In a public ballot that closed on 30 September 2009, the following three people were voted onto the Board of Deputies through the postal ballot.
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Anna Berkowitz, immediate past chairman of UJW Cape Town Branch and convener of the 2010 International Council of Jewish Women’s Convention, needs no introduction. She has previously served on the Board with distinction as the UJW cooptee. She is an executive member and treasurer of the SA Women in Dialogue, Cape Town Chapter and has a wide ranging social conscience, being involved in many volunteer organisations covering her interests in ABET, Adult Training and Development, prevention of domestic violence against women and children, elderly abuse, politics and prevention of cruelty to animals. She has also served on the Kerem Pre-Primary and Herzlia Primary, Middle and High School PTAs.
Anna is an associate of Trinity College London (Theory) in Speech and Drama and has a Dip. Adult Education Training and Development (UCT).
Not only will Anna help the gender imbalance on the Board but her involvement in outreach will be of value. We believe that with her interests in welfare, outreach and service to the community, she will be an asset.
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Greg Flash has been involved with the CSO and the WP Zionist Youth Council.
As former president and Board member of the CT Progressive Jewish Congregation and Western Cape Regional chairman of the South African Union of Progressive Judaism, his presence round the board will help ensure the religious diversity of the Cape Council, which represents all Western Cape Jews. He was a former Netzer Maginim madrich and Rosh Machaneh, attending a year’s Machon programme in Israel. He has an MSc in Biomedical Engineering.
Greg says that he is keen to serve on the Cape Council as he wishes to be of service to the Cape Town and South African Jewish community as a whole.
“Being part of a community requires involvement,” he says. “I believe that there is much fragmentation and misunderstanding in the community, which is damaging to all. I also wish to engage more with the greater Cape Town community as I believe that as we shrink as a Jewish community we become more isolated, which only serves to endanger us more.“
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Saul Kaplan is head of Grade 11 and Jewish Studies at Herzlia High School. He ran UHS’ JIPSY department and was a member of the UOS Education committee. He was deputy head boy at Yeshiva College, Johannesburg and was the chairman of Johannesburg Bnei Akiva. Saul has a BCom and a PGD (Investment and Portfolio Management) and is a graduate of the UJC Young Leadership course. He is also a fellow of the Nachum Goldmann Foundation.
Saul wanted to be involved in the activities of the Board of Deputies which he sees as the premier communal organisation that drives the community because, as he says, he has been involved in communal life as long as he can remember.
His hope is to bring a fresh impetus to the Board and to try to involve younger members of the community in communal activities.
Chairman of the Board, Owen Futeran, welcomed the new members onto the Cape Council. Representing as they do women, men, Orthodox and Progressive, Bnei Akiva and Netzer, as well as the youth, he noted that the enthusiasm, range of interest and idealism they would bring to meetings would ensure that the new Cape Council could look forward to a stimulating two years in office.
