While Jews around the world celebrate each year in October Sukkot – the biblical Feast of Tabernacles – it is no less a meaningful holiday for many Christians. Every year, thousands of Christians from all over the world – including South Africa – visit Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and to show their […]
Cover Photo Credit: Vogue/ Ashraf Tariq The Enriching Saga of the Bulgarian Community in Israel Walking through the streets of the ancient port of Jaffa, one can be excused for thinking one had entered a picturesque portal into the Balkans. Gyuvetch and Bourekas are just two examples of classic Bulgarian food available at the many […]
A Perspective from under the shadow of Table Mountain By Belinda Silbert “Where the respect to us cannot be won by entreaty, it may be commanded and where it cannot be commanded, it may be enforced.” Emma Lazarus. The task of nation-building is never without sacrifices and the transformation of the ‘Walking Wounded’ who survived […]
I loved and still love Roger Waters’ brilliant music. It was difficult not to as a student in the seventies! So, without denying the impact of Pink Floyd on Rock culture and society, today, when I hear Water’s magnum opus, “The Wall”, I think he may be “off the wall”. Or worse! While the message […]
*Beverley Price chatted to Israelink Revealing the artistic talents of African Jewry through the journey of a South African jeweller Jews and Africa have a long history. Preceding the Jewish migration of the 19th century from Europe to South Africa, which many people are familiar with, there were Jews settled in Africa going back thousands […]
South Africans Find Solutions at water conference in Israel “Israel has successfully managed to turn a sandpit into a modern city and there is so much to learn”. This is just one of the many positive comments that South African delegates had to say after seeing some of the life changing innovations and hearing from […]
The history of the Jewish people and that of many African countries is more similar than it is different. There are some striking parallels – tribal allegiances, love of the indigenous land and a shared history of persecution and colonialism. In the fledgling days before the founding of the modern State of Israel, Jews fought […]
“It was an encounter of a strange kind,” says Charles Abelsohn, a graduate of a South African University and a retired lawyer in Israel referring to his brief encounter earlier this year with BDS at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre in Johannesburg. Staying overnight in transit before catching a connecting flight, Charles […]
Israel, United States and South Africa Connection The 9/11 commemoration on TV news networks was subdued this 2017. There was an explanation. While the attention this 9/11 remained death and destruction on mainland America, it had competition. The nature of wrath was not Islamic terrorism of 16 years earlier but Mother Nature of the present. […]
When hearing of a terror attack people tends to focus on the number of fatalities. An organization established in Israel by former Southern Africans, focuses on the injured. “For every person killed in a terror attack, there are on average 8-10 injured,” reveals Rocky Muravitz, who together with Vic Essakow co-founded TIKVOT (Hebrew for ‘Hope’), […]
by Peter Bailey Any attempt to define antiSemitism must fail. The phrase itself derives from the German word Judenhass, translated to English means Jew Hatred, while the term anti-Semitism was introduced as a quasi scientific explanation of the dislike of Jews in 1879. And has stuck since that time. There are a number of truisms […]
Out of favour news network Al Jazeera resurrects limelight seeking Ronnie Kasrils to demonise Israel It’s an old cast, old script of Israel bashing and ‘Red Ronnie’ as he was once known for his Communist affiliations has found an audience with Al Jazeera, who these days itself is battling “to be seen and heard”. Where […]
by Tessa Chelouche M.D It all started with an outrageous tweet by an outrageous individual. How more outrageous can it get than the leader of the Black First Land First (BLF) Andile Mngxitama tweeting: “For those claiming the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative, think about the lampshades and Jewish soap.” WOW! I do […]
Israel’s paltry trade with South Africa during Apartheid era Israel’s detractors love to compare the Jewish state to Apartheid South Africa. This is not a comparison based on facts but rather part of a greater campaign to paint Israel as a pariah state and deal out the same sort of isolation through boycotts and sanctions […]
By Howard Feldman A Tweet that will not wash away anytime soon I was about halfway through my second cup of coffee this morning when I saw the tweet. It read as follows: “For those claiming that the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative, think about lampshades and Jewish soap.” Andile Mngxitama The […]