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How a move to South Africa turned an American teen’s Jewish life upside down
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
(JTA) — The table is set. The candles are lit. The round challah is sliced and my family and I dip our apples in honey, exclaiming “Shanah Tovah.”
From the outside it may look like any other Rosh Hashanah but it definitely feels different to me.
The apples aren’t fresh from the orchard like they have been for the past 15 years. In fact it isn’t apple season at all. It’s early spring here in South Africa. The bare trees echo a sense of emptiness in me as I think back to the plentiful Rosh Hashanah suppers I always associated with the harvest season until I moved to the southern hemisphere in 2022.
I was born in Manhattan and raised by South African parents in Stamford, Connecticut until age 15, when we moved to Cape Town, South Africa. That was two Julys ago, right after I completed my first year of high school in Norwalk, Connecticut. Basically my whole world turned upside down, including my experience of being Jewish.
In my multi-faith family (Christian dad, Jewish mom), our traditions and celebrations define my Jewishness. Observing the major Jewish holidays has always brought my family together, even through the toughest of times. However, holding on to the way we did them before is near impossible since our move, mainly because of the change in seasons between hemispheres.
I never realized how much of an impact the four seasons had on the other areas of life, especially the holidays. It completely threw our usual traditions off balance, making my Jewishness difficult to navigate.
The author and her dad on vacation in Hermanus, South Africa shortly after her family moved to the country from Connecticut. (Nicola Nieburg)
Growing up in Connecticut, it just made sense having wintry, candlelit Hanukkahs. In Cape Town, why sit around candles when you could be at the beach? Getting used to the flipped seasons felt so unnatural to my family and me and was probably one of the most unexpected differences we encountered (think Chrismukkah in July).
Many people don’t think about the fact that the Torah seems to have been written from a Northern Hemisphere — never mind Middle Eastern — perspective. For example, the Jews fled from Pharaoh in the spring and many Passover traditions are centered around rebirth and springtime, with symbols like parsley and eggs. In South Africa, we do our seder in the fall. It just feels weird.
Fall is the season of harvest and rejuvenation, which seems to fit with the ideals of Rosh Hashanah better than Passover, the celebration of freedom and new life. In the U.S., my family would pick apples every Jewish New Year. Over here, forget apples — the summer fruits are starting to ripen and I feel like a fish trying to ride a bicycle! It’s hard to celebrate when my heart pangs for what’s familiar. As long as I can remember, our own unique Jewish customs have been embedded into my life and now, suddenly without them, I find myself questioning what exactly we are celebrating. The holidays don’t seem as significant because they just don’t resonate as much with me anymore.
My family has also struggled to find the same sense of Jewish community we felt in the U.S. Cape Town’s Jewish community is tiny compared to the one in Stamford, and the vast majority of Capetownians aren’t familiar with Judaism as I’ve experienced it. According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, the Jewish community accounts for a mere 0.12% of the South African population.
I also sense less pluralism when it comes to one’s expression of Judaism than what I was accustomed to living in the liberal Northeast. Most people are either reform or “orthodox.” (There is no Conservative here. Orthodox runs the gamut from Conservative to frum.)
Our family has always kind of done our own thing since my dad is Christian but we still love celebrating our roots. And while we felt embraced and accepted marching to the beat of our own Jewish drum in America, I feel a little more unusual and isolated in how we do things here. It is not because Cape Town isn’t accepting of interfaith families, it’s just that it took us years to build up our “chosen people” in Connecticut, and we just haven’t got to that point here yet.
When we lived in the U.S. we had no family near us so we celebrated all the Jewish traditions with a colorful collection of friends who also didn’t have local family. Over here we have loads of Jewish family members, but apart from my maternal grandmother, many of them don’t even celebrate and the other half is not Jewish. So when we want to mark a holiday or a tradition, the onus falls on us to make it happen. So far we’ve hosted a Rosh Hashanah barbeque, a Rosh Hashanah potjie (traditional South African stew cooked over an open fire), a Yom Kippur potluck, Hanukkah/Christmas pool party and a seder. It’s also been hard to meet and make other Jewish friends here because there are sadly barely any Jewish families at secular schools, which has been my main way of meeting people.
