http://www.jdisa.org/, https://youtu.be/b3Z6htqR-zw?si=7Ke8Lr4cIFA-ra-q, https://youtube.com/@jewishdemocraticinitiative

Jewish Democratic Initiative, Gardens (2026)

27/08/2026

Arab Barghouti, Palestinian activist and the son of Marwan Barghouti, widely described as the Palestinian Mandela, who has been serving five life sentences since 2002 speaking at the Jewish Democratic Initiative’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas. To see his full conversation with Azhar Cachalia, one of the Free Mandela Campaign Leaders, head to the link in our bio.

25/08/2026

Jewish Communists in South Africa
Irwin Manoim, who has for many years researched and written about the forgotten “outcasts” of South African Jewish history, presented a talk at Limmud Johannesburg last weekend on Jewish Communists. The talk received some acclaim, and he has been asked to repeat it. He will do so next Wednesday, September 2nd, as a free Zoom session to which all are all invited.
The talk asks why there were a disproportionate number of Jewish communists in South Africa; traces their heritage back to the earliest South African movements to practice non-racism; discusses how Jewish communists became vilified as a threat to white South Africa and a source of shame to the Jewish community; and then, after 1994, how they were suddenly embraced by the mainstream Jewish community as heroes.
When: Wednesday, September 2nd 2026 at 7.30pm.
Where: Over Zoom.
Register at the link in bio.

25/08/2026

Avram Burg, former speaker of the Knesset at the Jewish Democratic Initiative’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas. To see the full speech head to the link in our bio.

18/07/2026

Our biggest event of the year is happening TODAY! Email info@jdisa for a discount or book on the Quicket link in our bio.

Mo Husseini is a Palestinian-American writer and filmmaker based near Seattle, where he works as a design and creative director. He first drew wide attention with “50 Completely True Things,” a viral essay puncturing myths on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war, which was read by hundreds of thousands and praised by Rabbi Sharon Brous as among the most compelling writing on the conflict in a decade.

He went on to co-direct The Path Forward with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen, a documentary following Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who kept working together after October 7th — deliberately without war footage or body counts. As he’s put it, people on both sides too often assume everyone on the other is incapable of empathy; the film sets out to prove otherwise.

Husseini is also co-authoring a forthcoming book with Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund.

His presentation will be livestreamed to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

17/07/2026

Our biggest event of the year is TOMORROW! Don’t let price be a barrier; email info@jdisa for a discount. Booking links in bio.

Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, is South Africa’s most widely syndicated editorial cartoonist. He grew up in a Jewish family in Cape Town, the son of a lawyer and a mother who had fled Nazi-occupied Lithuania. As a student he refused to bear arms during his military conscription, throwing himself instead into the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front, for which he designed the End Conscription Campaign’s logo. He was detained under the Illegal Gatherings Act before leaving on a Fulbright scholarship to study cartooning in New York under Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman.

Since returning to South Africa, Zapiro has spent over three decades skewering power across the political spectrum, from the apartheid state to the ANC, in the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times, and now Daily Maverick. His cartoons have provoked lawsuits and death threats in equal measure to prizes and honorary doctorates, and he remains one of the country’s fiercest defenders of free expression.

His presentation will be livestreamed to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

17/07/2026

Our biggest event of the year is TOMORROW! Don’t let price be a barrier; email info@jdisa for a discount. Booking links in bio.

Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, is South Africa’s most widely syndicated editorial cartoonist. He grew up in a Jewish family in Cape Town, the son of a lawyer and a mother who had fled Nazi-occupied Lithuania. As a student he refused to bear arms during his military conscription, throwing himself instead into the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front, for which he designed the End Conscription Campaign’s logo. He was detained under the Illegal Gatherings Act before leaving on a Fulbright scholarship to study cartooning in New York under Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman.

Since returning to South Africa, Zapiro has spent over three decades skewering power across the political spectrum, from the apartheid state to the ANC, in the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times, and now Daily Maverick. His cartoons have provoked lawsuits and death threats in equal measure to prizes and honorary doctorates, and he remains one of the country’s fiercest defenders of free expression.

His presentation will be livestreamed to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

15/07/2026

American-born, Israeli-based, and for over 30 years a fixture on the frontlines of protective presence activism. Ascherman has stood between settlers and Palestinian shepherds, blocked bulldozers mid-demolition, and been arrested, beaten, and tried for it. He led Rabbis for Human Rights for over two decades before founding Torat Tzedek (Torah of Justice) in 2017, which keeps doing the same work: accompanying farmers back onto land they’ve been pushed off, fighting home demolitions in court, standing with communities under pressure simply for existing where they are.

He frames all of it as religious obligation, not politics — the idea that “in a place where no one behaves like a decent human being, strive to be one”.

Catch him at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, 18–19 July — livestreamed to Cape Town and Joburg.

14/07/2026

Judge Azhar Cachalia resisted Apartheid through mass organisation, enduring detention and banning orders as a founder of the United Democratic Front, before going on to serve on the Supreme Court of Appeal. Arab Barghouthi has spent his life fighting for his father’s freedom, carrying forward a campaign that borrows its language and its hope from the very struggle Cachalia lived through.

On 18 July, they’ll discuss what it means to call someone a political prisoner — and why the world still needs to reckon with that question.

Johannesburg & Cape Town
18 July 2026
Link in bio to book

13/07/2026

Our Festival of Dangerous Ideas is THIS WEEKEND. Full programme and Quicket in bio. Price shouldn’t be a reason to stay home, email as at [email protected] to organise a discount.

Avraham Burg, one of Israel’s most influential political figures and sharpest critics, will be coming to Johannesburg and Cape Town for our festival. Book to hear him speak, meet him and ask him questions.

09/07/2026

Our full programme is linked in our bio.

Samer Sinijlawi is a Palestinian political activist from Jerusalem’s Old City and chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund. At 14, during the First Intifada, he threw stones and was arrested; a military court sentenced him to five years in an Israeli prison, where — like many Palestinian political prisoners — he learned Hebrew. After his release he rose through Fatah’s youth movement, eventually heading its international and Israel file, work that has kept him in dialogue with Israelis ever since.

Today he’s an outspoken critic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, calling for reform and democracy within Palestinian politics, alongside a long-standing commitment to Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. After October 7th, he was the only high-profile Palestinian politician to visit Israeli communities near the Gaza border and publicly condemn Hamas on camera.

“There has been coexistence in this region for thousands of years,” he says. “Things went wrong only in the last 100 years, but the majority of the history in this land is coexistence.”

His presentation will be livestreamed to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Jewish Democratic Initiative

27/08/2026

25/08/2026

25/08/2026

18/07/2026

17/07/2026

17/07/2026

15/07/2026

14/07/2026

13/07/2026

09/07/2026

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