Ronnie Elkaim makes aliyah and supports her grandson in the army

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Letter to Jerusalem Post re Ndaba

Letter on the Ndaba by Marvyn Hatchuel to Jerusalem Post 03 August 2008

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The land of Rolexes and handouts

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

Last update - 02:12 21/07/2008 The land of Rolexes and handouts By Cnaan Liphshiz For 27 years, Owen has worked as a free professional at a large company. Now, his pension of 61 million Zimbabwe dollars will only buy him six apples at the central market place of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, where he lives. He says that while the economy is ruined, Zimbabwe's 270 Jews enjoy better personal security than in South Africa. Owen, who requested his real name be withheld for safety reasons, was the only resident of Zimbabwe who 10 days ago attended a large reunion in Ra'anana for ex-Zimbabweans, organized by Telfed, the South African Zionist Federation Israel. "The whole idea in Zimbabwe is low profile. Don't raise your head. This is why I don't want my name mentioned," he said at the Ra'anana Bowling Club, where 300 Southern Africans turned out. Yet for Owen, moving to South Africa as many Zimbabwean Jews have done over the years, is not an option. "In Harare we can still walk and feel safe. We don't have South Africa's huge crime problem, we can go into town and all that," he explained. As for moving to Israel, Owen says that he will stay in Zimbabwe as long as his children receive a good education. "Also, I stay because it's my home - even with all the nonsense going on," he says in an apparent reference to the dictatorial rigging of elections and executions of dissidents by President Robert Mugabe. At 57, Owen's one of the youngest members of his dwindling community. "They're all old people, and they have no access to the decision makers," he added. Zimbabwe's Jews are too old to leave, Owen says, and outside funding is the only way for them to survive in a failed economy afflicted by the worst inflation rate witnessed anywhere in recent years. "You need at least a few trillion to manage," he says - the equivalent of a few hundred U.S. dollars. Owen relies on foreign currency to maintain a lifestyle which he calls "affluent." Whipping out from his pocket a slim iPhone cellular device, he browses through pictures of his spacious home in Zimbabwe - which he jokingly calls "the only country where people like me wear Rolex watches and get food handouts."

A Shtetl in Africa

A Shtetl in Africa
Jun. 12, 2008

David E. Kaplan , THE JERUSALEM POST

When Zimbabweans in Israel converge on July 11 at the Ra'anana Bowls Club for a reunion, they may well exceed the number of Jews remaining in their former country.

THE FIRST Hebrew School of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 1901.Photo: Courtesy - http://www.zjc.org.il/

For those up on international news that should come as little surprise. Reminiscent of the worst days of the Weimar Republic, when basic commodities were priced in the millions of Deutschmarks, Zimbabwe under authoritarian President Robert Mugabe goes one better - even at a price tag with a trail of zeros, the desired chicken, loaf of bread or aspirin might not be available. Once the bread basket of Africa, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) today is a basket case, unable to feed even its own people.

From a peak of some 7,500 Jews in the 1970s - comprising some 80 percent Ashkenazim - the country's community today numbers only about 200 souls, an eighth of whom are residents of Savyon Lodge, the retirement home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city.
Zimbabwe-born Dave Bloom, vice chairman of Telfed (an organization representing all Southern Africans in Israel), takes solace in the fact that over 700 former Zimbabweans live in Israel today, "representing some 10% of the size of the community at its zenith."

That many Zimbabweans made Israel their home is hardly surprising. From its humble beginning, the community was proudly Jewish and passionately Zionist. When Bulawayo's 100-year-old synagogue was engulfed in flames in 2004, the conflagration resonated as the end of an era.

In 1894, 21 Jewish traders and ex-soldiers from an expeditionary force sponsored by the British South Africa Company gathered in the tent of Messrs. Moss & Rosenblatt to form a congregation in Bulawayo, a sun-blistered town of tin and wooden shanties with roads that were little more than sand paths. On September 18 that same year, the community gathered in its new synagogue - no longer a tent, but a hut - to consider the establishment of a Zionist society. A lengthy discussion ensued as to whether the society should identify itself with Herzlian Zionism or with Hovevei Zion, the precursor to political Zionism. In other words, three years before the first Zionist Congress in Basel, a group of pioneering Jews, trying to eke out a living in the most primitive conditions in central Africa, were discussing the Jewish people's alternatives in their quest for a national homeland. Hardly having established a home for themselves, they were seeking a national home for their people.

EZER WEIZMANN visiting Salisbury (today Harare) with a guard-of-honor of members of the Jewish youth movements. Debbie Zabow, the first girl in Habonim uniform on the left, is today a resident of Kfar Saba.
Photo: Courtesy - http://www.zjc.org.il/

In 1919, Lord Edmund Allenby visited Rhodesia. As a World War I hero who only two years earlier had conquered Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks, he was welcomed by the local Zionist leadership. Asked what he thought lay ahead for a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people, he responded emphatically, "Hard work and increased immigration." History records that in the 1930s, the per capita financial contribution of Rhodesian Jewry to Palestine was the highest in the Diaspora. This was a tradition that continued into the 1970s.
Even before the embers of the Bulawayo Synagogue cooled in 2004, Bloom, who describes his erstwhile community as a "shtetl in Africa," believed it was time to "preserve the past before nothing was left or no one alive to tell the story." He started collecting material, which he posted on his Web site (http://www.zjc.org.il/).

Visiting the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, he made copies of newspaper cuttings, minutes of meetings and photos. In a collection of documents recording interviews with early Jewish settlers in Rhodesia, he discovered the unpublished manuscript by the renowned South African historian Eric Rosenthal on "Rhodesian Jewry and its Story." From these writings we learn of an Englishman, Daniel Montague Kisch, the first Jew to feature in the history of Rhodesia. By 1860 he had become a prospector "and so joined the expedition of diggers, mainly Australian, on the wearisome trek to a golden will-o'-the-wisp on the Tati Fields." Kisch had a frontier way of dealing with issues. When Sir John Swinburne, a future MP, but then chairman of the London & Limpopo Company working on the Tati Concession, tried to assert his authority over Kisch, he received the latter's resignation in the form of a broken nose.

Like Kisch, Moss Cohen also came to Rhodesia from England, although because of his alleged Irish "associations" he was better known as Paddy Cohen. The area was a tribal kingdom and Cohen wrote in a diary entry how "King Lobengula took a fancy" to him and granted him a trading license, "the sole rights in all his territory."

"I gave him a horse for it," he added.
Later, when the issue of prospecting rights for gold arose, the king, Cohen wrote, "gave a promise that I should be the first to get one. He would not give it in writing, but I was satisfied with his (verbal) promise."
Things never quite worked out that way. Rosenthal recounts the trials and tribulations of this colorful Jewish personality who fell in and out of favor with all the major players of the time, a time period known as the "Scramble for Africa" - including King Lobengula; mining magnate Charles Dunell Rudd, Rhodesian pioneer Francis R. Thompson, better known as "Matabele," and imperial colossus Cecil John Rhodes - over who owned what rights.

Before its posting on Bloom's Web site, very few had seen Rosenthal's monumental work, commissioned by the Rhodesian Jewish Board of Deputies in 1949. Since its completion, it attracted little else than dust. "Very few even knew of its existence. Gems were coming out of the woodwork," Bloom told Metro. People all over the world were dusting off the past to reveal a treasure trove of Jewish history in central Africa, much of which is now available on his site.
Mindful of the tragedy that befell the shtetls of Eastern Europe, where the past itself was no less a victim than the people of history's toxic twists, Bloom, of Polish ancestry, was determined to pictorially document all the Jewish graves in Zimbabwe. "So far, we have posted on our Web site photographs of over 4,000 headstones… covering Harare (formally Salisbury), Bulawayo and all the smaller country towns." Former Zimbabweans from all over the world have been contributing to the site and, Bloom says, "we now have over 200 family biographies. These personal narratives present a colorful history not only of the families, but also of the country, illuminating how people arrived in what was then Rhodesia and why they came."
Each family has its own story. Marvyn Hatchuel's father came from Morocco. Hatchuel, who is organizing the July reunion, is a former president of CAZO - Central African Zionist Organization. "In 1904 my 20-year-old father was in Alexandria [Egypt] on business when he met a fellow Sephardic Jew, Behor Benatar, from Rhodesia, who had originally come from the Mediterranean island of Rhodes. He told my dad, 'You want to make money, come to Rhodesia. My brother and I run a concession store at Penhalonga, a gold mining town in eastern Rhodesia.'"