Additionally, South Africa’s Jewish population is shrinking. Most Jews are focused on emigrating. According to a 2019 report done by the IJPR, 41% of Jewish adults over the age of 18 have plans to move abroad. We totally went against the grain by moving here.
However, on the upside, when you do find someone Jewish in Cape Town, chances are, because Jews are few and far between, your grandmothers were best friends or you’re actually related! In other words, you have an instant bond.
And while it’s been difficult rearranging my entire Jewish identity to a new climate, culture and different group of chosen people, the move has also allowed me to redefine my Jewish experience and create new, meaningful traditions. Now that I think about it, maybe I am looking forward to our next Hanukkah pool party. Because enjoying latkes from the comfort of a donut pool floatie takes the concept of celebrating with fried food to a whole new delicious level.
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The post How a move to South Africa turned an American teen’s Jewish life upside down appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Prominent Palestinian Writer Dismisses Victims of Fatal DC Shooting as ‘Genocide Cheerleaders’
Palestinian American writer and activist Susan Abulhawa. Photo: Screenshot
Prominent Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa has seemingly justified the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, dismissing the victims as “genocidal cheerleaders,” warning that “no Zionist should be safe,” and suggesting without evidence that the shooting may have been a “false flag” operation.
“Natural logic: when governments fail to hold Israel accountable for an actual holocaust being committed before our very eyes, no genocidal Zionist should be safe anywhere in the world,” Abulhawa posted on X/Twitter on Thursday, the day after the shooting. “What Mr. Rodriguez did should come as no surprise. In fact, I’m surprised it has not happened sooner. Human beings with a conscience literally cannot bear to witness such evil day and day out being inflicted upon the bodies, minds, and futures of an utterly defenseless people, by such a hateful, racist, colonial state.”
Natural logic: when governments fail to hold Israel accountable for an actual holocaust being committed before our very eyes, no genocidal Zionist should be safe anywhere in the world. What Mr. Rodriguez did should come as no surprise. In fact, I’m surprised it has not happened…
— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) May 22, 2025
Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old left-wing and anti-Israel activist from Chicago, was charged on Thursday in US federal court with two counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of fatally shooting Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a young couple about to become engaged to be married, as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young professionals and diplomatic staff hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in the US capital.
An affidavit filed by US federal authorities in support of the criminal complaint charging Rodriguez revealed that he said at the scene of the shooting, “I did it for Palestine; I did it for Gaza.” He also chanted “Free Palestine, Free Palestine” after being taken into custody, according to video of the incident.
In the aftermath of the shooting, many anti-Israel activists rushed to defend the antisemitic attack as justifiable “resistance,” arguing that Lischinsky and Milgrim deserved to be murdered because they support Israel, which they falsely claim has been perpetrating a genocide in Gaza while waging a military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“Now we’re supposed to feel bad for two genocide cheerleaders after watching these colonizer baby killers slaughter people by the hundreds every day for two years,” Abulhawa posted to X/Twitter on Thursday. “I’ve seen the inside of too many children’s skulls to give a crap about the human garbage who get off on mass murder.”
Abulhawa then seemingly suggested, without any evidence, that either Israel or the Jewish community was actually behind the shooting to make the public focus on the surge of antisemitism — a surge that she claimed was a lie despite copious documentation providing a historic spike in antisemitic incidents.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a false flag to focus on manufactured antisemitism instead of the actual holocaust being committed by Jewish supremacists,” she wrote.
Now we’re supposed to feel bad for two genocide cheerleaders after watching these colonizer baby killers slaughter people by the hundreds every day for two years. I’ve seen the inside of too many children’s skulls to give a crap about the human garbage who get off on mass murder.…
— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) May 22, 2025
The author later added, “Once you understand that Zionism and Nazism are two sides of the same coin, the world we live in will make a lot more sense.” She then peddled antisemitic tropes, accusing Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, of possessing “worldwide tentacles” and controlling international governments.
