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Jewish teens in South Africa, where crime and Israel criticism are sky-high, see little future at home
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) — When she was in sixth grade, Kiara Cohen decided she was going to leave South Africa.
At a Shabbat gathering held by the youth organization Bnei Akiva in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, she was on the way to fill her water bottle when a few adults on the other side of the fence from her campgrounds told her they were going to assault and kill her and her friends because she was Jewish. The scared 12-year-old decided on the spot that she wanted to live somewhere where antisemitism wasn’t tolerated.
Now 16, Cohen still has her marks set on leaving South Africa after university — a move that would make her typical of her country’s Jews. Since 1970, the number of Jews in South Africa, home to the continent’s largest Jewish population, fell by 60%, to 50,000, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Many of those who depart head to Israel, where anyone who is Jewish may immigrate. In 2021, a full 1% of Jewish South Africans moved to Israel — the highest aliyah rate in South Africa’s history.
And that was before the current Israel-Hamas war, in which South African leaders have been taken an aggressive anti-Israel stance. The country has brought genocide charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice and threatened to prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. It has also welcomed a Hamas leader for an official visit since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
“The main antisemitism I feel that makes me want to leave this country is the government,” said Danni Hellman, 16, of Johannesburg. “They are anti-Israel and not exactly fond of Jews. I know every country in the world has its problems but when the hate comes from inside the people who are in power it is not exactly easy to want to stay.”
JTA interviewed 20 Jewish high school students from Johannesburg about their future plans. Eighty percent said they are planning to leave South Africa. More than half of them, 55%, said they are leaving after they graduate from high school. Another quarter said they would head for the border after graduating from college.
While some, like Hellman, said the country’s stance toward Israel is contributing to their thinking, most cited more pragmatic concerns: a lack of opportunities for their future and a desire to escape South Africa’s high crime rate. Overwhelmingly, they felt safety concerns about being Jews in South Africa.
“As a young Jew I am planning to leave South Africa due to the antisemitism and due to the social, political and economic circumstances in the country,’’ said Eitan Klein, 16. Last February, while gaming online, Klein was called an antisemitic slur by a South African Palestinian supporter. He said he wants to avoid experiencing that kind of harassment in person by making aliyah and joining the IDF after graduating high school — no matter what the war situation is in Israel.
The Jewish community in South Africa dates to the 19th century, with the immigration of a small number of Jews from Great Britain. Diamond- and gold-mining drew a significant number of Jews in the late 1800s, especially from Eastern Europe, changing the South African Jewish community and forming a strong connection to Zionism. As the 20th century began, Eastern European Jewish immigration continued, and as World War II approached, there were slightly more than 90,000 Jewish people in the country.
During the Holocaust, South Africa implemented an immigration quota that banned Eastern European Jews from entering the country. Despite the ban, 3,615 German Jews came to South Africa. The community kept growing and hit its highest point at 118,200 in 1970. The numbers started going down after 1970, according to South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
The current exodus follows the demise of apartheid in the early 1990s, which while ending years of fiercely racist discrimination against the country’s Black population also ushered in a period of rising crime and economic uncertainty. As many as 1 million white South Africans emigrated between 1995 and 2005; currently whites make up about 4.5 million of a total population of about 57 million.
Several of the teens interviewed said they saw a lack of opportunity in South Africa for future generations. Over 50% of the population lives in poverty and nearly 19% lives in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank. South Africa is also struggling with an extremely high unemployment rate of 33%, daily power cuts, extensive corruption in public entities and high crime rates. Last year, a prominent Jewish South African journalist was murdered in a home invasion — shortly after writing in a column that he thought his young adult children should abandon their country and move abroad.
“It is common knowledge that young Jews are leaving South Africa,” said Rabbi Mendel Rabinowitz of Johannesburg’s based Victory Park synagogue. He said he understood why most young Jews would rather study overseas and use those qualifications to get a job elsewhere, rather than deal with the high unemployment in South Africa.
“The reality is that it’s easier to get into some of the overseas universities than it is to get into South African universities,” he said.
The teens also say vociferous opposition to Israel is palpable in their daily lives. The country’s Israel boycott campaign rebranded as “Africa 4 Palestine” campaign in 2020 and promotes the idea on billboards around the country that Israelis stole Palestinian land. And last year, Aishah Cassiem, a South African politician and member of the provincial legislature, said that Herzlia, the local Jewish school in Cape Town, should be deregistered because a quarter of the school’s graduated students made aliyah and joined the IDF.
She compared the school to the “apartheid state of Israel” during a debate in Parliament.
Herzlia High School in Cape Town, South Africa. In June, a South African politician called for the school to be deregistered over the fact that nearly a quarter of the school’s graduating students move to Israel and join the military. (United Herzlia Schools)
“You can’t just attack one school for making aliyah and joining the IDF,” said Johannesburg teen Tali Bloch, in response to Cassiem’s remarks. “Jews all over the world do this and if this is the reason this school should be deregistered then it’s disgusting and makes me feel irritated and beyond furious.”
