Shock and acceptance over proposed KDVP closure

When news broke about the possible closure of King David Victory Park (KDVP), one of Johannesburg’s best-known Jewish schools, the entire community was stunned. Parents immediately exchanged messages of disbelief, and students quietly wondered about their future. The news stirred emotions from heartbreak to anger.

“Understandably, there have been a multitude of emotions over the past week,” said Rabbi Ricky Seeff, the general director of the South African Board of Jewish Education (SABJE). “Parkers, both present and past, are devastated about the proposed closure, which speaks to the special community that Victory Park is. People are shocked and heartbroken, and in some cases, angry.”

Some parents feel that they were blindsided by the announcement, as they were given only 24 hours’ notice of the meeting when the announcement would be made on 6 August, and when it did happen, many were angry that they weren’t taken into account and weren’t given time to come up with alternative proposals to keep the school going.

However, Lara Price, a mother of two at KDVP Primary, said that when the announcement was made on 6 August, she wasn’t shocked because she was a part of a group of parents who had been in conversation with the SABJE, so she thought an announcement of the closure of one of the King David campuses was coming, she just didn’t know which one.

“When the news first came out, I felt like I’d been punched in the solar plexus. But then there was a strange sense of relief in the fact that the uncertainty was gone,” she said. “It does feel like a death in the community, not just for Victory Park, but for the whole Jewish community of Johannesburg and South Africa.”

Brandon Haberfeld, who has a child enrolled in four King David Schools: Ariel; Victory Park Primary; and both high schools, said his children were inconsolable for hours after the announcement, as they were anxious about what would come next.

“My youngest daughter’s main concern is about the continuation and maintenance of their last junior school play. That’s her greatest excitement for Grade 7, and her first comment was, ‘Please can Mr Edgar come with us?’ followed by ‘Will we still have a choir?’”

Lauren Silberman, a KDVP alumnus herself, said that though the Grade 11 class, of which her daughter is a part, is devastated that they are losing their special school, she witnessed a sense of resilience at their students’ representative council induction ceremony, and the sense that they were going to take this in their stride. “As sad as they are about the closure of their precious school, they are also looking at the opportunity that lies before them,” she said.

Similarly, a father with a child in Grade 3 at Ariel said that he was thankful that the entire Ariel community was moving as one. “It’s a massive bonus for us that Ariel is going to be moving to Linksfield, which is amazing.”

The timing of the decision also elicited a strong reaction from those parents who don’t want to send their children to other King David schools. They say they haven’t been given enough time to apply to other schools.

One anonymous KDVP Primary mother said, “They just announced the possibility of the school closing at the end of the year. So now you have to get your life together in four months. And if you don’t want your kids to go to Sandton or Linksfield, the applications for government schools close in two weeks. It puts people in a terrible predicament.”

Another parent said she refused to send her children to King David Linksfield as they had moved to Victory Park because they were unhappy. “To now try and get my kids into a good private school for 2026 is impossible. I feel like I have been trapped,” she said.

However, Seeff asserts that the decision wasn’t taken lightly, and was made only in July 2025.

“The proposal to close and not give a long timeline was because we genuinely believe that giving people a long timeline would mean that we wouldn’t be able to hold on to the best teachers,” he said, “The proposed timeline enables us to offer permanent places to most teachers due to a large number of vacancies that we have now. We believe that with a longer timeline, the school would begin to disintegrate from the bottom, leaving the senior students without a school to run, because once the announcement was made, children would start leaving. An additional year was one of our most serious considerations, however, we don’t believe that it would be in the best interest of retaining kids in the system and giving the 2026 matrics the year that they deserve.”

One mother said that she bought her property in Victory Park because it was close to the school. “I especially bought my property there to be by that school,” she said, “We have all purchased properties in Victory Park, Linden, and Greenside. I’m not going to schlep to Sandton and Linksfield or put my kids on a bus for 40 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes home in the afternoon.”

For some children, the prospect of a unified King David scares them, as some students moved to KDVP to escape bullying.

Said Silberman, “I carry such sadness, particularly for the kids who have recently moved from King David Linksfield to Victory Park, and have found such a happy home in Victory Park.”

Seeff understands this and said, “We are going to work closely with those families to understand the causes, what happened, and how it can be addressed to make it a safe place.”

“Victory Park is a very different school to the other two campuses. It’s a different kind of child, a different kind of family. It’s a lot more arty, liberal, accepting, more of a nurturing environment,” said one KDVP mother. “It’s a lot more about individuals and thriving in your uniqueness rather than fitting into a mould.”

Seeff said bridging the divide between the two schools would be done slowly and intentionally. “We plan to work with all grades to address the misconceptions that both schools have of one another, but we also believe that it’s important to create a culture of warmth and understanding and not to label children and schools exclusively,” he said.

“There are differences, but there are also commonalities. We have had many KDVP students move across to our other schools, and they have slotted in and found their place. The SABJE has set up an integration and culture committee to work with students and staff in coming weeks. We know this is paramount, and we plan to invest in the best coaches and change management consultants to bring the various school cultures and practices together.”

Said Haberfield, “It’s feared that the Goliath of Linksfield will consume the soul of King David Victory Park. I doubt this. It’s the soul of Victory Park’s special traditions and warmth that will enthuse Linksfield with a bigger heart, and we can’t wait to be a part of it all.”