Abulhawa proceeded to compare Wednesday night’s shooting to a Jewish person killing a member of the Nazi party as retaliation for the Holocaust. She declared the terrorist act as legitimate “resistance” to fight the so-called “genocide” occurring in Gaza.
“A person (Jewish) killed a Nazi as an act of resistance because governments refused to stop a genocide perpetrated by Nazis. Today, a person killed a Zionist as an act of resistance because governments refuse to stop a genocide perpetrated by Zionists,” the writer said.
Abulhawa has an extensive history of publicly condemning those who support Israel’s right to self-defense. In an X/Twitter post, she accused Dana Stroul, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, of having a “single loyalty to a foreign country, for which they endlessly extort US tax dollars and spill American blood to maintain.” She also castigated Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is Jewish, for being “a major player in the Zionist death cult infecting the world.” She added that that Zionists “aren’t human like us” and that “we’re ruled by spawns of Satan.”
Last year, the writer accused then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of having a “single loyalty to Israel,” perpetuating the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people are inherently untrustworthy citizens more loyal to Israel than their own countries.
Abulhawa has also celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, saying that the massacre “wasn’t the beginning of violence; it is the beginning of the end of a genocidal colonial entity.” In an article published in the anti-Israel outlet Electronic Intifada just days after the atrocities, Abulhawa wrote that “Palestinian fighters finally broke free on 7 October 2023 in a spectacular moment that shocked the world.” Lauding the Hamas terrorists, she stated that “these brave Palestinian fighters overtook Israeli colonies built on their ancestral villages, seeing their stolen lands for the first time in their lives.”
Despite her comments against Jews, Zionists, and Israelis, Abulhawa’s work has been widely read. Mornings in Jenin, a novel penned by Abdulhawa, sold over one million copies worldwide. The activist also served as the lead organizer for the “Palestine Writes” festival at the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. The event, which featured a litany of anti-Israel speakers, incensed Jewish alumni and donors.
The post Prominent Palestinian Writer Dismisses Victims of Fatal DC Shooting as ‘Genocide Cheerleaders’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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George Washington University Sued in New Antisemitism Lawsuit
Pro-Hamas supporters at George Washington University in Washington, DC on March 21, 2025, to protest the war in Gaza. Photo: Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect.
George Washington University enabled an outburst of antisemitic discrimination and harassment on its campus, a new lawsuit brought on behalf of two recent graduates of the institution alleges.
Filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the complaint recounts dozens of antisemitic incidents following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel which the university allegedly failed to respond to adequately because of anti-Jewish, as well as anti-Zionist, bias. Among the incidents detailed, the campus Hillel Center was vandalized; someone threw a rock through the window of a truck owned by a Jewish advocacy group; and a Jewish student was told to “kill yourself” and “watch your back” in a hate message which also called her a “filthy k—ke.”
That and more transpired, court documents charge.
“Protesters at GWU raised repulsive, antisemitic signs and shouted slogans like ‘final solution,’ ‘the irony of being what you once hatred,’ a message that equated the swastika to the Star of David; and ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ an express call for violence against Jews,” the complaint adds. “Protesters vandalized university property in what amounted to rioting and blocked Jewish students from traversing campus freely, attending class, and otherwise engaging in educational opportunities.”
The plaintiffs, Sabrina Soffer and Ari Shapiro, say the university’s anemic response to campus antisemitism constitutes a violation of Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act. They are seeking damages and injunctive relief.
“I have long been proud to call George Washington University my academic home. Yet, after nearly four years of bringing attention to the university’s persistent antisemitism problem, I remain disheartened by its failure to take sufficient action to protect against the hostile environment facing the Jewish and Israeli community,” Soffer said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner. “My sincere hope is that this lawsuit marks a turning point — one that restores accountability and reaffirms a genuine commitment to the values the university professes to uphold.”
As previously reported, George Washington University has been a hub of extreme anti-Zionist activity that school officials have struggled to quell. A major source of such conduct has been Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which, among other conduct, has threatened a Jewish professor and intimidated Jews on campus.
Most recently, a student used her commencement speech to lodge accusations of apartheid and genocide against Israel, a notion trafficked by neo-Nazi groups and jihadist terror organizations.