Wandering off, Hatchuel continued, his father found himself pounding the port area of Alexandria. A ship bound for east Africa grabbed his attention and on the spur of the moment he bought a ticket to Mozambique. Disembarking at Beira, Hatchuel had insufficient money to pay for any further passage. So the young Moroccan followed the railway track and walked the breadth of Mozambique until he crossed over into Rhodesia and completed the last stretch to Penhalonga. "I believe when Behor Benatar saw my father enter his store, he nearly collapsed. Anyway, he gave him a job. At night and under candlelight Dad would sit with a dictionary and a newspaper and in that way taught himself English," Hatchuel related.

When Hatchuel the elder had arrived in Penhalonga, he spoke to his employers in Ladino. When he left, he was fluent in English and six years later, in 1910, he opened - together with the Daniel brothers - one of the first general wholesale stores in Salisbury.

The community's Sephardim, who came mainly from Rhodes, "started arriving in the early 1890s," said Nick Alhadeff of Kfar Saba, who at one time or another held all the top positions in his former community - president of the Sephardic Congregation of Rhodesia, Chairman of the Board of Deputies and President of CAZO. Alhadeff's father left Rhodes for Rhodesia in 1931 over a split-up in the family's bank. "Rather than choose to become either the managing director of his uncle's bank or the breakaway one of the nephews, he opted instead to join his brothers in Rhodesia," Alhadeff explained. It was a fortunate choice. Those members of his family who did not leave Rhodes "ended up in Auschwitz."

The Sephardim were part of a unified Jewish community until 1931, "when all hell broke loose. It was over some difference in the conduct of the shul service," Alhadeff told Metro. "Jews! Who can remember the exact details, but soon thereafter, the Sephardim had their own shul." Time, however, is a great healer. "I, the son of a Sephardic Jew, became the first of my community to write the bar mitzva exam under Rabbi Konviser of the Ashkenazi shul. I became a member of both congregations, a sign of the changing times," he recalled.

Times were changing in more ways than one. In 1960 Harold Macmillan delivered his famous address in the South African parliament, in which he declared that "The winds of change are blowing through this continent," referring to the growth of the nationalist movements across Africa that were seeking independence from colonial powers. National aspirations were no less rooted in Africa's Jewish communities, as their youth movements as well as the adult leadership increasingly identified with the Jewish state. Fundraising for Israel and aliya became an integral part of local communal life.
It was an age when Jewish pride was riding high, reinforced by Israeli victories in war as well as subsequent daring air raids on Entebbe and Iraq. The older generation was quite happy to regard their youth as future Israeli citizens.

Attending the upcoming reunion in Ra'anana will be many of those former members of the Habonim, Betar and Bnei Akiva youth movements who may have stood in honor guards for Menachem Begin, Ezer Weizmann, Moshe Dayan and Chaim Herzog, who all made a point of including Rhodesia in their visits to Southern Africa during the sixties and seventies. They were following in the legacy of their parents and grandparents, who would have welcomed such figures as Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Zeev Jabotinsky, Nachum Sokolow, Dr. Alexander Goldstein, Moshe Sharett and Dr. Abba Hillel.

"We may have been a small community, but we led by example," says Hatchuel. "Most of the CAZO heads made aliya - Mervyn Lasovsky, David Melmed, Eric Brod, Boris Cass (Honorary Life President) and Adolf Leon. And let us not forget the women's Zionist leadership."

Women like Rachel Baron, a vibrant speaker and founder of WIZO in Bulawayo, who became an international figure in the women's Zionist organization. Years later she would settle in the country for which she had worked so tirelessly, joining her two daughters, Beverly Kaplan and Merle Gutman, and their families. Kaplan was a founding member of Manof, a moshav founded by Southern Africans in the Lower Galilee. Gutman, founder and life president of ESRA (English Speakers Residents Association) has been the recipient of the President's Prize and the Prime Minister's Prize for Volunteerism.

"It was a wonderful childhood," Gutman told Metro. "Life revolved around the shul, the Jewish Guild Hall and Habonim." Like all one-time Zimbabweans, she laments what has befallen her former country. "It's so tragic, so cruel and so unnecessary. I feel no less for the country as a whole than what has befallen the Jewish community. It is horrific how a tyrant [Mugabe] can so wantonly destroy his own country and persecute his people and the world stands idly by. South Africa has not only failed its neighbor, but has been complicit in supporting this tyrant."

Reunion of ex-Rhodesians/Zimbabweans:
• Date: Friday, July 11 at 9:30 a.m. for brunch
• Venue: Ra'anana Lawn Bowls Club
• For further information, contact Marvyn Hatchuel at (09) 774-7181 or Dave Bloom at 054-465-0220.

Zimbabwe expats use reunion to plead cause of Jewish peers

Zimbabwe expats use reunion to plead cause of Jewish peers
Jul. 13, 2008
JOSH SCHEINERT , THE JERUSALEM POST

A reunion of 281 Zimbabwean expatriates living in Israel was held in Ra'anana last week to raise funds and awareness as to the precariousness of the situation in their former country. Ironically, the number represented more Zimbabwean Jews than in all of Zimbabwe today.

Dave Bloom, vice chairman of Telfed, the South-African Zionist Federation that also represents Zimbabwe, and himself a native of then Rhodesia (Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe in 1980 when Robert Mugabe became president), spoke to the crowd about a community in a "battle to maintain themselves in a country that's all but collapsed economically and politically."

He announced that $300,000 had been raised through the Joint Distribution Committee, World Jewish Relief and Chai South Africa, but that more was needed. (see picture left - Bloom addressing audience)

The African Jewish Congress (AJC) in Johannesburg has been at the forefront of these efforts and coordinates sending supplies and provisions by truck over the border.

Funds raised have gone towards buying generators and community upkeep, but mostly they are going towards buying food and basic provisions, like medicine, that are becoming increasingly scarce in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. However, a community member noted the cost of kosher meat and the ability of getting a kosher butcher from South Africa has made it increasingly rare in the recent past.

Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, the AJC's spiritual leader and coordinator of its Zimbabwe efforts, explained the biggest concern was to ensure that the members of the Jewish community, and the people that work for them in their homes, are taken care of "in a manner that is respectful and sustainable." Asked if he was confident the AJC could meet this concern amid the current period of turmoil and uncertainty, he answered, "Absolutely."

Silberhaft noted, however, that raising money is becoming the biggest obstacle. "The demands on us are increasing on a weekly basis," he said.

Paul Hammer, who left Zimbabwe five years ago with his four daughters, explained at the reunion that it was the inability to obtain that quality of life and services that the AJC is trying to maintain that proved the tipping point in persuading him to say goodbye to the land of his childhood.

His daughters were not getting the quality of education or health care he felt appropriate, and blamed the country's failing economy. "All the professionals fled from the hyperinflation," he noted.

Still in touch with a few Jewish friends who have remained behind, Hammer calls the situation in Zimbabwe today "a disaster." Bloom explained those hardest hit were individuals, Jewish or other, living on fixed incomes.

"They are trapped by the fact that their money has disappeared," he said.

"But we live in hope," said Hammer, trying to sound upbeat that the present hardships would pass one day and that individuals and families still in Zimbabwe, Jewish or not, would overcome the present catastrophe.

However, he, along with Bloom said they did not feel the situation would change in the foreseeable future, economically or politically.

"I would be surprised if there would ever be any resuscitation of the community over there," said Bloom.

However, a community resident who plans to stay in Zimbabwe unless things become completely unbearable believes the backbone of a future community will be made up of mostly former Israelis who go to work temporarily in agriculture. "It won't be as when people lived their lives here," he said, "but there will be Jews."

Picture above shows youngsters at the reunion with Zimbabwe roots
L -R front row Josh Koff (from U.S) , Mia Hammar, Daniella Hammar L- R Middle RowNatalie Hammar, Taum Hammar, Janine Feldman (with son Danny) L-R Back Row Sharon Favish (with son Eitan)

Zimbabwe Jews holding out

by Moira Schneider (JTA)

With Zimbabwe in the throes of an economic and political crisis, the country's tiny Jewish community is holding steady. Most say they don't want to leave.


CAPE TOWN (JTA) -- With Zimbabwe in the throes of an economic and political crisis, the country’s tiny Jewish community is holding steady.

The president of a synagogue in the city of Bulawayo says Zimbabwe’s approximately 320 Jews have been left largely unharmed by the violence surrounding last week's presidential election that drove opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai from the race.

Observers outside the country have called the vote, in which President Robert Mugabe was re-elected, a sham.

