On National Braai Day and Yom Kippur

Today was National Heritage Day in South Africa. Also known as ‘National Braai Day’, Heritage Day is one where the people of South Africa are encouraged to get together to celebrate their unique culture and diversity (by barbecuing a cornucopia of flesh).

What Rainbow Nation can not deny is that there is one thing all the colours share: a love for food!

Another alarming wave of violent crime has, however, dampened spirits on this day. In the past few weeks stories of fathers, husbands, daughters, and sisters being shot to death during robberies in front of their families has touched a major nerve. These senseless murders have been an abrupt wakeup call, the very rotten cherry on top of the very stinky pile called Merikana- the rioting mining sector debacle – that came to a ‘peaceful resolution’ this past week (after over 40 miners were shot to death by police after demanding wage increases).

The people of South Africa do not feel safe- and the fear factor has set in again. You can feel it welling up into your chest as you pull into your driveway after sunset, looking right and then left to make sure no one is lurking in the bushes. You can smell it in the air as you pass a volatile looking character on the street and you slowly pull your shirt sleeve down to hide your watch. And it is there hovering above your head as you say a little prayer to the angels to protect you and yours on this quiet night.

On many levels South Africa is unravelling at the seams: high levels of unemployment, atrocious corruption at the level of government, a general disregard for human life at the top-down and from the bottom-up. On the radio listeners have been urging for the reintroduction of the apartheid-time death sentence, for stricter control at the borders (as migrants from other African countries are notorious for being the perpetrators of voilent crime) and pushing for more citizen involvement when it comes to combating crime (as the police are the most corrupt of the lot).

As the Jewish community prepares for Yom Kippur by going into self-contemplation mode, I pause to wonder if National Braai Day had a similar reflective quality for South Africans. The day of atonement or at-one-ment is an opportunity for us to take an accounting of all that has passed in the year, reflect upon it and grow from the lessons learnt.

My prayer for South Africa is that she choose the path of reflection at the end of this day of celebration. I pray that one day soon, regardless of level of desperation, a human life will be perceived to be more valuable than gold. I pray that integrity will be something everyone takes on and lives by. I pray that South Africans turn inward and choose soul expansion over growing the machine. I pray that the jobless will find employment and will be able to feed their families.

I pray that one day guns will be exhibited in the museums of South Africa as relics of a unenlightened bygone era.

The entire continent is waiting for South Africa’s true rise from the ashes as the Phoenix. South Africa, you are very much like the eye of the dragon, I pray that the flames do not consume you.

May we have a meaningful Yom Kippur, may our collective reflections have healing powers to reach the darkest corners of this planet and transform them into light.

On becoming a Mother in Africa

Amy, a dear friend from Miami who recently visited us in Johannesburg shared with me that when some of her African American co-workers found out she was traveling to South Africa they said “you are going to the motherland!”. This struck a chord as I realized that my connection to Southern Africa has turned maternal as well, for it is here that destiny had me give birth to my first child, a daughter.

After experiencing pregnancy and now motherhood in the “motherland”, I feel that I have been privileged to don new lenses through which I view this newest chapter of my life. I would describe this process a little like falling in love and feeling my feet on the ground here, for the first time.

This grounding occurs a little bit more each time I step into our garden, holding my daughter, feeling the sun on our faces. We sit, in silence, and it is like a blanket of snow has fallen. I look at her and watch her smile when she hears the loud caw of the hadeda (Egyptian ibis).

When I was having a hard time adjusting to the reality of my firstborn being born outside of Israel, a good friend challenged me: “if you dont find your roots here, how will you be able to connect to your African-born baby?” I spent most of my pregnancy deep in my thesis and the rest of the time trying to locate the access point to which I could connect to this land.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my father, who spent some of his childhood living deep in the jungles of Liberia. My sisters and I grew up on stories about riding pet donkeys and swimming away from white alligators and giggled endlessly when our father would sing-song to us in a language of clicking noises. He told us that he was called “Jungle Joe” at school- he and his younger brother David being the only ‘whities’ around. We of course thought that these stories were over-the moon outrageous, even better than any fairytale.

