safe and allow us to function in a dysfunctional society. They have proven the axiom that no one will help us but ourselves, and we all need to show them the gratitude that they deserve. 

After a while, for many of us the horror of this tragedy will begin to fade. But not for the Gruzd family, who will live with this in their souls forever. Let us all make a commitment to use this heinous crime as a catalyst to improve our nation, instil the moral fibre that the Jewish faith imbues in us and allows us to take steps each day to make South Africa the nation it deserves to be. 

Steve you leave a gaping hole for all of us that can never be filled. 

On behalf of the Board of the SA Jewish Report, I extend our love, support, and condolences to the Gruzd family. May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion. 

Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet – Blessed is the True Judge! 

• Howard Sackstein (chairperson) on behalf of the Board of Directors of the SA Jewish Report.