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south african n Volume 24 – Number 18 n 29 May 2020 n 6 Sivan 5780

The source of quality content, news and insights t www.sajr.co.za Board of Deputies and medical experts caution against opening shuls reopening shuls. scrupulously maintained, and that’s not JORDAN MOSHE “Any gathering of people has inherent guaranteed. AND TALI FEINBERG risk, with singing and other religious “I understand that restrictions need to be activities potentially increasing this risk removed to kickstart the economy,” he said. laces of worship have and promoting the spread of disease,” said “People are suffering, and this needs to be been given the green epidemiologist Dr Natacha Berkowitz. weighed against public-health considerations. light to resume services “Right at the beginning of the epidemic, we However, I don’t see how houses of worship Pacross South Africa next week, saw clusters of cases coming from religious come into that equation.” but medical experts and the Ilan Ossendryver Photo: gatherings, even when the gatherings were Dr Leon Fine, professor of biomedical South African Jewish Board of restricted to less than 50 people. In my science and medicine, speaking from Los Deputies (SAJBD) are urging opinion, while theoretically it could be a low- Angeles, told the SA Jewish Report, “My religious leaders not to open the risk activity, I don’t think it’s a good idea.” advice would be to resist opening for at least doors of our shuls just yet. Jeffrey Dorfman, an associate professor another month or maybe two. A shul is an “Medical experts have agreed of virology at Stellenbosch University, ideal environment to spread the virus. It’s that there is a great danger encourages a cautious and flexible approach definitely not worth the risk at this stage.” in opening shuls at this very to reopening, starting outside the Western Dr Alan Rabinowitz, associate clinical precarious time,” SAJBD Cape, and being prepared to pause services if professor of cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital National Director Wendy Kahn events warrant it. in Vancouver, said, “It’s premature [to open told the SA Jewish Report on “Services should meet in very large rooms shuls] given that cases in South Africa are Wednesday evening. or even outside in shul courtyards,” he said, still on the rise. I would advise shuls to wait SAJBD national chairperson “with limits on the number participating at least another month in order to observe Shaun Zagnoev said, “We are in the service – possibly fewer than the the trajectory of the disease.” concerned by the medical currently mooted 50 per event”. “Te prescribed measures are likely to evidence which shows that Beyond social distancing and masks, reduce the risk, but they aren’t likely to there have been mini outbreaks Dorfman said that siddurim, tallitot, and eliminate transmission,” said Professor Gert wherever people gather. chumashim shouldn’t be shared, and that van Zyl, pathologist and consultant virologist Professor Barry Schoub, the afford to lessen our vigilance in Report. “Te president explained symptoms, contact history, and temperature at Stellenbosch University. “It’s difficult to founding and former director of any way.” his philosophy, that the country screening should occur before entry into shul. weigh up the possible risk of interaction the NICD [National Institute for “To date, we have placed was moving from the stage of “In the spirit of caution, the chazzan and against its emotional and health benefits. Communicable Diseases of South substantial reliance on our lockdown into finding ways the Torah reader should be far away from “What makes COVID-19 so difficult Africa] and one of our advisors medical experts, and believe to cope with the disease and anyone else. Even the person having an aliyah to control is that some people may be has noted that the reopening that to deviate from taking prevent its spread. He gave should step back once having said the bracha,” very infectious without any recognisable of shuls at this stage of the their advice now would be ill- this framework, and asked for he said. symptoms. Tere are indications that the COVID-19 epidemic in South considered,” said Zagnoev. comment from religious leaders.” “Tere will need to be thought about the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads not only by large Africa would pose a very serious “It’s much too early,” said Leader after leader from rules concerning children who will be unlikely droplets but also by aerosols [small droplet threat to the Jewish community. Schoub. “It should be one of the across all faiths asked the to distance themselves socially when seeing nuclei], which makes it more difficult to “In several countries in last restrictions to go.” president to allow reopening their friends for the first time in months.” control,” he said. “Terefore, many factors Europe and in the United States, President Cyril Ramaphosa places of worship under strict Said Schoub, “Safety measures such as are important: the time people spend especially in New York, Jewish announced on Tuesday night health conditions. Te president disinfection, hygiene, and sanitation can’t together; the number of people sharing communities have suffered that South African places of agreed to take all this input into guarantee the prevention of transmission. an enclosed space; how well the rooms grievously with far too many worship, including mosques, consideration in subsequent If they are rigorously carried out and or spaces are ventilated; is there natural deaths and serious illness. Te churches, and shuls, may discussions. maintained, they could minimise the sunlight; and whether the surfaces are Jewish population of these reopen under strict conditions “When the president made his risk. However, these measures have to be cleaned regularly.” countries has been more severely during lockdown level 3 as of Sunday speech and didn’t give affected in numbers of deaths 1 June. Tese include limiting details [about places of worship], Because they CAN help and serious illness than any attendance to 50 people per he was still working out what other. In Britain and France service, wearing face masks, to do. After that, he had further respectively there have been sanitising and social distancing, discussions with various five and six times the number as well as routine cleansing of religious bodies during the week of deaths proportionate to their the prayer space. and came to this conclusion.” population.’” Te announcement came Goldstein said he was in back- Netcare Chief Executive after extensive discussions with to-back meetings with medical Dr Richard Friedland told religious leaders from across the and communicable disease the SAJBD, “We need to be faith spectrum, said Chief Rabbi experts, the Beth Din, rabbis, extremely cautious in regard Dr Warren Goldstein. and lay leaders of shuls to work to the dangers of a potential Just as he was faced with the out the community’s response to ‘post lockdown euphoria’. In tough decision to close our shuls the president’s allowance. the 1918/1919 Spanish flu at the start of the pandemic in “All the decisions will pandemic, it was the second South Africa, he is now faced be communicated to our wave or ‘peak’ that followed with another tough decision community as soon as possible, the initial relaxation of the first about whether to reopen them. bearing in mind that the lockdown that caused the most “Last Wednesday night, president’s change of legal deaths [almost 50 million]. In there was a Zoom meeting of position is effective only from South Africa, we are easing the the president, senior cabinet Monday, 1 June,” he said. lockdown and we haven’t yet ministers, and religious leaders Other medical professionals Photo: Ilan Ossendryver Photo: experienced the peak of new from across the country,” the have backed up the view that daily infections, so we can’t chief rabbi told the SA Jewish it’s inadvisable to rush into Caron-Leah Resnick hands over a food parcel to a resident of Kliptown. See story on page 8 Mexem Print advert 3 PR.pdf 1 2018/09/17 10:14

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K 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 3 Repatriation flights between Israel and SA finally take off TALI FEINBERG flight only on the Saturday evening Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), a week before it took off, and had the National Joint Operational and or two months, scores of to give their final answer two days Intelligence Structure (NatJoint), South Africans stuck under later. They then had five days to Ethiopian Airlines, the South lockdown in Israel and pack up their lives. African embassy in Tel Aviv, and FIsraelis unable to leave South “All the airports we travelled the representatives of the group Africa have been waiting to hear through were completely empty. awaiting repatriation,” she says. “We when they could go home. It was pretty weird,” says Lagrisi. have also assisted individuals within It all came together over the last Their temperatures were checked the group with specific issues that week, with flights arranged in both at every stop, and they had to fill arose during the process.” directions in a number of forms along the Two people who played an essential role behind the scenes are Kelli Sussman and Ivana Goldfein, The logistics for the flight Town. Eventually, it had to get both South Africans who got stuck from South Arica to Israel began special approval for a person who in Israel with their families when the with finding an airline willing works closely with the embassy borders closed. to operate. The Israeli embassy to be present. “This was difficult, They found each other online, then created a list of potential but we didn’t want to give up on and decided to join forces to try passengers, and organise a flight back. They formed checked all potential a WhatsApp group for South passengers’ travel Africans seeking to return home, documents. and spent 24 hours a day addressing Each of these administrative and emotional needs names was sent while engaging with stakeholders to DIRCO for and managing their own families and approval, which commitments. had to be done 72 After much red tape, they hours before the A deserted Cape Town International Airport managed to negotiate a flight on flight. The names “Fifty-one Israeli citizens way. Ethiopian Airlines for considerably were sent back boarded a repatriation flight on Everyone they interacted with less than other quotes. “Within to the embassy, 22 May, 24 from Johannesburg and wore masks, and they and their days, the airline had everything and then to the 27 from Cape Town. This was done children wore masks as much ready to submit to the South African airline. Meanwhile, in co-ordination with the United as possible. They were given embassy, which it then submitted the embassy had States embassy repatriation flight food on the flight, but all the to DIRCO. It had to get a permit for to contact each on Ethiopian Airlines,” says Deputy in-flight entertainment systems the aeroplane to land, and permits passenger for Israeli Ambassador to South Africa, were turned off. “The flight was for each individual. The timing is payment. The day Ayellet Black. “We are grateful quite full, and there was sanitiser critical, especially with Shavuot. before the flight, for the co-operation with the US everywhere. People kept their We are sitting on shpilkes (anxious), the final list of embassy, which brought so many distance. Flight attendants wore hoping it all works out.” passengers was sent Israeli citizens home.” masks and gloves,” she says. Although she played a key role, from the embassy to The flight flew from While the flight was long and Sussman might not be on the flight the airline. Johannesburg to Cape Town to expensive, it was worth it. She and as one of her daughters and her The embassy Addis Ababa, and finally to Israel. her family are now on a moshav husband weren’t approved, while her also had to Israelis Shira Lagrisi, her near Netanya, waiting out their other child was. She might not have officially approve Shira Lagrisi delighted after landing at Ben Gurion Airport husband Roi, and their three young two-week quarantine. They can see a place to stay in Israel after 31 May. each passenger. daughters, packed up their lives that Israel is “back to business”, “I’m anxious, but I’m glad I was Passengers weren’t allowed to Cape Town,” says Rose Fridman. in Cape Town in five days to take and look forward to being part of able to help others,” she says. travel to the airport, and had to She says the past month has the flight. They did this because it all. Goldfein has found it meaningful to meet at an assembly point many been a relentless battle, and they believe it’s now easier to be in Meanwhile, a repatriation see how people can work together hours before the flight. In this when the flight finally took Israel than South Africa, with more flight will fly from Israel to South to achieve something like this. If case, passengers in the Mother off, “I felt so relieved. A lot of freedom, schools opening, and the Africa on Sunday, 31 May. “There they both make it onto the flight, City met at the Cape Town people were anxious to go back, virus under control. will be about 50 South Africans it will be the first time they meet in Stadium, and in Johannesburg especially travellers. We knew the “We’ve lived in Cape Town for on board this Ethiopian Airlines person. at the American consulate. They personal story of each passenger. two years, and we were really cargo flight,” says Wendy Kahn, “Organising a repatriation flight were then taken to the airport When we saw each other at the starting to miss home. With no the national director of the South is very complicated,” says Hila Rose by designated buses organised by assembly point, we would have certainty about future flights, we African Jewish Board of Deputies Fridman, consul and designated the embassy. hugged each other if we could. It decided to take this one. It was (SAJBD). deputy ambassador of the Israeli An embassy representative had was very emotional.” very hard to leave Cape Town, but “Over the past week, we embassy. “Repatriation flights have to be present at the assembly The embassy hopes to arrange my husband can work remotely,” have worked extensively with to be arranged directly through an point. This was particularly more repatriation flights as there she says. relevant staff members from the embassy. The rumours that one can difficult for the Israeli embassy, are still Israelis in South Africa The Lagrisis were notified of the Department of International register on an airline aren’t true.” as it has no personnel in Cape who need to return.

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With 4 bedrooms, motivated seller!! a huge pyjama lounge, open-plan everything, staf suite, double garage, walk to Shul or Church, makes this find just too fabulous for words! 3 2 Web Ref: RL62013 3 2 Web Ref: RL62660 5 3.5 Web Ref: RL64454 4 3.5 Web Ref: RL62610 Joel Harris 082 926 0287 National Sales Consultant of the Year Joel Harris 082 926 0287 National Sales Consultant of the Year Norma Robinson: 082 554 7260 Norma Robinson: 082 554 7260 Laureen Shalpid 083 789 0229 Laureen Shalpid 083 789 0229 Romaine Robinson-Buchalter: 082 685 5177 Romaine Robinson-Buchalter: 082 685 5177 4 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 The challenges facing schools as they reopen TALI FEINBERG “For staff who have pre-existing will work from home. protocols in place. Each school’s conducted online. conditions, we realised that many “We are well aware that an indemnity capacity and situation is different. At Andrew Baker, the principal of King ewish schools across the wanted to return, and as such we cannot cover an employer if there is a first, only one grade will return per David High School Victory Park, echoes country are dealing with needed to clarify the extent of the known risk or if the employer doesn’t King David site. these sentiments, saying that both Ja multitude of practical, condition. Using a ‘declaration act reasonably. So, if a staff member Of the more than 1 600 responses Grade 11s and matrics need face-to- ethical, legal, and emotional of intent’, we were able to secure has a co-morbidity that is confirmed to the school’s recent parents’ survey, face support to ensure the integrity of challenges as they start the process medical letters as to whether staff by their medical practitioner, then they more than 95% of pupils didn’t have their matric year. Tose in Grades 8 to of reopening on Monday, 1 June. were, in the view of their medical certainly need not sign an indemnity any medical preconditions. Asked if 10 have more time to fill in the gaps. With the risk of staff or pupils practitioners, able to return. In and even if they did, we wouldn’t let contracting COVID-19 after many cases we have had to advise them work if there was concern about they return to school, the South staff that they may not return,” their health.” African Board of Jewish Education Kacev says. Te forms are also necessary to (SABJE), with the assistance of its “No staff member’s job is in understand the number of staff who labour consultant, has drafted a jeopardy if they choose to stay at can return. And they offer information declaration of intent or indemnity home due to a co-morbidity or about who will be responsible for form for its staff, says Rabbi Craig the school insisting that they not online teaching and how duties will be Kacev, the general director of the return to the workplace,” he says. shared between staff. SABJE. “Tose who aren’t able to return “For those staff who are healthy, the form clarifies that we as an employer are taking every measure to comply with all reasonable requirements to ensure a safe environment,” Kacev told the SA Jewish Report. the child lived with someone with a “Fundamentally, children need to Kacev and members of King David precondition, 19% responded that they be at school,” said incoming SABJE staff addressed further issues in a did. General Director Rabbi Ricky Seeff. recent webinar. He said that the SABJE “Tis indicates that 24% of students “Being back in the classroom may look had considered a number of models may well not return to school. In total, different, but it’s essential for their once schools were allowed to reopen, 73.2% of parents have indicated that emotional well-being.” Gaps in basic and eventually settled on bringing their children will return.” Kacef said knowledge, especially for younger back pupils for the least amount of there was still time to complete the children, need to be assessed, and time necessary. “Tere is no need to survey, and asked parents to get in Grade 1s in particular need to complete put anyone at unnecessary risk,” he touch with their school to do so. the syllabus of learning to read and said. Terefore, King David pupils will Lorraine Srage, the principal of King write. Pupils may, however, have a have a combination of learning in the David High School Linksfield, says shorter and more intense day. classroom and remote learning. remote learning can never replace face- Looking at the emotional side of Te aim isn’t to bring back pupils to-face teaching. It’s difficult to assess returning to school, Lynne van Dellen, en masse, but rather to have a slow matrics when teachers literally can’t see the head of King David Primary School process determined as each grade their faces, with many pupils turning Sandton, spoke about how wearing adheres to and understands the their cameras off when classes are Continued on page 6>> Appliance Repairs on Site YomTov/ShabbatTimes – 28/29/30 May , hers CL CL YTE/MS was ish ves 17:06 18:06 17:57 Johannesburg s, D es, Sto ge chin 17:28 17:28 18:22 Cape Town id Ma Fr ing 16:47 16:47 17:39 Durban ash & more W Dryers 17:08 17:08 18:00 Bloemfontein ble 16:59 16:59 17:53 Port Elizabeth Tum Call Jason 16:53 16:53 17:46 East London 082 401 8239 / 076 210 6532 FREE QUOTATIONS CL – Candle-lighting YTE – YomTov ends MS – Motsei Shabbat