Hylton Solomon, the 52-year-old president of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation, says the Jews of Zimbabwe have become accustomed to the grim situation in their country.

“Over the years, everybody has been so disappointed,” he told JTA. “It’s just another day. They just accept” it. “The Jews, certainly in Bulawayo, I don’t believe feel threatened, and I don’t think they ever have.”

Though they have been spared the violence, Zimbabwe's Jews have been hit hard by the economic crisis. The country has been beset by electricity, food, water and fuel shortages.

Jewish aid officials assisting the community say, however, that few Zimbabwe Jews intend to leave.

It's a community that has dwindled to 320 from a high of about 7,500 in the 1970s, when the country was called Rhodesia and ruled by a white minority.

The Jews are split between the capital of Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city. Two Jewish day schools, one in each city, have mostly non-Jewish students. The Ashkenazi and Sephardi synagogues in Harare have combined their services, and there is one rabbi in the country, David Alima of Bulawayo.

Mervyn Smith, the president of the African Jewish Congress -- an initiative of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to attend to the needs of far-flung Jewish communities in sub-Saharan Africa -- says he sensed a mood of resignation among Zimbabwe’s Jews on a recent visit.

“There isn’t a fear of physical danger, but there’s almost despair that the economy and the whole situation can ever right itself,” Smith said.

The country is suffering from skyrocketing inflation estimated at 20 to 30 percent per week. Last week, it took 40 billion Zimbabwe dollars to equal $1.

Many Jews have seen their savings totally eroded.

“People are depressed, but what is really having an impact on everyone is the collapse of the economy,” said one community member who asked to remain anonymous. “Our money is worthless.”

Most Zimbabwe Jews of Zimbabwe are elderly; just six Jewish children live in the country. Of the 110 Jews in Bulawayo, 26 live in Zimbabwe’s only Jewish old-age home, the Savyon Lodge.

The economic crisis has hit them particularly hard.

“Many were dependent on their savings and pensions; they thought that they could live with dignity and be independent to the end of their days,” said one community member. “That is not possible. Things are either unavailable or unaffordable.”

The executive director of the African Jewish Congress, Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, says he spends 90 percent of his time on issues relating to the Zimbabwean Jewish community.

“We provide everything from medication to rent to basic foodstuffs,” Silberhaft said. “Nothing is affordable, nothing is available. We send water purification tablets because the water is no longer safe to drink.

“The reality is that there’s almost nothing on the ground -- there’s no toilet paper, cotton, wool, medication,” he said.

Silberhaft visited Zimbabwe in late May and said the Jews in the country were prepared to carry on. At his monthly distribution of essentials, the rabbi said he “watched proud Jewish people that used to be in the category of ‘haves’ queuing for salt, toilet paper and jam.”

Silberhaft recently went to London to raise awareness of the crisis and raise money for the African Jewish Congress’ Zimbabwe fund.

Though a June 13 report in the London Jewish Chronicle said the Jewish Agency for Israel was planning a secret emergency airlift of the country’s remaining Jews, Silberhaft insists there are no such plans.

“I met with Zeev Bielski,” the agency’s chairman, “and there’s absolutely no evacuation plan whatsoever,” Silberhaft said. “What the Jewish Agency and we say is, if you want to leave, as long as there are commercial airlines, why wait for an evacuation? Leave now and we will take care of you.”

One community member said that despite constant calls for them to leave by panicked family members abroad, most Jews in Zimbabwe do not feel the need to run.

“As a community we carry on without any interference and celebrate all the festivals,” she said. “I don’t feel any urgency to leave.”

“The situation is dire, not unsafe,” said another Zimbabwe Jew who spoke to JTA on condition of anonymity. “No one that I know has been harmed in any way.”

She added, “I feel safer here than in Johannesburg.”

Many of Zimbabwe’s non-elderly Jews regularly commute to neighboring South Africa.

“The younger people like me have homes in South Africa,” said Solomon, the synagogue president. “I often question why I’m not more positive in making a plan to move, but I don’t know whether South Africa is the place to move to, quite honestly. I’m still making a bit of a living here and I have the best of both worlds.”

Solomon says he visits Cape Town every four to six weeks for about 10 days to see family and go to movies and restaurants.

“It’s just a bit of a bittersweet sort of life,” he said.

Last July, Solomon was jailed for a night for violating Zimbabwe’s price controls by overcharging on a box of spaghetti.

With everything that has happened, however, Solomon sounds a note of optimism.

“Something positive is going to come out of all this,” he said. “The economic situation just cannot carry on like this anymore.”

Goodbye, Zimbabwe -The once-thriving Jewish community has all but disappeared

Source (Macleans)

Goodbye, Zimbabwe
The once-thriving Jewish community has all but disappeared
MICHAEL ROSS June 4, 2008 MICHAEL ROSS-->

"If Cape Town is the top deck of the Titanic for the Jews of southern Africa, then Zimbabwe is the boiler room below the waterline," my guide Malcolm observed during my last foray into Zimbabwe in 2001 as an agent of Mossad, the Israeli spy service. If that was so, then the boiler room is now empty.

Much attention has been paid to the plight of Zimbabwe's white and mostly Anglo farmers whose fields were seized under President Robert Mugabe's ill-conceived and disastrous land appropriation program. But the abject ruination the Mugabe regime has wrought on the small landlocked country has had other victims as well. As Zimbabwe's economy and quality of life have deteriorated, the number of Jews in a place once touted as the bread-basket of Africa and a showcase of interracial harmony and prosperity has been sinking, almost as fast as the fated ocean liner now resting on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.
It's been a painful road to ruin, given how the community once flourished. During the time of the ever-expanding British Empire of the 19th century, Jews traversed South Africa into northern tribal lands, eventually settling into prosperous communities in cities such as Harare, Bulawayo and Kadoma, all in what is now Zimbabwe. They were the backbone of the business sector, establishing and owning commercial ventures ranging from retail stores to import-export firms. But then came the violent and turbulent period of Mugabe's fight to convert white-minority-ruled Rhodesia into the modern African state of Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe's decline into an impoverished country that now has one of the lowest life expectancy rates and one of the worst HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, with some 3,500 people dying per week due to HIV/AIDS alone.

Zimbabwe's Jews, along with others, fled. From its peak of some 7,500 in the 1970s, the country's Jewish community today consists of some 200 souls, mostly in Harare but with a small core lingering in Bulawayo. The average age is over 70; some 25 of the eldest live in Bulawayo's Savyon Lodge, a Jewish geriatric centre that, remarkably, still serves kosher meals to its guests. Those that can still leave do, with most heading to families who have long departed for the less troubled former colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with others seeking sanctuary in South Africa and Israel.

The Jews that are left are not exactly made to feel welcome. The beautiful synagogue of Bulawayo was gutted by a fire in 2003, only to have the local press declare that Jews had been hoarding fuel and all sorts of treasures and foreign currency in the building. Unsurprisingly, the press made no mention of how some congregants risked death to retrieve the Torah scrolls from the burning synagogue. Mugabe, once a comrade of the late Yasser Arafat, has added fuel to the already burning flames of anti-Semitism by allowing Palestinian and Iranian diplomats in Zimbabwe to exert a most undiplomatic influence on members of the government. Tag on the random muggings, violence, and property crime in a country with an unemployment rate hovering at around 80 per cent, and what's left of the community feels very beleaguered.
Zimbabwean native Dave Bloom, 54, describes the current situation in stark terms. "There are a handful of younger members," he says, "but within five to 10 years the majority of the older community will have passed. I cannot envisage a resuscitation even if a change of power were to happen." Bloom now lives in Israel, where he has become a sort of self-appointed archivist — maintaining a detailed database complete with multimedia records, for future generations of Jews to whom Zimbabwe's community will be only a memory. "I'm trying to preserve as much of the story as possible, including pictures of every Jewish tombstone in Zimbabwe — a sort of virtual museum," says Bloom. He'll soon have very little work ahead of him.


Michael Ross's The Volunteer (McClelland & Stewart), about his years in the Mossad, recently appeared in paperback.

Goodbye, Zimbabwe The once-thriving Jewish community has all but disappeared

Goodbye, Zimbabwe

The once-thriving Jewish community has all but disappeared

MICHAEL ROSS | June 4, 2008 |

"If Cape Town is the top deck of the Titanic for the Jews of southern Africa, then Zimbabwe is the boiler room below the waterline," my guide Malcolm observed during my last foray into Zimbabwe in 2001 as an agent of Mossad, the Israeli spy service. If that was so, then the boiler room is now empty.