My grandfather, Saba Moshe, was sent to Liberia by the newly established state of Israel on a friendly diplomacy mission. His construction team was responsible for building  infrastructure- roads and schools and hospitals. My Savta Trude, a child-survivor of Aushwitz, was a mother in Africa too.

The chasidic masters teach us that the places we are drawn to in this world- we are drawn to in order to reclaim pieces of our souls. Having a baby has anchored me to this land, and allowed me to rediscover these African roots by reconnecting me to my own families circle of life.

My African-born daughter, Oriana Saphira, whose name means “my sapphire light has answered”, is a tremendous blessing. She is gentle and loving and every sweet breath she exhales holds the newness of experience. And her laugh…well you will just have to come for a visit and hear it for yourself.

My Savta Trude, May Her Memory Be a Blessing, who never had a daughter, would have loved Oriana Saphira. She sits with us on the grass each morning, the sun caressing our faces, and we laugh together as Oriana Saphira wiggles her toes into the earth.

Jubuntu: Innovation comes to South Africa

All it took to propel the South African Jewish community into the global Jewish conversation of the 21st century was 24 hours with a ‘dream team’ of visionary orchestrators all connected to the ROI community network- Guy Lieberman, Seth Cohen and Jen Keys. Add to that the generosity of powerhouse philanthropist Lynn Schusterman and the Sasfin Bank, inspiring speeches and workshops by Shaka Sisulu, Helen Lieberman, Charles Maisel and Taddy Blecher among others, some speed networking and open-space sessions and the result was an event that truly catapulted the 50 participants at the ‘South African Young Jewish Innovators Gathering‘ into a whole new realm of possibility.

An event with innovation at its core was the first of its kind for Jewish South Africans. Due to factors such as living for periods of uncertainty post-apartheid, the mentality of fear still manages the point of view of many Jewish South Africans today. As a result, thinking ‘outside of the box’ and taking risks that might defy the status quo has become a rare quality within the Jewish community. Since the end of apartheid the community has shrunk to half of its size with many Jews convinced they were fleeing for their lives. Of the 70,000 Jews who remain today in South Africa, the growing trend has been an increase in religiosity, a decrease in inclusivity and a wariness towards innovation especially any kind of innovation within the Jewish community that is not perceived to be ‘orthodox’.

And outside of the Jewish community, while business entrepreneurialism is popular amongst Jewish South Africans, social entrepreneurship is a newer concept. And as the concepts of social entrepreneurship and innovation often go hand in hand, with ‘innovation’ often implying risk-taking of some kind I would argue that most South African Jews are risk averse. A gathering around innovation was thus a risky undertaking for the community as the prevailing tension between innovation and tradition could have proved to be problematic. Yet somehow, the gathering was able to override the tension and the diverse group of participants with a variety of expertise, each coming from different spaces religiously, found common ground.

Only an international presence could have accomplished this seemingly impossible feat where no clash of belief systems occurred and both orthodox and reform community members came together. Since moving to South Africa less than three years ago, the only international presence I have witnessed being actively invested in the Jewish community besides Chabad, Aish Hatorah and Or Sameach who have an agenda around Jewish outreach is the Jewish Agency, encouraging South African Jews to move to Israel.

No international initiative that I am familiar with has ever come to this land promoting innovation for the sole purpose of capacitating young South African Jews to become change makers in their communities and in the larger scheme of Africa. That the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation recognized the potential that exists within the Jewish community to contribute to the larger transformation of the nation and chose to invest through this unique gathering was incredibly moving for me.

The intention of the gathering was to bring together young Jewish South African social innovators in various sectors in order to create a strategic global community network that connects and creates, this being one of the larger goals of the Schusterman Foundation. The gathering was also an opportunity to showcase the entrepreneurial spirit that exists within the South African Jewish community and to celebrate, in the words of Seth Cohen, Director of Network Initiatives at the Schusterman Foundation, “what the South African Jewish community has to bring to the global Jewish community.”

