August 2025 – Jewish Life Magazine

Rib-ticklers

July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 Jewish Life

Fall-off-the-bone flavour By: Sharon Lurie Since this is the ‘Education Edition’, I’ve decided to put on my Kosher Butcher’s Wife cap and share some insights into the forequarter – an area I’m especially passionate about. With limited space, I’ve had to refine the selection of cuts I’ll be highlighting. I can already hear you saying, “We’re starting off limited by using only the forequarter.” But if ever there was a case for the saying ‘less is more’, this is it. The forequarter offers more than enough to work with –…

Spoiled for Choice

July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 Jewish Life

Jewish Joburg’s dynamic education system By: Paula Levin Say what you like (or don’t like) about South Africa, but when it comes to choice of quality Jewish schools for our children, there’s no place in the world that comes close. Whether you’re looking for the right place to start this 12+ year journey or you’re searching for a new school that’s a better fit for your child, we truly are spoiled for choice. We spoke to three families who have experienced multiple schools first-hand. One has six children who attended…

Rewriting the Rules of the Classroom

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 Jewish Life

How AI Is Transforming the Future of Education By: Ariellah Rosenberg, CEO ORT SA When I was a child, I sat at the front of the classroom, not out of ambition, but necessity. I couldn’t see the chalkboard from the back, and the noise and frolicking of my classmates made it easy to lose focus. I struggled in subjects like physics and history, often losing the thread of the lesson before I could catch up. Today, those same struggles persist in classrooms everywhere, but now, they’re amplified. Attention is constantly…

Rethinking Education

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 Jewish Life

If school weren’t compulsory, would your child still go? By: Chaya Liberow The year is 1998. With my bag on my back and hair neatly pulled back, I trot into school. The teacher calls out, “What’s 3×9?” I quickly count my fingers… 27! My hand shoots up. “Chani?” the teacher calls on my classmate. “27!” I lower my hand. “What’s 4×9?” My fingers come out again. This time, I hope to be chosen. The bell rings. As fast as my little feet can run, I escape the classroom. I idle…

Finding Leon

July 23, 2025 Jewish Life

One man’s unexpected journey through adoption, identity, and Divine providence. By: Ilan Preskovksy Imagine growing up in a loving home with a rich family life, only to find out at the tender age of 34, and only by an accidental slip of the tongue, that your parents are not your – if you’ll pardon the expression – “real” parents: that you were adopted as a toddler and were never told your true origins. Imagine that you have suffered from a genetic condition like Tourette’s syndrome since you were very young…

Reframing the Spectum

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 Jewish Life

What (I think) you ought to know about Autism By Kalita Hoffman Kelita is a mom of two, a lawyer with a Master’s degree from Berkeley who runs a legal consulting and disability tax business. Kelita is passionate about neurodiversity awareness. She is not a medical professional but rather a mother who lives Autism daily and shares her opinion from a personal perspective. AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD) IS QUITE A fascinating condition to explore. Statistics indicate that 1 in 31 children, and 1 in 45 adults have ASD in America1.…

Loaded Language

July 22, 2025July 22, 2025 Jewish Life

Why words like Nazi and Genocide should be used cautiously By:OVER SHAVUOT, MYSHUL HOSTED RABBI MOSHE Taragin and I was privileged to learn from this remarkable man. In his final speech, he spoke of the importance of vigilance around the words we use, cautioning around the flippant use of terms that have deep significance. One example, he gave was the word ‘rape’ – which has been used as a synonym for destroying some thing, while we know the brutal meaning of that word for those who have been vic tims…