The SAUPJ proudly shared this announcement from the Abraham Geiger College in Germany. MyShtetl is publishing it verbatim as we think it is quaint the way it has been prepared for an international audience.
Helen Zille to receive the Abraham Geiger Award 2011 - Premier Horst Seehofer to give the laudatory address in Berlin
The Premier of Western Cape of the Republic of South Africa, Helen Zille, is the recipient of the Abraham Geiger Award 2011. The ceremony will be held on 26 September, 2011. This award recognizes persons who have made outstanding contributions with regard to pluralism and who have shown great commitment towards openness, courage, tolerance, and freedom of thought.
The Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam is the first rabbinical seminary in Germany after the Holocaust. Its prize is in remembrance of the great thinker of liberal Judaism, Abraham Geiger (1810–1874). Three principles were especially important to Geiger: the freedom of conscience and belief, academic freedom, and the freedom of expression for all human beings.
The jury based its decision on the recipient’s great courage and determination in transforming South Africa into a democracy of many voices. Past recipients of the award include Hans Küng, Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, Karl Cardinal Lehmann, Alfred Grosser, Emil Fackenheim, and Susannah Heschel.
The presentation of the award will be on 26 September, 2011 in Berlin. The Premier of the Free State of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, will give the laudatory speech. Bavaria and Western Cape have been partners since 1995.
The South African Union for Progressive Judaism and its affiliates are delighted to hear that the Honorable Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape Province has accepted the invitation of the Abraham Geiger College, (Berlin and Potsdam, Germany) to receive the Abraham Geiger Award for 2011. This is a lovely and fitting tribute to her diligence and success in making the principles and ideals that she shares with Progressive Judaism into public policy, said Chairman Steve Lurie.
Progressive Judaism in South Africa also has a distinguished history, and will celebrate its commemoration of 80 years of Jewish diversity in June 2012. Ms. Zille’s support for education of Jewish leadership in South Africa through her receipt of the Abraham Geiger Prize will help expand, enrich and deepen the important role of the Progressive Jewish community.
Helen Zille (b. 1951) is the head of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s largest opposition party. Its membership comprises persons from all religious and linguistic communities in South Africa, including traditionally the Jewish community.
Her parents were originally from Essen and Dessau, where they were persecuted by the National Socialists due to their Jewish roots, and they immigrated to South Africa to escape this fate. Helen Zille shares common familial roots with the Berlin genre painter Heinrich Zille.
In rejection of the centuries-old tradition of mutual separation, the former mayor and current premier has always striven to tear down the old racial barriers in the cape region. As a young journalist, she was active against apartheid.
Today, her iron will with regards to plurality and transparency has helped stem the trend toward a one-party system in South Africa.
As mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille scoured through all contracts approved by the previous administration in order to root out corruption, and resolve the City’s crippling level of bad debt.
Later, by winning the elections in Western Cape by over 51% from the ANC, she achieved something that many had thought impossible. Helen Zille requires courage for her success.
Nonetheless, she stands firm: “If we can prove our ability to govern in Western Cape as we did in Cape Town, then it would be a milestone for our young democracy.”
Therefore, the jury decided to award Helen Zille with the Abraham Geiger Award. Its endowment of 10,000 Euros (R97,000) will be placed in an educational fund to help enable rabbinical students from South Africa study at the Abraham Geiger College. Two graduates of the College are currently serving as rabbis in Cape Town.
I'm not sure why you think
I'm not sure why you think this article is 'quaint'. Progressive Judaism isn't just 'quaint' and nor is Helen Zille. SAUPJ has every reason to be proud and there is no need for you to try and diminish that achievement. What, exactly (in your opinion) is wrong with the way this article 'has been prepared for an international audience'? Would MyShtetl perhaps rather not cover important events in the progressive Jewish world at all? Surely that would be beter than accepting an article in seeming good faith, only to introduce it to your readers with such a snide comment. As a progressive Jew, I will have to think twice about whether to go on reading MyShtetl.
Hi Sue. I think you are
Hi Sue. I think you are being a bit over-sensitive. The quaintness we referred to was the manner in which the news release written by an overseas writer, for an overseas audience, and was something we would normally have sub-edited.
For example the first 11 words read: “The Premier of Western Cape of the Republic of South Africa…” This would normally have been sub-edited for an SA audience as it is not grammatically correct and is too-much-info for an SA audience.
We would normally have subbed it down to a simple “West Cape Premier” which would have sufficed.
I regret that you read this as being a “snide comment” and that you feel we have diminished this award in any way. I am not sure if you are a regular user. We have many regular users in the Progressive community and I am sure any of them would tell you that we cover all significant Progressive news – often to the vocal ire of some of our Orthodox users.
Far from seeking to “diminish” this event for SA Jewry, we saw it as momentous, featured it on our home page, sent the message out in thousands of newsletters yesterday and have diarised to follow it up with an interview with Zille and coverage of the September event.
Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I am a regular MyShtetl visitor. If I am overly sensitive about the belittlement that the Progressive community endures from Orthodoxy, perhaps there is a reason. It seemed to me that an article should be published because it is newsworthy, not because it is 'quaint'. The Jewish media in South Africa are all too often exclusionary and dismissive about Progressive events and issues, and what happens in the media reflects the schisms in the actual Jewish community. The word 'quaint' can be belittling, and it was not entirely clear to me whether that was regarding SAUPJ as a whole - or what.
Point taken. And we'll try
Point taken. And we'll try and be more sensitive to this situation in future.