18 Apr 2010
Jewish South Africa
Cape Town houses the South African Jewish Museum. It does a wonderful job tracing the local Jewish population from their roots to present day.
I thought I was back in Vilna, Lithuania in my maternal grandparent’s shtetl.
South Africa's Jewish population grew 10 fold in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to about 40,000 (with the vast majority of immigrants being from Lithuania).
Not unlike the American Jewish immigrants of this time, they were forced to leave their shtetls (small Eastern European towns with large Jewish populations) because of pogroms being carried out against them.
As a group, they have thrived here, becoming very prominent in the professions, education, business, and even politics. A disproportionate number of Jewish people were strong, vocal anti-apartheid, and were acknowledged as such in a speech we watched by Mandela.
Cape Town has had eight Jewish mayors in the last 100 years.
There was significant persecution prior to WW II.
In 1930, the Quota Act of 1930 severely curtailed the entry of Jews from Eastern Europe, including Lithuania.
In 1937, The Aliens Act, virtually stopped all migration, including German refugees.
Much of the population was openly anti-Semitic.
Currently there are about 50,000 Jews in South Africa (1 / 1,000th of the population).
Next door we visited the Cape Town Holocaust Center. It is the only one in Africa. It is of particular significance because of the apartheid history here. South Africa actually copied several of their laws from Nazi Germany.
Fortunately, there was a combination of wanting blacks for cheap labor, and public outrage, which stopped apartheid before the genocide began.
They have a wonderful education program, with 96% of their visitors being non-Jewish. Besides being a memorial, they teach about the consequences of prejudice, racism and discrimination.
They promote an understanding of the dangers of indifference, apathy and silence. The Centre serves their local and International community extremely well.
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17 Apr 2010
Beautiful Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town is known for being one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Its landmark icon Table Mountain is a beautiful 3,500-foot backdrop right in town that overlooks the city and water.
Even though they have four distinct seasons, monthly average high temperatures range between 64 and 81.
The most southern point in Africa is Cape Agulhas, 105 miles southeast of Cape Town. That is the dividing line between the (warm) Indian and the (cold) Atlantic Ocean.
We are so far away. It takes over 30 hours to fly to New York or L.A. from here. You wouldn’t want to come just for lunch.
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16 Apr 2010
Kayamandi Township, Cape Town area, South Africa
We spent the entire day in Kayamandi. It was a total eye opener.
During the Apartheid era, blacks were required to live in self-contained mini-cities called townships.
Now most blacks still live in townships here, but for financial reasons.
Kayamandi, like most others has two areas. One area has small homes with electricity, water, bathrooms, and telephones. There's a street address on each house, and residents can receive mail.
The balance of the area is comprised of shacks. Kayamandi has about 30,000 people living there.
Although we were the only whites we even saw in there, we felt totally safe.
The kids were all smiles, totally clean and very friendly.
Adults smiled and howdied us. Many invited us in to their tidy shacks.
Never was there even a negative glance.
Unfortunately they have 35% unemployment and huge HIV problems. The oldest man in the community is only 69.
There was absolutely no stench of either garbage or urine.
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14 Apr 2010
Sabi Sabi (Day 3)
There is absolutely nothing like a safari.
We enjoyed our fourth and final game drive this morning prior to bidding fond farewell to Sabi Sabi.
This morning’s drive was highlighted by us witnessing a rhino forcing a leopard to scamper up a tree (called “treeing”) for safety.
Note how Allyn’s incredible photo captures the leopard’s anxiety and sense of alertness.
The safari was such an uplifting experience, being out in nature as we were.
I learned more about animals, their habits and habitats, in 12 hours of game drives, than in all of my previous experiences.
Additionally, the small group of people we traveling with from the ship were delightful. We jelled perfectly.
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13 Apr 2010
Sabi Sabi (Day 2)
This morning I was appointed group rifleman – not.
By the time dinner was served this evening we had seen, very close for some time, all of the big five plus many more animals.
Remember the big five are the lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros.
Does anybody wonder why the tiger is not included? Well, they don’t live in Africa. That is a shock to many.
Allyn is becoming an ace photographer.
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