Cape SAJBD Responds to Ehrenreich

"Mr Ehrenreich's rants against the South African Jewish Board of Deputies expose his utter ignorance of what the Board is and what it does", said Mr Eric Marx, the Chairman of the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies. "The Board was established and is constituted to protect the civil rights of the Jewish community as they are enshrined in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

To that end criminal charges have been laid against Mr Ehrenreich by the Board. It would be inappropriate for the Board to exchange allegations of impropriety with Mr Ehrenreich by correspondence or through the media while the SAPS are investigating these charges. The SAJBD have also laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission which is currently being investigated.

"The core mandate of the Board is neither to defend Israel, as Mr Ehrenreich claims it is, nor  to condemn Israel, as he now defies the Board to do. The constitutional ambit of the Board requires it to defend the right of our community to show its support for the State of Israel.  The SAJBD has consistently and repeatedly expressed its support for the South African government's position on this matter, which is the internationally acceptable support for a two state solution to the dispute in the Middle-East. It does so in the hope that peace in the region will thereby be achieved.

As Mr Ehrenreich is well aware there are divergent views on Israel within the Jewish community represented by the Board. All of these views are held and expressed as a matter of  right under South Africa's Constitution. It is not the Board's function to suppress any of these views, or support a particular view of Israel save for the achievement of a two state solution.

In the circumstances the diktat that Mr Ehrenreich has seen fit to direct at the Board in the Cape  will be ignored as the humbug it really is."

Statement issued by Craig Nudelman, Head of Media & Public Affairs, Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, September 5 2014

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