Safety is paramount

You may have noticed that, of late, we are allowing some people who write opinion pieces for us or are quoted in stories to change their names or remain anonymous. This was something seriously frowned upon when I was a younger journalist.

The overriding belief was that if you wouldn’t put your name to something, how could readers trust what you wrote or said? This, for many years, was the rule of thumb on the SA Jewish Report. It resonated with us, and we apologised to people who felt otherwise, stuck to our guns, and moved on.

However, times have unfortunately changed, and people’s lives, jobs, or families are under threat, both here and in the rest of the Jewish world. When I have people, who have always been open with their well-respected views, asking to continue writing under another name or anonymously, I was initially unhappy about it.

However, in terms of opinion pieces, our new rule of thumb is that if the writer is someone whose work is solid, their views are backed up, and who we know to be 100% above board, we will consider allowing them to use a pseudonym. You see, in these cases, it becomes an issue of getting their opinion out there to our readers to ruminate over, as opposed to denying them a platform for their views because of a difficult situation.

Once again, you – our loyal readers – don’t have to agree with them, and you’re welcome to engage with their views by writing letters or comments online.

As for people we interview in stories, we cannot just willy-nilly not use their names, especially when they are giving personal views. There is still the question of how we trust a person who is willing to give their views in a story but not be identified. However, if a person has a genuine reason to be concerned about having their identity known in the story, we will undoubtedly listen and find a solution. This doesn’t include people who are shy and would simply prefer not to be identified. That, unfortunately, isn’t a real reason, in our opinion.

A few weeks back, we ran a story on our front page about people whose faces and names were displayed on placards carried by anti-Israel or antisemitic protesters in Cape Town. Their names and faces were already out there, but we weren’t willing to endanger them further by putting their identifying details in our newspaper.

We are a Jewish community publication and our community’s safety and security is paramount to us. We won’t mess with that.

We are most certainly living through interesting and uncharted times. As Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, writes on page 8, the extent of the antisemitism around the world is unprecedented – at least since the Holocaust.

As many as an estimated 2.2 billion people, 46% of the world’s adult population, harbour deeply entrenched antisemitic sentiments. This is according to the latest research done for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Global 100 Survey. According to the ADL, this number is double what was revealed by research done a decade ago.

To get to these findings, more than 58 000 adults from 103 countries, and territories were surveyed, representing 94% of the global adult population.

The survey found that 20% of the respondents hadn’t heard about the Holocaust, and less than half, 48%, of respondents who did know of it actually recognised its historical accuracy. Among 19 to 34-year-olds, this reduced to 39%, which is deeply concerning.

How does one even contemplate the fact that people don’t know about the Holocaust or don’t believe what is said about the wholesale murder of six million Jews? What most concerns me is that if you don’t know the damage that antisemitism has wrought, how do you prevent it in the future?

Then there’s the issue that those younger than 35 are found to be far more antisemitic than those over 50, according to the research. What is the world teaching its youth? How is it that young people who have access to so much information could possibly be growing up with such prejudice.

As Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL chief executive, makes clear, “Antisemitism is nothing short of a global emergency, especially in a post-October 7 world.

“Our findings are deeply alarming. It’s clear that we need new government interventions, more education, additional safeguards on social media, and new security protocols to prevent antisemitic hate crimes. This fight requires a whole-of-society approach, including government, civil society, and individuals, and now is the time to act.”

It is vital to recognise that this is a global survey and not specific to South Africa, where our issues are slightly different to everywhere else.

There is no question that we are facing antisemitism. Just in our newspaper, we see that some advertisers, outside our community, appear to be reticent to advertise in our publication.

Fortunately, we have a strong and solid community in which we look out for each other. We will band together, and we will get through this. We dare not just accept antisemitism.

In discussion with CSO chief executive Liron Sanders this week, he suggested that as a rule, we all need to be cognisant of what is going on around us from the minute we leave our safe spaces. So, when we leave school, shul, and home, we need to keep our eyes and ears open to any threats. We shouldn’t be paranoid as there is no reason to be, but it’s about getting into healthy habits to protect ourselves and ensure that we aren’t taken unawares.

He uses the analogy of most of us having electric fences around our homes. So, we need to make as if we have an electric fence around us when we are outside.

He also maintained that we need to be conscious of what we put on social media and be happy to stand by it going forward because once it is out there, it is out there for good.

Finally, we are not alone and we must support one another. So, if you are threatened, there are people within our community who can and will help you. Reach out if you need to.

As a community publication, we have your best interests at heart and are here for the benefit of all of you.

Shabbat shalom and chag Purim sameach!

Peta Krost

Editor