South Africa South Africa has always been a nation of separate and unequal peoples. The English separated from the early Dutch settlers (Afrikaners), the Afrikaners from the English, and both remained as far apart as possible from the blacks. South African Jews spent the first half of the 20th century trying to find their place in the white community, appealing alternately to British and Afrikaner leaders for political recognition. Though Jews accompanied some of the first white colonizers to South Africa in the mid-1800s, most Jewish immigrants after the 1880s were from Lithuania. Both the British and Afrikaners exhibited substantial anti-Semitism against the Lithuanian Jews and kept them on the edge of white society. Before the Anglo-Boer war (1899-1901) the Afrikaners (also known as the Boers) called Jews uitlanders (foreigners); they did not allow uitlanders to vote or to attend Dutch Protestant schools. After the British defeated the Boers they allowed Jews the right to practice and granted the newly formed Jewish Board of Deputies substantial autonomy to determine their affairs. From its inception in 1903, the Jewish Board of Deputies chose to stay out of all political decisions that didn’t directly affect the Jews. South Africa became a nation in 1910 and began to make policies to prohibit "undesirables" to immigrate. Specifically, the white government wanted to stop Indians from immigrating but since they were British subjects they couldn’t do so directly. The British therefore developed a language test as a criterion for citizenship, which excluded most Indians, as well as Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europeans, from immigrating. The Jewish community’s protests convinced the government to both add a second criterion for immigration -- economic viability -- and allow for prospective immigrants to take the language test in Yiddish. The Jews fought for their own interests, but did nothing to improve the immigration chances of the Indians. This disregard for non-white "undesirables" was characteristic of a pre-World War II South African Jewish community that struggled for English and Afrikaner acceptance. Though some Jews were involved in anti-apartheid leftist entities like the Socialist party and the labor movement, most pre WWII South African Jews identified with the white ruling parties of Botha and Smuts. In the years leading up to World War II many Afrikaner nationalists became sympathetic to German National Socialism, joining anti-Semitic organizations like Louis Weichardt’s "Grayshirts" who advocated reversing Jewish emancipation: "We cannot throw them out as Hitler did, but we can make it impossible for them to live here." The Grayshirts closely identified Jews with both Communists and "the Black peril." This pervasive anti-Semitism calmed but did not disappear after the war ended. After the war many South African Jews emigrated to the newly-formed state of Israel. South African Jewry had always demonstrated strong Zionist characteristics, and despite its overt anti-Semitism the South African government was consistent in its support of Israel. Some historians suggest that the South Africans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, felt a kinship with Israel, a primarily white nation born on the land of unwilling non-whites. Jewish emigration increased in the ‘50s as blacks started to rebel against apartheid en masse. Some Jews fled to avoid the rising black masses, while others left to avoid persecution for their own anti-apartheid views; some remaining South Africans pejoratively called this emigration "the Chicken Run." Jews were active on all sides of the apartheid struggle, some in support of racial separation, others (like noted activists Helen Suzman, Joe Slovo, Ronnie Kasrils, Albie Sachs) standing with Nelson Mandela. Throughout, the Jewish Board of Deputies and most South African rabbis were deafeningly silent on the immorality of state policy. Israel itself was not as reluctant; its parliament spoke out against apartheid in the ‘60s and voted against South Africa often in the United Nations, causing white leaders to accuse Jews of being anti-apartheid rabble-rousers. Israel resumed cordial relations with South Africa only when most other African nations broke off diplomatic contact after the Six Day War of 1967. Anti-apartheid violence tore South Africa apart throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. 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. south
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