February 15, 2006
Former South African Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris has been posthumously awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire). The honor was given last month for Harris’ services to the South African Jewish community and in the field of inter-faith dialogue. Harris, who led South Africa’s Jewish community for 17 years until the end of 2004, passed away last September at the age of 68. Among those attending the award ceremony were Dame Helen Suzman, a veteran South African human rights campaigner and retired politician; Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, Ilan Baruch; and Kader Asmal, a legislator and former Cabinet minister. Harris played an active role in promoting reconciliation after the coming of democracy to South Africa in 1994, leading the Jewish community into the new South Africa. Ann Harris said her late husband felt the award was as much an honor for the Jewish community as for him, and that was why, before he took ill, he had elected to receive the honor in South Africa rather than in London.