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Tel: 011 430 1980. % Arnold Orkin 082 823 7826 The SA Jewish Report subscribes to the Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African Print and Online Media that prescribes news that is truthful, accurate, fair and balanced. If we don’t live up to the Code, within 20 days of the date of publication of the material, please contact the Public Advocate at 011 484 3612, AUTO AFRICA fax: 011 484 3619. You can also contact our Case Officer on [email protected] or lodge a complaint on their website: www.presscouncil.org.za 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 5 Back to school – ‘the right decision’ JULIE LEIBOWITZ more mildly infected by COVID-19 or are development, and head of St Stithians Junior detailed planning,” Harris said. “It may mean asymptomatic, and they transmit the virus Preparatory in Johannesburg. “[Te junior that at some schools, children have to attend here are no easy answers for parents to a lower extent than adults. Experts aren’t phase] is a critical stage for social and emotional on alternate days, at staggered times, or in afraid to send their children back to absolutely sure why, but suggest reasons development as well as literacy, numeracy, gross different venues. Playgrounds have to be school in June, a panel of experts told a as varied as the level of children’s immune and fine motor skills.” rethought. We need to find creative ways to Twebinar hosted by Yeshiva College on 20 May, systems to the fact that their receptor sites for meet physical needs. but the implications of remaining in lockdown COVID-19 infection are more immature than On the subject of early learning centres like are worse for their children than getting back to adults. “Studies also show that children nursery schools, Harris said that according to “normal” life. Studies also show that children are less are less exposed to COVID-19 in the South African Schools Act, Grade R and “We’ve got to get our children back into a exposed to COVID-19 in a structured, safe, below weren’t compulsory education years, and routine,” said Dr Anton Myburgh, a specialist contact-school day than they are outside of the a structured, safe, contact-school this sector would need “special consideration for physician and pulmonologist at Linksfield classroom, said Myburgh and Schoub, when day than they are outside of the school return”. Clinic in Johannesburg. “Tey are going to start they might be exposed to mingling with people classroom when they might be Panellists also cautioned that it might not suffering from psychological illnesses, become in an unsafe way. be advisable for children in families with co- depressed and withdrawn.” “Lockdown is based on the influenza model exposed to mingling with children morbidities or cohabiting elderly parents to go Myburgh compared our situation to the in which children were high transmitters of the and adults in an unsafe way.” back to school, and Yeshiva College Education biblical predicament of Noah, who having led disease,” Myburgh said, with a greater than 50% Director Rob Long, said it was already the Jewish people out of the clutches of the rate of infection. “We’re not seeing this with Her views were echoed by Rebbetzin Natalie investigating individual family circumstances. Egyptians, faced drowning in the sea. COVID-19,” he said, which is a “brand-new” Altman, kodesh and ethos director at Yeshiva Harris said that ultimately, many schools may “As we stand on the edge of our ocean, it virus, unlike Spanish flu, which was around long College, who talked about the “scourge of continue to offer a mix of online and onsite might seem attractive to stay where we are, but before the pandemic of 1918. isolation” brought by social media, exacerbated learning indefinitely. we need to be honest, standing still isn’t viable. “In the Italian city of Vo, more than 80% of in lockdown conditions. “During lockdown, any “Our representation to the education Te best we can do is to try and understand the the population was tested, and only 2.8% were child with a smartphone is experiencing life – department is that if independent schools nature of what lies ahead so we can navigate it found to be positive, with no children under the social, emotional, intellectual – through one meet all conditions of prevention, they should – how deep, how dangerous, and how to protect age of 10 found to be infected. Studies in Spain, space, and it’s 24/7. It’s difficult to untangle. It’s be allowed to open,” said Lebogang Motjane, ourselves. Wuhan, and Japan also show a minimal amount critical to allow for differentiation and rest,” she the executive director of the Independent “Parents must understand that if they are of children infected, and studies in Taiwan have said. Schools Association in Southern Africa. “We are anxious, it will affect their children. Rather shown relatively low transmission. In France, Harris pointed out that younger children hoping for codification on the preconditions for boost their immunity and change their routine, only 70 children out of 1.4 million school-going are totally dependent on adults for their care, opening and standard operating procedures.” for example, by making sure that they wash and children were found to be infected. so school is an essential social service for the “Tere are serious consequences for the change their clothes at the end of the school “Schools are putting in place the right economy. Also, their ability to learn online is community in continuing the lockdown apart day.” prevention parameters around the world,” limited by their concentration span and ethics from [the notion of] ‘don’t work, don’t eat’,” said Myburgh and Barry Schoub, professor Myburgh said, including protective gear, around screen time. Rabbi Akiva Tatz, the director of the Jerusalem emeritus of virology at the University of the distancing, and sanitation measures. “Te She mentioned the issue of malnutrition, Medical Ethics Forum, saying that the Talmud Witwatersrand and an advisor to Jewish problem will be outside the classroom, with with many South African children dependent places a high value on communal welfare. communal institutions, stressed that there is parents cohorting. We should worry more about on school feeding schemes, and she pointed out “We are dealing with tension between a growing evidence in a number of studies across the parents.” that children with barriers to learning need the life-saving issue: lockdown, and a different life- the world that classroom transmission doesn’t “Children need a social construct for help of remedial therapy or psychologists, which saving issue: education and the broader opening play a major role in transmission of the virus. learning,” said Gayle Harris, a specialist might be available only at school. up of society,” he said. “Te cutting edge is Tis is because children appear to be in education leadership, early childhood “Stringent hygiene measures require children returning to school.” 6 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020

south african Are the concerns over heading back to JTheewish source of quality content, news andR insightseport school valid? Hasty decisions could endanger lives OPINION DR DANIEL ISRAEL s of 20 May, paediatric cases comprise recognise almost any new ear and anger are holding us hostage. 2% of the total worldwide corona cases. hypothetical virus. Over time, These two emotions are running high This number is small, yet still significant. these T-cells are replaced by “memory T-cells”, in our community and the country at AsA we grapple with the imminent challenges of which offer immunity only to viruses previously Flarge. They can lead us to take unnecessary children returning to school, the questions remain encountered by the specific individual. chances with our health on the one hand, and as to whether they are protected by their intrinsic Logically then, children will easily mount an hold us back from creating some semblance of make-up against COVID-19? If so, if we allow immediate effective response to the SARS-CoV-2 normality on the other. them to contract the virus, do they pose a risk to (the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease) Which one of these is the reality when vulnerable older individuals with whom they may because of their complete entity of T-cells, versus it comes to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s routinely come into contact? adults who could only achieve such a response announcement on Tuesday night that shuls, Large studies out of China and the United to an infection that they had been exposed to churches, and other houses of prayer will be Kingdom in The Lancet and in MedRxiv, previously. allowed to open? respectively, have recently demonstrated mortality The second theory is that children are Why did the president make this decision rates of 0.01% in children compared to roughly frequently exposed to other older strains of when medical experts around the country 2% in broader age groups. In South Africa, we coronavirus. I have encountered this in the clearly say that it isn’t a good idea as it’s have, questionably, had one COVID-19 child respiratory swabs I have performed on the too difficult to police, and could be hugely death out of 524 total deaths to date. I have seen paediatric patients in my own practice prior to dangerous in spreading the virus? They believe that this is premature and eight international papers that have described 2020. “Coronavirus” was a common pathogen dangerous. COVID-19 as having a “far milder course” – or that I would pick up on children’s respiratory While I totally understand the need to open our shuls for prayer as soon as even an asymptomatic course – in children, swabs. Therefore, because of the structural possible, I don’t believe any of us would choose to do it if it would endanger us compared to adults. similarities these viruses have with COVID-19, or any other people in our close-knit community. children already have latent protection inferred How are our rabbis and shul governing bodies going to decide who goes into upon them. shul and who doesn’t over Shabbos? Are they going to turn people away if they There is evidence that while COVID-19 Lastly, there is a special receptor on the cell are over 60 and healthy? How will they know if their congregants are carrying afects children too, it’s not a severe wall called an ACE2 receptor. This is the receptor the coronavirus or not? Are they going to take people’s temperatures when – or gateway – the virus uses to enter the cell. they enter shul? Even that isn’t foolproof, so it might not help in curbing the disease entity in children. COVID-19 As you get older, the number of ACE receptors in spread of the virus. can be likened to a common cold your lungs becomes fewer. One may wonder why What if the shul is a tiny shtibel in a rabbi’s home? Surely, we are putting his or upper respiratory infection in a greater number of receptors in children would family at risk? And what if that rabbi doesn’t feel safe in opening his shul, and make them contract the virus less severely? chooses not to. His congregants may have to find another shul, so he would be children. This is largely still unknown. But we do know under huge pressure to open whether he wanted to or not. A study undertaken in the city of Vo, Italy, that more ACE receptors mean less inflammation These are real issues and real questions that need answers before shuls confirmed that children are able to transmit and less lung scarring, and therefore less severe open, no matter what the president has declared. I’m aware that as we put our COVID-19. But as this pandemic progresses, far disease. newspaper to bed, the chief rabbi is in intense consultation to find answers, greater data seems to emerge that defines SARS- We have indeed seen undeniable evidence of and I appreciate that there are no clear-cut answers yet. However, I would like CoV-2 as a virus that is transmitted between COVID-19 leading to Kawasaki disease, COVID to think that all those making decisions around the country – both for us and adults, and at most, transmitted to children and toes, and other complications in children. But the broader South African community – are thinking with the wisest and most not by children. This is in sharp contradiction to all of the studies describing these phenomena sensible hats on and aren’t just eager to get back to normality fast. the original untested hypotheses that COVID-19 make clear that these are rare complications, not Yes, we need communal prayer and we need our lives back, but rushing isn’t would be spread widely by children, even if they mainstream pathology. smart if it isn’t safe. are asymptomatic carriers. The take-home message is this: there is I have been watching the schools’ approach to reopening, and have been For many a parent, the emergence of this evidence that while COVID-19 affects children hugely impressed with the way they are dealing with it. They have really new “safety data” on coronavirus in children is too, it’s not a severe disease entity in children. thought things through and considered all the eventualities – the safety swallowed as a well-earned tranquiliser during COVID-19 can be likened to a common cold or of their teachers, pupils, and parents. They have tripled their workload as this lockdown of corona-parenting responsibility. upper respiratory infection in children. educators but in the interests of their pupils’ well-being. I salute them! (See The nagging question still niggles the logical mind There are several logical pathways to explain stories on pages 4 and 5.) though: why do children not develop COVID-19 this with no suspicion that the facts are being There are still many parents who won’t send their children back to school similarly to adults? Are we simply adapting manipulated to suit societal agendas currently. because they believe it might bring home the coronavirus. For this reason, evidence to solve the educational crisis that we The literature furthermore does indeed show Dr Daniel Israel’s opinion piece (opposite) is helpful. have created for ourselves? little risk of children being vectors of viral spread There are also many who need to see their doctor, but are avoiding going There are three logical theories as to why between adults. because they are more afraid of contracting the coronavirus than dealing with children’s immune systems don’t respond with the The evidence changes in this pandemic weekly. a kidney infection or septic wound. The truth is, either could kill you, and only same systemic inflammatory response as adults’ Let’s hope that it continues to emerge in this a doctor can help you. We have to be wise in our decision making, basing it on immune systems when exposed to COVID-19. positive light so we may soon send our children sense rather than fear. The first theory is that babies are born with back to school with increased confidence. These educational institutions and medical doctors are thinking sensibly. I’m a complete repertoire of immune cells called not quite sure that the president’s decision to open houses of prayer around T-cells, millions of them. Each T-cell has a unique • Dr Daniel Israel is a family general practitioner in the country was made with the same hat on. I’m not sure what pressure was receptor so that this entire pool of T-cells can private practice in Johannesburg. put on him to make this decision, but I am not sure we will thank him in the long run. I would love to believe that every single house of prayer will take the The challenges facing schools as they reopen precautions set out for them, but I don’t. Many of them – and I’m not talking >>Continued from page 4 about our beautiful large shuls or even smaller shtibels – are in tiny rooms or homes in outlying areas. How will regulations realistically be enforced there? masks or visors might have a negative impact What will be different is that pupils won’t be I know without a shadow of a doubt that the chief rabbi has our best on the well-being of children who aren’t used to expected to wear school uniforms as clothes interests at heart, which is why he’s spending so much time consulting with doing so, and how they will have to get used to will need to be washed every day. No money everyone necessary to help him find a way forward. I know that he only wants a teacher wearing a mask. She also emphasises will change hands on campus, and there will what’s best for us, and will make the right decision no matter what. the importance of not discriminating against be no extra-murals. Upper primary, middle, However, the president has put him in a very tough and invidious position. children who can’t return. and high-school parents won’t be allowed on Our community wants to go back to shul, but is it really a wise idea? Sheva Messias, the principal of King David campus. I know how hard it was for the chief rabbi to close the shuls. He did it with Pre-Primary School Linksfield, says that systems Each family can choose whether to send their such sadness, but now he and other religious leaders have to decide about have been put in place – such as engagement child back to school. “We will support your child opening services again. I’m sure they will take heed of the medical experts with a psychologist – to prepare children for irrespective of your decision,” said the schools’ who say this is premature. And if they don’t, I hope they have taken every what to expect. “Our main prerogative at this management. If a parent chooses to keep their precaution to prevent any potential disaster. stage is to bring some sense of normality,” she child home but then changes their mind, they I know we’re all anxious to start “normal” lives again, but the truth is that said. need to give the school two days’ notice. there won’t be normality as we know it for a long time to come. We need to United Herzlia Schools in Cape Town released Tere will be one teaching programme accept this, and go with the flow. its “Back to School” plan on 27 May. “We are now delivered from the school that can be followed We need to find it in ourselves to do our best not to let fear stop us from entering the stage where online and face-to-face at home. If a pupil or staff member tests taking the next legitimate step, but also not to throw caution to the wind and learning are blended. We have decided to amend positive for COVID-19, the school won’t need endanger ourselves or our community and fellow South Africans. our published school calendar by shortening the to close, but the incident will be dealt with mid-year holiday by one week. Te third term using World Health Organization risk-exposure Good yomtov and Shabbat shalom! will commence on Monday, 6 July,” said the guidelines. Peta Krost Maunder school’s management. It’s unsure if all grades will At the time of going to print, Torah Academy Editor return on that date as it depends on government and Yeshiva College weren’t yet able to share announcements. their plans for resuming school attendance. south african

