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The Politics of Pressure Jewish Liberalism and Apartheid South The Politics of Pressure Jewish Liberalism and Apartheid South Africa Louise Leibowitz February 2008 M.A. University of New South Wales - ii - Table of Contents Chapter l: Introduction ................................................................................................ l Chapter 2: The SA Jewish Community ........................................................................... 6 White Settlement in South Africa ................................................................................... 6 The Origins of the Jews of South Africa .......................................................................... 8 Relationships between Afrikaners and Jews ................................................................. 15 The Composition of the Jewish Group in South Africa ................................................. 20 SA Jewish Communal Structure and Functions ............................................................. 26 Chapter 3: Theories of Jewish Liberalism and the SA Context ..................................... 30 Value Theories .............................................................................................................. 30 Historical Theories ........................................................................................................ 34 Sociological Theories ..................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 4: Medding's Theory of Jewish Liberalism ..................................................... 47 Chapter 5: Political Behaviour and Political Values .................................................... 64 Chapter 6: Jewish Activism and the Community's Response to Activists ..................... 74 Chapter 7: The Problem of Comparison ...................................................................... 85 Comparison with Other Minorities ............................................................................... 85 Comparison with other Jewish groups ......................................................................... 86 Comparison with English-speaking Whites ................................................................... 87 The English Language as a Political Act.. ....................................................................... 92 Chapter 8: Beyond Overt Political Action ................................................................... 100 Chapter 9: Conclusion ...............................................................................................114 Bibliography .............................................................................................................117 - iii - Chapter 1 Introduction From a moral perspective, the record of the South African Jews under apartheid leaves much to be desired. As Gideon Shimoni aptly put it, South African Jews demonstrated "characteristic minority group behaviour - a phenomenon of self­ preservation performed at the cost of moral righteousness." 1 While moral judgment of South African (hereafter SA) Jewish political behaviour is beyond the scope of this study, apparent Jewish complicity with apartheid is of social scientific interest in that it is unexpected. A large body of literature attempts to explain why Jews in the Diaspora have been so politically liberal compared to their national populations and comparable ethno-religious and socioeconomic groups. Yet in South Africa, the Jews seem to have exhibited typical minority group behaviour, which, in this case, amounts to acting in an illiberal manner. The liberal orientation of Jews has been noted since the nineteenth century. 2 Jews have not only tended to support left-liberal candidates, parties, and policies across places and time, but, unlike other originally excluded disadvantaged groups, have often continued to do so even after their social and economic status improved dramatically. 3 1 Gideon Shimoni, Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa (New Haven: Brandeis University Press, 2003), p. 276. 2 Paula E. Hyman, "Was There a 'Jewish Politics' in Central and Western Europe?", in The Quest for Utopia: Jewish Political Ideas and Institutions Through the Ages, ed. Zvi Gittelman, (New York: M. E. Sharpe, available www.frontpagemag.com/Articles. accessed 4/8/07. 3 Geoffrey Brahm Levey, "The Liberalism of American Jews-Has It Been Explained?", British Journal ofPolitical Science, vol. 26, No.3.(July 1996), pp.396-401, at p. 379. - 1 - It would seem that, as a group, Jews are more likely than their national populations and other comparable minorities to vote against their acquired class and socio-economic interests. These unusual patterns have ceased to surprise. Pronounced left-liberalism is, if not always exhibited by Diaspora Jews, considered to be the default position of Jewish politics in Western societies. Accordingly, many theories have sought to explain the puzzle of Jewish political liberalism. While the majority of studies focus on American Jews, in most comers of the Diaspora a Jewish proclivity for liberal politics has been in evidence since the 19th century.4 For most of the twentieth century, most Jews in Central and Western Europe, in North America, and in the antipodes have supported the left of the political centre of the country concerned. Even in places where majority Jewish support for the left-liberal parties has tapered off - as it has in Britain and Australia in recent decades - residual Jewish liberalism is in evidence. In Britain, for example, Jews are more likely to vote Labour and to express support for civil liberties and social justice policies - key elements of modem day liberalism - than non-Jews who share the same social and occupational status. 5 And in Australia, most Jews who seek political office or who are otherwise politically active 4 Bernard Susser and Charles S. Liebman, Choosing Survival: Strategies for a Jewish Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 66; Levey, "When did the Liberalism of American Jews Emerge?" also James J. Sheehan, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (London: Methuen, 1978), p.104-119. 5 For an account of the attitudes and opinions of British Jews, see Stephen Miller, Marlena Schmool, and Antony Lerman, Social and Political Attitudes ofBritish Jews: Some Key Findings of the JPR Survey, Institute for Jewish Policy Research Report , 1996, no. I; also Geoffrey Brahm Levey, "Toward a Theory of Disproportionate American Jewish Liberalism," Studies of Contemporary Jewry, vol.11: Values, Interests and Identity: Jews and Politics in a Changing World, ed. Peter Y. Medding (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 64-85, at p. 66. - 2 - associate with the left-liberal political parties. Indeed, for many Jews today, being politically liberal constitutes a key part of their Jewish identity.6 Against this background, SA Jewry appears as a dramatic exception. While a small minority of Jews were conspicuous players in left-radicalism in South • Africa (not unlike Jewish involvement in radical movements elsewhere), the vast majority of SA Jews seem to have complied with the discriminations and injustices of apartheid. In this thesis, I want to challenge the commonplace assumption that the political record of SA Jewry under apartheid refutes the oft­ noted pattern of a pronounced left-liberalism among modem Jews in the Diaspora. In particular, I shall argue that political actions do not necessarily reflect political values, especially under authoritarian regimes. Indeed, I suggest that, in the South African case, voting patterns and official postures obscure, rather than refute a Jewish preference for liberal politics. Various theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of residual Jewish liberalism. The public face of SA Jewish political behaviour lends support to one of these theories in particular, that of Peter Medding. Medding cites the SA Jewish example to support his claim that our assumptions about disproportionate Jewish liberalism are wrong. He disagrees with those who assert that Jews are enduringly and universally liberal; rather, "political liberalism is a particular variant of Jewish political behaviour, occurring only under specific historical and societal conditions, rather than a universal phenomenon."7 Medding cites the SA 6 Jonathan Woocher, Sacred Survival: The Civil Religion ofAmerican Jews (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1986), in which Woocher describes a Jewish civil religion built upon Holocaust commemoration, a commitment to social justice as well as support for the State of Israel. 7 Peter Medding, "Towards a General Theory of Jewish Political Interests and Behavior," in Kinship and Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and Its Contemporary Uses, ed. Daniel J. Eiazar (Turtledove Publications, 1981 ), p. 313. - 3 - experience as an example of "illiberal" Jewish political behaviour, suggesting that political behaviour bends under the pressure of anticipated antisemitism. While Medding's theory accounts for much of SA Jewish political action, it does not account for all of it. Specifically, Medding assumes that Jewish political action accurately reflects Jewish political values. However, Medding's theory itself suggests another possibility: that Jews may strongly subscribe to liberal values, but, as a result of pressures both extrinsic and intrinsic to their particular communities, be less able or less willing to express these values in a politically overt manner than Jews elsewhere. They may have been "persuaded" to express
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