An estimated 5000 people crowded in and around Johannesburg's
Oxford Synagogue on chol hamoed Pesach to attend a
solidarity prayer meeting for Israel. The gathering over
Mincha-Maariv, described as the largest, most
successful and most stirring event for Israel to have taken
place in South Africa in recent memory, was called by the
Union of Orthodox Synagogues and SA Rabbinical Association in
response to the worsening situation in Israel and was fully
supported by the various independent shtieblach.
Not only the shul was filled to capacity, but also the
adjoining community hall, corridors and back entrance lobby
and even part of the parking lot.
Representatives of all the major Orthodox groups in
Johannesburg took turns leading the congregation in the
recitation of Tehillim and Rosh Beth Din Rabbi Moshe
Kurtstag recited a prayer for Israel. Those unable to find a
place inside the shul and the hall, where a PA system
had been set up, broke up into separate minyanim or
Tehillim groups or listened to impromptu
shiurim.
The show of solidarity by Johannesburg Jewry coincided with a
widely publicized clash between the Jewish Board of Deputies
and the South African government. President Thabo Mbeki
sharply criticized Israeli acts of retaliation for the Pesach
terror atrocities, in particular dubbing Israel's siege of
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's offices as an "attack on
Palestine by Israel." In a press statement that was widely
reported, the Board of Deputies expressed dismay at Mbeki's
unwillingness to condemn terrorist attacks against
Israelis.
"We are appalled at this one-sided call," said Russell
Gaddin, national chairman of the Board. "We believe that,
unaccompanied by a similar call by the president to end the
unbridled acts of terror against the Israeli civilian
population, Mr. Mbeki compromises South Africa's officially
stated policy of evenhandedness in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict."
The President's Office responded by claiming that Mbeki had
all along been highly critical of terror perpetrated against
civilians.
Countrywide protest marches by Muslim groupings calling on
South Africa to impose sanctions on Israel have taken place
since the middle of March.
