Africa is a vast continent with many
different countries, climates, landscapes, languages,
histories and cultures.
South Africa is a far distant destination but with
much to make your trip worthwhile in both time and
money and it is now open to the world. Few countries
on earth are as little known but are as infamous
as South Africa. The horrors of Apartheid are over
and the country is home to a very large Jewish population
and is enjoying an exciting rebirth as a nation.
The Johannesburg and Cape Town regions offer many
sites for discovering this history of a nation as
well as the history of the Jews of this region. We
will hear the history of Nelson Mandela who was kept
for 18 years as a political prisoner as well as a
visit to Soweto which stands for South Western Township
and is now a living contrast of luxury auto dealerships
and tiny row houses sitting side by side with squatter
camps and tin shacks. This area produced two nobel
prize winners, Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
Jewish immigrants from Britain, Germany and Eastern
Europe, mainly the Baltics and Russia, settled in
the late 1800s in Johannesburg in search of the gold
fields and rich minerals such as diamonds. They established
synagogues, charitable organizations, hospitals and
other institutions to create a better and Jewish
way of life.
We will visit the Nelson Mandela Museum
and Soweto and other sites of interest as well as
sites of Jewish interest.
After being immersed in the history of Johannesburg
and the more recent establishment of the modern Jewish
community in Sandton, we will head North. En route
to Kruger National Park, we will stop and visit the
Premier Diamond Mine in Cullinan but unfortunately
no samples are allowed. While in Kruger, we will
stay at one of the many game lodges on the Sabi River.
We expect to see some of the world's most magnificent
wild animals including the "Big Five",
the lion, elephant, rhinoceros, water buffalo and
leopard.
From Kruger we fly to CapeTown which was founded
in the mid 1600s by the Dutch East India Company
as a stopping point at the Cape of Good Hope. This
was the sea route to India and the Far East and the
Company as well, had Jewish settlers as part of its
composition. Thiscity is sheltered on one side beneath
the Table Mountains and the Cape
of Good Hope, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
meet. Cape Town
is the oldest Jewish community in South Africa. It,
too, with its
discovery of diamonds in Kimberley, helped to increase
its Jewish
population and they also established synagogues, and
other institutions,
etc. as well.
We could not visit CapeTown without a full days' visit
to Stellenbosch,
the area of the magnificent South African wine.
And then, it is all too soon before we must return
home.
$2295.00 per person sharing a twin room, LAND
ONLY, (PJS will gladly assist in any air arrangements
necessary)
$495.00 limited single supplement. Domestic African
air required including taxes $295.00.
Itinerary
For further information: Premier Vacations Ltd.,
9378 Olive Blvd., #211, St. Louis, MO 63132
Tel: 314 994 9600 Fax: 314 994 9602 Reservations:
800 444 9250
