Category: February 2021

Giving someone the gift of life By Chandrea Serebro The tried and tested marketing Rule of Seven says you will have to leave no less than seven impressions for people to even notice you. In the same way, Matnat Chaim, the organisation in Israel that facilitates altruistic kidney donations, wormed its way into Shaul Behr’s consciousness until he found himself being prepped for theatre to donate a kidney. But it wasn’t exactly an ‘impulse buy’. Even though all he kept hearing was how safe and relatively pain-free kidney donation is,…

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We may argue, we may have our differences, but when push comes to shove, we come through for each other By Chandrea Serebro Picture it. Somewhere in Israel. 2020. The time is Corona. A second lockdown seems imminent, and everybody is feeling the strain. Social distancing is the name of the game. Socialising a thing of the past. Shuls are out of sight, but not out of mind. People are resilient, and even within the constraints of the lockdown there are outdoor minyanim popping up everywhere – in the middle…

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Why Jewish Life on University Campuses Continues to Thrive By Ilan Preskovsky It’s no secret that the past few years have not always been easy on Jewish students on university campuses, both in South Africa and abroad. Organisations like BDS (the boycott, divestment, and sanction movement against Israel), and its newly-minted South African variety, Africa for Palestine (A4P), have made universities a central target for their campaign to de-legitimise Israel and any Jewish claims on the land. For all that BDS and its associates insist that they’re a non-violent movement…

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Studying abroad vs staying at home By Ilan Preskovsky Of the two great questions that all South African students must ask themselves as they contemplate their future after high school, “what’s next?” is undoubtedly the more daunting, but “where next?” has become a question of increasing urgency and relevance. A tertiary education or straight to work? A more specialised, technical college or a major university? By correspondence or attendance? But perhaps most crucially, at home or abroad? Many Jewish students, of course, will be able to push this off by…

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Cutting through the confusion with a genuine, clear Torah perspective By: Robert Sussman We live in a time of tremendous confusion, where it can be exceedingly difficult for us to make sense of everything going on around us. The world has radically changed almost overnight. As a result, entire industries have disappeared and, along with them, thousands of jobs and careers. The economy lies in shambles. The future is uncertain. We blame our leaders. We blame our doctors. We blame our rabbis. We even blame each other. Or, we say…

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The Hand of Hashem, revealed By: Rabbi Dovid Samuels Perhaps the most moving and important moment in the Book of Esther is when Mordechai convinces Esther to appear before King Achashveirosh to beseech him on behalf of the Jewish people. It started when Esther sent Hasach to inform Mordechai that Haman had managed to have his ‘final solution’ passed by the king. Upon hearing this, Mordechai sent Hasach back to Esther with the command that she go to the king and plead for the lives of her people. Esther refused,…

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