Category: 2018

An offer he couldn’t refuse

Jewish Life

When the mobster wanted the money owed to him, the gabbai tzedakah could think of only one thing to do By: Shaul Behr On one of my business trips to Delhi, India, a few years ago, I was required to stay over for shabbos, where I was most grateful to be able to take advantage of the hospitality of the local Chabad. There were around 50 guests at shabbos supper, almost exclusively Israeli post-army backpackers. By my reckoning there were maybe two or three other people over the age of…

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Memories of camp

Jewish Life

Life is about the journey, not the destination – especially when you go by train By Chandrea Serebro It is not likely that the youth of today will ever know the feeling of that slow chugging along the desert plains, head out of the window, wind in your hair while you watch the landscape of the Karoo pass you by at what seems like a snail’s pace. Like the changing landscape of the South African plains from Johannesburg to the Cape, so too is the landscape of growing up today…

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Kosher anywhere –

Jewish Life

Say goodbye to canned tuna and savour the best that Africa – and beyond – has to offer By Chandrea Serebro Imagine Kosher catering in the bush. Or, at the beach. We are not talking paper plates and plastic knives and forks, two-minute noodles or tuna. We are talking fresh, kosher food, prepared on the spot daily, the table prepared with real plates and silverware. The food is the best that kosher has to offer, but it is the scenery and the thrill of who, or rather what might join…

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Lighten the load – Giving it all up and going green

Jewish Life

By Chandrea Serebro There goes Simone Penn, chugging along in her Generation X Toyota Tazz, her greens in cardboard on the seat, drinking out of a glass. Not because it tastes better, mind you. This Spartan lifestyle isn’t a product of her bowing to popular culture or what is trending on twitter. Neither is it a result of a modest upbringing. No, this frugal existence is not built into her being. When Simone was young, her stepfather used to tease her that she had “stuffitis”, the “disease” of accumulating stuff,…

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The two-year plan

Jewish Life

When a couple of years turn into a life… South Africa’s charms have a way of keeping people here longer than they ever intended to stay By Chandrea Serebro   Emanuel and Tali Goldberg Belgian Emanuel Goldberg didn’t choose South Africa, but, he says “it kind of chose me”. And like all good matches, it was a great fit. “I told my mother that I would only be going to South Africa for a month,” says Emanuel, when he got an opportunity to go and learn in a yeshiva in…

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The number 13 – The real motivation for war

Jewish Life

By: Dovid Samuels What did the Jewish people do after the victory over the Greek army and the entire empire’s downfall? Firstly, celebrate, surely. We know they went into the Beis Hamikdash (the Temple) and found the jar of oil and miraculously used it to light the menorah for eight days. We also know that they proclaimed those days a festival for all generations, on which we are to sing hallel (special praises to Hashem) and thank Hashem for our survival. But there was something else that the rabbis of…

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With deliberate intent

Jewish Life

Why were the Greeks so determined to defile all of the oil for the menorah? By: Aron Ziegler The Gemara[1] discusses Chanukah: “The sages taught that on the 25th day of Kislev are the eight days of Chanukah… When the Greeks entered the Temple Chamber they defiled all the oil [there]. Once the Chashmonaim overpowered and became victorious over [the Greeks] they checked and found only one jar of oil still sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol. There was only enough oil in it to light (the menorah)…

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In the Immediate Aftermath of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre: Addressing the Horror and Tragedy With Students and Children

Jewish Life

Our columnist Rabbi Dr Dovid Fox is the Director of Interventions & Community Education Project Chai, The Crisis Intervention, Trauma and Bereavement department of Chai Lifeline. He has put together the following piece to help address the horrific events in Pittsburgh. Please see the attached pdf and feel free to share it. Thank you. May we share b’soros tovos (good tidings) and may Hashem comfort His people.

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Shabbos rest – it’s effortless

Jewish Life

Keeping Shabbos is about more than just going through the motions, refraining from doing this and being sure to do that – it’s an entire shift in our outlook. It’s about seeing Hashem and our place in His world in a completely different way, redefining every day of the week in relation to Shabbos, while Shabbos redefines the work that we do each day By: Robert Sussman The first mitzvah that we received after going out from Egypt was the mitzvah of Shabbos. The commandment to keep Shabbos came in…

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Stress – A global crisis

Jewish Life

By: Richard Sutton The World Health Organisation cites stress as the health epidemic of the 21st century. Despite our remote geographic location, South Africa is at the forefront of this global crisis. According to a recent report by Bloomberg[1] that assessed 74 countries by evaluating seven equally weighted variables,[2] South Africa is the second most stressed nation on the planet! But is South Africa really as stressed as the report implies? The answer is a resounding: Yes! The reason lies with the actual root cause of stress in our lives.…