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EFT Details: SA Jewish Report | Nedbank Account No: 1984514865 | Branch Code: 198405 8 SA JEWISH REPORT Life under lockdown 29 May – 5 June 2020 Hundred percent care for this ‘four percenter’ OPINION MELISSA FAGAN s I knot my favourite The chemo lounge is quieter distanced photo with my nurses, the hospital. My nine- and ten- “How about a leopard-print headwrap these days, and there’s a sense fighting back the urge to hug year-old sons marvel from the nice walk to the behind my neck and check of foreboding amongst the each of them. Instead, I say my backseat at the full moon still parking lot. Your family might just theA shape of my pencilled brows other patients. Across the goodbyes with a pointed elbow. I visible in the dawn sky. I’ve been happen to be driving past.” He in the mirror one last time, I’m La-Z-Boys, carefully spaced more hope they can see the smile in my joking for weeks that I’m having winks. steeling myself for what’s to be my than a metre apart, we share our eyes. a drive-through mastectomy – my Boosted by my family’s drive- final Taxol chemotherapy infusion experiences from diagnosis to The following Thursday, my surgeon wants me out the hospital by visit and their stolen hugs, at Vincent Pallotti Hospital in lockdown through an array of internal alarm goes off at 05:30. after 24 hours to minimise the I relax into my hospital stay, Cape Town’s southern suburbs. colourful cloth masks. But in our I roll over in bed, grateful for risk of infection. But on arrival, which ends up extending past I check the contents of my bag, solidarity, what was a whisper the extra sleep, but strangely the joke rings hollow. The reality Mother’s Day. It’s a blessing in grab my keys, and head to the car. has become an alarm call – we lamenting the lack of an outing. of being in hospital is frightening. disguise – not needing to feed The sun is just rising as I reverse are among the potential four- There’s nothing to dress up for “You’re safer from the virus in anyone, force children to clean out the driveway. My family is still percenters*. The vulnerable ones. anymore, bar the occasional Zoom the hospital than you are at your up after themselves, or do their sleeping. In a few hours, webinar. I’m local grocery store.” I hang on to schoolwork. I get to truly put my I’ll be back home to keenly aware that my surgeon’s assurances. I’ve had feet up. I’m cared for by Sisters celebrate this milestone my next trip out a COVID-19 test in preparation Nosipho and Bulelwa, mothers in my breast-cancer the house is in two for my stay, as has every other themselves who leave their journey. weeks’ time, and patient in my ward. Clutching my children at home to travel to the It’s Thursday, I won’t need to overnight bag and all the faith I hospital by taxi each day. 23 April. I’ve been dress up for that. can muster, I kiss my husband and Like my chemo nurses, they’re having chemotherapy On some days, I boys goodbye. the real heroes on the frontline, on Thursdays for walk loops around I’m wheeled into theatre by a risking their own health and those almost six months, but the perimeter of nurse I can barely see behind her of their families to take care of since my birthday on our house to get plastic visor and mask, but I sense us, the four-percenters. Watching 15 March, the day the myself moving kindness as she introduces herself these women, I’m reminded president gifted me a and fit ahead as Happiness. Hearing that puts why it’s so important for us all national state of disaster, of surgery. On me at ease. to #stayhome, not just to keep everything has changed. others, I lie on Seemingly within minutes I’m ourselves safe, but to keep them I now travel to hospital my bed and zone waking up, and Happiness is safe too. Their job is essential. with a permit in case out in front of phoning my husband with the They are ensuring that my fellow I’m stopped by the the safariLIVE news that my surgery has gone four-percenters and I – vulnerable police. Once there, I am YouTube stream well. Back in the ward, I spend the patients who could potentially die temperature screened, Melissa Fagan with her husband, Austin, on my laptop, day on an adrenaline-fuelled high, from this virus – are getting the and I wear a face mask. and their sons Rordan and Cillian the sounds toasting the success of my op with treatment we need. Strictly no visitors are of the bush cups of hospital tea. I feel so good *Assuming a global 4% fatality allowed. Gone are the days when As is the custom, I mark my transporting me far away from (read: goofed) that I fully expect rate. my session was an excuse for a final day of chemotherapy by this virus and the even more viral to be home by tomorrow. coffee catch-up with a friend as I ringing a brass bell. I don’t hand cacophony of voices, opinions, and In the morning, the doctor • Melissa Fagan is a freelance writer waited for the chemical cocktail out home bakes to the other fearmongering I’ve found online. suggests I stay another night. and copy-editor. She is also the to slosh its way through my veins patients as we did in pre-corona On the morning of my surgery, “It’s a lovely day outside,” he author of four children’s books for and flush away the pesky tumour. times. I pose for a socially we pile into the car to drive to says, sensing my disappointment. NPO Book Dash. In a world gone mad, it’s fine to be a little Because they CAN help Kliptown residents crazy JORDAN MOSHE feel closer than ever in spite of not seeing one another. It OPINION TAMAR HEILBRUNN really feels like proper teamwork, with everyone playing hilip K Dick, an American science- so we are all winners. Tis undreds of Kliptown residents are being fed on a their role. fiction author, once offered some tactic is really saving our regular basis because suburban folk in Waverley “People really want to help, and in spite of being stuck much needed advice: “Don’t try to relationships. and Melrose North have created a feeding plan. at home, they’re determined to contribute in whatever Psolve serious matters in the middle of the At times like this, I really appreciate my HThey have called themselves the Waverley 2 Kliptown way they can.” night.” For many nights at the beginning of family. Tey are, in fact, the only non-fuzzy, community active network (CAN), and have been Under Lyons’ administrative eye, Sackstein and April 2020, I lay awake at 02:00, thinking. unmasked faces I see. It’s quite refreshing to providing the residents with food and sanitary supplies Ossendryver carry out collections every Friday, and I desperately tried to explain to myself why talk to someone where the lips are synced for the past month. package the supplies up with fellow resident Caron-Leah the world had gone crazy. But I just wasn’t with the sound regardless of the stability of Their group is one of several CAN initiatives set Resnick and other local volunteers on Sunday. Resnick making any sense. the internet connection. I’ll be honest, I’m up across the country to link donors directly with and Ossendryver then I would then usually finish my early Zoomed out. communities in need. It was jointly devised by Howard co-ordinate delivery of the parcels to Kliptown, where morning snack, go to sleep, and hope it Being stuck at home hasn’t been as bad as Sackstein, the chairperson of the they are distributed to those in need based on a list might make more sense in the morning. I’d originally thought. I’ve managed to read SA Jewish Report, and fellow Melrose North resident compiled by local leadership. Alas it didn’t. Philip K Dick, however, said through almost my entire list of English Ricci Lyons. “My garage has become the something else, and roughly nine weeks set works. Tis is a record for someone who “We came up with this in warehouse,” laughs Sackstein. after lockdown, I find it reassuring: “It’s usually writes English literature exams the middle of a Zoom webinar “Twenty to 25 people come on sometimes an appropriate response to without having read most of the literature. about CANS,” says Sackstein. Sundays to help us pack all the reality to go insane.” We have all gone I’ve even managed to extend my literary “Then and there, we supplies, and we distribute through insane, no doubt about that. reading to every magazine in our house, the committed to setting one up different networks subsequently.” Tree months ago, I was a third-year fridge magnets, and some old recipe books. in our area, and the response These include nongovernmental student hoping to graduate. Now, all I hope I’m pretty well read by now. has been phenomenal.” organisations Afrika Awake, the to do is “graduate” from my bed in the So, yes, I’ve decided that in order to Teaming up with Angel Network, and others. Photo: Ilan Ossendryver Photo: morning, donning my (fluffy) “graduation” respond to this strange new reality, if I photojournalist and tour guide Howard Sackstein and the Melrose North Sackstein says that the response gown. It’s a victory when I finally reach have sock-talking, wall-climbing, Zoom- Ilan Ossendryver, the pair CAN initiative packing food parcels has been astonishing. Beyond my desk at 11:30. Instead of lectures, I numbing, recipe-burning, hair-wrenching decided to connect their suburb with Kliptown. sanitary and protective gear, donations have ranged from stare at a computer for hours – no pens, days, it’s okay. Insanity is, indeed, the Says Sackstein, “It’s a meaningful connection. The maize meal and rice to more eclectic items including books, or peers needed. Just read along only appropriate response to an insane Freedom Charter was signed in Kliptown in 1955, and cans of olives and even French chocolate truffles. the dotted line. Majoring in psychology is situation. there’s a strong historical Jewish tie as well. Thanks to Thanks to the CAN, more than 386 families in Kliptown enjoyable, but in a COVID-19 environment, Tere is something delightful in not Ilan, we’ve created a really strong bond with the people have been provided with food parcels to date, accounting it comes with its risks. I used to be able having a hum-drum routine, but a crazy of Kliptown.” for about 30 000 meals. Additionally, the initiative has to psychoanalyse my peers at Wits (the one. Tere is something rejuvenating about The team were able to connect with Melrose North helped a nursery school in the area provide lunch for 150 University of the Witwatersrand), but now losing old habits (like packing university residents through a comprehensive number of pre- children daily. I find myself resorting to asking the sock on lunch), and gaining news ones (like needing existing neighbourhood WhatsApp groups, says Lyons, “The system has worked brilliantly,” says Sackstein. my desk how it’s coping. On really bad days, a meal at 02:00). Te world is now, in fact, a the administrative mind behind the initiative. “We’ve been able to bypass unscrupulous councillors and it responds. Mad Hatters Tea Party. Have you gone mad? Using the groups, the CAN is able to communicate the bureaucratic red tape to ensure the food goes directly Friendships have also had to adjust. Zoom You almost certainly have, but fear not, says with residents weekly to arrange the collection of non- to the people. and WhatsApp have allowed me to stay in Lewis Carroll, “We are all mad here.” perishable donations left outside homes. They also have “People give with absolute love,” Ossendryver says. touch with more people than I usually would the option of making a direct monetary contribution to the “The residents who receive know that these items come have spoken to in a week. My friends and I • Tamar Heilbrunn is in her third year Bachelor CAN or they can buy bread rolls for donation through a from a Jewish community that cares for them, and not often have a games night. Before COVID-19, of Arts degree, majoring in psychology, Norwood bakery, the Baker Brothers. from the government. Monopoly would frequently destroy English, and Zulu at the University of the “Although we live in the same area, I had never met “We’ve uplifted the Kliptown community in a friendships. Now, no one can see the board, Witwatersrand. many of these people before,” says Lyons. “But now we meaningful way.” 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 9 Advertorial Renowned filmmaker cut down by COVID-19 Mexem Africa makes offshore TALI FEINBERG An extremely humble man, “Laurence never told people what he was doing,” says Segal. “He investing easy and affordable hen anti-apartheid documentary didn’t speak, he just did. He would never tell ortunes change rapidly. It was less than fve months ago that the rand filmmaker Laurence Dworkin passed people about the struggles he endured or the was hovering at R14 to the US dollar. Today, the rand is breaching R19 away from COVID-19 in Cape Town work he was busy with. Tis quote epitomised to the dollar, with all of us in South Africa feeling the pain of being a onW 17 May, he was on the brink of sharing his him and his work: ‘It’s not about who you F quarter less wealthy in global terms in the space of a few months. knowledge with the next generation. A man impress, it is about who you impact.’” with a fascinating past and an important role to Indeed, Dworkin was still making a In this ever-changing and increasingly complex world, it’s more important play in this country’s future, the virus ruthlessly major impact. “He was mentoring students than ever for investors to diversify their portolio and positon themselves cut his life short at the age of 64. from underprivileged backgrounds on film to take advantage of global opportunites. Investors require access to global “It was out of the blue. He was healthy and production,” says his niece. It was part of a fnancial markets and the ability to invest outside of the South African market, fit, and walked his dogs every single day,” says project titled CareTakers, which aimed to which is but a drop in the ocean compared to what’s available globally. To his niece, Angie Segal. “We think that he got it “use documentary film to communicate the date, however, investng ofshore has been a cumbersome and expensive at a local pharmacy that was later closed due to importance of nature to all people”, as Dworkin process for South Africans. staff testing positive for COVID-19. He went described it on the project’s website. in to get supplies and wore his mask, but none “Te people that CareTakers most wants to This is where Mexem Africa (Mexem) is changing the game. Mexem ofers of the staff were wearing them. He never went reach are the youth of South Africa. We have investors access to an exhaustve list of ofshore markets at extremely anywhere else. Soon after, he got a persistent a vision of all young people being inspired by compettve fees compared to what’s available to South African investors. cough. nature to take care of their own lives, guided “He did a COVID-19 test, and it was negative. by a strong cadre of leaders dedicated to By way of an agreement with United States-based Interactve Brokers, Mexem For a couple of days, he stayed home with a building an environmentally enables South Africans to access 135 fnancial markets across 31 countries, fever and breathing issues,” she says. “His sustainable society,” and the ability to trade in 23 currencies. The array of optons is hard to family eventually took him to hospital he wrote. compete with. Furthermore, Mexem’s partner, Interactve Brokers, is a trusted where the doctors admitted him, “To this end, we name, being ranked #1 for internatonal traders, actve traders, and the best put him on oxygen, and re-tested, engage directly low-cost broker in the latest study conducted by Barrons in 2020. which came back positive. He was in with youth through hospital for a week. Tey put him on One of the main pain points of South African investors is the fees charged by a ventilator after four days, and he brokers and banks for investng ofshore. Many providers charge management died on the Sunday evening.” fees regardless of whether you trade, as well as minimum fees per trade as Dworkin was best known for high as $20. This high fee structure has an exclusionary efect on emerging his work as a ground-breaking market partcipants wantng to obtain ofshore exposure. documentary filmmaker in South Africa, especially at the Mexem has turned this fee structure on its head. With Mexem, there are no height of apartheid. “He would monthly or yearly management fees, no inactvity fees, and no hidden fees. smuggle documentaries out Investors pay only when they trade. This is a game-changer for long-term of the country so that the investors who seldom trade. Laurence Dworkin world could see what was happening,” says Segal. “His films made the partner organisations working with them. Mexem’s fee structure is also atractve for more actve investors. A replica world stand up and take note. He was jailed and Projects include story development workshops of Interactve Broker’s fee structure, its fees are among the cheapest in the put in solitary confinement for months, and leading to participatory film productions world. To provide context, while many brokers charge a minimum fee as high eventually went into exile in London.” guided by professional mentors. Once a film as $20, Mexem charges a minimum of only $1 per trade. For trades in US On his return to South Africa, Dworkin is completed, larger numbers of youth are markets, most brokers charge between US2c to 6c a share in commission, would go on to co-direct Steps for the Future, a trained as facilitators to conduct community- subject to the minimum. With Mexem, the commission is merely US0.5c a non-profit organisation that uses the power of based facilitated screenings. Tis participatory share. Globally, the trend is for commission-free investng, and Mexem is hard documentary films and film screenings to give methodology is based on an action-learning at work to make this a reality for South African investors in the near future. vulnerable people a voice. cycle approach to inspire and mobilise people to Segal says her uncle would never speak of effect meaningful change in their communities.” Lack of accessible customer service is another barrier to entry for South his time in jail. “Anytime someone asked, he Dworkin also set an example for how South Africans investng ofshore. Customer service is ofen provided by call centres would just change the subject. He just said he Africa’s resources could be shared. “When his in diferent tme zones, making it hard to get help when you need it. Mexem was in isolation, with a light on 24 hours a day work with apartheid was done, he loved to ofers local customer service, meaning that a dedicated team of professionals so he didn’t know if it was day or night. He said spend time on his beautiful rooibos farm,” says situated in ofces in Johannesburg is available to service your needs. There’s his only worry in jail was that his parents and Segal. “He signed over his precious, valuable, no need to call overseas or concern yourself with diferent tme zones. siblings were okay.” enormous, and bountiful farm to a trust for his Although Segal was a newborn when farm workers to own and live on it freely with Mexem caters to all types of investors, from professional traders to beginners, Dworkin was jailed, she said his life path had their families and generations to come.” and insttutons to retail customers. Mexem is proud to boast hundreds of a profound impact on her. “I can’t describe Her uncle’s Judaism played an important role clients across various geographies, including South Africa, Mauritus, Kenya, the pride I have always had in him. Whenever in the choices he made. “His Jewish identity Nigeria, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, Israel, and the United Kingdom. apartheid, injustice, or conservation came made him aware of oppression,” says his sister With a fully customisable, easy to use platorm containing a host of technical up in conversation, I would always talk about Ashne Hesselberg. His nephew recalls the last features and analytcal tools, the platorm is truly geared towards the entre the personal sacrifices he made. I remember Pesach seder they had together. “Laurence spectrum of traders. speaking of him like this already when I was in paid tribute to our ancestors and our past, primary school.” remembering what our people went through. Strong, strategic partnerships can enhance success and improve a company’s I realised just how proud he was of his ofering. At Mexem, numerous excitng partnerships are being formed with heritage. Like me, Laurence wasn’t an well-known companies. Mexem works with RIMAR Capital, an algorithmic observant Jew, but was certainly a proud hedge fund making waves in the market. Furthermore, Mexem has partnered Jew, and he showed it in subtle ways.” with Investec to assist South Africans in depositng their hard-earned Te seder ended on a humorous note, rands into the Mexem/Interactve Brokers platorm. Most recently, Mexem as “Louise went to the kitchen to fetch joined forces with Bloomberg to ofer Mexem clients the ability to access the lovely dish that she had prepared Bloomberg’s highly sought-afer portolio-analysis technology. for us only to find that their dog had managed to eat a full serving of food Mexem is constantly working to ofer additonal investment-related and for four people! Even though it was the value-added products to clients ensuring that investors have the fexibility and most casual Pesach seder, it felt really choice necessary to make informed investment decisions. meaningful for us. Tis is one example of how Laurence put such effort into If you invest ofshore, or plan to diversify your investment portolio, we strongly encourage you to compare Mexem’s ofering to other local providers. The late Laurence Dworkin mentoring youngsters about things that he held close to his heart. His documentary filmmaking through his CareTakers project passing is a great loss for many, and we For more informaton, or to open an account visit: www.mexem.co.za. “Laurence was a role model and true mensch, will miss him deeply.” making a difference where he could in his Dworkin was one of five siblings. His brother, own quiet way and with a big heart,” says his Errol, passed away suddenly from a heart nephew, Ricky Hesselberg. “He was passionate attack 30 years ago. He is survived by his wife, about the Cape and its plant and animal life. clinical psychologist Louise Rabe, and sisters My wife Chantal and I have fond memories of Ashne Hesselberg, Vivienne Sacks, and Denise joining Laurence and his wife Louise on trips Fanaroff. “He and Louise had been together around the Western Cape. We got to see hidden for 25 years, and she had two children and places that not many people would ordinarily three grandchildren that he loved,” says Segal. come across.” “Together, they changed the world.” 10 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 Paranoia about doctors’ rooms not good for our health JORDAN MOSHE worried that when they do choose to come in, than just a cold but are too scared to go anywhere We’ve found that once a patient they’ll be in a very bad state, and it’ll be more to have it seen to.” has broken that initial barrier and octors’ rooms in Johannesburg are difficult to help them. It’s cause for concern.” Doctors have implemented various measures come in, they’re happy to come eerily quiet, and while this would be a Paiken and Israel agree that many people have to help allay the concerns of patients, including again.” good thing in normal circumstances, the use of remote and virtual Doctors are custodians of Dit’s making practitioners anxious. Patients with Dr Joanne Abrams consultations, and increased preventative medication as well as chronic conditions aren’t keeping their routine hygienic practices at their curative, says Israel, and he urges appointments, potentially risking their health in premises. people to stay on top of their basic the long run. “Te whole way we work has health by working closely with “Our rooms are down 50%-60% in terms of changed,” says Abrams. “We’re their GP. patients,” says general practitioner Dr Daniel focusing on doing whatever we “We need to keep up with Israel who, together with Dr Vikki Davidoff, can to make patients feel secure routine screenings and basic care,” operates from Blubird Medical Suites in Melrose. and comfortable when they he says. “For the sake of their well- “It’s not possible that everyone is suddenly consult. being, people need to see a doctor better. “I usually operate from home in person when the need arises, “Tere may be a degree of improved health with a receptionist, but now calling in advance to ascertain because people are going out less, but the chance it’s just me. I see patients by what’s needed.” that they’re ignoring certain medical needs is appointment only, screen them People are learning to live worryingly high.” over the phone in advance, and within the new normal, says Israel told the SA Jewish Report that though even examine some of them on Abrams, all of us adapting to many patients seem to have accepted the reality a chair in my driveway to reduce a reality that’s not going away of COVID-19, a stigma has been attached to rearranged their priorities illogically, putting risks and make them comfortable.” anytime soon. Within this doctors’ rooms, leaving patients anxious about their health on the backburner to their own Other measures include the elimination of environment, she agrees that it’s visiting their family doctor for fear of infection. detriment. waiting times, a two-metre distance between vital that people prioritise their Tis means that patients in need of “People won’t go to their doctor for fear of waiting room chairs, and the continuous basic health. routine care for conditions such as diabetes, infection, but will gladly queue at Pick n Pay sterilisation of the consultation space. Remote “We’ve all learned to take new hypertension, and other chronic conditions are and come into close contact with dozens of consultations, potentially risking their health and could end up strangers,” says Israel. “Tey can’t go a week WhatsApp in hospital at a later stage. without visiting the shops, but have decided that requests, video- their doctor is a non-essential. Tey’re ignoring call consultations, the things they usually take so seriously. even photos of “Patients are typically comfortable to come injuries have “I see patients by appointment only, in for almost any ailment,” agrees Dr Joanne become the new screen them over the phone in Abrams, a Glenhazel-based GP. “Now, they’re normal. If the second guessing themselves and choosing not case is serious, advance, and even examine some to go. If they do decide to go, they’re usually however, the of them on a chair in my driveway extremely anxious.” doctors urge their to reduce risks and make them Patients who do muster up the courage to patients to see visit their GP aren’t typically presenting with them in person. comfortable.” colds or flu, both usually standard at this time “Remote of year. Rather, they’re seeking help for anxiety, consults help “People who are presenting at hospitals and insomnia, and other similar conditions caused by keep people Dr Daniel Israel and Dr Vikki Davidoff at their rooms in Melrose North casualty wards are being admitted at more severe the many stresses of our new reality. calm and ensure stages of their condition,” Israel says. “Tey’re Says Paiken, “For the most part, the initial they can continue engaging with their doctor things on so as to function under not weighing up the risks properly when they anxiety about the virus itself seems to have in spite of being at home,” says Israel. “It works the circumstances,” Abrams says. choose to avoid going to the doctor altogether.” subsided. Instead, the stress caused by home extremely well, and my practice has even “It’s a long-term process. People Israel is part of a WhatsApp group of more schooling, financial limitations, and lockdown managed nine cases of the virus virtually, all of know more now than they did at than 120 GPs, many of whom are reporting the is affecting people quite badly, often resulting in which recovered without seeing a doctor face to the outset. As doctors, we need same phenomenon. Dr Tracy Paiken, based at the lethargy, mental-health issues, and anxiety. face. to moderate this knowledge and Linksfield Wellness Centre, is one of them. “Social distancing means we’re seeing far less “Tere are still things you can’t put off step in where necessary to avoid “Te beginning of winter tends to be very upper respiratory illness. People aren’t going out indefinitely. Tere are conditions that need self-management of critical busy, but doctors across the board are seeing as much, so the numbers are definitely lower. those regular appointments to address conditions and keep in touch with a dramatic decline in patients,” she says. “I’m However, I’m worried about people who get more complications or the side-effects of medication. our patients.” Hope goes viral on teenager’s platform JULIE LEIBOWITZ people are living alone. I wanted to help people access videos of hope.” These are some of the people Teagan got to give messages eagan Noach, a Grade 11 pupil at Redhill School, With the catchy tag line: “Compassion is believes that people are desperate for hope and has far more contagious than COVID-19”, the taken it upon herself to provide messages to uplift platform contains videos from all sorts, Tpeople. If you can’t give to charity during the lockdown, you including South African golfing pro Oliver can still send positive messages, she says. Bekker, who shows himself obsessively Noach, the daughter of two essential workers, has created cleaning his clubs, saying that he can’t wait to a platform called Unite Against Covid (unite.againstcovid) on get back on tour, to former rugby player Jean Instagram and Facebook, which broadcasts messages about de Villiers, who talks about the importance the importance of staying home, safe, and positive. of acting like a team and sticking to the plan, “I created the platform after hearing about fundraising on whether you agree with it or not. Former social media,” she says. “It was my way Miss South Africa of assisting.” and Miss Universe Former Springbok Former Miss South Africa Springbok rugby player Teagan Noach captain John Smit Basetsana Kumalo Elton Jantjies Noach runs the platform on her own, Kerishnie Naicker talks and posts at least one video a day. “I about the importance of being kind, a platform for positivity, even if it’s humorous. She doesn’t would rather spend my time helping compassionate, and mindful at this censor opinions, but tries to discourage controversy or satire. people through their day than just pass time, and connecting with loved ones. Te most interesting messages so far, she says, are from the time on social media,” she says. Tere are also posts from sports a doctor in Houston, who talks about the inflammation She is no stranger to philanthropy, teams including the 2019 Under-15A symptoms of COVID-19, and Bekker’s post about sanitising having visited orphanages with her and Under-17A Gauteng touch rugby his golf clubs. Te most inspiring are from young people who parents in the past, and being involved teams, nurses, and even the matric have taken the time to spread messages of hope. in community services in her previous students at Pretoria Boys High School. Tough it has been up for only three weeks, the platform school. Tey all say it’s important to keep fit, has already attracted almost 350 followers on Instagram, and “My parents are at risk in their stay emotionally (but not COVID-19) reached more than 2 000 people on Facebook. professions [her mother, Dr Jody Pearl, positive, and follow the rules for “Even though it’s difficult now, everything will pass,” is a neurologist at Sunninghill Hospital sanitising and social distancing. Noach tells other youngsters struggling with the status quo. in Sandton, and her father, Dr Ryan Noach is aware that there’s a lot of “All over the world, we are in this together. For the first time, Noach, is chief executive of Discovery debate about the benefits of continuing teenagers in South Africa are experiencing the same thing as Health]. Tis is a factor. Also, lots of the lockdown, but says she is creating those in the United States. Tis is powerful.” 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 11 Sydney Jewry galvanised by pandemic OPINION VIC ALHADEFF he Sydney Jewish community has re- As we go to press, our Jewish schools imagined and re-invented itself. One have reopened, the synagogues are doing of the centres of Australian Jewry, so cautiously and incrementally, and the Tit has responded to government-imposed Jewish Community Appeal – the community’s restrictions in the context of the pandemic financial lifeblood – is anxiously hoping that by re-designing itself. Tis has resulted in members will do the right thing, in spite thousands more members of the community of the absence of motivational fundraising being reached and engaging with matters events. Jewish than ordinarily the case. Arguably, We are a re-invented community, a more than ever before. re-imagined community, with thousands more Te starting point was the firm guidelines involved and engaged than before, and many laid down by the government early in asking what it will all look like tomorrow. the pandemic, its quick and clear action resulting in a relatively limited number of • Vic Alhadeff is chief executive of the NSW Australians contracting the virus. Jewish Board of Deputies in Sydney, Australia. Tose parameters obviously applied to the Jewish community too. It put in place a decision-makers group comprising leaders who had their fingers on the pulse of critical areas of communal need such as health, mental health, meals, finances, and communications. Te core community pillars – schools and synagogues – closed their physical doors, switching smoothly and effectively to online teaching and services. Tis year’s Yom Hashoah commemoration comprised a moving 36-minute video put together by the New South Wales (NSW) Jewish Board of Deputies, and was watched by an estimated 10 000 people, as opposed to the 1 800 who usually turn out. And as is the case the world over, Zoom became the community’s new best friend. Using this facility as its medium of choice, SHAVUOT the NSW Board has quickly taken its A TIME TO REAP, A TIME TO GIVE political networking to a new level, holding multiple virtual meetings with members of parliament every week. havuot is a profound event in Te Board has also used the medium to Jewish life. connect with Jewish leaders around the S world – South African Jewish Board of Deputies National Director Wendy Kahn It celebrates the receiving of being the first in an impressive line-up, the Torah, symbolising the spiritual followed by colleagues in London, New emancipation of the Jewish people. York, Berlin, and even in the Israel Defense Forces. It also celebrates the frst harvest of the wheat and the picking of the frst fruits … a symbol of abundance.

