Author: Jewish Life

Jewish Education’s response to anti-Semitism By: Paula Levin “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining; I believe in love even when feeling it not; I believe in G-d even when He is silent.” “Why do people hate us?” my ten-year-old daughter asked a few months ago. As much as I try to shield her from the bad in the world, clearly it had filtered through – in adult conversations about October 7 within earshot, Tehillim for the hostages and injured soldiers recited at assembly, dinner table…

ADVERTORIAL  An Essential Guide for Parents and Teachers in the Age of Misinformation By: Ariellah Rosenberg “In a world where misinformation can spread rapidly and influence public opinion, critical thinking is a vital tool for maintaining a healthy democracy.” As a child, I remember the excitement of discovering new things and the total curiosity that drove me to ask endless questions. One day, a neighbour told me about a tree that supposedly grew sweets. Fascinated, I immediately shared this discovery with my friends and family and started searching for this…

feature Pioneers of Torah education in South Africa By: David Saks “SA Jewry may then have been largely unobservant in the strictly Orthodox sense, but it was nevertheless deeply traditional, and manifested a deep sense of loyalty to their religious heritage.” Rabbi Michel Kossowsky giving a shiur to the Yeshiva Ketana. Rabbi Kossowsky would become the first Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva College. Following his untimely death in 1963, he was replaced by Rabbi Avraham Tanzer, who would serve in that position for over fifty years. This photograph, at once prophetic…

Confluence ACADEMIC INTEREST The student knowing, or knowing the student? By: Rabbi Dr David Fox “In Europe before the war, no one would have let food go to waste. The affluence of America allowed disregard for such things.” Having graduated yeshiva high school in LA, I went east to study Torah in a higher-level Torah institution. I had spent my youth at the feet of my rebbe, my mentor and guide, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, ztz”l, who was a luminary Torah leader and teacher. He considered his students to be his…

Israel in Context The Axis of Evil By: Bev Goldman “But with all this, the differences among the three organisations are secondary to what unites them…” Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis… Is it coincidence that all three terrorist bodies begin with the letter “H”? I wonder. Among all the words in the Koran beginning with “H”, three stand out as particularly anti-Semitic. Haram, or “prohibited”, means that which is unlawful, ie. anything done by the Jews. Hasad, meaning “envy, malevolence, malice”, is used in the Koran as follows: “Many of the people…

Kosher Gourmet Great breakfasts to get you going By: Sharon Lurie Would you believe that only about a third of adults regularly eat breakfast, and over 50% skip breakfast at least once a week. Mornings can be hectic, but what’s even more hectic is getting ravenous at about 10 and grabbing a slice of chocolate cake or a donut to satisfy the craving. Science has proven that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Whether it’s a full-on meaty breakfast, a healthy yogurt and stewed fruit, or a…

What goes up… By: Ilan Preskovsky “The health of the stock exchange frequently has less than nothing to do with real-world personal finances.” This article, I must warn you in advance, is going to be something of a bummer. Considering the subject matter and how it negatively affects the vast, vast majority of us, this is pretty unavoidable. It will also, I hope, offer at least some rays of, well, hope – or at the very least some idea of practical steps that can be put in place to improve…

A private company with an individual or a group of people who have a beneficial interest in the issued securities of the business is defined as an owner-managed entity. Entrepreneurs have the freedom to capitalise on any type of business opportunity. That right alone doesn’t necessarily translate to success highlighting the need for an external party to assist you with the growth and development of the organisation. It’s unfortunate that not everyone has the necessary business acumen to turn an idea into a successful operation. As a result, you need…

By: Rabbi Moishe Schnerb It may sound like a very strange thing to say, but I am profoundly grateful for all the challenges, difficulties, and moments of despair that I have encountered in my life. I am so grateful for the four and a half years I spent “on dialysis”, sometimes attached to a machine for four consecutive hours, or negotiating at home with a temperamental machine in the wee hours of the morning. I am grateful for all those days where all I could think of, as I tried…

By: Sharon Lurie There are many ways to educate your children through food. A few simple ones that work so well are: Planting a vegetable garden with your children and ensuring they care for it, packing away the food after shopping, washing and cleaning fruit and vegetables, mixing ingredients in a bowl, kneading dough, teaching them the names of different herbs and spices and how to use them, and allowing them to choose a recipe to create a healthy meal, remembering, of course, food always tastes better when you eat…

Only Heaven knows By: Rabbi Dr David Fox The long flight was crossing the continent and its passengers were sleeping, reading, or doing their best to relax. Somewhere over the midwestern states a scream was heard. Flight attendants rushed to see what had happened. It was a woman clad in the attire of a Moslem wife and she was hunched over. Barely articulate, her English was at best limited and given her apparent pain, her words were garbled and unclear. “If there is a doctor on board please come to…

A Conversation with Dr David Fine By Ilan Preskovsky Dr David Fine recently made local headlines for donating some $3 million (roughly R50 million) to the University of Witwatersrand to establish the Angela and David Fine Chair in Innovation. It’s an astonishing amount of money, of course, (and a truly sobering way to express the current state of our currency), but after spending thirty minutes on a Zoom call with him, I can safely say that the real story here is less about the millions of rands Dr Fine so…

Isadore Kahanovitz taught us to see more clearly ahead By: Eleanor Katseff In the first of an occasional series of “Educator” profiles, Eleanor Katseff, one of his former pupils, reflects on the influence of Isadore Kahanovitz, whose first yahrzeit is in August this year. The Jewish calendar is a testimony to and validation of the power of history. It recognises the necessity to pass stories on from one generation to the next, and to teach the lessons of the past over and over until they become a clear and vital…

The power of informal Jewish education By: Paula Levin However bleak SA’s future looks, especially in the dim glow of a dying LED in the thick of the latest round of load shedding, there is nothing in the world to rival our Jewish schools! The sheer amount and quality of opportunities for our children to embrace our Jewish values is truly unrivalled. I set out to explore how our schools and youth movements are tackling the challenge of inspiring a deep connection to Jewish values and a Torah lifestyle and…