The Jewish contribution to South Africa was emphasized and honored. Both Shaka Sisulu, the grandson of the great freedom fighter and one of the founders of the African National Congress (ANC) Walter Sisulu and Helen Lieberman, known as the “Mother Theresa of South Africa” for her work during apartheid spoke about the role Jews played in South Africa’s struggle for freedom. Both Shaka and Helen urged those in attendance the next generation of South African Jewry to choose to continue to pass the torch on towards the development of South Africa.

In a community that sometimes chooses to be silent rather than challenge the prevailing authority over issues such as the role of women in the community and inclusivity of other streams of religious expression, the South African Young Jewish Innovators Gathering empowered us to step up and reclaim our voices as members of the Jewish community. We took on the commitment to each other of taking responsibility for our role as change makers and promised to support one another in the process.

When sharing with a friend in Israel about the event she wondered, “imagine what would have happened to the Jewish community in South Africa if it were not for globalization.” I took her words into the gathering with me and observed from this perspective how empowering it was for young Jewish South African’s to realize that they are not as alone, isolated or cut off from the global Jewish community of innovators as they had previously imagined.

What I took away from the gathering is that inclusivity and innovation go hand in hand, for without Ubuntu, the African philosophy which means: ”I am what I am because of who we all are”  Tikkun Olam can not succeed. We cannot afford to continue to operate from islands, disconnected from each other and from our larger communities. At the end of the gathering, as conference director Guy Lieberman declared, “it’s a wrap”, I looked around the room and saw a multitude of smiling bright-eyed peers, full of the spirit of ‘Jubuntu‘, and thought to myself, “a new generation of freedom fighters has just awakened.”

Good News for South Africa= Bye Bye Malema

After South Africa’s debacle with denying the Dalai Lama a visa this past October (Foreign Direct Investment from China more attractive than enlightenment) the country appears to have redeemed itself from moving further into the depths of corruption as todays suspension of the notorious Julius Malema has shown. Malema, the head of the ANC’s youth league has been causing most South African’s heads to drop in shame from his ongoing antics. Some of our friends as I had reported in previous blog postings have been even threatening to leave the country if Malema were ever to be elected into an even higher position of power.

It appears that all the hype around leadership in the 21st century did not make it into Malema’s lexicon as this man has proven to be a complete and total embarrassment to everything South Africa purports to hold dear. Values such as racial equality went out the window with Malemas encouragement to sing the “kill the boer” song last year (a song that encourages black South African’s to kill the white farmers (Afrikaners) and where the pursuit of economic justice meant organizing nationalization of the mines marches (meaning more moolah for Malems pockets). And that Malema was (so exciting to say that now) head of the ruling parties youth league was possibly the most disturbing part as this man was supposed to be a role model for the next generation.

Today Malema was reportedly suspended from his position for 5 years due to the need for “internal disciplinary action” but I suspect the ANC has finally buckled from the anti-Malema pressure and has taken action despite the fear of loosing potential ANC votes from the youth league. What we do know about the trial was that Malema was found guilty of sowing divisions within the ANC but not for racial or political intolerance. I do believe that he should have been found guilty for racial intolerance- he even went as far as accusing all whites for being criminals who stole black land. Even though this is true from a historical perspective- how affective is this accusation in post-apartheid times?

South Africa is still in the process of licking her wounds by trying to pick herself up from the abyss of one of the most offensive crimes against humanity committed on this soil- the aftereffects of the apartheid regime. There is a heaviness in this place and I think it is fair to say that the 99% carry the tremendous baggage on their shoulders. The anger-energy however carried and dispensed by Malema has proved to be inaffective in the long run and this I believe is a very positive step towards healing for the country as a whole. The lesson perhaps is this: do not dwell in the past for it will not create the future. It will only create more hate and bloodshed- the opposite of what this baby democracy is really needing.

For this nation to rise and truly lead Africa into the next chapter of growth and development on all levels leaders like Malema need to be disciplined when they show their true colors and moved out of a space that can potentially hold the real movers and shakers of transformation.

Johannesburg’s Ring of Fire

After the uprising in Tunisia, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi declared that Johannesburg is surrounded by a “ring of fire” and that bold measures must be taken by the government to prevent a similar situation as Tunisia Egypt and Yemen (Business Day July, 2011).