We are a re-invented community, At this time in South Africa, with a re-imagined community, with more than 18 million people going to thousands more involved and bed hungry every night, SA Harvest, engaged than before. South Africa’s fastest growing food rescue non-proft, invites you to Many other initiatives have sprung up. reach out to our less fortunate Led by the tireless Brian Fine, an energetic South African brothers and sisters. group of retired ex-South Africans who call themselves Alte Zagen have responded to By sharing just a little of what you the situation by raising funds for the Union have will enable us to provide them of Jewish Women in South Africa, the proceeds intended for the needy. bread, fruit and other foods to help Other former South Africans, Sue and alleviate their hunger. Alan Lipman and Sean Katz, were among those behind the online Sydney South S.A. Harvest can deliver a meal African Film Festival, with Di Singer and Claire Jankelson the festival directors. Te for R5.00, so every cent counts. funds raised went to Education Without Borders, which operates in disadvantaged PLEASE USE ONE OF THESE OPTIONS South African communities. TO HELP US FEED THE HUNGRY. Everywhere one looks, there are now USE SHAVUOT AS REFERENCE. opportunities on Zoom, from Jewish cooking demonstrations to a lecture on SNAPSCAN 2 EFT Holocaust author Primo Levi, to Israeli dancing, to briefings on the mooted S.A. Harvest S.A. Harvest (NPC) annexation (of the Jordan Valley). Tere is FNB 71 Edward Avenue Sandringham, JHB also a new online portal, Dunera – named Account Number Company Registration 2016/326676/08 for the overcrowded ship which transported 62693490478 NPO Number 175-399 about 2 000 German Jewish refugees from Branch Number PBO Reference Number 930067670 England to Australia in 1940 as suspected 250655 www.saharvest.org enemy aliens – that was launched just days Chairman Gidon Novick CEO Alan Browde ago, making a further tapestry of lectures, classes, and activities available at the stroke of a computer key. 12 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 Pivoting businesses to stay afloat JORDAN MOSHE webinar last week hosted by SA Jewish Report This all changed with President a beer yard they operated at the chairperson Howard Sackstein and entrepreneurial Cyril Ramaphosa’s first COVID-19 iconic 44 Stanley. hief executive and founder of the Capital mavericks Elian Wiener, the founder of Wealthwoke, address. “We had to close just before Hotel Group, Marc Wachsberger, came up and Richard Rayne, the chief executive of e-learning “We dropped to 10% occupancy lockdown because it’s a live music with the concept of sanitised sanctuaries in platform, iLearn. in one fell swoop,” said bar venue with a lot of people,” Chis hotels to keep operating under lockdown. They unpacked the concept of business pivoting, Wachsberger. “We realised that said Larry. “We experienced a When the country went into confinement, many a popular term in the start-up world which means going forward, it would be less decrease of about 90% two weeks industries couldn’t operate. Some entrepreneurial entrepreneurs finding a way to change their business about comfort and more about before the president’s speech.” innovators pivoted their businesses into totally fundamentally to meet the needs of the market. safety. We pivoted in 48 hours.” Ten days before lockdown, the different models to stay viable. Wachsberger was one Advertising agencies, restaurants, hotel chains, The hotel adopted the “sanitised couple launched Dark Kitchen, of them, turning his hotel apartments into a safe distributors, and entertainment service providers sanctuaries” concept, creating a delivery model restaurant. space where touchpoints were routinely sanitised. were among those who shared their experiences. a safe hotel space in which all Unfortunately, they could begin He later launched isolation hotels for returning “The hotel industry has been decimated,” said touchpoints were routinely operating only at level-four travellers to see out their isolation period. Wachsberger. “We were actually having a record sanitised. Things got worse when lockdown but in anticipation A panel of such entrepreneurs shared their period, and February was a record month with more the country went into lockdown, of that, they devised a unique experiences on a SA Jewish Report lockdown online than 80% occupancy.” however, and it had to innovate service. again. “Just before Mother’s Day, we “We started renting out our had an idea to create a grocer,” Jerusalem, the ancient city apartment spaces in long-term they said. arrangements, and launched hotels in which returning that breaches walls travellers could isolate for 14 “I employ on average JORDAN MOSHE the Jewish people, Lau said, and is one we should keep in days,” Wachsberger said. “This 15-20 DJs a weekend. mind. enabled us to continue operating erusalem is much more than the spiritual capital of “We look at Israel today, and find ourselves in a during lockdown.” They haven’t worked since the Jewish people, it’s a city that unites opposites. situation which feels like we’ve been cut into two nations, The company subsequently 15 March. If I don’t try Secular and religious, Arab and Israeli, Jew and one secular and one religious,” he said. “Some feel we added the Get Well Hotel to its this, I’ve gained nothing. MuslimJ are drawn together by the power of this ancient aren’t one nation at all. Te fact is that we are one, and offering, creating a space in which city. these are two sides of that one united people. We just patients who test positive for the If we don’t change now, So said Rabbi Binyamin Lau, community leader, author need to find the bridge between them. virus could recover away from what do I do?” and resident of Jerusalem this past Sunday. Lau addressed “Tere is one Jewish state, and one Jewish people. Yom home. a South African audience via Zoom while in his car en- Yerushalayim celebrates the city of unity, and teaches us “The industry hasn’t adapted, “We put out a message asking route to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. He pulled over at a the importance of being united. It’s for this reason that and has left space for us to change our suppliers if they had premium petrol station to chat to South things up,” said Wachsberger. “It’s products they would like to Rabbi Binyamin Lau Africans at the behest of the Israel important to keep the wheels showcase that would work in a Centre. turning while stopping the spread gourmet restaurant, something “Tere are two roads which of the virus.” unique and artisanal. Literally connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” Entertainment industry mogul 24 hours later, we had a retail said Lau in commemorating Yom Deelan Moodaley has also felt store, and collaborated with a Yerushalayim, which took place the pinch, forcing him to devise lot of small suppliers who have last week. “You can take either new ways to run Joburg Life, an previously mainly supplied Road 1 or Road 443. Whichever events-management company he restaurants and had no avenue to you take, it feels like you’re founded in 2000. sell their products.” travelling from one state to “We last traded on 14 March,” Doubleshot coffee, Ooh La another, so different are the two said Moodaley. “Our whole La Confectionery, and health cities.” operation came to halt the next conscious offerings from He said it’s no secret that day when the president spoke, Superfoods were soon being Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are worlds and it was time to reinvent the stocked and flying off the apart in spite of the relatively short business.” shelf within record time. The distance between them. Over the past few weeks, he and Voodoo Lily restaurant space “Tey feel like two different countries,” said Lau. “Tel Jerusalem is known as a city which knits its inhabitants his team have devised Helivation, which previously held tables was Aviv is liberal, secular, and pluralistic. On the other side, together.” an upcoming live music event transformed into a store with Jerusalem is steeped in tradition and religion. Tis duality is a reality in Jerusalem itself, a fact featuring more than 30 DJs shelves and fridges, all stocked “Jerusalem is about the past. Set amongst ancient illustrated to him when he participated in the Jerusalem and broadcast from a helipad in with items ready for purchase and stones, it speaks for the old days and is steeped in Marathon a few years ago. Sandton without a live audience. delivery. memory. Tel Aviv, however, captures the present, “When I ran the marathon, the route took me from the “Everyone has watched Numerous parties are supported and doesn’t look back. It faces the ocean, faces new entrance of the city to the Old City and back,” said Lau. entertainment live in their homes by the model. opportunities.” “I went past the shuk, past bustling crowds all the way to recently,” said Moodaley. “We “Every time someone purchases In spite of these polarities, Lau believes the cities Jaffa Gate in the older part of Jerusalem. I saw secular want to put on a festival with no something, not only are they complement one another in a unique way. He learned this and religious, new and old. It’s all in one space.” one present except for the artists supporting us but the little first-hand two years ago, when he officiated at the funeral It’s not only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem which are so and production team.” supplier as well as the staff of Chaim Guri, a renowned Israeli poet who had grown up different, different parts of Jerusalem also offer a The event will take place over members we’re continuing to in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and was buried in Jerusalem. contrast. It’s no regular city, said Lau, but one which two days in June, and will cater add,” the couple said. “It’s gaining “His funeral consisted of two parts,” said Lau. “Te first echoes the rich, religious past of our people and for all tastes in popular music, momentum, and we’re growing as was held in the yard of the Jerusalem theatre, attended by simultaneously rings with the sounds of the present. costing only R50 per ticket, we go.” hundreds who spoke of the great cultural and liberal figure “Tat’s the conflict of Jerusalem: it contains both,” said and open to view online from They encourage other Guri had been.” Lau. “We walk the line between secular and religious every anywhere in the world. entrepreneurs and small-business Te second part was more private, held on Har day. It’s difficult, but it’s so important.” Said Moodaley, “I employ on owners to look to the innovations Hamenuchot where Guri was laid to rest in accordance Tis duality is true also of the bond between Jews and average 15-20 DJs a weekend. around them for inspiration. with Jewish rites, including kaddish. Arabs in the city, he said. They haven’t worked since “Go and see what everyone is “It was here that I noticed two old men with a bag of “Jerusalem doesn’t just connect Jews with Jews, 15 March. If I don’t try this, I’ve doing,” said Larry. “Within each sand between them,” said Lau. “It turned out they were but with others as well,” he said. “Te Jews of Western gained nothing. If we don’t change industry, there is something friends of Guri from the Palmach days in 1948. Tey Jerusalem are joined with the Arabs of the Eastern side, now, what do I do? Sit at home for special someone has done. Some explained to me that they had brought sand from a Tel and the city itself unites them. three months? I don’t know when of the best ideas that have come Aviv beach to place in the grave at Guri’s request. He “It’s a huge challenge. While we believe that it’s a Jewish I’ll host another event or when I’ll about have been created in wanted to be buried with both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. state and city, that Jewish part lives alongside something open the doors of a club.” desperate times, and this is one of “Guri wanted to mix the two essences. He knew how else. Israel is a democracy, and as Jews, we need to care Moodaley said that “business as them.” important is was to have them both together.” about all of G-d’s creation.” usual” had changed completely for Many business owners are Subsequently, Lau officiated at the funeral of Amos Yom Yershulayim celebrates Jerusalem in its entirety, him, and he’s hoping that the pilot putting themselves second and Oz, another respected Israeli author who was born in Lau stressed, including all of its people. of this unique event will enable placing their staff and business Jerusalem and laid to rest at Kibbutz Hulda, located “Tis includes the Arabs and Muslims on the east him to assist other figures in the above their own needs, Rayne between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. side of the city,” he said. “Recognising them is part of entertainment space. said. “People who have the luxury “He had spent the last years of his life in Tel Aviv, the my responsibility as a Jew, a rabbi, and a citizen of this For restaurateurs Larry and of making a purchase decision opposite of Guri,” said Lau. “After the experience at Guri’s incredible city. Annie Hodes, lockdown brought need to think carefully about how funeral, I decided to take sand from Jerusalem to place in “Bridging opposites in Jerusalem on a daily basis is their Birdhaven dining spaces, their purchase is the equivalent Oz’s grave. I said to Amos, ‘Here, I brought Jerusalem to far from easy, but the city itself joins them. Jerusalem Voodoo Lily and Arbour Café, to a of a donation.” “They’re basically Tel Aviv for you.’ He, too, was buried with both cities.” binds heaven and earth, holy and secular, Jews and those grinding halt. This in addition to feeding families, paying staff, and Tis blending of the two cities represents the story of around us. We need to make that bridge a reality.” the earlier shut down of Calexico, keeping people going.” 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 13 Grade 9s share their thoughts on being under lockdown Yeshiva College English teacher Sue Chalom asked Grade 9 students to write short stories about their experience under lockdown. She was so overwhelmed by their honesty and the standard of their writing, she contacted the SA Jewish Report. Our reaction was to share a few of them. Home sweet humans From prison to pandemic AYELET MILSTEIN decided to take matters into my JAYDA SACK I was exiting the gates of hell never to experience such own paws. severe hunger again, and I plan to stick to my word. ive weeks ago, I noticed a sudden change in I spent two whole days devising n 1945, I regained my freedom, only to be stripped Suddenly, my ears fill with the all-too-familiar sound of the atmosphere. The members of my family a plan to find out what she was of it again 75 years later. When I exited the gates of anti-Semitic slurs shouted at us as my mother and I walk were acting differently. I sensed anxiety, staring at. I’m going to jump up on Auschwitz, I left behind the feeling of being trapped, the down the streets of Warsaw trying to collect the meagre Funeasiness, and a chair next to her. Maybe Iuncertainty of whether I would live to see another day, and rations that us “vermin” are permitted. We return empty Ayelet Milstein frantic behaviour, while I’m there, I’ll take most importantly, I departed a world of fear. handed. but I couldn’t ask a nap, just so that she As President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the nationwide My son arrives an hour later laden with groceries. I feel anyone what was doesn’t become suspicious lockdown due to coronavirus, I couldn’t a bit more at ease, but there Jayda Sack happening. Piles of my agenda. Then, when help but panic. But the panic I was feeling is still much to do. I need to of toilet paper and she least expects it, I’ll was different to that felt by my children and check that my passports are in groceries were jump on her lap and see grandchildren. I wasn’t worried about the fact order in case I need to make a appearing faster what she’s doing. that I couldn’t go to school or how I would sudden escape, and I plan to than I could bury Today’s the day I put entertain myself during the lockdown. I was visit the bank to extract enough a large bone. my plan into action. She scared that history would repeat itself. funds to survive should there Mornings were has been on her laptop the What if they blamed it on Jews? What if be an emergency. My son hugs generally quiet whole morning, and I’m they sent us away again? As these thoughts me tightly, and wipes away at home after my about to see the truth. whirled through my mind, I felt myself a stray tear from my cheek. human parents I can’t believe my eyes! transported back to a place I never wanted to “Don’t worry Ima, you’re safe and siblings Did I wake up from my see again. here.” went to work nap? Am I still dreaming? Sitting in a cattle cart surrounded by far Waving at his disappearing and school. They Familiar faces are smiling too many people, the stench of human waste car, I subconsciously touch the would wake up early and get dressed while I was at me, and I hear my name being and decaying bodies potent in the air, I can tattooed numbers on my arm, still exhausted. I can’t tell the time, but it seems as called. People are laughing and feel the immense hunger and thirst taking 329832, the testament of my if the mornings are starting a little later. I looked saying how cute I am. These are over, and suddenly everything goes black. survival. As I’m walking inside, forward to them coming home at different times of Ayelet’s friends! I haven’t seen I wake to the sounds of strong German I glance at the smoke rising the day, now they don’t leave the house. them at my house for ages. Where accents and barking dogs. We are yelled at to get out of the into the air from my next door neighbour’s braai. My breath At first, I was unsettled by the change. It felt have they been? cart, but my legs are too weak. I feel myself being hoisted catches in my throat at the all-too-familiar sight. As I walk like they were cramping my style as I would be in Now that I think of it, no one has up by stronger passengers, and I’m tossed into the outside through in my front door, I glance at the pictures of my charge of the house while they were out. been coming to our house. It feels snow and sent to the shower. The scary man in the white family plastered across the wall and it hits me once again My human sister, Ayelet, usually goes to a as if the world has come to a halt. coat, aptly nicknamed the “angel of death”, says it’s to get that I’m a survivor. place called school for most of the day. I’m not Everything has just stopped. Where rid of our Jewish “diseases”. Maybe it’s the similarity to the circumstances of 1939 really sure what school is, but apparently we do is everyone? Shaking, I return to reality. I quickly phone my son and that revives the trauma, but just as I survived the Nazis, homework together after school even though I On Ayelet’s birthday, no family tell him to buy as much food as he can afford. He tells me I plan to survive COVID-19. It will be tough, but I’m contribute very little to this activity. or friends came to our house to that I’m being paranoid, but he has never felt the gnawing determined to take this relapse of history in my stride. I’m I do know that when Ayelet was told school celebrate. Instead of the massive hunger I felt in Auschwitz. I made a promise to myself as a survivor. was cancelled, she seemed upset as she enjoys cake that’s usually served to learning. I have heard her say that she attends hundreds of people, the cake was tiny, and eaten ‘’virtual classes”, but she just sits in front of her only by those at home. They were huddled around ARE YOU LOOKING TO laptop all day. My parents often thank G-d for the laptop, and I heard “Happy Birthday” being sung. something called Zoom. I’m not sure what it is, but This is all too much for my brain to process. I’ve STUDY ABROAD? it seems to be important. My sister says the whole decided not to use too much energy to work out As the Coronavirus continues to evolve globally, we would like to reach out world is watching Zoom. Maybe it’s a popular what’s going on. I enjoy having my family around, and let you know that Universities abroad are still accepting students for their series on Netflix! and I’m grateful for each day that they spend at SEPTEMBER 2020 INTAKES. Since I couldn’t ask what Ayelet is doing, I home with me.

