The history of the Jews in South Africa is a complex narrative that spans centuries, marked by exploration, settlement, cultural development, and political engagement. From their early presence as explorers to their significant role in the anti-apartheid movement, South African Jews have left an indelible mark on the country's history and continue to shape its future.
Early Jewish Presence and Settlement
The first Jews involved in the history of South Africa were explorers, cartographers, and astronomers employed by the Portuguese Crown. These men were employed in attempts by Portugal to discover a sea route to the Indian subcontinent. 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. Jews did not arrive in significant numbers at Cape Town before the 1820s.
The first congregation in South Africa, the Gardens Shul, was founded in Cape Town in September 1841. The first service was held on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) at the home of Benjamin Norden on 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 established a major wool industry. By bringing in thirty Angora goats from Asia, in 1856 they became the founders of the mohair industry. Aaron and Daniel de Pass were the first to open up Namaqualand.
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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.
During the period of British colonial rule in the 19th century, the Jewish South African community expanded greatly, in part thanks to encouragement from Britain. From 1880 to 1914, the Jewish population in South Africa grew from 4,000 to over 40,000.
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The South African gold rush began after 1886, attracting many Jews. 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.
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. During this era the South African Jewish politician Morris Alexander would be a notable community figure. In 1906 he helped pass a law that had Yiddish reclassified as a European language as opposed to a Semitic one.
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).
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Distribution of ethnic groups in South Africa in 1911.
Antisemitism and Immigration Restrictions
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.
Although South African 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 immigration 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. 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.
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. After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews emigrated to Israel.
Economic and Cultural Development
The overall Economic Upward Mobility of Jewish South Africans has evolved severely over time. Beginning with the early immigration to South Africa throughout the discoveries made of diamonds and gold, Jewish immigrants found their place in the fields that benefited from these discoveries. Specifically, opportunities were found in fields such as retail, mining, and manufacturing. These Jewish immigrants who found their place in these fields worked their way up the totem pole, benefiting from communal mutual aid programs to lift one another up and into the South African economy.
As time went on, many of these Jewish South Africans succeeded at furthering their careers from starting positions to becoming professionals in various fields such as law, banking, and medicine.
The development of the South African Jewish Cultural Identity has developed with time between an interesting dynamic of community traditions, support, assimilation and adaptation into South Africa as a whole. As Jews immigrated to South Africa primarily from Eastern Europe, the large majority consider themselves to be Ashkenazi Jews. They brought over many specific traditions and practices both religiously and culturally that have created a foundation for the modern day South African Jewish community, primarily concentrated in larger cities of South Africa such as Cape Town and Johannesburg.
As the community continued developing with time, Jewish institutions such as Jewish Day Schools, cultural community centers, and synagogues developed as well. These institutions played a major role in the development of a united identity, unique to South African Jewry, finding a place for Jews in South African society even under an Apartheid Government.
In a Post-Apartheid reality, South African Jews have managed to properly integrate themselves into discussions of current events as the country continues to heal from overcoming such violent oppression for many years.
The Great Synagogue in Cape Town, reflecting the community's integration and presence.
The Jewish Community and Apartheid
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. This began a long history of cooperation between Israel and South Africa on many levels.
Despite the anti-semitism of the ruling National Party, Jewish people were considered as white under the law and shared the same privileges as the Afrikaners. South Africa's Jewish community peaked in the 1970s with an estimated 120,000 Jews living in the country. South African Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form the twelfth largest Jewish community in the world, and the largest on the African continent. As of 2020, the Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town estimates 52,300 Jews in the country.
Elements of the South Africa Jewish community through such bodies as the South African Zionist Federation 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, despite strict exchange-control regulations.
Many Jewish South Africans, both individuals and organisations, helped support the anti-apartheid movement. It was estimated that Jews were disproportionately represented (some sources maintain by as much as 2,500%) among whites involved in anti-apartheid political activities.
Much like other English-speaking white South Africans, Jews supported either the Progressive Party or the United Party. One organisation, the Union of Jewish Women, sought to alleviate the suffering of blacks through charitable projects and self-help schemes. Some Jewish university students vehemently opposed the apartheid movement.
