Fellowship Archive

Saldanha Bay, South Africa | May 3-6 2018

33 Fellows from Cape Town and Johannesburg took part in the South African Regional Fellowship in Saldanha Bay. The program explored the theme of Inside/Out Universalism and Particularism in the Jewish tradition, and examined the Fellows’ responsibility to the Jewish community alongside their responsibility to be active citizens in the South African context.

Program

For this intensive and highly interactive program, sessions included:

The Universal vs the Particularistic in Jewish Thought
South African Jewry: History, Memory & Identity
Resilience – A Community Response
The Ethical Imperative for Activism
Transitions, Transformations & Tensions
My Judaism; My Justice; My Duty

Faculty

Prof. Saul Berman,Professor of Jewish Studies, Stern College of Yeshiva University, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University School of Law, USA

Ann Harris was educated in England, before moving to South Africa in 1988 with her husband, the late Chief Rabbi Harris. SHer current communal involvements include: Founder Board Member Afrika Tikkun; Chair of Trustees Chief Rabbi CK Harris Memorial Foundation; President African Jewish Congress; Regional Chair Commonwealth Jewish Council; and Trustee Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Foundation.

David Saks is the Associate Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.  He has been editor of the Board’s journal, Jewish Affairs, since 1999, and is also a regular contributor to the SA Jewish Report and other Jewish publications. David has also authored a number of books. Prior to joining the SAJBD, David was Curator of History at Museum Africa. He holds an M.A. in History from Rhodes University.

Ilana Stein has degrees in Nature Conservation and English. Ilana combines both in her work as a writer, editor and content manager for Africa’s foremost ecotourism company, Wilderness Safaris. When not in the office or out in the bush, she lectures on Tanach (bible) and Jewish environmental topics at the Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning as well as at the Emunah Beit Midrash of Johannesburg.

Prof. Adam D. Mendelsohn is Director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies & Research and Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town. He was Curator and Chief Historian of the recent exhibition The First Jewish Americans at the New-York Historical Society, and co-curator of By Dawn’s Early Light at the Princeton University Museum of Art.

David Gidron is the lead professional for the JDC resilience team, developing and implementing a unique model for community resilience among Jewish communities in Europe and with specific target groups including young adults, Rabbi’s, and social workers.

Prof. Deborah Posel is a professor of sociology at the University of Cape Town, and the founding director of The Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA).  She has written and published widely on aspects of South African politics and society during and beyond the apartheid years.

Press

BY MICHALYA SCHONWALD MOSS

The Regional Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, held in South Africa in 2018, looked to bring together young Jewish leaders to examine their “responsibility to the Jewish community alongside their responsibility to be active citizens in the South African context”. It, however, soon became evident that there was a palpable discomfort in how these young community leaders engaged with their South African identities.

Being a Jewish-oriented Fellowship, it was perhaps unsurprising that participants strongly identified with their Jewishness and Jewish heritage. For many, their relationship to South Africa proved to be more ambivalent and complex.

More about the Fellowship

In an historic move for the South African Jewish community, 33 Fellows from Cape Town and Johannesburg took part in the South African Regional Fellowship in Saldanha Bay.

Image Gallery

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