Invisible danger “It's business as per usual at Global Education!” MEIRA CROUSE tried TikTok and my post didn’t go viral, I’ve watched everything on Netflix, and I just don’t Although our ofces are closed and chools have closed, shops are letting in seem to be talented with memes. cannot have face to face consultations, only 10 people at a time, the roads look With nothing else to do, I call my friends to we are just an internet connection away, as though the Dead Sea has overcome find out how they are holding up, only to find ready and able to assist you to apply to Sthem. Our whole world has shut down! that they are all busy. Yoga was next on the list, the university of your dreams! At first, there’s a feeling of excitement. No and then I could learn to play the piano. After more school! No more tests! No more work! But two hours of trying to turn the thing on, I notice then there’s boredom. An endless list of things the big button on the side that clearly says “on/ www.globaleducation.co.za we could or would probably be doing if we off” and by then, I don’t even try anymore. I weren’t locked in our house all day and night think I’ve lost it – if I’ve ever had it before. I’m hiding from a threat that can’t not quite sure what “it” is Meira Crouse Your be seen, an invisible danger either. we don’t see coming or going. I’m waiting for the day gateway to I’m going mad! I honestly we can go back to school, international don’t know what to do with when the world wakes up, academic myself at times. I find myself and we can leave our warm studies! wondering in Wizards’ castles comfortable houses to go or on adventures with hobbits, hiking in the hot sun and dwarves, and elves more than ice skating in the cold rink. I’d like to admit. It’s easier to But until that day, I guess escape reality than to face it, I’m going to be so bored, but it’s hard to escape when I will have no choice but reality is all around us. to do my homework. Of TikTok is everyone’s new course, that’s what I was addition, Netflix is a great going to do until I decided way to pass the time, and to leave my room and meme making seems to be the converse with my siblings. 011 268 6545 solution to quarantine. Everyone is occupying It’s true what they say, siblings are annoying, themselves with something exciting, and I want but they aren’t too bad. I think I’ll stick around a to do the same. I just can’t think of anything I little longer. After all, my homework is only due could do to bring excitement to quarantine. I’ve tomorrow.