Much attention has been paid to the plight of Zimbabwe's white and mostly Anglo farmers whose fields were seized under President Robert Mugabe's ill-conceived and disastrous land appropriation program. But the abject ruination the Mugabe regime has wrought on the small landlocked country has had other victims as well. As Zimbabwe's economy and quality of life have deteriorated, the number of Jews in a place once touted as the bread-basket of Africa and a showcase of interracial harmony and prosperity has been sinking, almost as fast as the fated ocean liner now resting on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.

It's been a painful road to ruin, given how the community once flourished. During the time of the ever-expanding British Empire of the 19th century, Jews traversed South Africa into northern tribal lands, eventually settling into prosperous communities in cities such as Harare, Bulawayo and Kadoma, all in what is now Zimbabwe. They were the backbone of the business sector, establishing and owning commercial ventures ranging from retail stores to import-export firms. But then came the violent and turbulent period of Mugabe's fight to convert white-minority-ruled Rhodesia into the modern African state of Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe's decline into an impoverished country that now has one of the lowest life expectancy rates and one of the worst HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, with some 3,500 people dying per week due to HIV/AIDS alone.

Zimbabwe's Jews, along with others, fled. From its peak of some 7,500 in the 1970s, the country's Jewish community today consists of some 200 souls, mostly in Harare but with a small core lingering in Bulawayo. The average age is over 70; some 25 of the eldest live in Bulawayo's Savyon Lodge, a Jewish geriatric centre that, remarkably, still serves kosher meals to its guests. Those that can still leave do, with most heading to families who have long departed for the less troubled former colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with others seeking sanctuary in South Africa and Israel.

The Jews that are left are not exactly made to feel welcome. The beautiful synagogue of Bulawayo was gutted by a fire in 2003, only to have the local press declare that Jews had been hoarding fuel and all sorts of treasures and foreign currency in the building. Unsurprisingly, the press made no mention of how some congregants risked death to retrieve the Torah scrolls from the burning synagogue. Mugabe, once a comrade of the late Yasser Arafat, has added fuel to the already burning flames of anti-Semitism by allowing Palestinian and Iranian diplomats in Zimbabwe to exert a most undiplomatic influence on members of the government. Tag on the random muggings, violence, and property crime in a country with an unemployment rate hovering at around 80 per cent, and what's left of the community feels very beleaguered.

Zimbabwean native Dave Bloom, 54, describes the current situation in stark terms. "There are a handful of younger members," he says, "but within five to 10 years the majority of the older community will have passed. I cannot envisage a resuscitation even if a change of power were to happen." Bloom now lives in Israel, where he has become a sort of self-appointed archivist — maintaining a detailed database complete with multimedia records, for future generations of Jews to whom Zimbabwe's community will be only a memory. "I'm trying to preserve as much of the story as possible, including pictures of every Jewish tombstone in Zimbabwe — a sort of virtual museum," says Bloom. He'll soon have very little work ahead of him.

Michael Ross's The Volunteer (McClelland & Stewart), about his years in the Mossad, recently appeared in paperback.

Collection of recent articles on the Zim Jewish Community and general situation

African rabbi in Britain tells of crisis faced by Zimbabwe Jews
Jewish Chronicle - Jun 19, 2008
But following last week’s exclusive JC report on an emergency evacuation plan made by the Jewish Agency, the Zimbabwe Jews we contacted said that, despite the deteriorating situation, they feel secure and have no plan to leave.

Zimbabwe: 'Jews to Be Airlifted Out'
AllAfrica.com - Jun 13, 2008
He is reported as saying, "In terms of personal security, they feel protected. So I can understand why they are not in a rush to leave.

Zimbabwe: Run-Off Pullout - Morgan Dancing to Master's Tune
AllAfrica.com - 1 hour ago
It is meant to work for Zimbabwe today. The propaganda frightened the Germans and many thought they were defending themselves against the Jews and the Bolsheviks. The US held about 120 000 American citizens of Japanese descent on the basis of this same ...

'Zimbabwe Jews are safe'
Totally Jewish - Jun 19, 2008
Sources close to the Jewish Agency said: “The Jewish Agency is not planning to send aeroplanes to Zimbabwe to take out the Jews. Who says they want to leave anyway? Zimbabwe is a country where you can enter and leave at your own will.

Afrik.com

Jewish community in Zimbabwe faces repatriation
Afrik.com - Jun 13, 2008
On Thursday it was reported that an Israel group called Jewish Agency is one such formation that wants to rescue the remaining Jews from the violence. It is estimated that there are close to 400 Jewish community still resident in the southern African ...

A shtetl in Africa
Jerusalem Post - Jun 13, 2008
Once the bread basket of Africa, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) today is a basket case, unable to feed even its own people. From a peak of some 7500 Jews in the 1970s - comprising some 80 percent Ashkenazim - the country's community today numbers only ...

ZIMBABWE ON THE PRECIPICE

CiPS (Centre for International Political Studies)
Centre for International Political
Studies
ZIMBABWE ON THE PRECIPICE
Presented by
HE Mr James McGee
Ambassador of the United States of America to Zimbabwe
at the
AFRICA DIALOGUE LECTURE SERIES
Centre for International Political Studies, University of Pretoria
19 June 2008

Thank you very much for inviting me to join you today. Thank you Dr. Solomon. It’s a pleasure to be here to talk with you about the dire situation in Zimbabwe.
At independence, Tanzanian leader, Julius Nyerere, told Zimbabwe’s new leader, Robert Mugabe, that he had inherited the jewel of Africa and urged him to protect it. Zimbabwe was to be the model for a new Africa. It was the region’s breadbasket. The economy’s potential was limitless. An effort was being made towards racial reconciliation.
Twenty-eight years later, as I flew down from Harare this morning, I left a country on the precipice. Zimbabwe today, is teetering on the edge of lawlessness and anarchy. It is a country on the brink of starvation. It has already fallen off the precipice of economic collapse and is sinking into a seemingly bottomless abyss. These problems are the direct result of a regime that cares more about clinging to power and the personal riches it brings than it does the welfare of its citizens. Sadly, as I stand here today, the prospects for a free and fair election that might bring change to Zimbabwe are limited. The government-directed campaign of violence and intimidation, coupled with planned electoral fraud make a free and fair election impossible. The only possible antidote is an immediate and large-scale commitment to independent electoral observation by SADC, the African Union and others.

Some observers are already present and I know that more are on the way. I welcome this development because I will be the first to admit that the influence of the United States can only go so far in Zimbabwe. The impact of Zimbabwe’s crisis will be felt the most by its neighbors, and they can do the most to solve it.
The most immediate threat facing many Zimbabweans is violence and lawlessness. The campaign of violence being conducted by the Mugabe regime is out of control and shows a callous disregard for local and international laws and the most basic standards of human rights. This once proud liberation movement is willing to beat and kill its own citizens. It is willing to violate the norms of civilized societies. It is willing to violate SADC’s protocols on elections. And, as I have experienced first hand, it is even willing to ignore the most basic protections for diplomats provided in the Vienna Convention. Corruption, greed and the need to maintain themselves in power have converted freedom fighters and liberators into lawless tyrants.

I have witnessed with my own eyes the victims of this violence, and any attempt to deny it or claim it is the result of opposition activity is simply a lie. To date over 3000 people have been hospitalized and over 60 killed. Over 30,000 have been displaced from their homes and villages. And those are only the confirmed cases we know about. I have received reports of a primary school principal dragged out of his office in broad daylight, never to be seen again, for no other reason than that he worked at a polling station that voted MDC in the March 29 elections. The elderly grandmother of the MDC’s spokesman was assaulted because of her grandson’s activities. Children are being dragged out every night and forced to chant ZANU-PF slogans and more. I don’t think it is inappropriate to call a regime willing to assault educators, the elderly and youth as lawless.
At an even more basic level, there is no Government of Zimbabwe. According to Zimbabwean law, the Parliament was dissolved before the March 29 elections. The newly elected Parliament has never been convened. We now have the situation of a regime claiming to be represented by “Ministers” who have not been appointed by any Parliament.

Some of them, such as so called Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa weren’t even re-elected and aren’t even members of Parliament.
An equally serious threat for many Zimbabweans is hunger and starvation. Once unknown in Zimbabwe they threaten many, including the elderly and children. Zimbabwe is not currently experiencing malnutrition on a large scale, but it soon may. Zimbabwe’s harvest, devastated by the government’s disastrous land policies, will once again reach record lows this year. Current estimates maintain that the harvest will only meet one-quarter of Zimbabwe’s food needs. In a normal year we do not see food insecurity start until sometime in August, but my experts tell me that we are likely to see serious food insecurity starting as soon as later this month. Compounding the lack of an adequate harvest is the Government of Zimbabwe’s disastrous, practically criminal, decision to suspend all operations by NGOs, including those providing humanitarian assistance.