Bloch, 16, wants to move to London after high school. “I feel connected to Judaism here in South Africa but I don’t see the county as a place where I want to raise my kids. I just don’t see a future here.”
Not all Johannesburg teens want to leave. “I love my South Africa heritage and definitely think of this country as my home,” said Sam Bonner, 17. “I wouldn’t leave unless I absolutely had to.”
Bonner is active in the Zionist youth group Habonim Dror. “I found my connection to Judaism through youth groups. I found Habonim Dror, and my connection to Judaism only grew stronger,” said Bonner.
Brent Levine, 17, of Johannesburg is also passionate about being Jewish, but says he can’t fully embrace his Judaism while in South Africa because he hasn’t found a group of people with whom he feels comfortable expressing this aspect of himself.
“I’m moving to Israel after I matriculate because it is easier for me as a young Jewish man to fulfill the quest of finding myself spiritually as a Jew,’’ he said.
Levine, a volunteer for Medi Response ambulance service, a medical group in Johannesburg, said his plans haven’t changed with the current situation in Israel, where Israel is seeking to eliminate Hamas after the deadly attacks of Oct. 7. “If I had the opportunity to go to Israel to help fight the war I would,” said Levine.
And for many teens, the pressing issues of the moment pale in comparison to their longer-term concerns.
“This country is questionable at best,” said Hellman, who plans to pursue an acting career in London or Amsterdam after graduating from high school. “If I want kids, I don’t want them to grow up here and I want them to have better opportunities.”
JTA fellow (Fall 2022) Ella Bilu provided reporting and editing assistance on this piece
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The post Jewish teens in South Africa, where crime and Israel criticism are sky-high, see little future at home appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Trump Insists US Will ‘Take’ Gaza, Jordan’s King Stays Mum on Palestinian Relocation During White House Visit
US President Donald Trump meets with Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House in Washington, DC, Feb. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump insisted that America will “take” Gaza and that other countries in the Middle East will absorb the Palestinians currently residing in the enclave while meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in the White House on Tuesday.
“There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza. No reason to buy. There is nothing to buy,” Trump said.
The president suggested that the damage incurred by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has corroded Gaza’s value and that the United States will simply seize the enclave. However, he did not detail how he plans to facilitate or finance the reconstruction of Gaza.
“It’s Gaza. It’s a war-torn area. We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it,” Trump added.
Nonetheless, the president vowed that the US will energize Gaza’s economy and turn the territory into a “diamond” and “tremendous asset” for the Middle East. Trump maintained that Gaza possesses the potential to become a “great economic development” for the region, touting its scenic location on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
However, the president lamented that seemingly “every 10 years” Gaza erupts into explosive warfare, resulting in “death and destruction” for its civilians.
Trump added that he believes “99 percent” that the United States could strike an agreement with Egypt to relocate the residents of Gaza, where the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas ruled before the war and remains the strongest faction.
When asked what he thought of Trump’s ambitions to transfer Palestinian civilians to Egypt, Abdullah revealed that Egypt and other Arab countries are planning to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss the future of Gaza. Abdullah refused to speak extensively about Trump’s stated goal of removing Palestinians from Gaza, advising reporters to “not get ahead of ourselves” and wait for Arab countries to deliberate about the matter.
“It’s hard to make this work in a way that’s good for everybody,” Abdullah said.
Though the Jordanian king would not commit to taking in large numbers of Palestinians, he said Jordan would be willing to “take 2,000 children that are cancer children or are in [a] very ill state” while Arab countries “wait for the Egyptians to present their plan on how we can work with the president to work on Gaza challenges.”
During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House last week, Trump called on Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states in the region to take in Palestinians from Gaza after nearly 16 months of war between Israel and the Hamas. Arab leaders have adamantly rejected Trump’s proposal.
Last week, the US president expressed similar sentiments as he did on Tuesday, saying that the US would “take over” the Gaza Strip to build the war-torn Palestinian enclave back up. However, many members of the US Congress across both parties pushed back on Trump’s declaration, accusing him of endangering American troops, destabilizing the Middle East, and floating an ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza. Trump has also stated that Palestinians would not have the “right to return” to Gaza after being relocated and said no US troops would be needed for his plan without elaborating.
Following his meeting with Trump, Abdullah took to social media to call for a permanent end to the war in Gaza and the creation of a Palestinian state.
“This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
“Achieving just peace on the basis of the two-state solution is the way to ensure regional stability. This requires US leadership. President Trump is a man of peace. He was instrumental in securing the Gaza ceasefire. We look to US and all stakeholders in ensuring it holds,” the Jordanian king added.