What is this “ring of fire” you might ask? It is made up of scores of unemployed youths in townships around the city sitting around doing nothing- feeling helpless, hopeless and useless (the three adjectives common to persons with suicidal tendencies). These youths are also feeling angry and the streets of London have shown us today where anger can lead. South Africa is currently not scrambling fast enough to prevent the “walls being breached”.

The walls of middle-upper class South Africa that is. In today’s news headlines it was reported that unemployment rates have decreased again (for the third consecutive month) with a prediction that South Africa will lose another 468,192 jobs in the remaining months of 2011 and in 2012.

In the same news flash it was advised that South Africans should not travel to London for safety reasons. I found it incredibly ironic that these two stories were reported back-to-back with no e-news commentary in between.

Is the writing on the wall or what? But just like anywhere else, the employed people of Johannesburg continue to fill up their shiny SUV’s, blowing exhaust fumes all over the ring of fire while the domino effect of social justice demanding uprising continues across continents thick in the midst of a global economic crisis.

London’s burning and it has everyones attention. Tunia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Israel- OK- revolution/uprising/riots is in the flesh and blood of Middle East and North Africa. But a 12 Monkey takeover of the streets of London in 2011…we are all left dazed, confused and in shock- how could this happen in one of the most ‘civilized’ cities in Europe? “Those monstrous looters!”

Tottenham and Johannesburg have a very important link: an extraordinarily high rate of unemployment. Coupled with feelings of hopelessness and with no where else to turn, violence is embraced- one explanation for the rampant and uber-violent nature of crime in this country (S.A).

General Secretary Vavi said “we have an army of 6-million people who want to work but can’t find jobs. Most of them are black, women and young without education and skills. They face a lifetime of poverty. This is what I have called a ticking bomb.”

Recently my husband was approached to design software by a 20-something black South African man from one of the townships 2.5 hours away from Joburg. He was one of the lucky ones-he chose school over the life of a thug- got high marks and was offered a scholarship to attend university. He’s been in the workforce now and has been consistently employed since he graduated with reputable international companies. Today, it is his dream to create an online portal to connect the future leaders of S.A with job prospects and potential employers. He told us that it pains him to go home and see his friends living a life of drugs and voilent crime because “they never got a chance for a job and they have no other option but to live a life of crime to survive.”

“In the townships,” he said, “no one is waiting at home for you with a hot meal when you get home (especially in child-run households as the adults have all died of HIV-AIDS). No body cares about you. Maybe your relatives will feed you if they think one day you are going to make some money, get a job or are still in school. Otherwise you are on your own.”

The dream of this young man is to be able to help his friends find jobs because he knows how difficult it can be to get out of the vicious cycle of going nowhere fast. He also wants to use the website to encourage his friends and others from township communities to stay in school by connecting them with scholarship opportunities- so they too will have a chance. He is personally funding a part of this dream team from his own pockets-along with help from a close white (and Jewish) friend who believes strongly in his vision.

This special young man is what the literature would call a ‘social entrepreneur’- a term that Bill Drayton, the founder of the Ashoka Foundation coined to describe “those individuals who combine the pragmatic goal-oriented methods of business with the aims of a social reformer.” I am studying this unique species and their potential contribution to society in South Africa for my thesis, towards an MA in development studies. A year ago, when I presented my research topic to the review panel I got glaring question mark faces staring back at me- they had never even heard of the term before.

Today, social entrepreneurship has become a bit of a buzzword here- along with the trend of social enterprise. I am researching how the government of South Africa is taking on the social economy- after Minister of Economics Ebrahim Patel declared in 2009 that South Africa’s new growth path (ngp) is chucking the inherited neoliberal capitalistic trajectory of the apartheid government and embracing a more social and economically equitable one.

While General Secretary Vavi doesn’t believe that the new growth path is going to fix socio-economic problems, there are many on the top who believe that promoting the trends of social entrepreneurship and enterprise are the solutions to many of societies ills- including unemployment.