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A lesson in terror

Jewish Life

The ideologies behind today’s “isms” By: Bev Goldman I remember, as a student of Political Science at Wits many years ago, that part of the curriculum included the study of a number of “isms” – those that had become fashionable ideologies for some, destructive ones for others, intellectual exercises for the rest, but whatever one’s leaning, they had to be understood. And remembered. And employed, to make sense of a world which, at that time, may have felt complicated, but was nothing like today’s. We learned about communism (remember the…

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The ‘Punny’ Man

Jewish Life

A spoonful of laughter is really the best medicine By Chandrea Serebro I asked the ‘punny’ man, Richard Bayer, about his humour. “Chickens, geese, and ducks.” Then he apologised about the “foul” language. “I will try and think of a sewing pun that will leave you in stitches,” he said. Richard and his wife, Lee-Anne, have been married for almost ten years, and have managed to survive life, dreaded disease, love, parenthood, and marriage by using laughter as the real old clichéd best medicine, but one that really works. “I…

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A real superpower

Jewish Life

The profound impact of hope on both spirit and body By Chandrea Serebro “Why do some people find hope despite facing severe illness, while others do not? Can hope actually change the course of a malady, helping patients to prevail?” Sounds like some kind of new spin on the elusive ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ question. The answer, seemingly as elusive as the question itself. Is it religion? Is it spirituality? Is it some kind of new age hack or something or other? It’s funny, though, that…

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More than just food

Jewish Life

Infusing our Yom Tov meals with our hopes for a sweet new year By: Avigail Goldberg With the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) approaching and weeks ahead of entertaining, it’s easy for any host to get caught up in the preparations of elaborate meals. Although it’s very important to make sure no one goes hungry, we must try not to lose sight of the spiritual importance of these days. Based on a Talmudic teaching, there is a widespread custom to include various food types in the Rosh Hashanah meal which…

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A matter of trust

Jewish Life

When it comes to some things, if you have to ask, then you already know the answer By: Robert Sussman Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus, ztz”l, tells (Tiferes Shimshon al HaTorah – Parshas Eikev) of a letter that he once received, in which the letter writer asked him a series of questions related to the topic of bitachon (trust) in Hashem and whether the following actions, among others, would be seen as a defect in a person’s measure of bitachon: 1. Installing a Pladelet door (the brand name of an Israeli-made…

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IN GOD WE TRUST…but which one?

Jewish Life

The idea of the King is dead. Long live the King By: Robert Sussman So much of our worship is built upon the concept of malchus (kingship). From the very moment that we wake up each day, we refer to Hashem as Melech (King): “Modeh ani lifanecha, Melech chai v’kayam.” And every bracha (blessing) that we make refers to Hashem as “Melech HaOlam” (King of the world). Our daily prayers and our holy books constantly refer to Hashem as Melech and Malkenu (our King). In fact, the highlight of davening…

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A legacy of kindness

Jewish Life

An incredible tale of forgiveness and fate. Transforming the cracks in our lives into something more beautiful By Chandrea Serebro Michael Livni was out walking one day. It was a beautiful, sunny day in one of Johannesburg’s most lush and appealing suburbs. The streets were quiet as usual, the trees shading his walk from the afternoon sun. Michael was taking full advantage of the beauty around him, enjoying the weather and the peace of his surroundings while getting in his daily exercise routine at the same time. Just around the…

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Enriching Jewish life

Jewish Life

Reaching out to kids and helping them find their place By Ilan Preskovsky If there is one thing that we, the South African Jewish community, often take for granted, it’s just how rare the relatively easy interactions that we experience between different kinds of Jews – be they secular, Chabad, religious Zionist, whatever – in our small, tightly-knit community really are. This fairly unique aspect of SA Judaism only really becomes noticeable once you venture out of our cosy borders and move into the much larger Jewish worlds of places…

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Positively Charged

Jewish Life

Always look on the bright side of life. In search of what makes life worth living By Ilan Preskovsky Since Sigmund Freud revolutionised the fields of psychology and psychiatry in the late 19th century, the understanding and application of the mental-health sciences has almost exclusively been about curing mental illness and, in general, combating the negative aspects of the human mind: those that are destructive, dysfunctional, and debilitating. As the years passed and Freud’s theories became increasingly known for being massively influential, but inaccurate or, at the very least, incomplete…

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Ten Days – Ten Commandments

Jewish Life

Maximising the Aseres Y’mei Teshuva By: Dovid Samuels The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are referred to as Aseres Y’mei Teshuva – the Ten Days of Repentance. As the name suggests, these days are a prime opportunity for us to recognise our short fallings, change our ways, and return to Hashem. The halacha states[1], “It is a great sin if someone doesn’t repent and doesn’t increase his Torah learning and performance of mitzvos during these days, more than the rest of the year.” It is also taught[2], “It…