The post Trump Insists US Will ‘Take’ Gaza, Jordan’s King Stays Mum on Palestinian Relocation During White House Visit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Bowdoin College Clears ‘Gaza Encampment’
Anti-Zionist Bowdoin College students storming the Smith Union administrative building on the evening of Feb. 6, 2025, to occupy it in protest of what they said are the college’s links to Israel. Photo: Screenshot
Bowdoin College in Maine has negotiated an end to an anti-Zionist group’s occupation of an administrative building without acceding to any of its demands for a boycott of Israel, The Bowdoin Orient reported on Monday.
The group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)had installed an encampment inside Smith Union on Thursday night in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposing that the US “take over” the Gaza Strip and transform it into a hub for tourism and economic dynamism. The roughly 50 students who resided inside the building vowed not to leave until the Bowdoin officials agree to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Following the action, Bowdoin officials promptly moved to deescalate the situation by counseling the students to mind the “gravity of situation” in which they placed themselves, with senior associate dean Katie Toro-Ferrari warning that their behavior “could put them on the path where they are jeopardizing their ability to remain as Bowdoin students.” No sooner had it sent this communication than it began issuing temporary suspensions to students who rejected appeals to leave Smith Union and return to normal student life.
“You will be placed on temporary suspension, effective immediately, pending a college disciplinary process,” Bowdoin vice president Jim Hoppe wrote to the protesters in a letter, copies of which were sent to their parents. “During your immediate suspension, you may not attend your Spring 2025 courses … Your family will receive a copy of this letter. This temporary status will continue until further notice.”
Facing threats of severer sanctions, SJP agreed to vacate Smith Union on Monday and shared that they had issued a plea for mercy in discussions with college officials which called for them to “understand a context of good faith for the students who have engaged in this action.” By that time, several students had already left the building, according to the Orient.
Republicans in Washington, DC have said that disruptive and extremist political activity on college campuses “will no longer be tolerated in the Trump administration.” Meanwhile, the new US president has enacted a slew of policies aimed at reining in disruptive and discriminatory behavior.
Continuing work started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — Trump’s recent “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.” The order also requires each government agency to write a report explaining how it can be of help in carrying out its enforcement. Another major provision of the order calls for the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, intellectual and material, such as Hamas contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Bowdoin College Clears ‘Gaza Encampment’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Rebuffs Trump’s ‘Worthless’ Call for Israel to Resume War if Terror Group Refuses to Release Hostages
Then-US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US, Jan. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas has rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s warning that he’ll “let hell break out” if the Palestinian terrorist group does not release all the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that the American leader’s threats are “worthless and only complicate matters.”
“Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to get the prisoners back,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhr told multiple press agencies, referring to the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal between the terrorist group and Israel. “The language of threats is worthless and only complicates matters.”
On Monday, Trump advised Israel to cancel the ceasefire and said he would “let hell break out” if Hamas refused to release the remaining hostages. Trump’s comments echoed statements made by his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, last month that the White House would support Israel resuming the war in Gaza if Hamas violated the ceasefire agreement.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock … I would say, cancel it [the hostage deal] and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday, and if they’re not returned — all of them — not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two — Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.”
Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s comments came after Hamas announced on Monday that it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over alleged violations of the ceasefire deal. Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida claimed that Israel has prevented Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, conducted strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, and impeded the delivery of humanitarian goods.
“The resistance leadership has closely monitored the enemy’s violations and its failure to uphold the terms of the agreement,” Obeida said.
The Israel Defense Forces has insisted that its strikes were conducted for defensive purposes, saying that its soldiers have “operated to distance suspects who posed a threat to them in different areas of the Gaza Strip.”
“The IDF is committed to fully implementing the conditions of the agreement for the return of the hostages,” the military wrote in a statement, adding that their forces are “prepared for any scenario and will continue to take any necessary actions to thwart immediate threat to IDF soldiers.”
Meanwhile, Israel said last week that 12,600 trucks of aid had arrived in Gaza since the beginning of the deal on Jan. 19.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in the neighboring enclave. The conflict raged for nearly 16 months until both sides agreed to last month’s ceasefire and hostage-release deal, the first phase of which is set to last six weeks.
Under phase one, Hamas agreed to free a total of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, and in exchange, Israel would release over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are serving multiple life sentences for terrorist activity. Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza will stop as negotiators work on agreeing to a second phase of the agreement, which is expected to include Hamas releasing all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages in Gaza have been released within the first phase of the ceasefire.
The three latest hostages were released on Saturday. Their strikingly thin and emaciated bodies sparked international outrage about Hamas’s treatment of the hostages, with Trump comparing the captives to Holocaust survivors.
The details of the second phase of the ceasefire are still being negotiated. However, Israel has reportedly presented the White House with a plan to advance the truce with Hamas.
The post Hamas Rebuffs Trump’s ‘Worthless’ Call for Israel to Resume War if Terror Group Refuses to Release Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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