Abstract
In the theory chapter I showed how different ideals and their inherent ambiguities characterise charitable giving. My interlocutors express their notions of giving ideals and reflect on different norms and how they comply with them. They, however, also find conceptualisations and narratives to deal with the unavoidable ambiguities of charitable giving, or their individual contradictions regarding charitable ideals.
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Notes
- 1.
Yichus or yiches (Hebrew: relation to or related to) is usually defined as pedigree or lineage, but its meaning has moved further away from the value of heritage towards what one makes of oneself.
- 2.
The few who talked about their involvement of their own accord were over 50 years old, so they were involved in anti-apartheid activism in their twenties from the late 1970’s until the 80’s.
- 3.
The South African Jewish Museum provides a film on their homepage describing their outreach program: https://www.sajewishmuseum.org.za/education-outreach/ [11.10.2019]
- 4.
The only non-Jewish organisation where this was the case is the Christian hospice, one reason being that there is no Jewish hospice in Cape Town for religious reasons. Only recently the old age home has introduced a palliative care ward. All donors who gave to the hospice did so because they experienced how relatives or close friends had been taken care of.
- 5.
The apartheid government applied the phrase of „separate development“ for their ideology of racial separatism and segregation (for e.g. Giliomee 2003)
- 6.
Debby also uses the concept ukulungisa, which according to her is a Xhosa concept that means, “making things right”.
- 7.
South African born-frees were born at a time when they have no personal recollection of apartheid and I have come across debates criticising this generation for not acknowledging what the parent generation has achieved. To me there seems to be an inter-generational conflict between those who have witnessed apartheid and those who are dissatisfied with the current state of the country.
- 8.
The Hebrew spelling is ונתנו and the letters of the word vav, nun, taf, nun and vav can be read backwards and forwards.
- 9.
Jeremy refers to a concept from “African tradition and some places in Asia”.
- 10.
In some cases the universe is closely related to God, like in Robert’s understanding who states, “I do see this interconnectivity of everything in the universe maybe what we don’t see in the universe as well, which actually our concept of God is”.
- 11.
This also refers to company run corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and initiatives, which even more so hint at the economisation of charitable giving. According to Lianne they fail to present themselves as voluntary, because “corporate social responsibility has become just a buzz word. Everyone knows they have to do it”.
- 12.
Mandela Day seems to have become so much of an obligation with many companies dedicating this day to volunteering and charities that there even has been confusion about it being a public holiday, where schools close (see: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/lifestyle/no-mandela-day-is-not-a-public-holiday/).
- 13.
Together with the social networks I asked about money or time given and the majority of networks included donations to either the UJC or a Jewish organisation.
- 14.
In regard to religious texts on Jewish giving traditions, Silber states that “it is far from uncommon to find the text first opting for a specific stance and then seemingly subverting it a few lines later” (Silber 2000: 128).
- 15.
In Heilman’s ethnographic account of an ultra-orthodox synagogue in New York he describes three groups of alms recipients. The group of the lowest status, receiving the smallest donations he calls beggars. According to Heilman, the donations to the beggars go along with “a maximum of status degradation” which reinforces their status as anonymous outsider (Heilman 1975: 374ff.). From the perspective Mittermaier takes, this interaction could be understood as erasing the individual in this god-centred act of giving (Mittermaier 2019).
- 16.
Highlands House is the Jewish home for the aged, where she runs art classes.
- 17.
I could collect some data on monetary and non-monetary donations through the network interviews. However, I did not enquire about the exact amounts of donations.
- 18.
I did not find any references to the concept of a religious calling in literature on Judaism. In an interview published online Rabbi Amy Eilberg states that “Jewish tradition has not developed a sense of calling in the same way as the Christian tradition. The strongest sense of how God calls and commands the Jewish people, is as a collective” (https://collegevilleinstitute.org/bearings/listening-and-being-sent/).
- 19.
There were exceptions though, like Cynthia who disliked the obligation character and the burden of having to give regularly to the UJC, for example.
- 20.
I refer to the classical rabbinic period, which is the foundational period of Judaism in approximately the first seven centuries CE. The main literary products of the Rabbis or Sages, as the rabbinic authorities from that period are called, are the Mishnah (third cent. CE), and the Jerusalemite (fourth–fifth cent. CE) and Babylonian (sixth cent. CE) Talmud“ (Teugels 2016: 235).
- 21.
Another related English proverb says that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime. Although none of my interlocutors referred to this saying it is an example of how widespread this idea is in different contexts.
- 22.
With their findings on discourses of privilege denial and individualism of poverty the authors join the ranks of other scholars in the field of critical whiteness in South Africa, like Ansell (2004), Ballard (2004) and Steyn (2005).
- 23.
An important generational divide in South Africa is the generation of the born-frees born after 1994. My sample unfortunately did not comprise enough individuals under that age to form a group big enough to be compared.
- 24.
Yael (34) is an exception in this age group, because she was adopted as a black child by white parents and therefore experienced from a non-privileged position, how difficult life was for an inter-racial family.
- 25.
I did not ask any of my informants about their economic status, so my assumption is based on their education, profession, their place of residence and size of their house, as far as I knew about it. Regarding the amount donated, my assessment is based on what they conveyed in the interview and the fact that there is a handful of well-known wealthy and generous donors, who did not belong to my sample. As Eliot explains, there is a group of wealthy community members who are targeted by the UJC’s fundraising campaign and a “top donors’ function with the 20% who give the 80%” is regularly hosted by the UJC. However, I cannot rule out that my interviewees donate huge amounts.
- 26.
On their homepage the Jewish Community Service refers to this growing need in connection with their property initiative, which provides accommodation for Jewish individuals and families in need (http://www.jcs.org.za/property-initiative/).
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Denk, L. (2023). Making Sense of Ambiguities. In: Jubuntu . J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66887-0_7
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