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For as long as I’m able to remember, we have always added a number of prayers into our Shabbat morning service. Aside from what was prescribed...
At the beginning of each year, Jewish university students are confronted with the challenge of responding to Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), a malicious and mendacious anti-Israel...
I blame my mother-in-law. She is the one that started all this, and it’s thanks to her I was placed in mortal danger when making a...
One of the few good things to come out of the Oprah interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on 7 March were the spectacular memes....
One of the few rays of light in a very bleak year was how in 2020, no fewer than four countries – the United Arab Emirates...
A year ago, on 5 March, it was announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in South Africa. I remember so vividly that...
I remember quite clearly my first day of matric. My mom positioned me in our garden, made me pose for some “last first day” photographs, and...
On 24 February, an article appeared in The Times of Israel claiming that 11 ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) had tested positive for COVID-19 on landing in Israel....
Having just celebrated Purim (duly adapting its laws and customs to COVID-19 conditions), we are now looking ahead to Pesach less than a month away. From...
Tribute to Veronica Phillips, o”h When Holocaust survivor Veronica Phillips, who sadly passed away earlier this week, was the guest speaker at the Johannesburg Yom Hashoah...
Sunday wasn’t a day for bald people to be outside without a hat. But I was, and although it was good to walk around a nursery...
Last year’s COVID-19 lockdown rendered impossible the traditional Yom Hashoah commemorative gatherings. Instead, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), working with the South African...
I’m not sure we need Purim this year. I felt the same about the high holidays back in 2020, when we were much younger, thinner, and...
‘’If you want this, or are doing this now, then you need to join me,” says Shelley Trope-Friedman, the new president of WIZO (the Women’s International...
The Elise WIZO Gift Shop sadly closed its doors at the end of 2020 after being a well-known feature of Johannesburg Jewish life for many decades....
Biz hundert un tsvantsig (may you live until 120), as Jews like to say when wishing each other a long life. The South African Jewish Board...
News that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine isn’t effective against the “South African” variant came as a terrible blow. The first consignment had already arrived in the country...
On 27 January last week we marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day – the first and hopefully the last to be held in pandemic conditions. The United...
I can’t anymore! I actually can’t, with everyone watching President Cyril Ramaphosa and worrying that he looks tired. Or that he has bags under his eyes....
Ever since coping with COVID-19 became part of our daily reality, it has been routine to conclude one’s correspondence by wishing the other person good health...
Can we please speak about outrage for a minute? Because I’m convinced that emotional responses say more about us than we would like them to. And...
South African Jewry has long been regarded as a model diaspora community. We are famed for our excellent communal infrastructure, high level of identity and involvement,...
We need to give schools a break. They are forced to find a perfect balance between trying to educate our children, keep them and the teachers...
The closing weeks of 2020 brought with them the long-anticipated onset of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in South Africa. Over the December period, the...
I was fortunate to go to Umhlanga in the last week of November on a celebratory holiday after finishing matric. For the few days I was...
The happenings at the Capitol building left most sane people winded. And whereas many were quick to blame 2021 for letting us down so spectacularly and...
The night before 25 November was agonising. It was filled with messages from friends, all detailing the amazing things we’d be doing instead of studying because...
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth, a double chin and stick-out teeth,...
At the beginning of 2020, no-one could have predicted the unprecedented set of challenges that South African Jewry would shortly be confronted with, both to the...
If there is one event that we attended in abundance in 2020, it has been funerals. Larger and more conventional ones early on in the year,...
The annual Absa Jewish Achiever Awards held last Sunday showed once again how even in the most trying times, Jewish community members from across the age...
The Union of Jewish Women (UJW) has tackled the COVID-19 pandemic with passion, creativity, and incredible generosity. Beneficiaries in rural and urban areas across South Africa...
It’s that time of the year when we are asked to consider the past 12 months, and then look towards the next. It’s never easy to...
On Friday, starting at 12:10, 101.9 Chai FM will be broadcasting the third in a four-part radio series, titled Abraham’s Children that looks at similarities and...
Monday was International Tolerance Day. It was apparently borne in 1996, when the United Nations General Assembly invited UN member states to observe the day each...
As matric starts to draw to a close, I could describe how difficult it was adjusting to writing exams while wearing a mask, or how I...
Every so often, hackles are raised when those seeking to discredit their political or ideological opponents resort to making factually incorrect and insensitive analogies with Nazism...
My mother would have been 80 years old this week. Had she lived. It would have been a formidable occasion, which she most likely would have...
Last Friday, encouraging progress was made in the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ (SAJBD’s) ongoing fight against online antisemitism when the Randburg Magistrate Court issued...
Sunday in Johannesburg was noteworthy for a number of reasons: the Jacarandas put on a display that was truly remarkable, a massive storm hit Gauteng, and...
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Couple caught in crossfire of attempted mall robbery
A young couple attempted to flee the scene of a botche...
From searching for Sugarman to seeking out a ‘barmi boy’
Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman once successfully searched fo...
ISIS attack hits close to home
For most of the world, the late March attack on the co...
Enough vaccines to go round, say experts, but not for a while
There is a widespread perception in the community that...
Time for Israelis to pray for South Africa
For as long as I’m able to remember, we have always ad...
Mogoeng comes out swinging against apology ruling
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng came out swinging in his...
Tony Leon shrugs off attack from anti-Israel lobby
It has been a busy time for Tony Leon, the erstwhile l...
Albie Sachs on the handshake that shook him
Justice Albie Sachs felt a real sense of liberation af...
Labia Theatre’s nine-year battle against anti-Israel film
It’s been nine years since Labia Theatre owner Ludi Kr...
Israeli company turns SA water from toxic to drinkable
An Israeli company is assisting local government autho...
Couple caught in crossfire of attempted mall robbery
A young couple attempted to flee the scene of a botche...
From searching for Sugarman to seeking out a ‘barmi boy’
Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman once successfully searched fo...
Student barred from gap year speaks out
Demi Putziger, a King David Victory Park (KDVP) matric...
SA company switches to Canadian hechsher
A South African health-food company opened the door to...
Israeli company turns SA water from toxic to drinkable
An Israeli company is assisting local government autho...
Legendary pilot tilts his wings at scribing
“I never set out to achieve things or make a name for...
Jacob Zuma and his Jewish grandson
President Jacob Zuma has a Jewish grandson who lives in...
Pretoria’s Old Synagogue: from simcha to shande
On a recent visit to Tshwane, I was horrified to see t...
Wits protest an education in activism
“When I look back to my youth in years to come, I don’...
If I am only for myself, then who am I?
In Pirkei Avot, it says, “If I am not for myself then...
Wedding leads to a number of COVID-19 cases
Buffets of canapés and dessert, the sharing of snacks...
Kramer quits COVID advisory over “community flouting protocols”
One of the community’s top COVID-19 advisors this week...
Couple caught in crossfire of attempted mall robbery
A young couple attempted to flee the scene of a botche...
A life-saving friendship that lives on after death
A Johannesburg doctor is battling to come to terms wit...
Second wave surges over community
The second wave of COVID-19 is currently crashing over...
SA chiropractor in Melbourne jail pleads guilty to drug trafficking
A former head boy of King David Victory Park (KDVP) ha...
Arsonists destroy family’s Mpumalanga bush hotel
When a group of marauding arsonists torched and destro...
Student barred from gap year speaks out
Demi Putziger, a King David Victory Park (KDVP) matric...
Jews around the world call for Moshiach
For 3 000 years, Jews have been praying for Moshiach (...
Reverend Frank Chikane at centre of anti-Israel storm
Reverend Frank Chikane, an icon of the anti-apartheid...