In the best of circumstances, the U.S. and other major food donors would have a hard time helping to feed Zimbabweans. U.S food aid alone was $171 million dollars over the past year, with more needed this year. The Government of Zimbabwe’s decision to suspend NGO operations will prevent this critical assistance from reaching Zimbabwe’s most needy and potentially leaves up to four million people in danger of starving. Not to mention the orphans, HIV patients, elderly and other needy individuals having to make do without any help. Let me be clear, the Government of Zimbabwe’s actions are a direct assault on the people of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s disastrous harvest is but one symptom of an economy that has already gone over the precipice. The numbers are truly staggering. Inflation is over two million percent according to reliable private estimates. In the past week alone the Zimbabwe dollar lost 56% of its value against the U.S. dollar. To give you some perspective on what that kind of inflation means, I have heard stories of people stranded downtown because the price of a commuter bus rose from 600 million Zimbabwean dollars to 800 million dollars between the

morning and afternoon commutes. Routine transactions now require so many zeroes that some accounting systems cannot handle them.
Unemployment is over 80%. Manufacturing levels have plummeted. Businesses close their doors literally every day. Even mining, one of Zimbabwe’s few remaining foreign currency earners is suffering as power cuts and lack of needed supplies cut into production. Zimbabwe’s once vibrant economy is practically non-existent at this point. Those hit hardest, of course, are the poor who make up the vast majority of Zimbabwe’s population.

Zimbabwe’s leadership is wont to blame the country’s economic problems on Western sanctions. First, the only real sanctions on Zimbabwe at present are targeted sanctions against regime leaders which prevent them from traveling to the U.S. and from doing business with U.S. firms. While the Government of Zimbabwe refers to the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) as a type of sanction, this is not the case. ZDERA prevents the U.S. from supporting international financial institution assistance, such as from the IMF or World Bank, to Zimbabwe. Even without ZDERA, international financial institutions would not lend to Zimbabwe because of its terribly mismanaged economy and its failure to pay back prior loans. Zimbabwe alone owes the World Bank over 600 million US dollars.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that after Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, general sanctions were imposed against Rhodesia. Nevertheless, at independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar was stronger than the U.S. dollar. The fact is that the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy and the hyperinflation that has rendered Zimbabwe’s currency worthless are due to economic mismanagement, including payouts to war veterans in 1997, Zimbabwe’s misadventure in the Congo in 1998, and land invasions that began in 2000 and turned the bread basket of southern Africa into a basket case. The government continues its economic mismanagement through excessive spending, the 24 hour-a-day printing of money, and maintenance of an artificial exchange rate that benefits

regime insiders. Zimbabwe will be able to emerge from the current economic abyss only when there is political reform and political will, which in turn make economic reform possible.

I wish I could stand here and say that the June 27 run-off offers the chance for political change and a brighter future. Unfortunately, the current climate makes free and fair elections impossible. MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is hounded at every turn, making it impossible to campaign. Since his return to Zimbabwe, he has been detained by the police four times. His campaign vehicles have been confiscated. The Mugabe regime is providing no political space for him to campaign.

Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of the MDC was arrested upon his return to Zimbabwe from South Africa. His crimes? Announcing March 29 election results, based on official tally sheets posted outside polling stations, before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced results. He also allegedly disseminated a document setting out MDC plans for governing Zimbabwe after the election—a document that Biti never disseminated and which was fabricated by ZANU-PF to create fear of the MDC on the part of its supporters. Biti now stands charged with treason.

The state controlled media also contributes to the poisonous atmosphere. They routinely broadcast and publish propaganda for the regime, refuse to accept paid advertising from the opposition and slander anyone associated with the MDC. Particularly disturbing, in the past few weeks the state media has begun to broadcast inflammatory material designed to promote violence against the opposition. Senior editors who opposed these policies have been fired and control of the media given to security officials.
Then there is the massive and widespread intimidation of the electorate. At first the campaign focused on areas that had traditionally voted for ZANU-PF, but voted for the MDC on March 29. The goal of the campaign was to intimidate people into voting for ZANU-PF, or simply into not voting at all. Those who voted for the MDC, or merely live in areas that voted for the MDC

are being targeted. Mugabe has made multiple public statements that a vote for the MDC is a vote for war, represents a betrayal of the country, and won’t be respected.
The campaign has now spread to include attacks on MDC officials and their families. Multiple MDC members-of-Parliament elect have been arrested or attacked since March 29. The Mugabe regime hopes to eliminate the ability of the MDC to campaign or govern, now and in the future.
All of this makes independent regional and international observers crucial. I am pleased to see that SADC and the Pan-African Parliament have already started to deploy observers to Zimbabwe. This effort needs to continue and expand to include African Union observers as well.
These regional efforts, and regional initiatives to push the parties towards a peaceful solution are critical. Zimbabwe’s neighbors have the most to lose if the crisis continues and have, far and away, the most influence. As vocal as I have been, and will continue to be, my influence and that of the United States can only go so far. The Mugabe regime has shown itself quite willing to ignore international condemnation of its heinous acts. It will find it much more difficult to ignore regional leaders and pressure.
We have already seen what regional action can do, with regards to the arms shipment turned away at ports throughout southern Africa. Most notable, this effort did not start out as a governmental action, but as a protest by dock workers in Durban. When the people and governments of this region stand together, opposing further violence in Zimbabwe, they can, and do, make a difference.
The centrality of regional actors is appropriate, given that the southern African region has the most at stake. Make no mistake, Zimbabwe’s ongoing crisis is a regional crisis. Its effects are being felt outside of Zimbabwe’s borders and will continue to grow more severe. Here in South Africa you are only too aware of the huge numbers of Zimbabweans fleeing their

country. No one really knows how many Zimbabweans have left, but estimates range up to several million or one-quarter of Zimbabwe’s population.
We have all seen the tragic consequences of the large numbers of Zimbabweans in South Africa. Former Mozambican First Lady Graca Machel recently warned of the impact of population migration in Mozambique. One only has to look at the Great Lakes region to see the devastating consequences of the mass migration of people fleeing political violence. More than a decade later the region is still unstable. None of Zimbabwe’s neighbors will be immune. However many Zimbabweans have already fled, even more could depart if the starvation, economic collapse and anarchy continue.
The impact of Zimbabwe’s troubles on the region goes beyond the millions who have fled. Zimbabwe was long known as the breadbasket of southern Africa. Given the global food crisis, the continuing disappearance of the Zimbabwean harvest is only magnified. People throughout southern Africa would benefit from increased Zimbabwean agriculture. In its absence food prices are higher and people suffer. The broader economic collapse of Zimbabwe is also felt throughout the region. Economic growth in the region is retarded by Zimbabwe’s implosion.

That is why I think it is important for me to be here today. All of you in this room have a stake in what happens in Zimbabwe. What is happening right now is catastrophic. A disastrous harvest, coupled with an outrageous suspension of NGOs by the Government of Zimbabwe, threatens millions. The economy has completely imploded and anarchy lurks in the Mugabe regime’s criminal campaign of violence against its own citizens. The upcoming run-off cannot provide a solution unless rapid and significant changes in the prevailing conditions occur. Zimbabwe is a country on the precipice.
However, it is not too late. I still think it is possible to bring Zimbabwe back from the precipice. A concerted international effort, led by key regional players, can change the future. If regional leaders decide to take forceful action that puts the interests of the people of Zimbabwe ahead

of any entrenched political hierarchies we can avoid the catastrophe I fear. A massive independent observation effort can slow the regime’s campaign of violence, while creating more free and fair conditions for the elections. A major donor effort can stave off the impending hunger. And a new government which sets responsible fiscal policies and is willing to work with the International Financial Institutions can start to bring Zimbabwe out of the economic abyss. It won’t be quick, and it won’t be easy, but we must start now, or it will be too late.

Thank you very much.

CiPS (Centre for International Political Studies)
University of Pretoria Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 2696 cips@postino.up.ac.za
Pretoria, 0002 Fax: +27 (0) 12 420 3527 www.cips.up.ac.za
South Africa

The morning after

The Morning After

It is quite interesting being in South Africa for a few days recuperating and waiting for clearance from my doctors. I have watched Mbeki speaking to the national assembly on Zimbabwe and listened to the debate in the country at large. I am struck by the fact that there is little or no debate or discussion about what will happen after the election on the 27th June.

