Jewish Agency chair Herzog visits volunteers helping children in South Africa
Jewish Agency for Israel chair Isaac Herzog visited Durban, South Africa, on Thursday, meeting with visiting agency volunteers who are assisting disadvantaged people as part of tikkun olam initiatives to “repair the world.”
Isaac Herzog in South Africa
He told a group of young Africans that “you fill the heart of the entire Jewish people with warmth and love when we see you receive the tools you need for a successful life from young Jews who have travelled across continents and thousands of miles to come here and help in the name of the Jewish value of tikkun olam.”
Herzog stopped by a local school, where he heard about a chess-study program developed by Durban Volunteer Center director Natalie Moyal and education coordinator Meshi Hazan. He also learned a traditional dance, as well as how to play soccer without a ball.
Isaac Herzog in South Africa
“We strive to develop Jewish social activists and leaders who promote the Jewish value of tikkun olam,” Herzog told the volunteers. “Your faces are the beautiful faces of the State of Israel in the most difficult areas of the globe, and in countries where Israel and the Jewish people are struggling to maintain a good name.”
The Jewish Agency operates volunteer centres in areas of distress and poverty around the world as part of its Project TEN international development program.
In Durban, it partners with South Africa’s Jewish community, the Victor Daitz Foundation, and other local leadership in the Inanda township.