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Days of awe…and of love and mercy

Jewish Life

Subheader: Don’t let this opportunity slip away By: Robert Sussman The Yamim Noraim, aka the High Holy Days, more precisely translate as the Days of Awe – ‘awe’ as in ‘fear’. And, this fear is with good reason, as Rosh Hashanah, the “Head of the Year”, is, in fact, Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment – the day on which is determined what the next year will look like, for good and for better, including whether a person will merit a year of life or, chas v’shalom, otherwise. Everything is…

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From the heart

Jewish Life

Helping differently-abled children and their families By Ilan Preskovsky Founded in 2009 as a response to the lack of residential and vocational services and appropriate accommodation for Jewish adults and children with disabilities in Chicago, the not-for-profit Libenu Foundation has, in less than a decade, exploded in reach and depth far beyond what anyone might have first expected of it. It all began when Shana Erenberg, a nationally renowned expert in education and disabilities, teamed up with Debra Silverstein, Alderman of the 50th Ward of Chicago (which, for those of…

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Made to order

Jewish Life

Presenting our first Kosher Gourmet from Cape Town By: Justine Hepple, Bespoke Catering A friend of mine’s Whatsapp status is: “Your Plan B is G-d’s Plan A”. From my grandmother’s themed Shabbos dinners, to watching her bake biscuits during the school holidays, and helping my mother in the kitchen with her functions and dinner parties – I grew up surrounded by food, baking, and art, but I never thought it would define who I’d be as an adult. After school, I studied Interior Design, and then had the amazing opportunity…

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Leading the way in kindness

Jewish Life

Making the world a better place, for everyone By Chandrea Serebro Hugo’s Greenhood – Seeing the unseen ‘#See the unseen’ is the catchphrase of Hugo’s Greenhood, and it’s the perfect fit. Hugo Paluch, who was the brainchild of the project and in whose memory it continues after he passed away at the age of 14 last year, “always noticed the little things”, says his mother Nicole. He had a gift for seeing what most people missed, and it was this gift that helped him to see a gap that hadn’t…

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Virtual survivors

Jewish Life

Using cutting-edge technology to create new ways to remember the holocaust By Ilan Preskovsky “Never Forget” may well be written “#NeverForget” in these social-media driven days, but we are at risk of losing far more than comprehensible spelling in our attempts to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. As time marches on and we move rapidly towards the seventh decade since the horrors of World War II, the sad but inevitable truth is that there are less and less Holocaust survivors around to tell their tale. Within the next…

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No laughing matter

Jewish Life

How the art of care clowning is changing – and improving – lives By Chandrea Serebro When Dr Amnon Raviv was young, his dad urged him to study. ‘Go study, or you’ll end up clowning,’ his dad would say. So, he ended up clowning, relates Dr Raviv. And this is how he began a pioneering journey that would lead him from the stages of the world to the corridors of the paediatric and geriatric wards of hospitals around Israel, treating the body as well as the soul, which he says…

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A photograph in time

Jewish Life

Almost fifty years of family history distilled By Chandrea Serebro This is the tale of a photograph taken in 1966. It’s seemingly an ordinary photograph, but it is in fact extraordinary. It is the catalyst for bringing a family spanning generations and continents back together over 50 years later, when almost 100 years of memory and moments will again become distilled in a moment in time, captured by newer technology, yet essentially the same. Standing in this photograph, smiling back at you is a family all born from the five…

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The Positive Speech Project

Jewish Life

Making discourse civil again By Ilan Preskovsky In an age of social media, instant-communication, and toxic political discourse, the way we talk to each other has taken on levels of significance and complexity that previous generations could never have so much as imagined. As political correctness and freedom of expression battle it out in our universities and the most evil and pernicious ideologies find new life in the deepest nooks and crannies of the internet, our very day-to-day existence has been upended by telecommunication technologies that have as much power…

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Kosher Gourmet: Gone Fishin’

Jewish Life

Serving up some great ideas for cooking up fish By: Eric Stern Cape Malay fish curry Serves 4 1kg fresh hake fillets cut into bite-sized cubes 200g seasoned flour for dusting 3 large onions 1 cup cooking oil Sauce 1 litre water 150g onions 250g sugar 25g curry powder 15g Robertson’s fish spice Dust the fish cubes generously in flour. Heat up the oil in a large frying pan. The oil should not be very hot. Fry the pieces of fish in the oil on all sides, not for too…

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You do what?!

