South African Jewry 20 Years Into Democracy
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South African Jewry 12 20 Years Into Democracy In December 2013, South Africa was once again Another, thornier, question concerning world the focus of international attention following Jewry was what Mandela’s attitude had been the passing of its iconic former President Nelson toward Israel. !e implications of this were of Mandela. Tributes poured in for this remarkable more than historical interest. Particularly since freedom fighter and statesman, and in due course the collapse of the Oslo peace process, there has world leaders began streaming into the country been a growing campaign to portray Israel as to attend his funeral. Just under twenty years an apartheid state essentially no di"erent from previously, they had similarly arrived from near the despised white minority regime in South and far to witness Mandela’s inauguration as Africa. !e comparison may be specious, but President of South Africa’s newborn multiracial in a world where perceptions create their own democracy. realities, it has the potential to serious harm Mandela’s passing also placed the spotlight on the Jewish State. In no small part, the demise South African Jewry, at least so far as international of apartheid South Africa was hastened by the Jewry was concerned. For most of his career, international boycott against it, and those who he had been closely associated with members push the Israel-Apartheid equation believe that of the Jewish community, most notably in the it likewise holds the key to Israel’s demise. Had struggle against the racially oppressive apartheid someone of the stature of Nelson Mandela, the system. None of the country’s other ethnic white man more than anyone else associated with the communities came close to producing so high fight against apartheid, endorsed this canard, it a proportion of individuals who had helped him would greatly boost the credibility of those who 1 to realize his goals. !is in turn was part of the propagate it. broader phenomenon of Jews, despite being part Mandela’s attitude toward Israel and his of the privileged white caste, producing a strikingly relationship with South African Jewry have been disproportionate number of those whites who did alluded to because in many ways they capture oppose apartheid. the ambiguous position of Jews in South Africa THE JEWISH PEOPLE POLICY INSTITUTE 173 today. On the one hand, the awkward transition anti-Zionism and the struggle against it is only one from a society based on entrenched white component of the collective Jewish experience. privilege to one of multiracial democracy has Taken as a whole, in fact, the overall state of South been eased by the fact that individual Jews did so African Jewry twenty years into democracy is much to bring about the new order. Certainly, it remarkably healthy, arguably more so than at any has helped the Jewish leadership to punch above time in the community’s 175 year-old history. !is its weight in terms of accessing government and may not be the case in bare numerical terms; the having input into public policy. On the other community reached its peak of around 120 000 the strongly entrenched culture of anti-Zionism, souls in 1970,2 and since then it has decreased by so typical of post-colonial African societies and more than a third. It is certainly true, however, for historical reasons particularly pronounced in in terms of the high levels of Jewish identity, the South Africa, places mainstream Jewry at odds correspondingly low rates of assimilation and with the government’s intermarriage and the burgeoning of Jewish standpoint and the views learning at all levels. Additionally, and despite the !e South of their fellow citizens in prevalence of anti-Zionist sentiment, South Africa African Jewish general. !e notion that has consistently recorded one of the Diaspora’s population is Israel practices a form of lowest rates of anti-Semitism. approximately apartheid and that the 75,000, out situation regarding Israelis Demographics and Distribution of a total and Palestinians largely population of mirrors the situation In global terms, the South African Jewish 52 million in pre-liberation South population is not particularly large. Nevertheless, Africa is now widely it still constitutes the twelfth-largest Jewish regarded as fact. It has community in the Diaspora and by far the naturally been assiduously propagated by anti- largest on the African continent.3 Despite losses Israel activists, who in seeking to undermine to emigration during the final quarter of the last the credibility of those who oppose them do century, it still comprises some 70-75,000 souls not scruple to feed into the inevitable vein of (out of a total population of 52 million). !is anti-white racial sentiment within the black figure has remained stable for at least a decade. population. Hence, by taking a stand on behalf Prior