Cape Jewish Chronicle

September is the ‘erev High Holy Days’ issue for us, and our expectations of producing something substantial have been exceeded to a total of 66 pages, which include a 4 page supplement of messages, greetings and wishes. Momentously, this is the 60th Rosh Hashanah for the young and vibrant State of Israel – a year of great celebration also for us, a diaspora community, who view Israel as the pivotal point of our Jewish existence. We hope that the issue will do justice to this historic moment.

A’propos this, you will find among the brightly coloured pages some responses to July’s South African human rights delegation to Israel. The return from this mission coincided with our last deadline date, and we were therefore not able to give a broad overall coverage, other than a last minute, positive report back from one of the organisers, which we featured on the front page.
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Joint statement by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council) and Western Province Zionist Council in response to the Human Rights Delegation visit to Israel

1. During the month of July, 23 South African Human Rights Activists, from diverse backgrounds went to Israel and the Palestinian territories on a fact finding mission.

2. Contrary to certain rumours, neither the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council) nor the Western Province Zionist Council were in any way sponsors of this trip.
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Jewish Agency representative Moshe Lederman arrived in South Africa at the end of 2005 with his wife, Booky and daughter Yuval, to fill the role of the Cape Town Community, Aliyah and Habonim shaliach.

Over the past three years Moshe has been very much involved in this community, as well as working in Christian Zionist groups, giving lectures on all aspects of Israel from politics and history to the Israeli society. He has also spoken and delighted Cape Town audiences with his lectures on Israeli humour.

As head of the Aliyah Department, Moshe was responsible for sending close to 100 Capetonians on aliyah, seeing the biggest increase in numbers from Cape Town for the past 5 years. As Habonim shaliach he was very much involved in the machanot and the weekly peulot, sharing his insights and passion for the movement.
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From Constantia and Muizenberg, from Tableview and Milnerton, from Claremont and Sea Point, the community flocked to bid farewell to the bachurim of the Chief Rabbi Cyril and Ann Harris Yeshiva of Cape Town last month.

Those present in the home of the Yeshiva, Beit Midrash Morasha loudly endorsed the well deserved tribute paid by the current chairman, Lance Katz.

He noted that the Yeshiva was the only Torah based learning facility which was community-based, and its success over the past 14 years was due in large measure to the ability of the bachurim to interact with all sections of the community, promoting their core values of Israel centred Torah Judaism.

He paid tribute to Selma Glass who had retired earlier in the year, after being involved with the Yeshiva since its inception.
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MaAfrika Tikkun’s COO Mark Gamble, chairman Moonyeen Castle and Amanda Blankfield (MaAfrika Tikkun Gauteng) with Colin Brown of sponsor Deutsche Bank.

There is a clear need for the youth of South Africa to become practically involved in the problem-solving process surrounding issues facing students, so as to develop South Africa’s next generation of leaders. With this in mind, MaAfrika Tikkun and Deutsche Bank hosted the second annual Big Talk Youth Conference on Thursday, 23 July.

The themes for this year’s conference — the Department of Education’s school pledge, drugs and racism — were energetically discussed amongst the students. Key solutions were presented for these problems facing high school learners, with the school pledge heatedly debated.

MEC Cameron Dugmore who facilitated the session on The School Pledge with the Events MC, member of Parliament Regina Mhlomi.

“I am very excited about the participation of all the learners involved,” says the Western Cape MEC of Education, Cameron Dugmore. “I was impressed with the content of the discussions and am pleased that the youth of South Africa were enthusiastically involved.”

The conference, held at Sea Point’s Civic Centre, created a secure and sustainable platform for high school students in the Western Cape to debate significant challenges facing them in a constructive and safe manner. 42 diverse schools were dynamically involved in a mutual problem solving process to bridge the communication gaps between decision-makers and our youth.
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