Jewish Life

Unusual and inspiring things people do to earn a living By Chandrea Serebro Hat designer Deep down, we all seek to add a bit of glamour and some added appeal to our look. Keeping updated and in vogue is a necessary, but enjoyable evil, and, very often, all of this can be done with a bit of a tweak here and an accessory there. But, says bespoke hat designer Pam Goldberg, quoting Vogue Magazine, “Nothing in nature or art is so magically transforming as a hat.” Donning an exclusive couture hat…

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Mitzvah kids making it meaningful

Jewish Life

Putting money to good use By Chandrea Serebro Danielle Aires Danielle Aires believes one of the most important things to do as a Jewish girl becoming a woman on her Bat Mitzvah is chesed, “to change someone else’s life”. So, for her Bat Mitzvah she collected all recyclable items to give to Hugo’s Greenhood team of recyclers, and because she did a challah bake for her Bat Mitzvah, there was plenty. “I started a campaign, ‘Baking a Difference’, with an ambitious goal of raising enough money to sponsor the challot for…

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It doesn’t grow on trees

Jewish Life

Tips from parents and professionals on how to teach children the value of money By Chandrea Serebro “We live in a society which demands instant gratification. Money is not always tangible and felt in our palms; rather it is dispersed for purchases through the push of a button. The social media weapons of marketing make us believe that we want everything we see and we want it now. Our children are millennials – they are techno savvy and grasp information much quicker than any previous generation. Despite what our children can learn…

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Show me the money

Jewish Life

Investment tips and advice from the pros By Chandrea Serebro Errol Shear, Institutional Fund Manager, Sasfin Asset Managers Any interesting trends in the money industry? There has been a move by clients to invest offshore and we have seen a steady flow of client money into the Sasfin BCI Global Equity Fund. The other trend has been a flow of money out of the previously popular property sector, with investors scared after year-to-date falls of 62% by Fortress B, 56% fall by Resilient, and 40% decline by NEPI Rockcastle. These…

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Putting things in context

Jewish Life

Connecting the dots between the things we say and where they come from By: Robert Sussman Every time we daven the Shemoneh Esrei (aka the Amidah, or “standing prayer”), we preface it by saying a verse from Tehillim (Psalms)[1]: “Hashem, open my lips and my mouth will declare Your praises.” But, have you ever considered why we say that particular verse each time? Have you ever looked it up to see it in context and why Dovid HaMelech (King David), the author of that chapter of Tehillim and, in fact,…

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Highs and lows

Jewish Life

Soaring to incredible heights and crashing to inconceivable depths. When we stare into the abyss, do we see the ladder stretching up to the sky? By: Robert Sussman Among the many kinnos (dirges or elegies) that we say on Tisha B’av, the day on which we commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout our history, is one that compares and contrasts the miracles and wonders of the going out from Egypt at the time that we were redeemed with the mourning and persecution of the going…

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Editor’s Letter

Jewish Life

For the past few months, the community has been davening for Leah bat Toby and then, after a name was added, Chaya Leah bat Toby. What most people probably didn’t realise is that Chaya Leah bat Toby was our very own friend and colleague, Linda Superfain (nee Koz), a”h. A devoted mother, daughter, sister, and friend, who took ill suddenly and recently passed away. Linda leaves behind her beloved husband, Wayne, and their two boys, Steve and Josh; her mother and father, Neville and Thelma (married almost 50 years!); a…

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Reading and the art of mind maintenance

Jewish Life

Blast off to different worlds without ever leaving the comforts of your bed By Chandrea Serebro Reading is possibly the most underrated skill we learn as human beings, despite being one of the most beloved past times. It boosts the imagination, sparks curiosity, provides escape, and reduces stress. It feeds the brain, elevates the soul, and exercises the mind. It provides hours and worlds of entertainment, to anyone, anywhere, about anything. Countless studies and research has shown the benefits of reading – impacting every area of development and potential. “The…

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A shot in the arm

Jewish Life

Saving lives and preventing irreparable harm By Chandrea Serebro Modern medicine has come up with ways to counteract many of the most fatal diseases in history, saving lives every day, and it is working day and night to find new ways towards preventing those that it hasn’t managed to quell yet. Among the many great inventions of medicine are included numerous vaccines, many in the last 100 years, that have stopped dangerous and deadly infectious diseases such as polio and measles from wreaking havoc. Countless millions upon millions of lives…

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Confronting a spiritual crisis

Jewish Life

Legacy 613, putting prayer at the forefront of Jewish education By: Ilan Preskovsky Within the world of religious observance, prayer holds a particularly special place. While Torah learning gives us greater understanding of what we’re doing here and observance of the mitzvot elevates and challenges our everyday existence, it is primarily through prayer – through what we call davening or tefillah – that we draw ourselves close to our Creator. At least, that’s the theory. The reality today, sadly, is that prayer, and the resulting spirituality that comes with it,…