I wonder in light of the world’s recent uprisings, if service delivery protests, strikes and other potential incitements fueled by societies demand for basic needs will increase and if the ring of fire will erupt like the streets of London. Or have recent incentives taken by the South African government to create jobs like the recently launched ‘jobs fund’ help to quell the flames.

Will the walls of Johannesburg be breached by the fiery masses or will South Africans join the people on the streets of Tel Aviv- rallying for social justice in a peaceful non-voilent groundswell?

To be sure, something is on it’s way- I pray that South Africa will find the courage to follow Israel’s example this time around.

ROI-Investing in Jewish Innovators

Many of you have requested I blog about the 2011 ROI Summit I recently returned from in Jerusalem-a truly remarkable trip to be sure. It was an honor and absolute privilege to have been invited to attend this very unusual gathering- one that was so difficult to get my head around when I first heard about it that I actually reconsidered going. I wondered if it would be worth my time, if disrupting another re-acclimation back to gangster’s paradise (aka Johannesburg) was a good idea- and now into the fieldwork component of my thesis- a compelling reason to stay put and pass the opportunity by.

Sometimes- it’s exactly what you don’t know- that is exactly what you need…
I learned this during my experience with the ROI community. It is hard to describe what the 2011 Summit looked like-but I will try- and share about the impact it has had on me since returning to my South African abode.

Imagine being in an incubator for 5 days with an international cadre of fellow Jewish thinkers, doers, movers and shakers. You are given an opportunity to hone your skills, share your best practices and network with some of the best and brightest in the Jewish world. Your schedule is packed with workshops, panel discussions, open space dialogues, skill sessions, master classes, meetings and nightly celebrations. In the sacred and buzzing space that is created, new ideas are born, new connections are made and creation ‘ex-nihilo’ occurs at a magical velocity.

A trend of Jewish philanthropy in the past decade has been “investing in leaders”. When consulting with people who have big ideas and are in process setting up new initiatives and looking for funding I tell them that funders are really looking to invest in the individual behind the project. Lynn Schusterman (of the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Foundation), aka the Wizard of Oz behind ROI- took the idea one step further- by investing en masse in an entire network of individuals working on innovative initiatives. The vision of the ROI community is to increase the impact of these world-changing individuals by fostering lasting friendships within a fertile environment of idealism, communication and collaboration.

Why, might you be ask, is it important to invest in Jewish innovators? The bottom line is that Judaism in the 21st century lies at a crossroads. In both the diaspora and in Israel, many of the old structures are not meeting the needs of the community. New forms of expression have emerged that often fall on the deaf ears of mainstream establishment. There is a whole new generation of boundary pushers and explorers who are manifesting new ways to engage and searching for creative ways of connecting to their Judaism. And often these Jewish innovators are leading alone-or in serious isolation from the mainstream. The investment in the creation of a supportive and empowering network is what the ROI summit was all about.

This network was what I didn’t know I needed- a team.

I have thus returned from the 2011 ROI Summit inspired to continue the conversation of the role of Jewish innovation in South Africa. As an open minded liberal California gal- the conservatism (with a capitol C) of the kehillah, I must admit, has been more than frustrating. I’ve held back at many shabbat tables in this town from speaking up when certain ideas were questioned and certain communities of Jews were put down. As a ‘newcomer’, I had lacked the courage to go there.

What I wanted to ask at those shabbat tables was: what role do you think we can play in contributing to the larger arena of Tikkun Olam both in and outside of the Jewish community? It is a question that requires reaching out to ‘the other’ and into the deep recesses of our sacred selves towards a more compassionate and inclusive whole. And I think we all want that- just don’t know how to get there- and this is where Jewish innovation comes in.

Like in every Jewish community, the divisions run deep. Like in every century, the challenges facing the people of the book are many. I am by no means advocating to throw the baby (Torah) out with the bathwater- rather, I am driven by the belief that unless we can create an open and safe space to explore the periphery that lies just outside- we will atrophy. I know this is a much larger debate- but as it is written, “there is nothing new under the sun”. Perhaps this conversation has been here all along- we just needed to find the collective courage to go there. I hope one day the establishment of Jewish Johannesburg (JJ) will find that courage as well.