to World War II, the Jewish population of Israel, Jews increasingly risk being seen as was more spread out than it is today. While the supporters of apartheid, and indeed are regularly majority were concentrated in the main urban labeled as such in certain quarters. centers – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, !is overview will explore these and related Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and East questions, but at this point it must be stressed that London – a substantial minority lived in the 174 THE JEWISH PEOPLE POLICY INSTITUTE smaller country towns, and in scores of cases degree of actual practice varies widely) and its were su#ciently numerous to establish formally strong support for Zionism. constituted congregations. !e larger country In addition to the dominant Eastern European centers also had active Zionist, women’s, youth component, the community comprises a and welfare organizations. After the war, however, significant minority of German-Jewish origin, Jews began relocating to the cities, initially for largely descended from refugees from Nazism economic and educational reasons, but with this who arrived in the 1930s. Since the war, additional exodus in due course generating a momentum of diversity has been provided by Sephardi Jews 4 its own. Today, not only have most of the country originally from the Greek island of Rhodes, most communities closed, but even in the cities the of who had first gone to Northern and Southern Jewish population has declined sharply, sometimes Rhodesia (today’s Zambia and Zimbabwe). Israelis, by as much as 90%. According to the 2001 census whether as permanent residents or transient and available communal records, two thirds of the workers, have likewise Jewish community – an estimated 50 000 – live emerged as a distinct in Johannesburg and 20% in Cape Town (16 000). !ree out of grouping within the four of its Durban and Pretoria together account for 3000 community. more, and around the same number are spread members have out in the remainder of the country. Because of the high rate Lithuanian of emigration by younger roots, the result In 1950, the SAJBD appointed an itinerant rabbi people from the mid- of a huge whose brief was to pay regular visits to the 1970s, the profile of influx between declining pockets of country Jewry no longer the Jewish community 1880 and 1930 able to employ a religious minister and teacher. today is a relatively aged !is position has been held since 1993 by Rabbi one. According to the Moshe Silberhaft, whose brief has been expanded 2001 census, 20% of its to visit the small Jewish communities in such members were over 65, Southern African countries as Namibia, Botswana, as opposed to just 5% 5 Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. nationally. !e same proportion, however, were A noteworthy feature of South African Jewry is under the age of twenty, their numbers swelled by that an estimated three out of four of its members the typically larger families within the burgeoning have Lithuanian roots, the result of a huge influx religious sector. !ese age profiles vary from from that country and neighboring territories in place to place. !e median age in Johannesburg the period 1880-1930. !is common heritage helps and Cape Town is lower than that of Durban and to explain what can be said to most characterize Pretoria, while in Bloemfontein, East London and the community, namely its strong attachment Port Elizabeth, Jews over fifty now constitute the to traditional Orthodox Judaism (albeit that the large majority.6 THE JEWISH PEOPLE POLICY INSTITUTE 175 Education and faculty members adhere to such precepts varies widely. While a non-coercive stance is A striking feature of South African Jewry is how maintained regarding di"erent levels of religious many of the youth are being educated within observance, non-Orthodox and secular streams of the Jewish day school system. Over 90% of those religious instruction are rigorously excluded. of school-going age are found in Johannesburg !e SA Board of Jewish Education, the largest body and Cape Town, and more than four out of five of its kind in the Diaspora, is directly responsible of these attend a Jewish school (the majority for the educational and financial policies of of the remainder attend private colleges). In the King David Schools. It has over 90 a#liates Johannesburg the largest school system comprises countrywide, including the United Herzlia the three King David schools, whose combined Schools, Yeshiva College, Torah Academy, Shaarei student body comprise just under 60% of those Torah Primary and Hirsch Lyons in Johannesburg being educated under and !eodor Herzl in Port Elizabeth. !e latter’s Jewish auspices. !e student body today is 90% non-Jewish, but a As a result of United Herzlia Schools in basic Jewish-Zionist education is provided for the the growth Cape Town cater for over city’s remaining Jewish youth.