History of the Jews in South Africa

The first Jews involved in the history of South Africa were explorers, cartographers and astronomers who were employed by the Portuguese Crown. These men were employed in attempts by Portugal to discover a sea route to the Indian subcontinent. Jewish cartographers in Portugal, many of whom were member of the Portuguese upper class, assisted explorers Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India in 1488 and 1497, respectively.[7]

In 1652, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a colonial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope under the direction of Jan van Riebeeck. Among the settlers in the colony were a number of non-practising Jews who lived in Cape Town. The first records of Jews living in the colony were a baptism record of two Jewish settlers living in the Western Cape on Christmas Day, 1669. Despite this, Jewish immigration to the colony remained small in number due to the VOC requiring all its employees and settlers to be Protestant. In 1803, the Dutch colonial authorities granted religious freedom to all inhabitants and prospective migrants; when the British invaded and occupied the colony in 1805, they issued a confirmation of this policy the next year.[7]

Jews did not arrive in any significant numbers at Cape Town before the 1820s. The first congregation in South Africa, known as the Gardens Shul, was founded in Cape Town in September 1841, and the initial service was held on the eve of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) in the house of 1820 Settler and businessman Benjamin Norden, located at the corner of Weltevreden and Hof streets. Benjamin Norden, Simeon Markus, together with a score of others arriving in the early 1820s and '30s, were commercial pioneers, especially the Mosenthal brothers—Julius, Adolph (see Aliwal North), and James Mosenthal—who started a major wool industry. By their enterprise in going to Asia and returning with thirty Angora goats in 1856 they became the originators of the mohair industry. Aaron and Daniel de Pass were the first to open up Namaqualand, and from 1849 to 1886 they were the largest shipowners in Cape Town, and leaders of the sealing, whaling, and fishing industries. Jews were among the first to take to ostrich-farming and played a role in the early diamond industry. Jews also played some part in early South African politics. Captain Joshua Norden was shot at the head of his Mounted Burghers in the Xhosa War of 1846; Lieutenant Elias de Pass fought in the Xhosa War of 1849. Julius Mosenthal (1818–1880), brother of the poet S. Mosenthal of Vienna, was a member of the Cape Parliament in the 1850s. Simeon Jacobs, C.M.G. (1832–1883), who was a judge in the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope, as the acting attorney-general of Cape Colony he introduced and carried in 1872 the Cape Colony Responsible Government Bill and the Voluntary Bill (abolishing state aid to the Anglican Church), for both of which bills Saul Solomon, the member for Cape Town, had fought for decades. Saul Solomon (b. St. Helena 25 May 1817; d. 16 October 1892), the leader of the Cape Colony Liberal Party, has been called the "Cape Disraeli." He was invited into the first Responsible government, formed by Sir John Molteno, and declined the premiership itself several times. Like Disraeli, too, he early left the ranks of Judaism. At the same time, the Jews faced substantial antisemitism. Though freedom of worship was granted to all residents in 1870, the revised Grondwet of 1894 still debarred Jews and Catholics from military posts, from the positions of president, state secretary, or magistrate, from membership in the First and Second Volksraad ("parliament"), and from superintendencies of natives and mines. These positions were restricted to persons above 30 years of age with permanent property and a longer history of settlement. As a consequence of the fact that Boer republics were only in existence from 1857 to 1902, unfortunately many residents of the Boer republics had limited access to positions in the upper echelons of government. All instruction was to be given in a Christian and Protestant spirit, and Jewish and Catholic teachers and children were to be excluded from state-subsidised schools. Before the Boer War (1899–1902), Jews were often considered uitlanders ("foreigners") and excluded from the mainstream of South African life.