A large number of Jews were also involved in organisations such as the Springbok Legion, the Torch Commando and the Black Sash. These anti-apartheid organisations led protests that were both active (e.g. marching through the streets with torches) and passive (e.g. standing silently in black). Two Jewish organisations were formed in 1985: Jews for Justice (in Cape Town) and Jews for Social Justice (in Johannesburg). They tried to reform South African society and build bridges between the white and black communities.
In addition to the well-known high-profile Jewish anti-apartheid personalities, there were very many ordinary Jews who expressed their revulsion of apartheid in diverse ways and contributed to its eventual downfall. Many Jews actively provided humanitarian assistance for black communities. Johannesburg's Oxford Synagogue and Cape Town's Temple Israel established nurseries, medical clinics and adult education programs in the townships and provided legal aid for victims of apartheid laws.
The liberal Progressive Party, whose main champion Helen Suzman was the only MP consistently voting against apartheid legislation for many years. Suzman's critics argue that she did not achieve any notable political successes, but helped to shore up claims by the Nationalists that internal, public criticism of apartheid was permitted.
Harry Schwarz was in minority opposition politics for over 40 years and was one of the most prominent opponents of the National Party and its policy of apartheid. After assisting in the 1948 general election, Schwarz, Uys Krige, Sailor Malan, and others formed the Torch Commando, an ex-soldiers' movement to protest against the disenfranchisement of the coloured people in South Africa.
From the 1960s, when he was Leader of the Opposition in the Transvaal, he became well-known and achieved prominence as a race relations and economic reformist in the United Party. As an early and powerful advocate of non-violent resistance, he signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith with Mangosuthu Buthelezi in 1974, which enshrined the principles of peaceful negotiated transition of power and equality for all. It was the first of such agreements by black and white political leaders in South Africa.
In 1975 he led a breakaway from the United Party due to its ineffective approach to criticism of apartheid, and became leader of the new Reform Party that led to the realignment of opposition politics in South Africa. Schwarz was one of the defence attorneys in the Rivonia Trial who defended Jimmy Kantor, Nelson Mandela's lawyer until he was also arrested and charged.
In 1980, 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".
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 Afric...
Former president Thabo Mbeki was “in favour of a normalisation of relations with Israel. Trade between the two countries has increased 15-20% this year, especially in the field of security equipment.
South African Jews have played an important role in promoting diplomatic and military relations between Israel and South Africa. In February 2004 when he was a minister, [Kasrils] visited Yasser Arafat, surrounded by the Israeli army at his headquarters in the Muqata complex in Ramallah. ‘Arafat showed me the view from the window saying ‘this is nothing but a Bantustan!’ I replied: ‘No! The [postapartheid] South African government condemned “unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms the escalation of violence on the part of Israel brought about by the launching of a ground invasion into Gaza”. It called on Israel to halt its “massacre” and to withdraw its troops “immediately and unconditionally”.
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, who teaches at the University of Haifa, explained the paradox: “One can detest Jews and love Israelis, because Israelis somehow are not Jews. Israelis are colonial fighters and settlers, just like Afrikaners. They are tough and resilient. They know how to dominate. Jews are different. They are, among other qualities, gentle, non-physical, often passive, intellectual. [Feinstein] explains that, like most white South Africans, the country’s 100,000 Jews remained silent during the apartheid years, even though “there are clear parallels between the policies imposed on the Jews by the Nazis between 1933 and 1939 and those imposed on the majority of South Africans during the apartheid era”. He mentions Percy Yutar, the chief prosecutor who called for the death penalty at Mandela’s trial.
Here is a table of key figures relating to the Jewish population in South Africa:
| Year | Jewish Population |
|---|---|
| 1880 | 4,000 |
| 1914 | 40,000+ |
| 1970s (Peak) | 120,000 |
| 2020 (Estimate) | 52,300 |
The fight over BDS: Lessons from the South African anti-apartheid movement
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