Thank you to the ROI community and to Lynn Schusterman for allowing me to reclaim mine.

Home, Just Now

Last night as I tried to get comfortable on a Turkish Airlines non-stop full-steam ahead Amsterdam-Johannesburg flight (unsuccessful) I realized that I was looking forward to going home. Home being a word of shifting connotations post-marriage. Kind of like the words ‘I’, now interchanged with ‘us’ and the term ‘me’ often becoming replaced with ‘we’.

Home all of a sudden is in Johannesburg, whereas before we tied the knot-my home was where my family lived-in Jerusalem. Wherever it was I took myself, I always knew that I would eventually make it back to the source where Mom, Dad, Eliana and Avital (my two phenomenal sisters) were waiting for me. Now, after being home with my family over the Passover holidays I was on the return component of my itinerary. I now have two homes, and they play separate but unique roles. In my Jerusalem home, the love and craziness of being a family reigns. In my Johannesburg home, I have time and space to focus on my dreams and to play in the sacred silence of the life the new ‘we’ are in the process of creating. It is all about balance.

Our time in Jerusalem was a whirlwind of holiday energy, full of depth and challenges and confronting moments. Israel has a funny way of bringing everything to the surface, like a pressure cooker full of cholent. Heavy yet rich and satisfying with a tantalizing aroma and a bit of spice. Ephraim and I spent time reconnecting with the people that are dear to us and to our own souls, reclaiming our places as Jews within a nation of living Judaism and finding our spiritual voices again.

Israel through my new Johannesburg lenses was a stark contrast between life in Jewish South Africa, where the Jews represent a small but strong minority. We realized that although the pull to return to our Jerusalem home is gaining in momentum, South Africa is currently where our now shared destiny is pulling us on an exciting path of creativity and growth. When people asked us when we are coming home to Jerusalem I smiled and thought ‘just now’ a South African term of reference which can mean anything from: ‘in a few hours’ to ‘someday soon’.

We had an amazing adventure in Amsterdam en route home. We spent the days pounding the pavements oooing and ahhing over the old Dutch architecture and the canals and the evenings enjoying the city nightlife. I have always loved Amsterdam, but this trip was the first time since moving to South Africa that I had visited and it was even more interesting than ever before. The Dutch were the first ‘whities’ to arrive in South Africa, when the Dutch East India company sailed into Cape Town in 1652 establishing a refueling stop (aka the old-school 7/11). Many employees decided to leave the company and become pioneers- coining themselves the ‘chosen people’. This started the era of the ‘great trek’ where the Dutch halutzim made their way up the country, colonizing as they went along. Afrikaans, or ‘baby Dutch’ as it is sometimes called sounds a lot like the real thing and the bits of the dialect I have managed to pick up here helped me get by in Amsterdam as I actually understood bits of small talk like hello, good morning and thank you.

Both of our journeys this trip were homecomings of sorts-back into the bastion of the modern Jewish people and a visit to Amsterdam where it all began for cross-cultural South Africa. After the royal wedding and the announcement that O.B.L had been killed the first piece of news on the radio in the cab back from the airport was a report on the days high-jacking and fast car chase shootout in Greenstone.

And then a few hours later, another story of a high-jacking shootout in Glenhazel, or the Jewish ghetto as the neighborhood is known here. And then three more stories today emerged from the ‘what we missed while we were away’ news brief, all involving police and their miserable ‘shoot to kill’ policy- three innocent people shot/beaten dead by the people sworn to protect them.

It’s taking me a bit of time to make the switch back to vigilante after a very carefree holiday, but it’s coming. I’m back in gangsters paradise behind our walls and barbed wire armed with my trustworthy night time panic button, with the faith that our angels will protect us here at the bottom of Africa. Transitioning as well out of the outward focus of our time away and turning back towards each other. I will miss waking up in the morning and leaving by foot to explore the city, running spontaneously into old friends and having unexpected adventures. Life between South Africa and the rest of the world is another kind of balance- that of being able to turn inwards again-where the greatest adventures lie.