New Year’s greetings from the Chairman
Dear congregants,
A new year is around the corner and we have once again arrived at the time that we contemplate the past and the future. The last year has been hectic with non-stop developments at Bet David, in South Africa and the world as a whole.
How do we make sense of the constant change both positive and negative that we see in the world? First we need to ensure that we do not dwell on the negative only. There is a lot of positive change in the world. A recent book by Steven Pinker, amongst others, has sought to make the argument that the world is a much better place now than was in the past.
We should not let people whose path to power and wealth requires them to sell a message of woe, particularly but not limited to politicians, do our thinking for us or unduly instil fear in our community. We should not allow ardent bigots to force us from our homes and homeland. At the
same time, we cannot put our heads in the sand and be complacent.
We need to aggressively and vigilantly call out racism, anti-Semitism,
sexism and discrimination wherever we find it. The world is not the same place it was one hundred years ago, and it is up to us to make sure we never go back to the dark times in our history!
On behalf of my family and myself, I wish you Shana Tova u’Metuka.
Eric Milner, Chairman