Abstract
Stratton and other diaspora scholars, like James Clifford, point out the aspect of time for the making of a diaspora and the importance of understanding contemporary diaspora communities in their historical context and how they have come to be. Only time can tell if a group of migrants will form and maintain being a distinctive group within a host society, manifesting their distinctiveness through shared narratives and institutions (Paredes Grijalva 2017: 88). The historical background of a diaspora community is impacted by the bigger geopolitical context and in combination with this form part of the community’s narratives of today and also its position within South African society.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Iannes Hassiotis and Hauke Dorsch in the same volume see historical continuity as key factor for the construction of diaspora.
- 2.
With imagined community I refer to Benedict Anderson’s concept to analyse nations and nation building processes, where socially constructed entities are constantly reproduced and imagined by their members (Anderson: 1983). Imagined and socially constructed in this case does not mean that these imaginations do not manifest themselves in reality, though.
- 3.
In the Russian Empire Jews were only allowed to settle and work in the restricted Pale of settlement. Due to these geographic restrictions, the number of Jews relative to the non-Jewish population was high. Before WWII about one in three residents of Vilnius and Kaunas in today’s Lithuania, was Jewish (Davis 2009: 42).
- 4.
Both groups belong to the large group of Ashkenazim. While Chasidism is characterised by mysticism, ecstasis and its charismatic leaders instead of rabbinical authority, the Mitnagdim are known for their pietism, eruditeness, and strict Talmud studies. Later, Hasidic interpretations become more dominant and are even today the basis of the Chabad- or Lubavitcher return-movement, also active in South Africa and other diaspora communities (Morkus 2002: 12, Bloomberg (2004): 78).
- 5.
In the second half of the 19th century 40.000 people emigrated from the province of Lithuanian, most of which migrated to the USA, some to Palestine but South Africa was the second favourite destination (Davis 2009: 40).
- 6.
Even before the first Jewish migration wave, Jewish individuals must have been among those to circumnavigate the Cape. However, under the reign of the Dutch East India Company (they ruled from 1652- 1795) only Protestants were allowed to settle, making it impossible for Jewish travellers to settle in South Africa (Mendelsohn/Shain 2008: 3, Shimoni 2003: 1 f.)
- 7.
More information on the underexplored relationship between South African Jews and the Afrikaans-speaking white population of the country can be found in Talana Weil’s and Matilda Burden’s (2002) historical account of the interaction of the two groups in the South African hinterland from 1880 to 1950.
- 8.
At another point, though, Shain clarifies that the whiteness of South African Jews was never really at stake, compared to other groups. Jewish immigrants in South Africa were “gradually integrated into society”, while Indians were “progressively excluded”. Entering the elite was even easier for the “Anglo-German Jewish establishment”, who “enjoyed privilege, power, authority, and even acclaim from earliest times”, while the Eastern European émigrés were upwardly mobile, transforming the “pariah […]into the parvenu” (Shain 1994: 152, cf. ibid.: 119)
- 9.
Shimoni provides another calculation, stating that 6132 immigrants from Germany entered the South African Union, 3615 of them being Jewish, between 1933 and 1936 (Shimoni 2003: 13). Out of the group of German Jewish émigrés 2549 arrived in 1936 (ibid.). Shimoni refers to Saron/Hotz (1955: 379). In a more recent account, Hellig estimates that about 6500 Jewish-German immigrants entered the Union between 1933 and 1942, which would be around 5% of Jews who were able to flee (Hellig 2009: 126)
- 10.
In an earlier publication Shain estimated the number of refugees at around 570 (Shain 1994: 144).
- 11.
Hellig, Osrin and Pimstone (2003) provide more information on German-Jewish immigrants in South Africa.
- 12.
The first documented cases were Jews who had converted to Christianity, probably by force (Mendelsohn/Shain 2008: 182)
- 13.
After an almost complete annihilation only 60 Jews remained on the island of Rhodes (Aly 2006: 299 ff.).
- 14.
The demographer DellaPergola assumes there to be 5000 Jews of Sephardic or “Asian-African origin” in 2000 in Southern Africa (Della Pergola 2007: 14).
- 15.