Newspaper reports talk of discussions to try and get a government of national unity, they argue that a free and fair election is impossible and that therefore the only answer is a GNU with Mugabe as President and Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. They talk about emulating the Kenyan solution. I have said to anyone who asked, that the MDC would not accept such a solution at any price. We want the run off to take place and whoever wins then picks up from there, forms a government and we go on.

But of course it is not as simple as that. Just yesterday the Vice President in Zimbabwe said that a vote for Morgan Tsvangirai is a vote for war. He said they would not accept a MDC government and those same sentiments have been repeated in recent weeks by all sorts of people in the Mugabe administration. So what is this election process all about then? Even last night I heard Mbeki saying that they were not seeking regime change via their facilitation process! But he also said that it was important that the run off take place and that the people of Zimbabwe enjoy the right to choose their leaders.

So we have an election on the 27th June. An election run by the security establishment which has now taken over the running of the Zimbabwe Election Commission, after a campaign characterized by political violence instituted and managed by the military and the State, a campaign during which the MDC has not been able to campaign freely, has received no exposure in the State run media and has had its leaders harassed, beaten, detained and denied all the rights taken for granted in true democracies. Yet on these matters Mbeki and others remain mute.

But what happens if, against this background the MDC wins by a wide margin and its victory cannot be disputed? What then? It is clear at this point that the administration and security chiefs in Zimbabwe will simply not accept such an outcome. They only have one choice and that is to act illegally against the will of the people, override the outcome and force the continued administration of the country by an illegal regime. Can you really imagine that, after all they have stated and their own behavior in recent weeks, that they will accept an MDC victory?

I think this is the most likely outcome and predict that Morgan Tsvangirai will receive a huge majority on the 27th June. A political commentator with whom I am staying asked what if Mugabe and the security establishment simply bulldoze a victory for Mugabe, succeed with their campaign of violence and intimidation and then rig the outcome. Mugabe would be declared the winner and the region would accept this, including South Africa and Mugabe would then govern with a minority in Parliament.

In either event we need to think through the consequences for the region and for South Africa in particular. A Mugabe led regime in Harare will not be accepted by any of the major western nations. The country will have to get urgent help to meet its needs for food imports, urgent help to stabilize its economy and bring inflation under control and immediate assistance with fuel and other essential imports. Only South Africa could do so and if it was to avoid a complete collapse in Zimbabwe it would have to act to meet these essential needs very quickly.

But even if it did so, the added burden to the South African fiscus might be all that is needed to put the South African economy into a tailspin. The Rand is trading at 8 to 1 against the dollar, inflation is up and rising and growth is sluggish at 3 to 4 per cent. Whatever they do, we must accept that this year the winter crop in Zimbabwe is already a casualty of the delays in a transition, preparation for the crop in the summer of 2008/09 has not even started and therefore there is unlikely to be any recovery in food supplies this year. Inflation is out of control at over 2 million per cent per annum and a wide-ranging economic collapse is well under way.

Under these circumstances any outcome on the 27th that leaves Mugabe in charge will trigger a mass exodus of economic and political refugees into South Africa. Estimates put the net arrivals in South Africa from Zimbabwe at 750 000 in the past year. In my own view a victory for Mugabe in any form in June, will lead to an exodus of not less than an additional 2 million people in fairly short order. Do I really have to spell out the consequences of such an event on South Africa? Yet there is no debate here about such a possibility after June 27th. It is a nightmare scenario.

The tragedy of this situation is that it need not be like that. If the SADC and South Africa stated right now that they would respect the outcome of the election and would expect everyone else to do so as well including the present leadership in Zimbabwe, this would help. It would reinforce the role of democratic elections as the only means for effecting regime change and respect for the views of the people when it comes to the selection of leadership.

Despite their reluctance to intervene in any active sense, South Africa has little or no choice when it comes to reigning in those in Zimbabwe who blithely talk of war if Tsvangirai wins. Such rhetoric is simply unacceptable and the Mugabe team in Harare needs to be told that.

If Tsvangirai wins and is then allowed to take power as is his right, then the situation can be turned around in short order. The international community has made no effort to disguise the fact that they would back a new democratically elected government in Harare. They would step in and feed the country, they would back a stabilization program to curb inflation and get the economy onto a recovery path. Most importantly the flight of people to South Africa would stop and be reversed as people decide to come home and participate in reconstruction and development. This would reduce pressures on the South African social system and economy and give much needed breathing space.

It is not too late to get this right, but South Africans need to recognize that they have as much at stake in Zimbabwe on the 27th June and its immediate aftermath as every Zimbabwean.

Eddie Cross
Johannesburg, 13th June 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
Every time the man insulted and complained in his ugly, raised voice, I could feel droplets of his spit on my neck. He was standing so close behind me that I felt distinctly uncomfortable. There must have been about twenty of us waiting in the queue at the supermarket but no one commented or said a word about the abusive tirade. The owners of this sort of behaviour are well known to us all and to stay safe we stay quiet. "Hey Manager," he shouted, "someone send for the manager. Why must I wait like this? I don't expect to have to wait." The more the man ranted the quieter it got in the shop. Two security guards standing at the exit doors did not come forward, instead they retreated out of sight and the shower of spit on my neck increased. "Hey, bring more tellers! Come on, I'm tired of waiting. Hey, you, how much is that chocolate? No, not the local one, the imported one. What about the newspaper, the imported one? How much? Hey, hurry up."

The owner of the abusive behaviour was a man of perhaps thirty. His head was shaven and he wore a thick gold chain around his neck. In his hand, on obvious display, he flicked a thick bundle of money. Under his loose, open-necked shirt we could all see the T shirt he wore with the face of Mr Mugabe on it.

This is the face of Zimbabwe a fortnight before elections: one man silences twenty. We see but we stay quiet.

Two men arrived on foot at a farm this week and they were carrying Zanu PF posters. As they began putting up the posters on the walls of outbuildings a worker tried to object - this is private property after all. "You are not allowed to complain," came the response. "Or maybe you are MDC?" The worker did not respond and the posters of Mr Mugabe were plastered on the walls of private property.

This is the face of Zimbabwe where election observers have begun arriving but are only allowed to watch from 8 am to 5pm.

A friend was at the hospital when the latest victim of political violence arrived. The victim was in his early sixties and accused of being an MDC supporter. Both his arms and one leg were broken , his skull was fractured and the injuries too severe to be treated at the local hospital.

This is the face of Zimbabwe where only 400 election observers will watch 12 million Zimbabweans on the 27th of June. 400 election observers to watch 9231 polling stations. One observer for every 23 polling stations - it is a mockery, an insult to a tired, broken, hungry and frightened population. Is this really the best Africa can do? Until next time, love cathy, Copyright cathy buckle 14th June 2008.

www.cathybuckle.com My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa from: books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from: orders@africabookcentre.com

'My Zimbabwe Experience'

'My Zimbabwe Experience'

By Cassie Williams - Tuesday 8th 2008f April 2008

World Jewish Relief's Cassie Williams recounts her time spent helping the Jewish community and other people in need in Zimbabwe.

I have worked as Programme Manager for WJR (World Jewish Relief) for 16 months. Prior to joining the team, I spent two and a half years in Rwanda and Ethiopia, working with street kids and destitute citizens. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced in Zimbabwe in February, when I went to visit the project WJR supports.

I didn’t go to Zimbabwe armed with statistics and percentages, or with a clip board to fill out mundane forms and cross the appropriate boxes. I spent a week in this fascinating country to learn more about the daily turmoil of its citizens. The reports of the situation pale in comparison to the reality - life for the average Zimbabwean is unimaginably difficult today.

Everything is in short supply - from basic food stuffs to petrol. The March/April harvest has been blighted by a serious drought. In the country’s second city, Bulawayo - where WJR is active - the majority of people are surviving on food aid and other assistance. Across much of the city, roads are falling in to disrepair; refuse is no longer collected, posing a serious health risk; water is in short supply and prices rise by the hour. The health system has almost entirely collapsed and the supermarket shelves remain empty.

I spoke to a number of elderly people buckling under the responsibility as the official guardians to their orphan grandchildren - they doubt that they will ever be able to provide for these children. The young people I spoke to were startlingly frank about how hard it is to concentrate at school on an empty stomach – schools continue to function nominally, despite the dramatic exodus of teachers who have fled the country in search of different jobs for better pay.

People wait patiently for change, clinging onto hope.

