South Africa has served as a paradigm for reconciliation and healing in the post-Apartheid period. Despite the horrors of Apartheid, the Mandela years have seen the creation of a multi-racial democratic country. And yet, there are many signs of trouble.

Dana has written extensively on the South African Jewish community and has met many of the country’s leaders, including President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, former President Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. South African Jews have built one of the most cohesive and dynamic communities anywhere in the world.

The Johannesburg Jewish community – by far the largest in the country – has seen a strong turn towards strict Orthodoxy. The Reform movement was hard hit by a divisive synagogue split a few months ago, and has never fully recovered. A number of Baal Teshuva groups have established branches in the City of Gold. Religious activities are popular, and attendances are large. The majority, however, remain nonobservant.

South African Jews are among the most Zionist of any Diaspora community. Some have immigrated to the Jewish State, while much larger numbers have left for Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and almost everywhere else. Some believe that the Jewish population has stabilized at about 80,000, while others believe that immigration is continuing. Much will depend upon the future government, after President Mbeki retires..

Judaism and the Jewish Community in the New South Africa

Dana talks on the trying times of South African Jewry in detail, through the past, present, and future of this rare facet of Judaism

Imagine if the world could live as One

First printed in the Johannesburg star in 1996, the message remains true and universal today.

Controlled Panic in
New South Africa

Dana responds to many of the issues plaguing post-Apartheid South Africa that he saw as a pulpit rabbi serving in Johannesburg. From facing the "false security" that Apartheid brought to the rampant crime present there, Dana gives us his perspective.

South African Judaism

In an entry published in the Encyclopedia of Judaism, Dana writes an overview of the practice of Judaism in South Africa and other notable facts.

Reconciliation and Healing

In this article, Dana writes a poignant response from the perspective of a practicing South African Jew to the turbulent changes that President Nelson Mandela brought with him, and the end of Apartheid. This article was published first in The Reconstructionist.

Progressive Judaism in
South Africa

The Reform Movement in South Africa is suffering the effects of more than a decade of conflict and decline. What was once a forceful element in the Jewish community has become of marginal significance.There are a number of reasons for this, and Dana touches on them in a thoughtful response to the climate of the ever-changing South Africa.

Rabbi Ady Assabi and the Development of Conservative Judaism in South Africa

"The Conservative movement has developed an extensive network of congregations in various countries outside of the United States.  Canada, of course, has a strong Conservative movement with very traditional leanings, and Rabbi Marshall Meyer pioneered a more liberal form of Conservative Judaism in Argentina."

Responding to the New Reality
From Congress Monthly, Vol.69, No.1, January/February 2002

During the years that I lived in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the most popular books on the peaceful transition to democracy there was entitled Tomorrow is Another Country. I feel that same title could aptly be applied to our current situation. European Commission President Romano Prodi stated it succinctly: “Nothing will ever be the same.” We are sickened by the magnitude of the destruction that no one imagined would occur. Enemies who blend into the local population threaten us with further acts of mass murder.

Is There a Future for Jews in South Africa?
Congress Monthly, Vol. 66 No. 6
Nov-Dec 1999.

Although most American Jews who take an interest in such things have focused their attention on the 1990 national Jewish population survey and are looking forward with interest to the 2000 survey, many quantitative and qualitative studies of Jews in other parts of the world have insights that may contrast sharply with the reality as experienced by American Jews. One such study has just been issued on the Jews of South Africa.