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WHO WE ARE

A friendly, welcoming and inclusive spiritual community, who practice progressive Judaism in the heart of Johannesburg.   We are made up of family and friends who learn, pray and socialize.  Whether religious or secular, we strive to be inclusive, to create and grow our community, showing respect for different views from our own and having compassion for those within our community as well as those outside.

We strive to be the centre for the local community and their families whether religious or secular.

We:

are proud to be a member of Progressive Judaism

endeavor to focus on the entire community catering to all life-cycle events

are able to cater to various styles of prayer services both Ashkenazi and Sephardi

celebrate the Jewish festivals according to the Progressive Jewish tradition

are inclusive and welcome non-Jewish partners to all services and social activities and make sure that financial hardship is never a barrier to attendance

have the welfare of our community front and centre with a group of dedicated volunteers who assist our members, especially those who are older, on their own or unwell as well as considering others outside our community who are less fortunate than ourselves;

encourage and provide support to those who wish to convert to Judaism with a course of teaching and learning

Image by Sander Crombach
Our Structure

The Management Committee (Mancom) is elected for a term of two (2) years and comprises between 10 and fourteen members plus the Rabbi and Executive Director. Executive Committee (Exco) consists of Chair, Vice-Chair and Treasurer, along with the Rabbi and Executive Director who are responsible for the day to day running of Beit Emanuel. In addition, there is a Board of Guardians (BoG), made up of four (4) elected members plus the Mancom Chair ex-officio. Guardians are elected for a 3-year-term and have a veto over certain key appointments and transactions.

Management
Committee
2024

Paul Davis             
Ruth Challens       
Ian West                 
Virgil Challens
Diane Fine
Graeme Hochschild
Simonne Horwitz
Peter Joseph
Steven Greenblatt
Russell Cohen

Chairperson

Treasurer

Vice Chairperson

The Bord Of Gaurdians

Irwin Manoim             
Kathryn peck              
Andrew Jacobs          
Prof. Merle Williams    

2021

2021

2022

2023

OUR CHAIRMAN

Dr Paul Davis

Dr Paul Davis literally embodies “Tikkun Olam”. During 1972 through 1989 he was a General Practitioner in Johannesburg.  During this period apart from his medical practice he was an activist in the prevention of torture in South Africa amongst other political activities. 

He founded Medical Rescue International (MRI) which was the first private air ambulance and paramedic-based emergency medical service in South Africa.  It had two objectives, being to improve access for all people in emergencies and critical illness to higher levels of care in emergencies across the county and sub-Saharan Africa and to involve the private sector in helping to support pubic emergency services.

Dr Davis served on the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) between 1997 to 2000, with his key focus on the transformation of broadcasting in our country.

He was a member and later president of the non-racial Association of Medical Students Associations of South Africa (AMSSA) which promoted contact and common interests and activities between medical students of all medical schools in South Africa.   AMSSA was forced to close when the government banned interracial social contact and activities.  They did not take it lying down and vigorously protested the banning and harassment of many South African medical students and doctors opposed to apartheid and the trampling of human rights in the country.

​​He served as chairman of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Student Representative Council (SRC) of the African Night School, where Wits students could legally teach black pupils on the university premises in the evenings. Classes and subjects from standard 3 to matric were catered for at no charge. He also served as chairman of WITSCO a Wits University student-run endeavour offering a range of social and community services (legal, medical, social and commercial) to deprived communities around Johannesburg.

​Dr Davis was a founder member of the Independent Doctors Panel of the Detainees Parents Support committee which sought ways to prevent the torture of detainees and prisoners and assist those doctors (District surgeons) who could treat them in prison or in custody. A protocol (supported by Wits medical school and the medical associations) for the assessment and treatment of all prisoners also resulted from this work.

​During the height of apartheid, Dr Davis featured in foreign media and published his findings widely during this period in an effort to try and stop what was going on. The same group of doctors also set up “on-site” emergency medical services to assist victims injured in many of the “unrest” protests around the country. He spent 2 years in the Supreme Court of South Africa defending an action brought by the government to try to force him to give them his patient records of those torture victims he had seen and treated.

​Today he holds the following directorships in addition to Beit Emanuel, those being:

Chairman of the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness (Public Benefit Organisation) and the “Right to Sight” campaign to eradicate cataract and other avoidable blindness in South Africa.

President of the Health Graduates Association of Wits Medical School and a member of the University’s convocation executive.

Non-Executive Director, Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, Johannesburg

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