Currently, WJR is supporting a Jewish old age home called Savyon Lodge, where 24 Jewish residents and two non-Jewish residents are somewhat sheltered from the horrors befalling the population. They live in relative comfort; receiving three decent meals a day and medical support thanks to WJR and our partners on the ground. They are, perhaps blissfully, ignorant to the fact that their life savings are worthless and that they are barely able to contribute to their upkeep. As the shortages and economic crisis expand to unthinkable levels, the home faces severe difficulties in securing food and medical equipment and is compelled to source goods from South Africa. WJR provides the funds to enable them to do this – but sadly, many Zimbabweans do not have access to the kind of support WJR provides.

There is nothing, so they have nothing. Inflation is spiralling out of control: in the middle of February a loaf of bread cost Z$3.5 million - then, Z$10 million was worth approximately £1. On 3rd April, a loaf of bread cost Z$10.5m and Z$100m was equal to £1.

It is estimated that some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. Life expectancy is one of the lowest in the world; since 1994 it has fallen from 57 to 34 for women and from 54 to 37 for men. Industry has all but collapsed, causing millions to flee the country in search of a better life elsewhere, while those who remain are trapped in poverty, unable to provide for their children or themselves. Over 80% of those who remain in the country are unemployed.

WJR considers it both a duty and an honour to help the Jews in need in Zimbabwe. However, the needs of the majority black population are undoubtedly far more pressing and as such, WJR is currently working with local agencies to find ways to assist the wider community of Bulawayo.

If you are interested in finding out more, or donating to WJR, please call 020 8536 1250, email info@wjr.org.uk or visit www.wjr.org.uk.

Cassie Williams is WJR Programme Manager

Zimbabwe’s Opposition Accuses Israeli Tech Firms, Mossad of Election-Rigging

Source : TheForward
- www.forward.com

Zimbabwe’s Opposition Accuses Israeli Tech Firms, Mossad of Election-Rigging

By Claudia Braude

Wed. Apr 02, 2008

Johannesburg, South Africa

Events leading to this weekend’s widely watched election in Zimbabwe took an unexpected turn when opposition parties alleged that the Israeli company compiling the electronic voter rolls was linked to the Mossad and was working to sway the vote in favor of Robert Mugabe, the country’s longtime autocratic leader.

Nikuv International Projects, a company that specializes in identification, electoral and government systems, holds a government contract with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs to computerize all identification documents. The ID database compiled by the company was used in Saturday’s voters’ roll.

In an article last week, The Zimbabwean, a weekly independent newspaper promoting democratic change and published simultaneously in London and Johannesburg, alleged that 20 Israelis had arrived in Zimbabwe as “special government guests” “to beef up Mossad support for… Mugabe’s election-rigging plans.” Met by members of the Mugabe government’s Central Intelligence Office, the paper alleges they were “taken to a hideout in the capital” to meet other Mossad and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials. It quoted an anonymous government official saying Mossad agents were the “major force… controlling the election process, especially… the counting and announcement of results.”

Representatives of the Israeli government railed against the charges as false. “There is no Mossad involvement whatsoever in Zimbabwe’s elections. This allegation is totally baseless,” Elias Inbram, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, told the Forward on March 30. “There are no Israeli intelligence agents in Zimbabwe, and there has been no interference with the elections held recently,” he said in a statement released April 1.

The statement was issued after pressure for a public response was brought to bear by the African Jewish Congress’s Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft and other leaders of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. They were concerned about the potential damage the allegations could do to Zimbabwe’s tiny Jewish community in a period of intense political uncertainty.
This was not the first time that Nikuv — a subsidiary of Formula Systems, a publicly traded information technology group in Israel — was accused of helping the ruling parties in an African country to rig elections. In 1996, Zambia’s opposition party, the United National Independence Party, similarly accused the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy of trying to rig the elections with Nikuv’s help.

Hoping to avoid last-minute fraud, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, called results Sunday as they were publicly posted at voting stations nationwide before being sent to the collating center of the ZEC, which is charged with overseeing the elections. Preliminary results indicated a comfortable MDC victory. But official results since released by the ZEC showed the MDC running neck-and-neck with Zanu-PF, Mugabe’s ruling party.

Ibbo Mandaza, a senior member of presidential candidate Simba Makoni’s campaign team, told Johannesburg’s newspaper Mail & Guardian that the Mossad devised the roll, on Mugabe’s instructions. Mossad agents, he alleged, had expertise in vote rigging and had been active in Zimbabwe for the past six months.

Opposition suspicions of electoral trickery with Israeli assistance were heightened when the MDC was handed the voters’ roll electronically. It had been converted into the read-only and unusable PDF format. “The whole idea of PDF is that it’s not manipulable. Giving it in that form is a clear attempt to hide information,” said David Lubinsky, a computer science expert who consulted for South Africa’s electoral commission in that country’s historic 1994 elections.
Moreover, what information was on the rolls was also troublesome. Thousands of “ghost voters,” including people long dead, were discovered on the voters’ register. Opposition figures feared that Mugabe’s party was trying, using the extra 3 million ballots printed by the ZEC, to steal a majority win by stuffing ballot boxes with these names. (Observers from the Pan-African Parliament lodged a complaint with the ZEC on Saturday about 8000 nonexistent voters registered on empty land in a Harare constituency, an MDC stronghold.)

Next, opposition suspicions were heightened by the fact that the PDF conversion software also belonged to an Israeli IT company, Cogniview PL. Speaking in Harare on Thursday, Tendai Biti, Movement for Democratic Change’s secretary general, told journalists that Cogniview provided Mugabe with technical support to rig the elections. “Mugabe and his cronies intend to steal this election through the use of sophisticated software provided by the Israeli company with Mossad connections,” he said.

“I am shocked by this fiction. Neither I nor any of my employees have any links to Zimbabwe,” Yoav Ezer, Cogniview’s chief technology officer, told the Forward. “Somebody in Zimbabwe must have used our software, which is open-source and free to download,” he said.
Efforts to obtain a response from Nikuv in Zimbabwe and Israel were not successful. Udy Erez, general manager of the company’s Harare office, hung up on a reporter when reached.
While not happy about the allegations, Zimbabwean Jews do not believe they were motivated by antisemitism.

“The voters’ roll was shady, so the pre-election situation was sinister to begin with,” one member of Bulawayo’s Jewish community said, dismissing The Zimbabwean story as sensationalist and populist. “If you say the Mossad is involved, it makes it even more sinister.”

Babs Naim determined to vote

AN elderly woman was determined to cast her vote in Harare's Avondale suburb earlier today (Blog Editor: Picture above shows veteran member of the Harare Jewish Community, Babs Naim in wheelchair accompanied by her helper and Mary Levinson on left.)
Source: http://www.zimonline.co.za/

HARARE – Voting in Zimbabwe’s key elections ended peacefully on Saturday with most voters having succeeded in casting their ballots by the close of polling at 7pm.

It was however not possible to establish from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) the exact figures of Zimbabweans who had voted in the election.

Some reports suggested that some voters had been turned away from polling stations after their names were not found on the voters’ register that has been condemned by Zimbabwe’s main opposition party as flawed.

ZEC senior polling officer in the second city of Bulawayo, Innocent Ncube, refused to say how many voters had cast their ballots saying the details, which have been released during past polls, will not be provided to the media.

ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe said in an interview that all polling stations had closed at 7pm and counting of votes had begun.

“Polling stations have closed and counting has started,” said Chiweshe.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said earlier tonight that it was worried by the high number of assisted voters in President Robert Mugabe’s rural strongholds of Mashonaland East and Central provinces.

The MDC said the number of assisted voters in the two provinces was too high raising fears that the government wanted to manipulate figures there to steal the election.

“We have received reports that close to more than half of the voters in Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central province have been assisted to vote and this is worrying in a country with a high literacy rate like Zimbabwe,” said MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.

Chiweshe said he was still receiving reports from around the country and was therefore not in a position to comment on the opposition’s concerns. He also said it was still too early to state when the first results would be available.

“We are still receiving reports from around the country and therefore I cannot say much. If I do not get all the reports tonight it might have to be tomorrow that’s why I’m unable to say when we can start briefings,” said Chiweshe.

Several people who spoke to ZimOnline earlier in the day said they were desperate to see political change in Zimbabwe after years of repression and bad governance by Mugabe.

“We are hoping for change but I do not know what will happen if Mugabe rigs the election,” said Pamela Ncube a first time voter from Nkulumane constituency in Bulawayo.

