Published: 29 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
SOUTH AFRICA’S COVID-19 numbers are rising exponentially. Last week the country marked 100,000 cases and 2000 deaths, and there are currently more than 6000 new cases recorded daily. While the Western Cape province, the epicentre of the outbreak, is reportedly nearing its peak, Gauteng’s 11 per cent daily increase in cases means the country’s most populous province isn’t far behind.
Members of South Africa’s globetrotting Jewish population in both provinces were among the first to contract the virus in March and the community is far from safe from the current spike in cases.
Having warned of a “huge surge in Covid-19 positive cases within the community” on June 15, Johannesburg’s Hatzolah Medical Rescue team has seen a sharp increase in the number of patients it is monitoring at home, and has issued a public call for people to follow health safety measures.
In addition, doctors at the Netcare Linksfield Hospital, located at the centre of Jewish Johannesburg, has called for people to stay at home, warning that Covid wards were filling up.
Despite South Africa being globally lauded for implementing a swift five-week lockdown in March, it has since faced numerous obstacles. While many countries have eased lockdown measures as their infection rates decline, South Africa has had to do the opposite. As the peak approaches, the need to reboot economic activity forced the government lift most restrictions, albeit in line with Covid hygiene protocols which include the mandatory wearing of masks.
At the start of June, South Africa descended to Level 3 of a five-tier lockdown system, making almost all sectors of the economy operational. This has led to increased complacency among the Jewish community and the population at large, many of whom are attending unlawful gatherings with friends and family.
While religious institutions have been allowed to reopen, synagogues have held off, on the advice of leading medical experts. Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein last week declared that “shuls can reopen when the rate of new infections in the country is on the decline.” Hence, not anytime soon.
The Jewish community is also battling the economic impact of Covid-19. The country’s community support pillars have faced a deluge of appeals for financial assistance. Last week the Johannesburg-based Chevrah Kadisha, the largest Jewish welfare organisation on the African continent, launched an Emergency Relief Fund for the first time in its 132-year history.
The United Jewish Campaign and Durban Jewish Social Services, Jewish fundraising bodies in Cape Town and Durban, have followed suit.
Others are stepping up.
The Rambam Charitable Trust, which has long provided interest-free loans to community members unable to get funding elsewhere, is one such example. When the lockdown began, the Rambam offered the community 10,000 Rand (A$845) interest-free loans through its coronavirus emergency fund, which has since been increased to R15,000. As at June 19, 305 loan applications had been received.
“Even though people are going back to work, they’re not going back to work in the same way that they left it,” says Rambam trustee Leon Raff. “There are very few people earning the same income they did before and very few businesses that haven’t been impacted by Covid. The road ahead will likely be tricky for most South African Jewish families.”
In response to the mass of entrepreneurs who were unable to operate under lockdown and are now feeling the effects of a flailing economy, the chief rabbi brought together a team of experts to establish the Gesher Small Business Relief Fund, a lender of last resort. Gesher is the first South African fund that exclusively provides interest-free loans to Jewish-owned small-to-medium-sized businesses on this scale.
Jewish organisations and individual community members are not only looking inward to help ease the Covid burden, they’re also using their resources to help their fellow South Africans. Ubuntu, an African philosophy encapsulating the spirit of humanity and compassion, underpins two of many such Jewish-led initiatives.
In one case, five young Jewish women came together to provide educational packs to students at under-resourced public schools, which are still in the process of reopening. “It was time to think of others, to see what their needs were and what we could do to fulfil them,” says one of the women, Jayde Ronthal.
With the help of the Emunah social welfare organisation, the women have gathered, printed, sorted and distributed the relevant notes to over 200 students to date, mainly at Sandringham High School in Johannesburg. “This project highlights the importance of education in our country, and how we need to be motivating others to always be learning and growing,” Ronthal says.
CoronaCare, another outreach initiative spearheaded by a group of Jewish citizens, focuses on gathering and distributing monetary and physical donations for communities in need. Among the beneficiaries are non-registered early childhood development centres, refugees and other groups not qualifying for government support.
“Our main goal is to support grassroots or smaller organisations that have slipped through the cracks and haven’t had the necessary means to do their own fundraising,” says one of the organisers, Daniel Harrisberg. “To date we’ve supported around 120 NPOs across South Africa.”
CoronaCare has raised more than R1.3 million in monetary donations and over R4.5 million worth of in-kind donations, including food, masks, blankets and more.
The pandemic has tested the spirit and resilience of all South Africans but the Jewish community is holding its own, and then some.
Photo: Long Street in Cape Town, usually packed with people, lies deserted