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Climb every mountain

Jewish Life

From bully to boxer and mentor By Chandrea Serebro Self-proclaimed “impossible kid” who went on to become a world champion and to champion the world of disabled kids, Itai Liptz has pretty much done it all and still dreams of doing more. Now as CEO of Mexem, a Financial Services Company that he founded, Itai reflects on having been given a repeated dose of “luck” during a tumultuous journey that he admits was “not too easy on him”. A journey that led him to help kids who don’t have it…

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Breaking new ground

Jewish Life

Taking Jewish day school education online By Ilan Preskovsky You don’t have to have any children in school (or any children at all, really) to be acutely aware that school fees are one of the biggest expenses and greatest worries of nearly any Jewish parent in this country. The monthly cost of sending even one child, let alone a whole brood of kids, to a Jewish day school is enough to make medical aid expenses look reasonable. And, this is before you start paying for extra lessons, extra-curricular activities, set…

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Re-treading for the miles ahead

Jewish Life

Celebrating the ‘re-tyre-ment’ of a South African legend, Rabbi Z.S. Suchard By Chandrea Serebro Rabbi Tzadok Shmuel Suchard remembers his very first Shabbos at Sandton Shul. Shul was finishing for the night, and the Chairman began switching off the lights. His son, accustomed to the world of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland where he had been born, asked him: What are we doing here dad? “We are going to teach them my son,” Rabbi Suchard answered. And, after 46 years at the helm, it’s a goal he feels he accomplished…

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Give me a break

Jewish Life

Sometimes you have to follow Plan B By: Aron Ziegler Rather amazingly, the verses in the Chumash which instruct us about the festival of Shavuot do not state that it is the festival commemorating the giving of the Torah. Instead, the Torah refers to Shavuot as, alternatively, the “festival of the harvest of the first fruits (Bikurei) of your labour”[1]; “festival of weeks…the first (- Bikurei) wheat harvest”[2]; or “(The holy convocation of) Bikurim” – ‘First fruits’ or “first offerings”[3]. Although there is what to debate[4], nevertheless tradition has us…

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Did you say dairy?

Jewish Life

Blintzes and crepes for Shavuos By: Richard Pearce, Owner and Head Chef Totally Kosher Shavuos is a celebration of the giving of the Torah. It is Hashem and His Torah that have preserved and been the motivating force of the Jewish people’s existence throughout the ages. Cultures, diets, languages, and countries of residence all change, yet Torah remains constant because it is founded on unconditional truth, the only kind of truth that can continue to insure the unique existence of the Jewish people despite all odds. The Torah was given…

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Sharing the spotlight

Jewish Life

A broken Shabbos lamp inspires a home-grown source of illumination By Chandrea Serebro Ray Wainman is a 73-year young Jewish South African man born in Vereeniging who has a flair for all things handy. A regular amateur handyman to his family and friends, five years ago, while visiting his sister Sharon Bolel and her husband Rabbi Shem, Ray was handed his sister’s Shabbos lamp to fix. It was “falling apart” in her estimation, and she told her brother that she was on the verge of having to buy another costly…

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Buried treasure!

Jewish Life

An unexpected discovery opens a window into the history of the Johannesburg Jewish community By Chandrea Serebro What does Johannesburg have in common with the Qumran Caves? If it were a bad pub joke, I’m sure I would have been booed off the stage by now, but you’d be surprised, and, I’m sure, eager to discover that we actually do indeed share something amazing with this group of eleven caves in the West Bank, the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like all good stories, it starts…

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We will do, and we will understand

Jewish Life

  Using the apple tree as a source of strength By: Dovid Samuels At the greatest moment of our history, when we received the holy Torah at Mount Sinai, we made an important declaration to Hashem: Na’aseh v’nishma – We will do and we will hear (understand). This means that we, collectively, made a commitment to fulfil the mitzvos of the Torah, in their entirety, before even fully understanding what each mitzvah means, or whether we were even able to do it. Our Sages teach us that upon making this…

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Forever changed

Jewish Life

Facing challenges head on and choosing to make a difference in other people’s lives By Chandrea Serebro “With a busy career as a casting agent in the television and film industry, there was little time to ever slow down. But, the day of my late stage breast cancer diagnosis in 2014, everything came to a screeching halt.” Addi Lang found herself “living every woman’s nightmare”: “life in cancerland – a rollercoaster experience; feelings of shock, denial, fear, guilt, and depression.” But Addi was determined to change the course of her journey,…

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Promoting a society of inclusion

Jewish Life

Seeing children as children – not labels – despite their enormous challenges By Ilan Preskovsky Based on the ideals of “inclusion, community, fun”, Shutaf is an Israeli organisation, based in Jerusalem, which is perhaps best known for bringing the American institution of summer camps to Israeli children and teenagers – both for children with and without special needs, but catering specifically to children with physical, developmental, or emotional disabilities. As its co-founder and co-director, Beth Steinberg, is quick to stress, this isn’t a “special needs” camp where children are seen…

