By Daniel Bloch, Executive Director, Cape SAJBD
Last month, my article was titled Thrown into the deep end – navigating my first month!
When you finally get out of the deep end of the pool, you don’t expect to be hit with another wave… I could not have been more wrong.
With the conflict in the Middle East seemingly simmering down and the new government in Israel starting to make waves (excuse the pun), cue the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. They say things come in three’s, but I will not wait for the third thing to be something negative. Instead, I will work towards creating a positive environment, one booming with creative ideas to celebrate our community and bring people together.
According to Google, more diverse teams lead to more creativity. So, remote work allows us tap into a new pool of expertise and creativity, which we wouldn’t otherwise access when collaborating in-person. The more people you collaborate with, the more ideas you will get, which are more likely to lead to a few truly genius insights. I have found that working from home (even if it is a few days a week) has allowed me to become more productive and more creative — the same applies to my colleagues. The creative juices have certainly flowed as we have come up with some amazing ideas to connect with the community, collaborate with our affiliates and provide our community with information to keep them updated and informed.
Did you know that the largest political party in South Africa is the party of non-voters (about 20 million people) and of those, more than six million are younger than thirty? With this in mind, we have undertaken a voter education campaign to connect and engage with our youth and young adults in the community, and encourage them to become more involved.
Before I continue, it is important to understand the difference between ‘youth’ and ‘young adult’. A young adult is generally a person ranging in age from their late teens or early twenties, to their thirties. Youth is defined as the period between childhood and adult age. We often use the terms interchangeably not realising that labelling someone in their late teens as a ‘youth’, may be offensive. Both the youth and young adults are seen as the future of our world, and by connecting with them effectively and efficiently, we are able to involve them more in our community.
In June, in celebration of Youth day, we hosted an interfaith webinar with young adults from five different faith groups, who shared their views about what interfaith means to them. On Facebook, we shared video clips from Jewish youth where they voiced their concerns and shared ideas about a variety of issues: from climate change, to the recent surge in antisemitism, to education in South Africa. They want to be part of discussions and contribute to the growth and prosperity of our community. They want to address important and controversial issues and are not afraid to speak out. It is our duty to engage with them and show them the way!
I challenge the youth and the young adults in our community to reach out to me, and let us discuss how the Cape SAJBD and members of this community can work together towards a brighter and more sustainable future for all – danielb@ctjc.co.za.
Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies website: www.capesajbd.org, Instagram, and Facebook page.
• Published in the PDF edition of the September 2021 issue – Download here.
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