Hirschon refers to a „seaside suburb“, with which she most likely means Sea Point with the only Sephardic synagogue in Cape Town. Also, all Sephardim I spoke to or those included in my interlocutors’ networks lived in Sea Point.
- 16.
I asked the historian Milton Shain, whether there is a relevant number of Israeli immigrants to South Africa and he answered: “No […]. They used to talk about 30.000. And of course, the usual story: I know one! You know the same one, so there two! They worked out very carefully, between six and nine [thousand]” (Shain 2015).
- 17.
In 2003 85% of South African Jews lived either in Johannesburg, or in Cape Town (Frankental/Rothgiesser 2003: 4).
- 18.
There was for example much controversy around an article by young journalist Claudia Braude which criticized the Jewish Attorney-general Percy Yutar whose judgment sentenced Nelson Mandela to Robben Island. Because of possible libelous statements, her article was not published in the Jewish Affairs and she took it to the general press was an action which was regarded with much disapproval (Shimoni 2003: 266 f.).
- 19.
Shimoni compares the South African with the US-American Jewish organized community during the 1950 s/60 s, which similarly, found itself in a moral dilemma between Jewish ethical obligations and the necessity to secure its community’s existence and wealth (Shimoni 2003: 268 f.). In a similar vein, Hartewig describes the ambivalent position of German communist Jews, who returned to the Soviet occupation zone in Eastern Germany, following their political ideals albeit with feelings of unease returning to the Germany of the Shoah (ibid.: 2002: 49)
- 20.
Today the SAJBD’s mission statement includes phrases, like “the betterment of human relations between Jews and all other peoples of South Africa” and states its commitment to “a South Africa where everyone will enjoy freedom from the evils of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination” (SAJBD 2020). With this adjustment the SAJBD widens its focus beyond the Jewish community towards the South African society as a whole.
- 21.
The status of middleman minorities often goes along with scapegoating where „during periods of political distress, reactions to middleman minorities include boycotts, riots, expulsions, and genocide“ (Min 2013: 147). 50 Suttner’s ‘Cutting through the mountain’ (1997), a collection of (auto-) biographies of former anti-apartheid activists, can be mentioned here as a good example.
- 22.
Suttner’s ‘Cutting through the mountain’ (1997), a collection of (auto-) biographies of former anti-apartheid.
activists, can be mentioned here as a good example.
- 23.
1968 the minister of police and interior published a list of names of students who had been involved in protests against government policies, in order to demonstrate the over proportionate number of students with Jewish names, stigmatise them publicly as communists and as disloyal towards South Africa. During the cold war this statement was understood as a threat to the whole Jewish community and therefore the SAJB distanced themselves and the community from these individuals’ actions (Shain/Frankental 1997: 55 f., Shimoni 2003: 116, Campbell 2000: 156, Goldberg 1997: 49).
- 24.
An overproportionate involvement of Jews in the radical left, communist, socialist, or civil rights movement(s) can be found in other political struggles across Europe and the United States (for e.g.: Deutscher 1988, Hartewig 2000, Zuckermann 2002, Schüler-Springorum 2009, Di Palma 2014, Fuchs 1956). This phenomenon has been discussed widely in the social and political sciences (Shimoni 2000: 163 f., Shimoni 2003: 75).
- 25.
Lazerson estimates an overall of about 300 white anti-apartheid activists, so that Jewish involvement here can be seen as over proportionate, considering that 4% of white South Africans were Jewish (Lazerson 1994).
- 26.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (or MK in abbreviation) was the armed wing of the African National Congress.
- 27.
The South African Communist Party had only been operating underground since its ban in 1950.
- 28.
Already in 1956, 156 activists were arrested and accused of treason. Over a half of this group was Jewish (Shimoni 2003: 60).
- 29.
Among these MK members were Denis Goldberg, Lionel „Rusty“ Bernstein, James Kantor und Bob Hepple.
- 30.
Frankel gives a good example of the ambiguities of Jewish belonging in exile: He describes the funeral of an anti-apartheid comrade, who had always identified as atheist and communist. At her funeral, though, all the guests had Jewish names (Frankel 2000: 198).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Denk, L. (2023). The History of Jews in South Africa. In: Jubuntu . J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66887-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66887-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-66886-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-66887-0
eBook Packages: J.B. Metzler Humanities (German Language)