What’s a nice Jewish girl doing deep in the African veld?

Enjoying every minute that’s what.

Meet Ilana Stein native South African committed frum woman weekly lecturer at the local women’s shiur — and licensed game ranger. Ilana has followed the call of her heart: the call of the wild.

While most of her current working day is spent in the staid walls of a safari company’s office the adventurous high-spirited guide is still immersed in the work she loves: cherishing guarding and respecting the wildlife.

From Jerusalem to the Bush

Born and bred in bustlingJohannesburg Ilana’s childhood was prototypical for many South African Jews: middle-class home Jewish day school education and strong Bnei Akiva leanings including a deep-seated affiliation withIsrael.

In this seemingly textbook pattern was there a hint to her eventual nonconventional career choice? “I come from a family that loves the bush” Ilana explains using the local term for the vast wide-open savannah that comprises much ofSouth Africa Botswana Zambia andZimbabwe. “From the time I was only five years old we’d make a trip out to theKrugerNational Parkevery year. The weakness-for-the-bush gene runs in the clan and I think I just got an oversized chunk of it.”

Upon high school graduation Ilana set off for the Holy Land studying first in a seminary in Elkanah and later in Jerusalem-based Nishmat all the while developing an authentic attachment to the country of her people. At 22 years old the independent-thinking student actualized that connection: she made aliyah — and hoped to stay for good.

But something was missing.

“The bush is in my blood and I missed it” she says. “My childhood game-ranger dream wasn’t realized and there was this insatiable yearning.”

With a potpourri of passion and emotion tugging at her heart a sad but convinced Ilana packed her bags and leftJerusalemto return to Jo’burg.

Having already begun her studies in Israel through a long distance learning program of Technikon South Africa’s the ambitious young woman pushed forward on a journey into academia that would last five years — including three sessions of in-the-trenches practicum — and eventually confer her with a hard-earned degree in conservation.

“It was an adjustment” remembers Ilana. “I went from full-time Torah study inIsraelto living out in the bush with mostly non-Jewish people.”

For those who assume the scope of a game ranger’s skills begins and ends at knowing how to feed and tame elephants (“Ha!” Ilana laughs. “No such thing.”) Ilana quickly dispels the notion rattling off a formidable list of subjects she had to master:  zoology soil science botany statistics and geography to name a few.

During the practical sessions she spent one year on botany (“we spent a week in the mountains analyzing different plants”) one year on wildlife and one year on conservation management.

And following her arduous but enjoyable training Ilana joined a friend in creating one of the first kosher safari business taking groups of kosher tourists out to the bush for extended stays.

“He was qualified to walk groups and I was qualified to game drive [in a jeep]” she describes. “We had such fun.”

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