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The Divine Decrees of the King

Jewish Life

By: Robert Sussman Our Sages teach a fundamental concept: the beginning of a thing includes within it everything that will come afterwards, while the end of a thing serves to reinforce the beginning. In other words, the beginning of something serves as a preface, like a general discourse on a matter, with all of the details to follow thereafter, and the end of that thing serves to emphasise and support what was contained in the beginning. With this idea in mind, let’s take a closer look at the first and…

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Charity multiplied

Jewish Life

Creating a wildly successful marketing and fundraising solution for non-profits By Ilan Preskosvky Over the past few years, I have profiled some truly remarkable charitable/chesed organisations from across the globe, but they are no doubt just a smattering of the hundreds of similarly incredible Jewish organisations out there whose sole purpose is to improve the lives of others – those of both their fellow Jews and the wider human race. What is often at the centre of their biggest challenges, quite predictably though, is raising the kinds of funds needed…

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To Israel, with love

Jewish Life

Harnessing the world-wide power of social media to spread and share good news, while fighting the many lies being spread By Chandrea Serebro You know how much you love Israel? Imagine you could do something to show her…without even leaving your house. That is just what the developers of the Act.IL app had in mind; an online platform that is creating a community to promote a positive influence on the international public opinion towards the State of Israel via social media platforms, explains Yaron Fishelson, Head of Product and Community for Act.IL,…

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Answering the call

Jewish Life

Celebrating 50 years since they volunteered to help during the ‘67 Six Day War By Chandrea Serebro “When word got out that Israel, surrounded on three fronts, was under attack, we headed directly to the SA Zionist Federation to volunteer in whatever way we could,” says Larry Osrin. At 19 years old, Larry was on one of the first planes of South Africans arriving in Israel as volunteers to help out during the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and her neighbours Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. “We arrived on day…

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Lost…and found

Jewish Life

Following the signs home By: Rabbi Dr David Fox On a trip to Jerusalem in the mid-1980s, I joined a celebration held by relatives in a small hotel. It was a little off the beaten path and when Friday afternoon neared a dusky close, I decided that I would find my way to the Kotel for Shabbos services. In those days, most of the city was safe for strolling pedestrians and I had always loved the walk of contrasts through the “Arab Shuk” as I passed through an old-world atmosphere…

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Partnership2Gether

Jewish Life

Twins that are one of a kind By Chandrea Serebro If you think of Am Yisrael as a nation of people living around the world, then it wouldn’t surprise you to know that we have a twin in Israel. And while we look nothing like her, we are busy reconnecting with her. This twin is Beit Shemesh and the surrounding area Mateh Yehuda, a rural oasis between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that we are privileged to call our family thanks to the Israel Centre’s P2G programme – Partnership 2Gether. The…

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Same, but different

Jewish Life

Letting pictures tell the story By Chandrea Serebro Instagram – it’s instant success, instant exposure, like many social media platforms. But, here, its language is in pictures, and it is this visual communication that is quickly making it the fastest growing social network. With over 200 million monthly active users and over 30 billion shared photos, that’s some pull in this world where connections are made online and perceptions formed through photos. Keeping on the pulse, The SA-Israel Visual Diversity Dialogue, an initiative of the South African Friends of Israel…

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Soldiering on

Jewish Life

Some support for those going it alone in the defence of Israel By Ilan Preskovsky It’s hard to think of a more Israeli concept than that of the lone soldier: someone who comes from another country to serve their Homeland in the Israeli Defence Force and, as such, do not have any immediate family living in the country. These visiting volunteers or new immigrants have to deal with all that naturalised Israeli soldiers have to face in the military – not least of which being the immense psychological and emotional…

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Kosher Gourmet – Not your average Pesach

Jewish Life

Text by Jade Singer, recipes by Sharon Newfield Pesach in the Newfield household is no ordinary one! The buzz of people is constant (because it’s a meal you can get nowhere else), and the food…well the food can only be described as mind-altering; it’s hard to believe that any of it is pesadik. Whether it’s all Sharon’s homemade jams and chutneys , pesadik rolls, her meat dishes that are just beyond Juicy and delicious, or her scrumptious dessert filled with love from her Bobba’s recipes, one has to admit that…

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Israel at 70

Jewish Life

So much to celebrate! By: Bev Goldman The dramatic but so-longed-for birth of the State of Israel in 1948 heralded renewed life and new hope for millions of people: the chalutzim who had begun building Israel, draining the swamps, and preparing the land for agriculture beginning in the late 19th century; the almost 900 000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee the persecution they suffered at the hands of Arab leaders in Arab countries in which they had previously lived relatively peacefully for hundreds of years; survivors of the…