However, a small number of Jews also settled among and identified with the rural white Afrikaans-speaking population; these persons became known as Boerejode (Boer Jews). A measure of intermarriage also occurred and was generally accepted.[8]

The South African gold rush began after 1886, attracting many Jews. In 1880, the Jewish population of South Africa numbered approximately 4,000; by 1914 it had grown to more than 40,000.[9] So many of them came from Lithuania that some referred to the population as a colony of Lithuania; Johannesburg was also occasionally called "Jewburg".[10]

Jews fought on both sides during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), and Jewish soldiers, such as British Army officer Karrie Davies, participated in some of the most significant engagements of the conflict, including the siege of Ladysmith. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought in the war on the British side, and The Spectator reported that 125 of them were killed in action during the conflict. On the opposing side, roughly 300 Jews served on the Boer side; collectively they were known as the Boerjode (Boer Jews). Jews who lived in the Transvaal and South African Republics and held citizenship rights were conscripted along with other residents of the republics (known as burghers), though other Jews volunteered.[11] Jews fighting on the Boer side participated in many of the major engagements of the war, and continued to fight in the guerrilla phase of the conflict as bittereinders; 12 Boerjode are known to have been killed in action, while 80 were captured by the British. Captured Boerjode were held in prisoner-of-war camps in South Africa, Ceylon, Saint Helena, Bermuda and India.[12]

Although South Africans Jews were granted equal rights after the Second Boer War, they again became subject of persecution in the days leading up to the Second World War. In 1930, the Quota Act, passed by the South African government, was intended to curtail the emigration of Jews into South Africa. The vast majority of Jews immigrating to South Africa during this period came from Lithuania. The census of 1936 recorded a total of 17,684 Yiddish speakers in the Union of South Africa with 11,528 of them living in the Transvaal.[13] The 1937 Aliens Act, motivated by a sharp increase the previous year in the number of German Jewish refugees coming to South Africa, brought such migration to almost a complete halt. Some Jews were able to enter the country, but many were unable to do so. A total of approximately six-and-a-half thousand Jews came to South Africa from Germany between the years 1933 and 1939.[14] During this period, many Afrikaners sympathised with Nazi Germany due to their anti-British sentiment, and organisations such as Louis Weichardt's "Grayshirts" and the pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwag were openly antisemitic. In the South African Parliament, the opposition National Party argued that the Aliens Act was too lenient and advocated a complete ban on Jewish immigration, a halt in the naturalisation of Jewish permanent residents of South Africa and the banning of Jews from certain professions.[15]

After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews, generally a fairly Zionist community emigrated to the State of Israel. South African Jews in Israel number around 20,000 in the 21st century.[2][16] During this time, there were also two waves of Jewish immigration to Africa from the island of Rhodes, first in the 1900s and then after 1960.[17][18]

In this period, Jewish activism in South Africa also included attempts to secure the position of Jews overseas. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, a correspondent for the South African Medical Journal reported on the systematic oppression of Jewish medical professionals in Germany. These actions included denial of graduations for Jewish medical students, employment bans, forced resignations, raids on a Jewish medical association, and violent attacks on individual doctors. The report concluded that the actions of the Nazi regime likely had the tacit support of the German medical establishment and ended with the request that South African doctors protest the actions.[19]

Abba Eban, born in Cape Town, was Foreign Minister of Israel from 1966 to 1974.

When the Afrikaner-dominated National Party came to power in 1948 it did not adopt an anti-Jewish policy despite its earlier position. In 1953 South Africa's Prime Minister, D. F. Malan, became the first foreign head of government to visit Israel though the trip was a "private visit" rather than an official state visit.[20] This began a long history of cooperation between Israel and South Africa on many levels. The proudly Zionistic South African Jewish community, through such bodies as the South African Zionist Federation and a number of publications, maintained a cordial relationship with the South African government even though it objected to the policies of Apartheid being enacted. South Africa's Jews were permitted to collect huge sums of money to be sent on as official aid to Israel, in spite of strict exchange-control regulations. Per capita, South African Jews were reputedly the most financially supportive Zionists abroad.[21]

Savyon in Israel was built principally by South African Jews

A number of South African Jews settled in Israel, forming a South African community in Israel. Perhaps the most famous South African community founded in Israel is Savyon, which remains the wealthiest suburb in Israel. Large houses were built in the style that the community was accustomed to from their life in South Africa, each with a pool, and developed around a country club.[16]

Most African states broke ties with Israel after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and Israel began to view the similarly isolated South Africa cordially.[22][23] Ethan A. Nadelmann claimed that the relationship developed due to the fact that many African countries broke diplomatic ties with Israel during the 1970s following the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, causing Israel to deepen relations with other isolated countries.[24]

By the mid-1970s, Israel's relations with South Africa were warm. In 1975, the Israel–South Africa Agreement was signed, and increasing economic cooperation between Israel and South Africa was reported, including the construction of a major new railway in Israel, and the building of a desalination plant in South Africa.[25] In April 1976 South African Prime Minister John Vorster was invited to make a state visit, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.[22][26] Later in 1976, the 5th Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, adopted a resolution calling for an oil embargo against France and Israel because of their arms sales to South Africa.[25] In 1977, South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha visited Israel to discuss South African issues with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan.