The school’s English department has sent voice notes of pupils reading their lockdown stories to Read Connect with us at: for Hope, which will be distributed to senior primary school students who may not be able to access [email protected] online learning. 14 SA JEWISH REPORT Shavuot 29 May – 5 June 2020 Why did G-d give us the Torah? Why do we eat cheesecake on Shavuot? OPINION RABBI PINI PINK OPINION RABBI SHMULI KAGAN fter the festival of our liberation, Pesach, comes Shavuot, the festival of the receiving of our Torah. The days of Sefirah ho makes your favourite cheesecake? This soul. Just as honey adds sweetness and can (the counting of the Omer), beginning on the second night question reminds us of baking competitions and heal, Torah provides meaning and guidance. ofA Pesach and ending on the eve of Shavuot, connect these two great communal Shavuot dinner desserts. It’s popular Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohein Kook, festivals. customW to partake of dairy products and honey during this the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of what was then Palestine, Many significant lessons can be learned from this. Our sages tell us that when Moshe wonderful festival, when we celebrate Hashem giving us His suggests another similarity between Torah and milk was about to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, he told them of G-d’s promise to Torah and the harvest season in the land of Israel. and honey. According to our sages, nursing involves the give the Torah to His beloved people following their liberation from bondage. They asked This marvellous minhag (custom) goes back 600 years transformation of blood into milk (Bechorot 6b). The embryo when that happy day would be, and Moshe replied it would be 50 days later. to Germany and France, and fortunately spread to other is fed by blood, while the baby is sustained by milk. Milk So, the children of Israel counted every day. One day is gone, two days, three, and so communities in spite of not being practiced universally. strangely comes from an animal, which is also the source of on as they eagerly looked forward to the fiftieth day. The children of Israel understood Many reasons are suggested for this. Some are reminiscent meat. Honey, too, is produced by an animal which isn’t kosher. that there could be no real freedom from fear of oppression by others, nor freedom of halachic or legal conditions, while others more symbolic, These are foods which are examples of transformation. Such from their own evil inclinations except through laws of justice and righteousness. These reminding us of historical events or alluding to the nature of foods are appropriate to be eaten on a festival where we could be made only by the creator of all mankind , because He knew best what was Torah. Let’s look at a few while focusing on one particularly celebrate the gift Hashem endowed us to transform the world. good for them and what was good for us. It’s not surprising, therefore, that they were so meaningful idea I came We can purify the impure; we can sanctify the eager to receive the divine Torah containing wonderful laws to guide them and all the across this year. mundane; we can perfect the imperfect. world. The Mishna Berura, the The Gemara (Shabbat 88b) describes how Like our ancestors at Mount Sinai, we must also proclaim, “Naaseh vnishmah comprehensive commentary Moshe argued with the angels who didn’t want (we will do and learn). Only then will we have lasting freedom. Indeed, it was their written by the Chafetz Chaim the holy Torah to be handed to lowly people. determination, while still in Egypt, to accept the Torah that merited them their liberation (Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohein Moshe defended Hashem’s choice, explaining from enslavement. Kagan) explains that since that the Torah could be used by humanity We can relate this to our current situation. This year, Shavuot isn’t going to be the the Jews received the Torah specifically because we live in a world that same as usual. Unfortunately, we can’t go to shul and hear the ten commandments, on a Shabbat, practicing needs transformation. Humans are dynamic and and we can’t partake in delicious dairy brochos. We can’t enjoy the yom tov meals with their newly learned laws of creative; angels are perfect and static. friends. However, it doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate Shavuot. preparing kosher meat would The COVID-19 virus has forced us to think The Jewish people had faith back in the desert 3 332 years ago. They counted be impossible. Eating a milchik meal was the only option. differently. For example, we have had to utilise technology to towards this great day, so we to need to keep our faith strong, looking forward to the Nevertheless, one should still partake of meat to add educate as never before. From Zoom concerts and shiurim day when the world returns to normal and becomes a better place. simcha to the day. One therefore needs two separate loaves with virtual break-out rooms for chavruta (partner) learning, to If we think where the Torah was given, it seems odd. Surely it would have made more to be eaten at the separate meals, commemorating the hummus making demonstrations and online bingo evenings. sense for the Torah to have been given when the Jewish people arrived in the land of Shavuot offering brought to the Beit Hamikdash called the Being the Rav of Bnei Akiva, I see first-hand the passionate Israel. shtei halechem, which was made up of two leavened loaves desire and imaginative minds of our madrichim in their quest But G-d chose to give the Torah at Sinai, in a desert, a place of desolation and of bread. Such exactness in separating milk and meat to transform the lives of our channichim, utilising a secular emptiness. G-d wanted us to focus on the why not the how. Why He gave us the Torah, demonstrates the love we have for Torah law. medium to enlighten and educate. They embody our role “to not how. If we focus only on the location and its beauty, we can lose sight of what’s Gematria refers to the numerical value Hebrew letters transform the world with the kingship of Hashem [the Aleinu important. possess, and is a tool used to extract deeper meanings and prayer].” So this year, while we remain in our homes, let’s focus on the why. Why did G-d give connotations for a word. Chalav (milk) has the gematria of 40, This year, may we enjoy the soft and crispy contrast of our us the Torah? What’s our mission in this world? Yes it will be strange not going to shul which is how many days our teacher Moshe spent on Mount favourite cheesecake, contemplating the different layers of and watching children bring their bikkurim basket. However, we can and we must take Sinai writing down the Torah. Forty is also the amount of taste and meaning within it, and may it nourish our desire to the beauty of the festival and celebrate it in our homes. Set aside some fruit, and give it generations after Moshe that the written Torah was compiled, make this world that much more delicious. to someone who is in need. Read the ten commandments as a family, learn about them, to Rav Ash and Ravina, who codified the Talmud which is the Chag Sameach! and understand their relevance in our lives today. Keep our spirits high, and believe that prime example of the oral Torah. Talmud begins and ends with very soon, we will be able to celebrate in our shuls. This way, those who have children the letter mem, which has the numerical value of 40. • Rabbi Shmuli Kagan is the rabbi of Bnei Akiva South Africa, at home can truly celebrate Shavuot in spite of our situation. The Torah is compared to milk, as the verse says, “Like the mashgiach rugani (spiritual guidance counsellor) of the • Rabbi Pini Pink is the Youth director at Chabad House and rabbi at Chabad honey and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue.” (Song Mizrachi University Kollel, and teaches kodesh at Yeshiva Greenstone. of Songs 4:11) Just as milk sustains us, Torah nourishes the College High School. Freedom hopelessly inadequate without rules JORDAN MOSHE inadequate. Te Jewish people would have been free to be themselves and live up to their freedom, a clarity of direction. emancipated from Egyptian bondage, but they’d values without the imposing restriction of the “Freedom doesn’t mean anarchy,” he stresses. s limiting as laws and rules may seem, have been all dressed up with nowhere to go. communist regime.” “Even freedom needs to be governed by certain they are integral to liberty. Although “Would we wander in the wilderness and Conversely, it’s prevalent in the Western guidelines, and these are the rules of the Torah. the Torah establishes a system of rules flounder aimlessly with no end goal in sight? We world today that people with the greatest liberty “Rabbi Hirsch explains that the rules of the whichA govern our lives, its guidelines actually might be physically and political free, but what are the least free. Torah facilitate moral freedom. When you give us a framework for navigating our freedom. would we do with our freedom?” “People in America, for example, enjoy commit to the highest moral codes, you’re no As South Africa moves through the We need only look at our own country, he liberties like movement and religious longer limited by your own ego and personal COVID-19 pandemic, rules and laws have says. “Since the democratic dawn in 1994, we affiliation,” says Bookatz. “Tese were unheard constraints. Such freedom is therefore only become increasingly important but equally are all free, but the majority of the majority of in earlier times, and are things their ancestors possible because of rules.” frustrating. Our freedom to move, interact, still don’t have access to employment, could only dream of. Yet they are far from free. Consequently, real talent is found when shop, and exercise has been severely limited, the electricity, water, health, education, and remain “Rates of depression and anxiety are higher, people learn to maximise their boundaries not days of being able to do almost anything and go disadvantaged, not previously disadvantaged. people are lost, confused, and limited by societal remove them completely. almost anywhere a happy memory. “We need vision, purpose, a way of life, pressures, politics, and their own desires. Tey “If you operate within the framework of rules, Te shift from boundless to boundaries an intelligent infrastructure, and that’s where genius and seemingly parallels the progression from Pesach the wherewithal to be able to take talent show themselves,” to Shavuot, from emancipation from Egypt to advantage of our newfound freedom.” says Bookatz. “Sport shows receiving a Torah full of restrictions. Similar Like the Torah’s rules and this. It doesn’t take a genius though the two appear, however, the Torah regulations, Goldman says that clear to kick a ball, but it takes given on Shavuot actually secures our freedom and cohesive guidelines are necessary, talent to do so within certain and helps us to understand the positive role of whether to give us direction in life, or limitations. limitation. to stop a virus pandemic in its tracks. “Te same is true of art, “Torah, like its author, is eternal and is always Rabbi Gabi Bookatz of Waverley music, and poetry. Strict informing contemporary life,” says Rabbi Yossy Shul says there’s a critical distinction guidelines need to be Goldman of Sydenham Shul in Johannesburg. between liberty and freedom. followed, and talent shows “Our current situation is no different. “Liberty is legal,” he says. “You’re itself when you work within “From Pesach we move to Shavuot. Pesach at liberty to travel, and you have the system and display your represents our physical and political freedom. your rights. Freedom is an internal abilities within a framework. Shavuot represents our spiritual freedom, when mindset, a spiritual space you’re in. Not “It seems counterintuitive: we received the Torah, the mandate and mission everyone at liberty has freedom, and we moved from the slavery of our Jewish way of life, from G-d.” not everyone who is free has liberty.” of Egypt to being dominated Goldman says that the Torah has lots of laws, Bookatz says that during the years of Soviet have great liberty, but are certainly not free.” by the rules of the Torah. However, Egypt made many do’s and don’ts. However, the rubric of Russia, the refuseniks (Jews in the Soviet Union We need to gain freedom before we gain our us an object directed only by someone else’s this pathway provides an infrastructure that who were refused permission to emigrate to liberty, says Bookatz. whims. Te Torah enables us to be a subject, and gives us vision, perspective, and a moral code to Israel, and who protested the limitations of “Here we are, constrained in our homes and this is freedom. guide us through the minefields of life. restrictive Soviet law) would say that they were hoping to get back to normal life. Te one thing “It takes wisdom, maturity, and humility to Says Goldman, “Pesach and its political the freest people in Russia. we always have is the freedom of our minds to see the freedom the Torah grants us, but such freedom without Shavuot and its moral, “Tough they had no liberty and were locked gain control, and such freedom we can find only freedom ultimately helps us to be free of social spiritual freedom would be hopelessly up in gulags, they were certainly free to think, in the Torah which gives us moral and ethical pressures, politics, and our own desires.” 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 15 Jewish tourism businesses on the ropes CNAAN LIPHSHIZ – JTA The upgrade transformed his local Now as the Dutch capital begins allowing windmill tour. But social distancing has neighbourhood eatery of about 20 seats businesses to operate again, social halved the capacity of 10-seat minivans, arlier this year, Dani Rotstein was into a 90-seat diner with two floors and distancing rules mean that even if tourists making such excursions less than cost earning a living doing something the facilities and staff to handle large begin visiting the city, We Are Amsterdam effective, Kuttner said. he’s passionate about: promoting the groups. can’t bring enough customers onto its The coronavirus crisis is hurting Eforgotten Jewish heritage of Mallorca. Ben Ezra moved the restaurant to 32-foot (9.7 metre) boats to turn a profit. noncommercial Jewish tourist attractions, A New Jersey native who settled on the the former Jewish Ghetto, a must-see “Our whole business model is based on too. In Prague, the loss of millions of dollars Spanish vacation island in offering a much in revenue from sales of tickets to the city’s 2014, Rotstein is the founder more intimate Jewish cultural quarter means shortages of Jewish Majorca, the only personal feeling in available funds for welfare work, some tourism agency there that than what you community leaders said. specialises in the island’s rich, get on one of In Hungary, a debate erupted over the tragic, and mysterious Jewish those large decision by the Mazsihisz federation of history. canal boats Jewish communities to renew its $290 000 With more than 10 million with a guided (R5.1m) contract with a private firm that foreign tourists arriving in tour through takes care of the tourism aspects of Dohany Mallorca each year, Rotstein’s earphones in Synagogue, a popular attraction whose business, which he set up 17 languages,” future as a communal cash cow is now in about a year and a half ago, Kuttner said. doubt. has succeeded thanks to its Like Rotstein Yet European Jewish communities, unique proposition along Dani Rotstein stands next to a in Mallorca many of them operating on funds given with his infectious energy, monument commemorating the and Ben Ezra as compensation for Jewish property lost organisational skills, and slick Jews of Palma de Mallorca, Spain in Warsaw, the or seized in the Holocaust, have a better marketing. Dutch boating chance of weathering the storm than Rotstein recently struck a partners have individuals who make their living from deal to arrange a programme explored Jewish tourism. for 400 travellers who had ways to keep The crisis abruptly ended the income booked a vacation at a hotel their business source of Anne-Maria van Hilst, a 32-year-

