10 | MARCH 9 • 2023 

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column
Black and Jewish Synergy
I 

had the honor of traveling to 
South Africa in December 
2022 as an ambassador with 
the Institute for Black Solidarity 
with Israel’s P
.E.A.C.E. initiative, 
in partnership 
with the 
Jerusalem Center 
for Public Affairs. 
This IBSI pilot 
program has been 
designed to take 
ascendant Black 
American and 
African men and women ages 
18+ on an unparalleled journey 
of “Black & Jewish synergy.
” 
This nine-month 
commitment has included 
monthly educational seminars 
via Zoom, followed by 
roundtable discussions. To 
date, we have met with IBSI 
founder and CEO Dumisani 
Washington, an American 
pastor and author of Zionism 
And The Black Church: Why 
Standing With Israel Will Be 
a Defining Issue for Christians 
of Color in the 21st Century, 
as well as Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. 
Mordechai Kedar, from the 
Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic 
Studies at Bar-Ilan University, 
who specializes in IDF military 
intelligence, Syria, Arab political 

discourse, Arab mass media and 
Israeli Arabs. 
We’ve also met with Dr. 
Yechiel Leiter, who teaches 
law at Kiryat Ono Academic 
Center, is the resident scholar at 
the Herzl Institute, and author 
of several books; and Israel 
Defense Force (IDF) Brigadier 
General Yossi Kuperwasser, 
former head of the Research 
Division at the IDF’s Intelligence 
Corps and former director 
general of the Ministry of 
Strategic Affairs, who served as 
Central Command’s Intelligence 
Officer, and as the Intelligence 
Attaché to the United States. He 
participated in the Yom Kippur 
War and the first Lebanon War.

ON THE GROUND IN 
SOUTH AFRICA
The whirlwind itinerary for our 
visit began in Johannesburg, 
also called Joburg or the City of 
Gold. We visited the calabash-
shaped FNB Soccer Stadium, 
home to the 2010 FIFA World 
Cup. We then proceeded to 
South Africa’s largest Catholic 
Church, Regina Mundi (Queen 
of the World) in Soweto, which 
played a crucial role during the 
country’s apartheid regime for 
community members’ meetings 

to politically organize. Bullet 
holes can still be seen in the 
ceiling and a beam. 
We then toured the Hector 
Pieterson Memorial. Zolile 
Hector Pieterson was a 12-year-
old schoolboy who was shot 
and killed by police during the 
Soweto uprising when he joined 
classmates protesting learning 
Afrikaans (the Dutch mandated 
“official” language), instead of 
Zulu, their mother-tongue. 
We then stopped at the 
landmark Mandela house, 
where Nelson Mandela returned 
after his release from prison. 
We visited and worked in the 
garden of the Thirst for Hope 
Project in Diepsloot. 
We were welcomed 
into the home of Israel’s 
Ambassador to South Africa, 
Eli Belotserkovsky, in Pretoria. 
Pretoria has the largest number 
of diplomatic embassies outside 
of Washington, D.C. This 
was followed by dinner with 
the Africa-Israel Chamber 
of Commerce. We went on a 
sobering tour of Constitution 
Hill (former prison that housed 
Mandela and Ghandi, now 
South Africa’s Supreme Court). 
We listened to Howard 

Sackstein at the Great Shul 
share accounts of the Jewish 
community’s resistance and 
struggle, including violence, 
against the government’s 
apartheid policies. We had 
Shabbat dinner with South 
African Friends of Israel and 
the South African Zionist 
Federation. On Shabbat, we 
drove to the tribal territory 
of Tsitsing to meet the Royal 
Bakwena family, tour their 
community, and have an 
indigenous community meal at 
the Bakubung Bush Lodge at 
Pilanesberg National Park. 
On our last day in 
Johannesburg, we were 
received by Lydia Meshoe 
(z”l), founding member of the 
African Christian Democratic 
Party (ACDP) and wife of party 
president Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, 
and congregants at Hope of 
Glory Tabernacle. The service 
was distinct in that Pastor 
Dumisani spoke to the historical 
connection between Africa and 
Israel from the first time Africa 
is mentioned in Genesis to the 
story of the Queen of Sheba and 
King Solomon. 
He also expanded on the 
necessity of a stronger bond 

Elizabeth C. 
Kincaid

IBSI Ambassadors 
with Ambassador 
Eli Belotserkovsky

INSI Ambassadors at Hope of Glory Tabernacle

JAMIE FELDMAN