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Plagued with troubles

Jewish Life

Some deeper insights into the many afflictions that Hashem visited upon the Egyptians By: Aron Ziegler The modern Pesach Haggadah is chiefly a text that guides us in the performance of our obligation to relate the story of our being redeemed from having been slaves in Egypt. The title ‘Haggadah’, ‘The telling over’, is drawn from the large ‘Magid’, ‘Narration’, section which, in turn, stems from the Torah verse, “And you shall narrate (v’higadeta) to your child on that day (Pesach eve) saying ‘for this reason did Hashem do (all…

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School’s out

Jewish Life

But the shteiging continues By Chandrea Serebro Most diligent students worry when they leave their place of learning, whether it be a school, a university, a Beis Midrash, or a Yeshiva, for a holiday or a break that they will lose out. They worry that they will lose not only their flow in whatever it is they were engaged with, but even that they might lose some of the knowledge already gained – or at the very least the groove of their studies and the ease and comfort developed over…

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Pharaoh and pajamas

Jewish Life

Memories of Pesach with Uncle Baruch By: Rabbi Dr David Fox He was not really our uncle, but my parents had befriended them. He and his wife were survivors of Auschwitz and had lost everything during the war. They had also lost their only son. Part of a large group of survivors who made it to America after the war, they had been trained to raise chickens in order to have employment, and were then relocated across the country. One part of the group settled on the East Coast and…

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Raise your glass

Jewish Life

Celebrating salvation…or servitude? By: Dovid Samuels One of the mitzvos that we are commanded to fulfil on the Seder night is to drink four cups of wine. Even the poorest among us, who rely on charity for their food, should be given enough to buy no less than four cups, for the mitzvah. Many reasons are given by our Sages[1] as to why we need specifically four cups. One reason, and perhaps the most well-known, is that there were four terms referring to our rescue from Egypt: hotzaysi (took me…

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Digging deeper

Jewish Life

In search of lessons that we can learn from the mitzvah of eating matzah and the prohibition of having chometz on Pesach By: Robert Sussman Mix flour from any one of the five grains – wheat, oats, spelt, rye, or barley – together with cool water, and leave that mixture unattended, and, within minutes, that mixture, which will form a basic dough, will become chometz (leavened). Chometz is the result of a natural process that takes place over a certain period of time. For bread to qualify as matzah (unleavened…

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What your Purim Mishloach Manot say about you.

Jewish Life

Sponsored Content Mishloach manot are no longer just thoughtful expressions of a religious obligation, they are fun exchanges, a vehicle with which to express your personality and creativity. Themes have become so prevalent that they are almost the norm. You can make them chocolate themed, citrus themed, themed after a movie, song, or animal, or any theme that takes your fancy. No matter what you choose to do the primary custom to provide more than one type of food is still followed. And how better than to add in a…

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Wheels of love

Jewish Life

Actively solving problems for disabled and sick children   By Ilan Preskovsky ALYN Hospital has been treating and caring for children with disabilities and serious sicknesses in Israel for over eighty years now. From its earliest days as an orphanage/hospital for children suffering with polio, to the expansive paediatric hospital and rehabilitation centre that it is now, it has operated as an independent entity without government subsidies. As such, though it does have much of its expenses paid for by the local Israeli health funds to which every Israeli belongs,…

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A new land with new challenges

Jewish Life

Losing our way…and finding it again   By: Aron Ziegler After the First Temple was destroyed, we found ourselves exiled by the Babylonians. Once settled in their land and posing no threat to their kingdom, we were able to enjoy a period of ease and calm from persecution, and able to live, once again, as Jews. We were citizens in their land and could build relatively comfortable lives there. The Babylonians, however, were a barbaric, primitive people who thought nothing of cruelly butchering our people and had no sensitivity towards…

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Meme mentality

Jewish Life

Giving thanks for an illness suffered   By Chandrea Serebro Gratitude and appreciation. How many memes do we receive on a daily basis preaching just this? If I had a meme generator, I’d picture Desiree Levin and it would say: If I can feel it, so can you. Desiree puts all her feelings of positivity and appreciation down to something her father always said: “One needs to have hindsight to have foresight.” With hindsight, Desiree learned that what might have been a crushing blow to her life turned out to…

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A practical guide to coming of age

Jewish Life

By: Batsheva Lea Mazal tov! Your son is now becoming a Bar Mitzvah or your daughter a Bat Mitzvah! Until I did my own, I had no idea how much was involved and how stressful it would be. At times, I even felt myself unable to breathe from the stress. I know people who have even become physically sick from the preparations. Part of the stress comes from not knowing what is involved and what is expected. Your child will come of age with or without massive fanfare. A boy…

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Planning a function?

