The Union of Jewish Women (Cape Town Branch) held their 82nd Annual General Meeting on 28 May 2015 at the Hellenic Greek Club.
We were addressed by Lynne Raphaely, the National President of the UJW who highlighted the work we do both in the Jewish community and beyond. In presenting her annual report Leaza Cowan, Cape Town Chairman, illustrated that the UJW supports 25 Jewish organisations/ projects as well as 31 outreach projects on an ongoing basis. The UJW also contributes towards Mandela Day, Mitzvah Day, One-to-One and runs the Can-Can Project and the Herzlia bar and bat mitzvah project, to name a few. In order to support all these causes the UJW hosted creative fundraisers including a soccer tournament, a teddy bears picnic, annual quiz, the shoe project and a tour of the Oranjezicht farm.
Sharing new projects that the UJW is becoming involved in was one of the focuses of the AGM. These include supporting a grassroots women’s soccer team in Khayelitsha, Project Bayit, which is a shack building project developed by Andy Bolnick of ikhayalami — and highlighting the prevalence of human trafficking in partnership with A21.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Maria du Toit, the CEO of the Public Protector South Africa. She spoke about hope and our right to complain and explained how the public protectors office worked.
The AGM culminated with the awarding of the Pearl Mandelstam Shield of Excellence to Freda Davis. Hermoine Sternberg received the Freda Kapelus Certificate for over 15years of active service.
An Olivia Scholnick painting was raffled and won by Shirley Gelser.