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, an Israeli professor of psychology, wrote in 1988 that the alliance between South Africa and Israel was one of the most underreported news stories of the past four decades and that Israel played a crucial role in the survival of the South African regime.[27] Israel's collaboration with Apartheid South Africa was mentioned and condemned by various international organisations like the UN General Assembly (several times since 1974).[28] In 1987 Israel announced that it would be implementing sanctions against South Africa. By the beginning of the 1990s, military and economic ties between the two countries had been lost.

South African Jews have a history of political moderation and the majority supported opposition parties such as first the United Party, then the Liberal Party, Progressive Party and its successors during the decades of National Party apartheid rule. (See Liberalism in South Africa). The prime example of the more moderate approach is that of the highly assimilated Harry Oppenheimer (1908–2000) (born Jewish but converted to Anglicanism upon his marriage), the richest man in South Africa and the chairman of the De Beers and Anglo American corporations. He was a supporter of the liberal Progressive Party and its policies, believing that granting more freedom and economic growth to South Africa's Black African majority was good politics and sound economic policy. The banner for this cause was held high by Helen Suzman, as the lone Progressive Party member in South Africa's parliament, representing the voting district of Houghton, home to many wealthy Jewish families at the time. The Progressive Party (later renamed the Democratic Party and then the Democratic Alliance) was later led by Jewish politician, Tony Leon and his successor, Helen Zille. Zille is of Jewish descent: her parents separately left Germany in the 1930s to avoid Nazi persecution (her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were Jewish).

In 1980, after 77 years of neutrality, South Africa's National Congress of the Jewish Board of Deputies passed a resolution urging "all concerned [people] and, in particular, members of our community to cooperate in securing the immediate amelioration and ultimate removal of all unjust discriminatory laws and practices based on race, creed, or colour". This inspired some Jews to intensify their anti-apartheid activism, but the bulk of the community either emigrated or avoided public conflict with the National Party government.[29]

The Jewish establishment and the majority of South African Jews remained focused on Jewish issues. A few rabbis spoke out against apartheid early, but they failed to gain support and it was not until 1985 that the rabbinate as a whole condemned apartheid (Adler 2000). The South African Union for Progressive Judaism took the strongest stand of any of the Jewish movements in the country against apartheid. It opposed disinvestment while women in the movement engaged in social work as a form of protest. This includes the Moses Weiler School in Alexandra founded by Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler, where for generations the school has been funded and led by women from the Progressive movement, even in opposition to the Bantu Education Act, 1953 (Feld 2014).

• South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the central representative institution of the South African Jewish community
• Jewish South Africa
• Jewish Virtual History Tour of South Africa – Jewish Virtual Library
• Jews in South Africa – Jay Sand
• Lithuanian Jews make big impact in South Africa – Reuters
• South Africa – Jewish Encyclopedia
• "Jews on Commando", Saks, D.Y. (2005), Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy
• Zimbabwe Jewish Community history web site A comprehensive overview of the history of the community, from early settlement in Northern and Southern Rhodesia to life today.
• How the guard has changed since Rhodes stormed the SA economy, "Without the Jewish people, the country would have taken many more years to evolve", The Sunday Times
• The Jewish Community of Johannesburg, 1886-1939. Rubin, Margot W. University of Pretoria, 2006
• The Jewish community in the post-apartheid era: same narrative, different meaning, Herman, Chaya. University of Pretoria, 2007
• Southern African Jewish Rootsbank Database

• South African Union of Jewish Students
• Jewish Agency for Israel

Schools

• Full listing: jewishweb.co.za
• King David Schools
• Herzlia Schools
• Yeshiva College of South Africa
• Torah Academy School
• Theodor Herzl School
• Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School
• Cape Town Torah High

• List of Synagogues
• Chabad-Lubavitch Centers in South Africa; Chabad, Johannesburg
• Ohr Somayach South Africa
• Machon L'Hora'ah The Pretoria Yeshiva
• South African Union for Progressive Judaism