Milton Sibanda said prospects for Kenya-style prospects in Zimbabwe were too ghastly to contemplate adding that he wanted a peaceful election were losers would accept gracefully accept defeat.

“The consequences of a rigged election are frightening. I do not want violence in Zimbabwe but I shudder to think of what will happen if Mugabe steals the election again,” said Milton Sibanda.

Mugabe, in power since the country’s independence from Britain 28 years ago, said on Saturday that he will not rig the election as his conscience would not allow him to do so.

Meanwhile, the International Bar Association (IBA) urged election authorities and accredited international observers to take all necessary steps to ensure that the will of the Zimbabwean electorate was not thwarted.

Zimbabwe barred election observers from Western countries and only invited observers from the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other groups deemed not hostile to the government.

“They (invited observers) should not fail the Zimbabwean people by endorsing a process that falls below acceptable standards,” said IBA executive director, Mark Ellis.

The IBA said Zimbabweans have endured a series of deeply flawed elections but kept their faith in democracy saying this restraint and faith in elections was now wearing thin.

“It is, therefore, imperative that the foreign observers speak out strongly against all irregularities in this election,” said Ellis. - ZimOnline

As Zimbabwe Votes, a Once-Proud Community Searches for Sustenance

As Zimbabwe Votes, a Once-Proud Community Searches for Sustenance Letter from Harare

By Claudia BraudeWed. Mar 26, 2008

Harare, Zimbabwe — In early March, a South African rabbi traveled to Zimbabwe’s capital city on one of the many trips he has made in recent years to give material and spiritual sustenance to a Jewish community suffering from one of the world’s worst economic crises.

The rabbi, Moshe Silberhaft, held a meeting at the Rhodis Hall in Harare with 100 of the 190 Jews remaining in the city. Silberhaft distributed parcels including soap, toothpaste, washing powder, tea, coffee, sugar, cornflakes, jam, tinned fruit, tuna and soup.

Parcels read for collection by the Harare Jewish Community.

Used to spending days searching for a few eggs or a bottle of milk (people jokingly describe themselves as “hunter-gatherers”), the Zimbabwean Jews arrived at the hall expectant and weary. They were decently dressed, if without a hint of current fashion. People appeared confused by all the attention, but at the same time recognized the surrounding madness.

“Many senior community members find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. [This] assistance goes a long way,” said Clive Posen, a community member and prominent industrial psychologist in his mid-50s.
“It’s very difficult to receive when… we’ve been used to giving,” another grateful member told Silberhaft.

An independent archivist of southern African Jewry, I accompanied Silberhaft as part of a private research project. The visit gave me an inside view on how the decay of Zimbabwe has torn apart even the formerly middle-class Jewish community here. Like everyone else, they have fallen on hard times. Roads are ruinously potholed. Tap water, when it runs, is murky brown for lack of purifying chemicals.

All these factors are playing into this week’s elections, in which the country’s dictatorial president, Robert Mugabe, 84, faces a serious challenge to his 28-year reign.
Opinion polls indicate that the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, holds a significant lead before the presidential elections. If Mugabe claims victory, as is expected, the opposition is almost certain to dispute it. Mugabe has warned of the security clampdown that would follow. Refugee camps have been prepared on the South African border, in case hundreds of thousands flee political violence.

For the country’s Jews, a potential exit route is being planned by the African Jewish Congress. As is true elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwean Jews are served by the South Africa-based congress, of which Silberhaft — the so-called “traveling rabbi” — is the executive director.
Jews were among the earliest whites who, along with Cecil Rhodes, moved north into Zimbabwe from South Africa in the 1890s. Always part of the white minority society, they were involved in the modernization and development of commerce and industry, particularly in manufacturing and textiles.

Numbering 7,500 in the mid-1960s, the Jewish exit from Zimbabwe began when Ian Smith’s white-minority government declared unilateral independence from Britain in 1965. Many went to Israel. More came to South Africa, particularly Cape Town. When Silberhaft first visited Zimbabwe in 1995, before Mugabe’s rule turned bitter, he ministered to 900 Jews.
Today, the community numbers 300, mostly elderly, people. Some 190 Jews live in Harare and 110 in Bulawayo. Many, particularly in Harare, survive on money from abroad. One person saved for four months to pay for a kosher chicken. Silberhaft has since taken responsibility for his welfare.

Jews have twice been specific targets of Mugabe’s abuse. When South Africa’s opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, led by Tony Leon, a Jew, gave strong public support in 1999 to Tsvangirai, Mugabe accused Jews of undermining his government.

A few years later, when farm invasions began and many companies relocated across the borders, Mugabe again accused Jews of undermining his country. “The South African Jewish Board of Deputies wrote to him asking why he was singling out Jews and warning against the dangers of antisemitism,” Silberhaft said. They received dismissive a one-line reply.

On the day before Yom Kippur, in 2003, a fire destroyed Bulawayo’s Orthodox synagogue. While everyone agrees the fire was caused by fuel in the synagogue, community members unequivocally deny claims from the government-controlled media that they put it there themselves. There was no real investigation into the fire’s cause.
The community has since relocated to the local Reform synagogue and attracted an Israeli rabbi, David Alima, his wife Efrat and their young family.

“I organized a very moving 75th-birthday bat mitzvah for one Savyon Lodge resident,” said Efrat Alima, referring to the local old-age home. “I intended on making kitkes [challah] but there wasn’t power.” (A bequest has since enabled the purchase of a generator.)
When it comes to electricity and other basic needs, members of the the Jewish community are suffering in much the same way as their compatriots.

With inflation running well above 100,000%, savings and buying power have swiftly and steadily eroded. In 1998, 1 million Zimbabwean dollars bought a comfortable house. Today, a nurse earns 350 million Zimbabwean dollars a month. Products are unavailable or unaffordable. A box of matches costs 2 million Zimbabwean dollars. Electricity outages and fuel shortages are common. Eighty percent of the 9 million resident Zimbabweans are unemployed and hungry. They survive on groceries and hard currency, exchangeable on the black market, sent by 3 million refugees in South Africa, Britain and elsewhere.

Rabbi David Alima - sorting out packages for distribution in Bulawayo

Hylton Solomon, a Jewish shop owner in his early 50s in Bulawayo, was arrested last year on charges related to “price fixing.” Mugabe’s government has made it illegal to sell goods at higher prices than those set by the government, and the retail price of Solomon’s pasta was higher than the government-regulated price. “It was a survival tactic for Mugabe,” Solomon said. Mugabe threatened retailers again throughout his election campaign.
Despite the struggles, the remaining community members have cohered around community institutions.

In Bulawayo, Savyon Lodge is a nursing home for 25 retirees. Some of those residents have families abroad, who pay $150 monthly, but running costs are otherwise covered by assistance from foreign charities. Silberhaft, the South African rabbi, organizes regular deliveries.
Things are bad enough in Bulawayo that Jews in the city who don’t live in the old-age home occasionally come to the lodge for basic food and supplies. Still, at least some Zimbabwean Jews have managed to stick around and retain positions of prominence.

Eric Bloch, a chartered accountant in Bulawayo, is a prominent economic analyst with wide connections in political circles. He counts South African President Thabo Mbeki among his personal friends. When we met six weeks ago, he was upbeat about the prospects for change.
“Mugabe wants to stay in power, but his bigger desire is to stay alive with his ill-gotten gains and ego intact. He’s agreed in negotiations with Mbeki that he’ll resign within four months of the election,” Bloch said.

Bloch said that if Mugabe does not resign, he may face arrest and trial at the International Criminal Court.
Other, wearier members of the Harare Jewish community say that Bloch’s predictions have not always panned out. But there are calls for the South African government to arrest prominent Zimbabwean policemen and government officials when they enter South Africa on business or to shop.

Looking forward, a chunk of Zimbabwe’s Jews are intent on keeping their place in the country. One reason is the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust, a massive irrigation scheme.
The head of the project, Dumisa Dabengwa, has been in discussions with Israel, which has been recognized globally for its irrigation expertise. Dabengwa, who has visited Israel twice, is a part of the Mugabe government and is now the most vocal supporter of Simba Makoni, a leading presidential candidate in the current election.

“Unfortunately, recent political developments ruined discussions with Israel about this project,” Dabengwa told me.

“During our liberation struggle we had significant support from the Jewish community. I’d like to bring that back,” he said.
Despite the odds, Solomon sees his role in that future.
“It’s important to keep a Jewish light burning here. Israelis will come for irrigation. South Africans might come to escape crime,” he said. And Silberhaft is preparing to send matzo and other food for Passover.