Message from the Chair
By SIMONE SULCAS
Chairperson, Cape SAJBD
On the 3rd of October 1995, after only four hours of jury deliberation OJ Simpson was acquitted. I was stunned. As a final year law student, it went against everything I believed to be true.
Guilty people are meant to pay for their crimes, and blindfolded Lady Justice, who symbolizes the impartiality of the law, was missing in action. I learnt an important lesson – the seemingly impossible can be achieved if you have a winning team. In this case, OJ had the best lawyers money could buy – his ‘Dream Team’.
Time-hopping to October 2025, the concept of a ‘Dream Team’ still resonates with me, albeit for a different reason. When I accepted the nomination of chair, I glanced up and my eyes locked on the list of former chairpersons displayed on the wall in our board’s ‘War Room’. This distinguished list filled me with a blend of pride, gratitude and self-reflection. The baton had been passed, and I needed to draw strength and collective wisdom from the past, and I needed to do this swiftly. I did this in the only way I know how – I looked forward. I looked around the board table and focused on the 23 board members and four professional staff, our ‘Dream Team’.
We are fortunate enough to have a Western Cape Jewish community where people step up into leadership positions, spending their precious time giving back so selflessly to our community. Added to this, they are leaders in their professional space, with specialised skills and qualifications, and a deep passion for our community. The last two years have been particularly challenging for our community, mirroring the struggles of Jewish communities worldwide. We, as your elected leaders, have fought and will continue to fight against antisemitism and hate in every way possible and by every means. We have had our wins and our losses, but still we fight, each and every day. We advocate for you and have painstakingly built up relationships with the public and private sector, always advancing our rights as Jews to live and thrive in the broader community. The preamble to our Constitution says that, “South Africa belongs to all that live in it”. Our ‘Dream Team’ is committed to making sure that these words are our lived experience.
We are also blessed to have a plethora of affiliate organisations that do so much to enhance our Jewish life here in the Western Cape. One simply needs to page through this Chronicle to see the breadth and width of our affiliate organisations and the fullness and richness of their offering to our community. I urge you to explore the options and find something that resonates with you, to take advantage of their services, and perhaps even volunteer if you can.
As I write this, it has been over two years since the atrocities of October 7th, and I am holding my breath and praying that the fragile peace deal between Israel and Hamas holds and that there is an end to the loss of life for all innocents. I am overcome with deep relief that our brothers and sisters have been released from a hell that I cannot begin to imagine. Our strength as a community, as Am Yisrael, has been tested and once again we have overcome. We do so with pride, courage and a commitment to ‘dance again’. Here on the tip of Africa, we have cried together, prayed together and galvanised in support of our Jewish homeland, our global Jewish community, and one another. We have been a ‘Dream Team’.
I love our community, and I want to see it flourish from within and in the broader context. I undertake to do all I can to contribute meaningfully and purposefully, always guided by our Jewish values with a healthy dose of Ubuntu. “I am because we are” interconnected by a golden thread that deeply values the concept of community. I, together with our ‘Dream Team’ of board members and our professional team, look forward to working with and for our community in the coming term. The OJ Simpson case may have quashed my desire to become a criminal lawyer, yet it did sow the seed of what can be achieved if you have a ‘Dream Team’. My intention is for us to be yours. ●
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