that was going to be made Cnaan Liphshiz Photo: afloat. Using old tour guide from Amsterdam who kosher for them. It was the 3D cameras, specialises in its Jewish history. largest booking of its kind in the island’s for Jewish tourists, and rented a venue they created a virtual, interactive canal “I didn’t get into this work to make history, and promised to be a major boon next door to the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto ride where viewers can scroll around for a money, I do it because it’s what I’m for Rotstein. museum, which is scheduled to open next 360-degree view of Amsterdam seen from passionate about,” said Van Hilst, who “This summer we were preparing finally year. its waterways. But the virtual canal cruise converted to Judaism more than a decade to see some big earnings,” he said. But “This was supposed to be the first time is free, meant as a marketing tool and a way ago. “But suddenly it stopped, and it’s not then, “everything came to a complete halt”. that we could actually service March of the “to maintain a presence”, Kuttner said. “It clear when and how it will be possible again, That’s because Spain went into a Living groups,” Ben Ezra said, referencing doesn’t help cover overheads.” and I, and many other people in this sector, total lockdown to stop the spread of the tens of thousands of Jewish teens and We Are Amsterdam also offers land are suddenly questioning our choices and coronavirus, which has killed more than chaperones from across the world who excursions, including an Amsterdam rethinking everything.” 28 000 people there. This month, instead come to Poland each spring for a Holocaust of welcoming tourists, Rotstein began commemoration event. “It was supposed to delivering falafel wraps and hummus to help us pay for the investment.” help provide for his one-year-old son and But this year’s march was postponed cover expenses connected to his recent indefinitely because of COVID-19. Ben purchase of a home in central Palma, the Ezra couldn’t get out of his contract for island’s capital. the new venue and had already invested in Rotstein is among the countless setting up there. To make ends meet, he operators of tourism businesses worldwide now provides catering services. But Warsaw who have been paralysed by the COVID-19 has several businesses like that, and only a pandemic, which caused a sudden and total few thousand Jews. end of leisure travel, with no resumption “I’m stuck. It feels like I’m drowning in in sight. The future of Jewish tourism quicksand,” Ben Ezra said. businesses, which already cater to a limited Unlike Warsaw and Mallorca, Amsterdam clientele and operate on thin margins, may already is an established Jewish tourism be especially precarious. magnet. Interest A founder of the Limmud Mallorca Combining unique Jewish heritage Jewish learning festival who has had a sites for older visitors and families with key role in raising awareness of Mallorca’s other amenities that tend to appeal more unique Jewish history, Rotstein is now to younger arrivals, the Dutch capital developing a model that would allow him has dominated the charts of holiday to continue giving video tours, mainly destinations for Israelis for decades. to generate interest for when the flow But here, too, the COVID-19 crisis is free of tourists resumes. But he knows that casting doubt on the survival of some firms without deep roots in the tourism industry, that cater to Jewish tourists. he faces an uphill climb. He’s thinking For We Are Amsterdam, a Jewish-owned about leaving the island and his dream Amsterdam boat rental and tour operator career. agency, the problem won’t be getting “It caught us at a vulnerable point where brand recognition. Rather, distancing loans. things were just getting ready to take off, requirements to prevent the spread of the but before we got a chance to establish disease would impede its ability to serve ourselves with many people,” he said. “It’s a predominantly Israeli clientele even if very frustrating.” travellers return. In Warsaw, 61-year-old Maimon Ben Ezra Guy Kuttner, a former sailor in the estimates that his kosher restaurant Bekef, Israeli Navy, launched the business two one of only a handful in that category in years ago with his Dutch friend Timo Contact Debbie on (011) 485 5401 the Polish capital, will go bust in about two Haaker. It was going well, with families Mon – Fri : 08h30 – 12h30 weeks. and groups of friends booking as much as Email: rambam@mweb.co.za Ben Ezra, an Israel-born chef who settled the We Are Amsterdam team could handle. www.rambam.co.za in Poland 13 years ago, recently invested The business, which showcased insider $100 000 (R1.7m) to expand and move his knowledge of the nightlife scene on its CONFIDENTIALITY GUARANTEED CHARITABLE TRUST successful business as a response to the tours as well as Jewish history, recently massive rise in recent years of the Central began branching out to visitors from Terms & Conditions apply. Unity Community Responsibility European country as a holiday destination China. for Israelis and other Jews. Kuttner and Haaker moved the firm “I signed the contract two weeks before to a new building on Herengracht, one the crisis hit,” Ben Ezra, who has an eight- of Amsterdam’s priciest streets, and MEDICAL • HOME • EDUCATION • SIMCHA • CAR year-old daughter with his Polish-Jewish had grown to 25 employees when the wife, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. COVID-19 crisis abruptly ended travel. 16 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 Taking Shavuot milchik dishes to another level Lauren Boolkin is a maestro at making delectable food. She has made a real effort to bring us something special for this Shavuot under lockdown. Get to the shops, get ingredients, and get busy fast.

SPINACH AND RICOTTA though, so that the bottom doesn’t RICOTTA CHEESECAKE WITH and the mixture CANNELLONI burn. You may need to do this in DRIED FRUIT COMPOTE looks sandy. In a This is a really simple dish which two or three batches. Squeeze For the crust small bowl, whisk looks professional. The disposable the water out of the spinach in • 1 cup roughly crushed walnuts together the egg piping bags from Woolies work a strainer by pushing down on it • ¼ cup flour yolk, cooled melted beautifully, or you can use a Ziploc with a wooden spoon, and chop • 3 tbsps sugar butter, and vanilla. with the tip cut off. finely in a food processor. Add the • Pinch of kosher salt Add the liquid I make a basic Napoletana ricotta cheese a tub at a time until • 1 large egg yolk mixture to the nut sauce, but if you’re pushed for you have a good white to green • 2 tbsps unsalted butter, melted and cooled mixture, and pulse time, buy a ready one that you ratio. It’s normally three tubs. • ½ tsp vanilla essence several times until like. If you do make it, double the Season to taste. the ingredients are quantity and freeze half. You will • Ladle a scoop of the Napoletana For the filling well combined, thank me! into a casserole dish so that the • 560g cream cheese, at room temperature moistened, and For the Napoletana sauce bottom of the dish is lightly coated (sorry about the 60 – but you need it) crumbly. Place the • 1 onion with sauce. Cut the tip off your • ¾ cup sugar mixture into the • 1 clove garlic piping bag, and fill it with the • ¼ tsp kosher salt prepared pan and, • ¼ cup olive oil spinach mix. Holding a shell in • 2 punnets of Woolworths ricotta using your fingers, • 3 tins diced chopped tomatoes your left hand squirt the mixture (about 4 cups) press into an even • 1 tsp salt into the shell. I do one end and • 3 large eggs layer. Place the pan • Freshly ground black pepper then the other. Keep going until • 1 tsp vanilla essence in the freezer for 10 • ¼ cup chopped basil your dish has a single complete • 1 tbsp Amaretto (or Cointreau, I guess) minutes (or the fridge for 15-20 minutes) to • For the topping: after the cake has chilled, layer. Top with Napoletana sauce, • 1 tbsp Maizena chill; then bake for 10-15 minutes, until the using a fine sieve, dust the top of the cake For the cannelloni and some grated cheese. • 2 tsps orange zest crust is lightly golden. with icing sugar. Cover and refrigerate until • 2 boxes cannelloni shells • It can be frozen or baked covered • Meanwhile, make the filling: combine the ready to serve. • 3 tubs of ricotta cheese at 160 degrees centigrade for For the topping cream cheese, sugar, and salt in the bowl • For serving: remove the sides of the • 5 packets spinach 30 minutes, and then uncovered • 500g dried pears, apples, and peaches of a food processor fitted with the blade springform pan. Serve the cheesecake right • Salt at 170 degrees centigrade for • Zest of 1 orange peeled in 1 long snake if attachment. Process until soft and creamy, from the base of the pan, or transfer it to • Pepper another 15 minutes. you can about one minute. Add the ricotta, and a serving platter, run a long, thin spatula • Grated nutmeg • Juice of 3 oranges process until the mixture is smooth and between the crust and the pan bottom, and • 2 cups water light, another two minutes. Add the eggs, then use two large spatulas to transfer the Method • 1 cinnamon stick one at a time, processing for 5-10 seconds cheesecake carefully to a serving dish. Slice • Chop the onion and garlic finely • 2 cloves between each addition. Add the vanilla, with a sharp knife, wiping the knife clean and cook it in the olive oil on a low • 1 star anise Amaretto, Maizena, and orange zest, and between slices. The cake keeps well for heat until translucent. I like to do • ¼ cup honey process until the mixture is just combined several days. this slowly rather than browning (don’t overmix). • The cheesecake may also be frozen without the onions. Method • Pour the filling into the crust, smoothing the the topping for up to three months. To • Add the tomatoes, and cook for 20 • Preheat the oven to 160 degrees top with a spatula. Bake the cheesecake freeze: place the cake in the freezer briefly, minutes. Add the chopped basil, centigrade, and set an oven rack in the for about 50 minutes, until the top is lightly unwrapped, to firm it up. Then double wrap and cook for another 10 minutes. middle position. Spray a 23cm springform golden and the edges are set. Don’t worry it tightly with foil. Process until smooth. Season with pan with non-stick cooking spray, dust it if the centre seems soft, it will set. Carefully • Make the compote by soaking the fruit for salt and pepper. evenly with flour, and tap out any excess. remove the cheesecake from the oven, and an hour in some cold water. After soaking, • Blanche the washed spinach until • To make the crust: place the walnuts, allow it to cool completely before loosening drain the fruit and boil all the ingredients in it wilts. I don’t add water to the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food the edges with a knife. This stops the cake a saucepan for 40 minutes or until the fruit pot as the water from rinsing the processor fitted with the blade attachment. from cracking. Place in the fridge overnight is soft but not mushy. Cool, and then use spinach is sufficient. Keep stirring Process until the nuts are finely chopped or for at least eight hours. the fruit to garnish your cake.

Flatten – don’t fatten – the curve ON e have been successful in laying immune system including the breathing and is high in sugar and trans-fatty acids, and can NOURISHING down the tracks to steer our country meditation methods of extreme athlete Wim increase inflammation and worsen gut health. NOSH away from COVID-19 ruin. Tis has Hof, the food we put into our bodies can either Research shows that a particularly high beenW an extremely challenging time, but in all weaken or enhance immune health by working intake of colourful fruit and vegetables during Hilit Milner spheres of life, we remain positive. deeply on a cellular level. this time is important in limiting collateral Healthy eating, boosting a healthy gut, a Gut health is one of the most important damage when it comes to our immune your usual variety of fruit and vegetables. strong immune system, and the activation components of immune health, and supporting response. Some even suggest as much as seven Please, please, don’t forget herbs and of our anti-inflammatory and antioxidant a healthy gut barrier can help prevent the to eight portions of vegetables a day in which spices on your shopping list. Not only can pathways, has never been more important. penetrance of bacteria as well as inflammation one portion is equivalent to one cup of raw we spice up our lives and add the flavour that stems from the gut. vegetables or half a cup of cooked vegetables. that is so greatly needed during these Vitamin D Eating foods that contain natural probiotics, times, but herbs and spices contain the Vitamin D does more than promote healthy such as yoghurt with live cultures and Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant boosts most concentrated forms of important bones, it can optimise health in the face of Food that positively alters nutrients as well as antioxidant and anti- COVID-19. Studies carried out on 11 000 cellular metabolism works inflammatory agents. participants published in the British Medical strongly on our anti- Tere are other good food sources that Journal showed that vitamin D offers strong inflammatory and antioxidant help to put out inflammatory fires in the protection against acute respiratory tract pathways. body. Tese include omega-3 fatty acids, the infections. Although they involved large Brassica vegetables (cabbage, most powerful forms of which are found in daily supplemental doses (which I don’t broccoli, cauliflower, and oily fish: salmon, trout, pilchards, sardines, recommend unless you have spoken to a brussels sprouts) as well as herring, tuna, and mackerel; while vegetarian health professional) you can easily increase dark green leafy vegetables sources can be found in chia seeds, flax vitamin D intake by eating oily fish (salmon, (kale, watercress, bok choy, seeds, walnuts, and seaweed. Also included pilchards, sardines, with the bones included), rocket, and baby spinach) are turmeric, containing the compound egg yolks, and mushrooms that have been contain compounds which curcumin, and olive oil, one of my favourite exposed to ultraviolet rays. switch on our master liquid golds. Getting cabin fever from staying indoors? antioxidant conductors, Te food we eat is one area we should Te best, easiest, and free source of vitamin making them important for put effort into controlling during these D is sunlight. Spend at least 15 minutes a day in fermented products like sauerkraut, kombucha, immune support. “uncontrollable” times. Nourishing our the sun. It will also help to calm your mind. kefir (in small amounts), helps to plant healthy Variety is key when it comes to choosing your body and emphasising the phrase “food is Vitamin D is important when it comes to bacteria in your gut. Prebiotics, the fibres that fruit and vegetables. Te greater the variety of medicine” has never been more important! mood, immune response, and gut health. feed the healthy gut bacteria, are found in fruit and vegetables eaten, the more variant asparagus, artichokes, onion, leeks, shallots, the polyphenols, vitamin, and mineral profiles • Hilit Milner is a registered clinical dietitian who Immune health garlic, bananas, and whole-grain products. will be. Tis even applies to choosing a different runs a private practice, works in a top private It’s evident that supporting our immune system On the other hand, more time at home type of fruit within the same fruit family – for hospital, and has founded a wellness blog called and good hygiene practices are extremely often brings about the desire to snack on more example, choosing Granny Smith apples instead ‘Sunrise by HM’. She views health holistically, important – and will be for a while. convenient food. Unfortunately, these are often of Golden Delicious. Tis is a wonderful tip, starting from a cellular level and working her While a variety of factors can support our processed and refined carbohydrates, food that especially when you may have limited access to way out. UNLIMITED KILOMETRE