Jewish Life

Advice from people who’ve done it before… By Chandrea Serebro “What I could have done without…” Efrat Wald I should have invested the money‬ instead. Shelley Berman The insanely loud music. I don’t understand why it has to be so absolutely deafening.‬ Adrienne Bogatie Faribels!‬ Lara Baskin A three-course meal – at least I know my husband Justin would say that! Audrey Nowitz All of the above! I have seen elderly people who are only too happy to be out at a simcha, all done up, and leave as soon…

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All you need is love

Jewish Life

Hope is part of the human disposition. You have to live in the firm belief that love comes to all, whether fast or slow…   By Chandrea Serebro Waiting for love We often read stories about people, near or far away yet in another world, but never do we think it will happen to us. This is the story of Rachel and Greg Levy*, who not only had to wait for love, but also finally found the ultimate love in their baby boy. Rachel had been dating someone seriously for…

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The celebration that never ends

Jewish Life

What sets Purim apart from all the other holidays? By: Robert Sussman For literally thousands of years, we have recounted each year at the Pesach seder the incredible open miracles that Hashem did for us when He took us out from Egypt. In fact, one of the paragraphs that comprises the Shema even serves to recall the exodus from Egypt more frequently for us than just annually – twice daily. Even the very first mitzvah of the Ten Commandments does not simply declare that Hashem is our G-d, but quite…

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The morning star

Jewish Life

A light in the darkness   By Dovid Samuels What is the most important part of the megillah? Would it be the final judgement on Haman, when he and his sons were hanged on the gallows? Perhaps when Queen Esther went in to see King Achashverosh and pleaded for the lives of the Jewish people? Maybe it was before then, when the king chose her from everyone else in the world to be his new wife after killing Vashti? The question is an unfair one, as every single part of…

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Back to school

Jewish Life

Giving kids the energy that they need By: Lauren Boolkin Life for me is a bit of an enigma, and definitely a case of trial and error. As for parenting…just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, along comes another curve ball. Having said that, I do think I’ve mastered the art of feeding teenage boys. What I’ve learned over the years is that it is imperative to have a constant supply of satisfying, healthy, and sometimes not so healthy, snacks on hand to get them through exams.…

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Appreciating the roads we travel

Jewish Life

The downside of wanting it all…and wanting it NOW By: Larry Hirschowitz One can often see a twinkle in their eyes when speaking to the more mature members of our community about the good old days. Despite the incredible challenges of those early years in Jewish South Africa, there is a sense that life was calmer and more serene. In current times, conversations around dinner tables frequently centre on the stresses of modern-day life; economics, politics, family squabbles, etc. Despite having more material possessions today than ever before, it appears…

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Learning about chesed

Jewish Life

  Some lessons last a lifetime   By Chandrea Serebro School gives you so much to think about and too much to do, but Jewish learners still manage to dedicate themselves to chesed projects aimed at bettering the lives of others. Here are just a few innovative student projects that are proudly Jewish. King David Victory Park If you saw the King David Victory Park students after exiting their final exam with massive smiles on their faces, you would be forgiven for thinking that their pure and unadulterated joy was…

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Kids with a knack

Jewish Life

More than a measure of talent to go around   By Chandrea Serebro Songs making a statement At fifteen, Shmuli Brill is no stranger to singing for a crowd. He loves music, and the ears of his listeners love him. “Music is my best friend,” he says, an old friend he loves spending time with. Shmuli is somewhat understated. He says he “enjoys singing”; it is his passion. One Friday night a few months before his bar mitzvah, Shmuli was offered to sing Yigdal at the end of the Friday…

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It can be done

Jewish Life

Uniting in learning for a common goal   By Chandrea Serebro The Talmud says that the study of Torah is equivalent to all of the other mitzvos because it leads to them all. This sentiment inspired Rabbi Dov Connack, Executive Director of Shaarei Torah Schools, to set out, together with the boys and the fathers of his community and beyond, on a mammoth goal: to learn together the six tractates of the Mishna (known as Shas Mishnayos) in their entirety in a single day. Rabbi Connack recalls, “Rosh Hashanah was…

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Back to the future

Jewish Life

Matrics share their plans for conquering the world By: Chandrea Serebro Gila Odes, Hirsch Lyons Girls One year plan…. Choosing what to do the first year post high school is possibly one of the toughest decisions to make, as this is the first time we are the ones defining our schedules and, in a sense, defining what’s important to us…what we value. At the same time, after being in the set structure of school, we all crave the ability to do something that is our own. I have chosen to split…

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Making grocery shopping more affordable

Jewish Life

  Inside the new JLife online store   By Ilan Preskovsky It seems that no matter how our currency is doing on any given day or what effect an inane comment or idiotic action of a given politician has on our economy, South Africans have, for years, been facing a relentless rise in the cost of living. Every visit to your favourite retailer seems to come with a bump in price on even the most basic necessities. Indeed, it’s strange, but luxury items seem to be less affected by haywire…

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