The student, Cecilia Culver, accused Israel of targeting Palestinians “simply for [their] remaining in the country of their ancestors” and said that GW students are passive contributors to the “imperialist system.” An economics and statistics major, Culver deceived administrators who selected her to address the Columbian College of the Arts and Sciences ceremony, the university said in a statement.
GW faculty have also allegedly contributed to the promotion of antisemitism on campus. In 2023, former psychology professor Lara Sheehi was accused of verbally abusing and discriminating against her Jewish graduate students.
As recounted in a 2023 civil rights complaint filed by StandWithUs, Sheehi expressed contempt for Jews when, on the first day of term in August 2022, she asked every student to share information about their backgrounds and cultures. Replying to a student who revealed that she was Israeli, Sheehi said, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.” Jewish students said they made several attempts to persuade the university to correct Sheehi’s behavior or arrange an alternative option for fulfilling the requirements of her course. Each time, StandWithUs alleged, administrators said nothing could be done.
Later, the complaint added, Sheehi spread rumors that her Jewish students were “combative” racists and filed misconduct charges against them. One student told The Algemeiner at the time that she never learned what university policies Sheehi accused her and her classmates of violating.
“GWU has obligations under Title VI and other laws to protect its Jewish students and faculty, and our complaint demonstrates that GWU has failed its obligation,” attorney Jason Torchinsky, who is representing Soffer and Shapiro, said in a statement on Friday. “We look forward to this case and to protecting current and future Jewish students at GWU.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post George Washington University Sued in New Antisemitism Lawsuit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Lebanon, PA Reach Agreement to Disarm Palestinian Refugee Camps; Hamas Excluded From Talks
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
The disarmament of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon is set to begin next month, following an agreement between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Lebanese government, as part of the latter’s effort to assert control over its entire territory.
The agreement follows a three-day visit to Beirut by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, during which he met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to discuss the disarmament of all 12 Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon.
During their meeting, both leaders agreed that Palestinian factions would not use Lebanese territory as a launchpad for attacks against Israel and that all weapons would be placed under the authority of the Lebanese government.
In a statement, Lebanese authorities announced that both sides agreed to “launch the process of handing over weapons according to a specific timetable, accompanied by practical steps to bolster the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees.”
Hamas — a rival of Abbas’s Fatah faction that dominates the PA — criticized the agreement for excluding them from the discussions, arguing that the demilitarization process lacked proper representation without their involvement.
The Palestinian terrorist group also urged the Lebanese government to hold a dialogue with all Palestinian factions present in the country.
“We call on the Lebanese government to open a responsible dialogue with the Joint Palestinian Action Committee, which includes all Palestinian factions and forces, to discuss the Palestinian situation from all its aspects,” Ali Baraka, Hamas’s head of foreign relations, said in a statement.
“Limiting the discussion to the security framework alone could open the door to the trap of resettlement or displacement, which is what [Israel] seeks,” Baraka continued.
By a long-standing agreement, the Lebanese army refrains from entering the refugee camps — where Fatah, Hamas, and other armed groups operate — and instead leaves security responsibilities to the factions within the settlements.
According to UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Lebanon is home to more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees who are subject to government restrictions that bar them from many professional jobs, limit their legal protections, and prohibit them from owning property.
Under the new agreement, Hamas — which has long maintained operations in Lebanon — will reportedly only be allowed to operate in the country for political activities, with no involvement in military matters, Lebanese officials said.
In the past, Hamas has claimed multiple attacks on Israel launched from Lebanese territory, especially during last year’s conflict between the Jewish state and Hezbollah — a war that erupted after the terrorist group expressed “solidarity” with Hamas following the group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah. Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from Lebanon’s southern border, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
Israel, which decimated much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership during last year’s war, has continued to carry out regular airstrikes in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire.
Israeli officials assert that Hezbollah continues to maintain infrastructure in the south of the country, while Lebanon and Hezbollah accuse Israel of occupying Lebanese territory by refusing to withdraw from five hilltop positions.
The post Lebanon, PA Reach Agreement to Disarm Palestinian Refugee Camps; Hamas Excluded From Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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