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Visit kia.co.za for more info. 18 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 How the world has changed OPINION HARRY JOFFE hile the fog caused by COVID-19 Tough this is understandable, it will be 24 members of parliament have contracted the already isolated thanks is still far too deep to unravel, and much harder to justify the fact that France and virus. Te government has made numerous to US sanctions. Now, it’s no one can possibly know when or Germany refused to assist Italy with face masks errors. Tese include taking too long to stop even more cut off. Its main howW the virus will eventually end, it’s possible during the peak of its crisis. Germany, in fact, flights from China, allowing an election to trading partners, including Iraq, are restricting to identify certain areas of radical change in the explicitly banned their export, while France take place on 21 February when the virus was the passage of people and goods. Religious, post-virus era. requisitioned its stock. medical, and leisure tourism, worth almost $12 Take the world of work. Everyone lucky Citizens increasingly billion last year, has dried up. With the oil price enough still to be working will have noticed will ask what use the collapsing, market watchers expect another run how meetings have all become virtual on either EU is when at a time on the Rial, and the Economist quotes experts Microsoft Teams or Zoom. But they still happen, of national emergency, who think the economy could shrink by 25% to and in many cases, they work just as well. Te each country reverted 30% as a result of the virus. Tis will, no doubt, fact that you can’t see who is actually listening selfishly to protecting be a testing time for the leadership. to you as you speak (if video is turned off) is its own and did little Whatever happens in Iran, expect other compensated for by the great saving in time and to help its neighbours. governments in the Middle East to come costs, with nobody having to travel across cities/ One has to wonder how under increasing pressure after the crisis countries and stay overnight. Meetings are all long Italy will remain ends either for the way they mishandled the starting and ending on time. Most companies in the EU, and whether response, or from a desperate people who have now asked a large majority of their the EU will survive in its will be demanding a more equitable share employees to work from home and continue to current form. of the vast oil revenues most of these states do so even with lockdown relaxing further to What will happen possess. Expect much instability. Tis won’t level 3. in Iran? Tere is little be restricted to the Middle East. Meetings have now become virtual As a recent edition of the Economist puts argument that the Finally, no one can possibly predict with it, “as well as highlighting how bloated some Iranian leadership has botched its handling already known to be spreading, and being any certainty how the world will change, travel budgets are, virus contingency plans of the epidemic, and even though the official accused by the US government of misusing but change it certainly will. Te last great may reveal how inefficiently office space is figures are widely disbelieved, they are, in vital medical supplies. Adding this to the upheaval occurred around World War II, used”. Te magazine states that big companies themselves, brutal enough (about 7 500 previous disaster of mistakenly shooting down which brought about huge and unimaginable in the United States and United Kingdom pay deaths). a passenger plane with 176 people onboard in change. Expect nothing less this time on average $5 000 (R88 037) per employee in What is also interesting is how the country’s January, one has to wonder how much more the around. annual rental costs. In addition, just 40% to leaders have been affected. Te Economist notes Iranian people will take. 50% of desks are actually used during working that two vice-presidents, some ministers, and Before the virus, Iran’s economy was • Harry Joffe is a tax and trust attorney. hours. It concludes that if managers find that productivity doesn’t dip from staff self-isolating at home, the case for teleworking “may look The fine line between tone deafness and moving forward irresistible”. DAN BROTMAN as individuals frequently adapt their personal and professional decisions What will happen to supply chains? Te as the crisis unfolds. Economist notes that in the 1970s, Toyota uring the five-week lockdown, many of us became reticent Media entrepreneur and unapologetic provocateur Gareth Cliff pioneered lean manufacturing and just-in-time to criticise or complain, fearing that it could come across as doesn’t believe the pandemic should serve as an excuse to refrain from delivery of components, which made production insensitive or tone deaf at a time when so many are living with criticising the government’s actions. His open letter to President Cyril much more efficient, but more vulnerable Dheightened levels of anxiety or desperation. Ramaphosa has received widespread coverage in the media. In it, he to disruption. Tese days, most companies However as it begins to sink in that this pandemic is likely to remain compares the lockdown to “being treated like naughty children and stockpile fewer and fewer necessary materials. with us for several years, some argue that we need to start re-engaging yourselves being our self-appointed parents”. Te average firm in the S&P 500 carries only 66 on all sorts of uncomfortable topics, including those not directly related Cliff boldly asserts that, “If you resign yourself to letting the days of inventory, with a company like Apple to COVID-19. government do whatever it wants, and abandon your freedoms, having just nine days. Jessica White, a former public relations and communications liberties, and rights, then you deserve to be a slave.” He believes that With COVID-19 affecting all firms’ potential specialist at Investec, believes that businesses need to be especially citizens who refrain from speaking out against government decisions and actual subcontractors simultaneously, careful about not speaking from a brand-centric perspective. “Any with which they disagree are weak as “politicians in this country treat it’s clear that in future, it will be necessary for brand that is taking this opportunity to push itself, and not with the people with disdain and disrespect”. companies to carry bigger inventories, but more betterment of humanity underpinning what they are doing, is going to Cliff predicts that as the true economic costs of the ongoing lockdown importantly, to keep suppliers much closer to be very quickly ignored.” come to light, we will see more resistance, hatred, anger, and civil unrest home. She says mixing a message of integrity with a sales message can come break out. He doesn’t think the media’s role is to make its readers feel In addition, with everyone suddenly now across as tone deaf. She gives the example of a recent advert that began better, rather to provide information and a variety of opinions from realising that China manufactures a large with, “We are all in this together”, and then immediately transitioned experts. percentage of the world’s antibiotics and to a hard sales pitch. While big business tends to be less trusted during SA Jewish Report editor Peta Krost Maunder is faced with these medical equipment, expect this also to change times of crisis, “there is a massive void of large companies providing difficult editorial decisions on a weekly basis. “I’m aware that people as countries attempt to become less reliant on inspiring thought leadership”. are extremely vulnerable. Tey are looking for good content that fits China. White imagines that such thought leadership would provoke where they are at. Stories I may have commissioned a while back Will the US still be the supreme world power? optimism and inspiration about what the economy and life about activities or events that aren’t relevant now would be wrong [to In a recent article in Business Day, Gideon could look like when the pandemic is eventually over, publish].” Rachman points out that most would agree that beyond clichéd messages of hope. She surmises She gives the example of a hypothetical article on going the US economic, political, and social systems that many business leaders are reluctant to on a date, which wouldn’t be possible at the moment. A are under severe strain, and – love him or hate position themselves as thought leaders more relatable story, she suggests, would be the joys him – it can’t be denied that President Donald at this time because they are afraid of of online dating over this period. Trump hasn’t displayed the leadership qualities making promises for which they will Marketing expert and SA Jewish Report board needed for a crisis of this magnitude. But, does eventually be held accountable. member Dina Diamond advocates a healthy dose it mean that the US is in terminal decline? She sees small, medium, and of escapism. “If there are stories that are outside “While US military dominance is increasingly micro-enterprises (SMMEs), not big of COVID-19 that are interesting or informative contested, the dollar’s global role as a safe business, as the real heroes of this crisis. and can distract us from the ongoing onslaught haven and the leading currency for trade is “SMMEs are keeping people optimistic of negative news, then there is no reason why they unchallenged,” Rachman says. “Tis translates by showcasing how they are keeping their shouldn’t be covered.” into huge political power. No other country has businesses alive and doing good, and being At a time when communal organisations are united a currency that commands the same respect.” vocal about it. Big business needs to look to in providing relief for the Jewish and wider community, But he points out that the US’s huge $2 SMMEs for bravery.” is it appropriate to criticise communal leadership, engage trillion stimulus package has led to a surge Somewhat controversial thought leadership is being in potentially fractious debates, or to interrogate the sombre data in the US national debt and a corresponding provided by the likes of futurist John Sanei, who recently co-authored recently released on the state of South African Jewry? risk that the US currency will eventually lose the e-book Te COVID Reset: Reimagining Our Collective Future. “We Former Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies Executive the world’s confidence. Te continued pre- need a new conversation”, says Sanei, who critiques our current Director David Jacobson believes that the answer is yes, but it needs eminence of the US and the dollar will be the economic system rather than targeting individual business leaders to be done sensitively. “During this pandemic, there has been a silent key geopolitical issue to watch out for. Te who are disproportionately benefitting from it. “Big business knows agreement that communal issues that were once important have taken US has been counted out many times in the it’s behaving badly. However it can’t get off the ‘train’ of the economic a backseat,” he says. “However, there has to be life after COVID-19. past. Expect them to reinvent themselves and situation we are in, as that’s just the way in which the system was All communities are beginning to think beyond the immediate crisis, eventually to carry on growing after the crisis designed.” and this means that people also want to get intellectual stimulation on subsides. Sanei advocates moving away from measuring success based on the issues other than COVID-19.” He believes that slowly and inevitably, Tough the EU has survived numerous crises, acquisition of material possessions and towards building a more mature Jewish culture needs to continue to thrive, including music, social this one could be the most serious yet. A core and conscious capitalism. He takes issue with misplaced anger towards justice, and academia. principle of the EU is the free movement of the government for changing its mind on certain lockdown-related “Tese issues haven’t gone away. Tis is an incredible opportunity to goods and people, but countries were quick to restrictions, as he believes that adaptability is key to management, just enter into these conversations with more empathy and an open ear.” close their borders when the crisis broke out. 29 May – 5 June 2020 SA JEWISH REPORT 19 Don’t be selfish – wear a darn mask! A column of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies have never been a natural athlete. To be fair, Rescuing the stranded – a mission of mercy I’m not even an unnatural one. Because I’m mong those particularly harshly no athlete at all. I exercise because I know impacted by the lockdown are the Iin theory that it’s good for me not because I South Africans who found themselves ABOVE BOARD love it. Admittedly, I do feel good afterwards, suddenlyA stranded in foreign countries without Shaun Zagnoev but for me it has always been more about INNER VOICE either legal or practical means of returning the social aspect than pushing myself to the Howard Feldman home. drawn-out, soul-destroying process of finding a physical limits. Over the past several weeks, the South carrier willing and able to transport the couple, Tis makes the requirement to wear a mask their disregard for others? African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has something greatly complicated by foreign visa potentially something that would tip the Is it perhaps arrogance and disrespect been active on behalf of Jewish community requirements and the unavailability of places on scales towards not getting out onto the road. that reduces a person to the point of being members who have been stuck in Israel for the the few permitted flights available. Add the fact that I wear glasses, which fog up able to disassociate from the knowledge that past two months. In view of the innumerable Even travelling inside the country to get to OR the minute I exhale, and the fact that I like to they might be infecting those around them. I difficulties that these unprecedented Tambo International Airport required obtaining listen to music, so I constantly selecting songs wondered if the non-mask wearers were really circumstances continually throw up, it has police permission. At the time of writing, this whilst keeping my ear phones secured. able to justify their choice with the conspiracy undoubtedly been one of the most complicated very sensitive and complex matter is close to I also don’t look good in caps, but wear one theory that governments are using masks to issues that we have had to deal with, as well as being resolved, and I hope to be able to report control us and that, well, this is one of the most stressful. next week that the parents concerned are just one big hoax. It has involved continually liaising with, finally at their daughter’s side in this time of I would love to be that among others, the respective South African great need. confident, with the medical and Israeli embassies, the Department of The SAJBD exists precisely for reasons like knowledge to be able to choose International Relations and Cooperation, the these, and our national director, Wendy Kahn with such clarity. Especially National Joint Operational and Intelligence – as ever leading from the front – can’t be when the experts are constantly Structure, various international airlines, and, praised enough for bringing it all about. In spite gathering and assessing of course, the relevant individuals and families of the many other demands constantly made information. Information which themselves. Eventually, all of this work bore on her, Wendy has taken full responsibility for indicates that the wearing of the fruit, so that last Saturday night, we were managing every stage of the process. Indeed, masks is vital for the protection pleased to be able to announce that the it has demonstrated yet again how she will of others. repatriation of South African citizens in Israel unfailingly devote as much time and energy Te irrationality of the had been approved, and they will return to our as required to resolve a particular situation government’s behaviour around shores in the near future. regardless of whether it concerns the needs of the lockdown and the damage During this time, the Board has also been Jewish community as a whole or those of just inflicted on the economy doing everything possible to assist a local one or two individuals. undoubtedly has contributed to couple who urgently need to travel to Israel We thank her along with all members of our anyway for religious reasons. Te result is that the tendency to defy any recommendation to be with their seriously ill daughter. This, if dedicated professional staff who are providing there is so much going around my head and that it might have made in this regard. But anything, has been even more complicated our community with as much support as they face, it’s a wonder I ever walk out the front this isn’t about it. It’s not about the African and emotionally stressful. Since South Africans can during these testing times. door. National Congress or the Democratic Alliance aren’t allowed to leave the country at the Te prevalent medical view is that we need or Cyril Ramaphosa or Nkosazana Dlamini- moment, permission had to be obtained to do • Listen to Charisse Zeifert on Jewish Board to wear masks to protect those around us. Zuma. It’s about respecting others. so on humanitarian grounds. Permission from Talk, 101.9 ChaiFM, every Friday from 12:00 It’s now well documented that we are able to To throw the proverbial baby out Israel was also needed, and then there was a to 13:00. spread the virus well before we are aware that with the bathwater in disregarding all Tis column is paid for by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies we are positive. Masks, we are told, protect recommendations is either foolish or self- those around us more than they do us. Which serving. means, to put it as mildly and as sensitively I’m the last person to accept anything as I’m able, it’s pretty darn selfish to not wear without questioning. And I have no doubt as one. to the response I will receive for having written Tis past Sunday, I walked past runners this. But where the information is clear, it without masks. I walked past walkers without seems pretty darn selfish to ignore the advice. their faces protected, and I wondered what Especially when the impact is on others. type of person is comfortable with flaunting Wear a mask. Dammit! Eleven-year-old’s charity drive in full throttle STAFF REPORTER charity drive. It’s for a very special cause. I’m going to kick it off with R500. Let’s do few weeks into the nationwide this together.” lockdown, 11-year-old Jamie He believes, “A little bit from a few goes a Kodesh told his parents he wanted long way.” toA do something to help those worst So far, the money he has collected has affected by the coronavirus. been donated to four worthy charities He asked if he could start a charity drive chosen by him. They include Yad Aharon & to raise money for causes that he felt Michael, the Banakekeleni Orphanage in strongly about. Marlboro, Magical Moments, and a number of children he met while playing cricket. The orphanage received much-needed winter CLARITY. clothes, blankets, and non-perishable foodstuffs. ORDER. Money also went to repairing a water leak on DIRECTION. the premises. Our team of over 1 400 professionals, operating Kodesh helped to from 7 offices in South Africa, offers a unique distribute money and food combination of local market knowledge coupled to Magical Moments, a with an international network, personal service and a professional approach. We shine a unique lens on non-profit organisation clients’ businesses to see the people beyond the assisting underprivileged numbers and establish where they are going. and vulnerable children in www.bdo.co.za Johannesburg. Jamie Kodesh Helped by his mom, Ricci, he purchased Pick So began “Jamie’s Charity Drive”, which n Pay vouchers for several families of the to date has raised more than R35 000. children he has played cricket with over the On a home-made video sent out to family years. and friends, the King David Primary School According to his mom, he didn’t expect to

TLG8062 © 2019 BDO South Africa Services (Pty) Ltd. Sandton pupil asked people for donations. raise so much money, and is grateful to his In it, he said, “Hi guys, please support my family and friends for their support. 20 SA JEWISH REPORT 29 May – 5 June 2020 Crawford’s top student UJW honours women on the frontline chooses Stanford he Union of Jewish Women (UJW) has “The list of beneficiaries”, Goldenbaum who are unaware of the magnitude of the rawford College Sandton is exceptionally proud of launched a Women of Action campaign said, “stretches from Gauteng to Cape Town, problem, toys and educational packs (to keep former student Joshua Jankelow, class of 2019, to thank its members and volunteers, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and East London.” children occupied during the lockdown), and who has been accepted to the following prestigious Tas well as the care-workers, medical Food parcels have been delivered to lucky packet hampers. CAmerican colleges for further studies: Yale, Columbia, the personnel, retail assistants, and all those on orphanages, aftercare and feeding schemes, Food has been delivered to universities for Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the frontline of the pandemic helping others crèches, community organisations, soup those students who were unable to return during the lockdown and beyond. kitchens, foundations to their homes before Stanford University, as well as Children receiving pap in rural areas the University of Sydney, and Myra Goldenbaum, the national president of for the blind and lockdown; and thousands University of St Andrews. the UJW, also mentioned the generosity of the partially sighted, of nutritious e’Pap packets Jankelow had an extremely organisation’s donors and patrons. homes for the aged, have been handed out tough decision to make, but “We are particularly appreciative of the and refugee shelters. in both urban and some after many hours of looking support we have received from ex-pat South In addition, indigent of the country’s most at these tempting offers, he Africans in Australia, the United Kingdom, new moms with impoverished rural areas. decided to study at Stanford, the United States, and Canada. They babies, physically Kosher Mobile Meals where he aims to major in acknowledged our need, and responded and intellectually (the flagship project of UJW economics and minor in immediately. challenged children, Johannesburg) has had an politics, while still exploring “COVID-19 has tested the capacity places of safety for increase in requests for some drama and writing classes. Joshua Jankelow of communities and nongovernmental women and children suffering domestic meals and other assistance, and all recipients Jankelow was Crawford College’s top student of 2019. organisations across the world,” said abuse, informal settlements housing both have received extra booster packs of non- He achieved 10 distinctions in his final Independent Goldenbaum, “perhaps nowhere more than in white and black families, individuals unable perishable food items, treats, toiletries, Examinations Board exams, as well as representing South South Africa, home to millions of destitute and to qualify for official support, and members and kitchen cleaning materials to see them Africa in two debating championships. starving citizens. UJW branches throughout of our own Jewish community, have all through the lockdown. To help deal with the Jankelow’s next chapter of study is due to commence in the country have risen to this challenge.” benefitted. isolation of the elderly, every recipient is September, although it may be deferred to January or he will Since the start of the pandemic, the In addition, the organisation has donated phoned on a regular basis. begin his college journey online. organisation has been inundated with calls for food vouchers, baby clothes, diapers and UJW was also a proud beneficiary of “I couldn’t have achieved anything were it not for the love, support nationwide, and thousands of people baby formula, sanitary items for new mums, superb food parcels from the HCI Foundation graciousness, and benevolence of the eternal G-d as well as in urban and rural areas have received food children’s clothes, blankets for children, and eMedia’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, and my wonderful parents,” he said. parcels to help stave off hunger. educational material on COVID-19 for many featured on national television in this regard.

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