Renewing My Commitment to Tikkun Olam Through the Cape Town Jewish Community

Cape Town, South Africa, is known for many things, most notably for Table Mountain — a flat-topped mountain overlooking the cosmopolitan and international city — as well as for the African penguins that roam its southern beaches. What many people don’t know about Cape Town, however, is that it also boasts a thriving Jewish community with a commitment to tikkun olam. 

When I relocated to Cape Town as part of my Ph.D., I was understandably nervous. As cute as penguins are, they can hardly replace the strong connection to Jewish community I’ve maintained in the places I’ve lived. So I was thrilled that even before I moved there, I could see a range of shuls and Jewish communities across the city, places I could see myself connecting with others and learning more about local Jewish histories. 

The earliest Jews said to have arrived in Cape Town date back to 1452, during Portuguese occupation of the area; however, it wasn’t until 1841 that the first Jewish congregation was established in the city. Many of the Jews in Cape Town arrived after fleeing persecution elsewhere, from the pogroms in Russia to the antisemitic rumblings in Europe before World War II. After 1938, Jewish immigration became more restricted. In the pre-apartheid era, many Jews lived in the diverse working-class medley of District Six, a neighborhood now famous as it was destroyed during apartheid to further racist separation under the regime. Presently, much of the Jewish population resides in Sea Point, a coastal suburb of the city that boasts the largest Jewish congregation in Cape Town. 

To my relief, residing in Sea Point was not necessary for participating in Jewish life: Nearby to where I lived was a particularly hospitable community that welcomed me in my first week and introduced me to a range of Jewish young adults. After realizing that I lacked a formal place for a Shabbat dinner, a board member at Temple Israel included me in the family’s weekly Shabbats.

At their table, I felt roots of connection truly taking hold and began to reflect on Shabbat as a grounding shared Jewish experience. Week after week, I went to the same family’s Shabbat dinner, and in doing so I went from being a relative stranger at these gatherings to feeling as though I had a new extended family of my own. At times, I wasn’t the only non-family member attending. The family often invited the city’s Jewish visitors to their Shabbat table, and it made me realize how deeply the Jews of Cape Town embody the Jewish values of welcoming strangers in a way that I have not experienced elsewhere. 

The Cape Town Jewish community’s commitment to this value extends beyond the immediate Jewish community and towards addressing local poverty and inequality. In one of my first weeks in Cape Town, a severe storm slammed the city, displacing many individuals through flooding and damage to homes. 

I was shaken by the magnitude of the destruction and aware of the racial privilege that came with having necessities such as food and shelter. Moved to do something, I collaborated with other young adults at Temple Israel to organize a food and resource drive to benefit families living in the Cape Flats, where many black people were forcibly relocated during apartheid. Mobilizing to support communities was something we all viewed as critical to putting tikkun olam as a concept into action. 

Rather than just a one-off event, this partnership with Cape Flats residents extended. As my Temple Israel peers and I connected with community members, we learned that they needed volunteers to assist in chaperoning an “away day” that would take local children up Table Mountain for the first time during their school holiday. Many had working parents, so this mini-adventure offered childcare for their parents and a full day of activities for children. Listening to community needs allowed us to form connections and learn from the perspectives of those in the community while bringing with us the strength of the value of tikkun olam.

It is easy in modern travel culture to simply see the world as a perpetual scroll of Instagram places to check off and TikTok travel hacks. It is harder to build roots in a place, support community voices, and take the time to emotionally invest in people, communities, and the geographies in which they live. I saw this work actively play out in Cape Town’s Jewish community. Being able to connect with Jewish values in a new community and experience my lifelong culture in a new way was a deeply meaningful experience, and something that will forever link me to this city.