Sheldon Cohen’s murder, as well as the power cuts are still a burning issue amongst Johannesburg Jews. Some people I talk to there are either thinking seriously about leaving, or are in the process of taking out a second passport. Others don’t even want to contemplate leaving, but are hearing stories about other JHB Jews who are looking into emigration. Some South Africans living overseas are saying they don’t see how they can come back to live in Jo’burg. The Post asked me to write a news feature on what’s going on. What I don’t like about this story is that I feel that without actually being on the ground and getting a sense of what’s going on from face-to-face interviews, I can only generalize. The other thing I don’t like about this story is that I know what JHB is like, I grew up there, and I know you get used to living in a place with serious problems, like we got used to it here in Israel. There’s nothing really new in all this – its just sad to hear the same old story again – violent crime and meaningless killing in a place you love so much. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a ‘normal’ country.

Anyway, the story appeared on today’s front page but was edited for space, so here is the full version:

Sheldon Cohen was sitting in his car outside a Johannesburg sports stadium last week waiting for his son Noah to finish soccer practice. He was talking to his father, Jack, on his cell phone when three young men ran passed him and shot him in the neck. Sheldon’s father heard his son’s dying breath and fearing something terrible had happened, sped to the stadium. The killers, who had moments before tried unsuccessfully to snatch a cellular phone from a woman parked nearby who was also waiting for her son, looked at Sheldon and thought he was calling the police. So they killed him. Jack arrived shortly after to see his son’s body slumped in his car, with his grandson Noah standing watch.

A week before that, a Jewish man walking to synagogue in Johannesburg was stopped by several men in a passing car. One man got out of the car and demanded that the Jewish man hand over his talis bag – thinking it contained valuables. The Jew refused, and was shot to death. Searching through his victim’s talis bag, the attacker found nothing of value to himself in it and threw it out of the car. Continue reading →