(Author: Mr. Justice Ralph Zulman, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010)
The author, David Saks, is a distinguished historian and journalist who writes extensively on South African Jewish political and military history in various local and international publications. He is the Associate Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and editor of its prestigious journal Jewish Affairs and holds a BA Honours Degree in History with distinction and an MA (History) from Rhodes University. His weekly column in the Jewish Report – Barbaric Yawp – is insightful and a joy to read.
The book is divided into ten chapters. They are headed, respectively, in ‘Search of the Boerejode’, ‘Who they Were’, ‘The Natal Theatre’, ‘The War in the West’, ‘The Home Front’, ‘Turn of the Tide’, ‘The Guerrilla War: Transvaal and Natal’, ‘The Guerrilla War: Free State and Cape’, ‘Prisoners of War’ and ‘Aftermath’. There is also a useful appendix which contains an annotated Nominal Role of Jews in the Boer Armed Forces. In addition there is/are acknowledgements and a preface.
The work is based on original research conducted largely in the archives of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. It carefully weaves individual narratives of Jewish participants into a broader narrative of the war’s best known events. The reminiscences of some of these ‘Oudstryders’ (veterans) were subsequently recorded by, amongst others, the late Chief Rabbi Dr L I Rabinowitz, zichrono l’brocha, to whose honoured memory the book is in part dedicated. It is further dedicated to the members of the former South African Jewish Sociological and Historical Society, whose pioneering research more than half a century ago, along with that of the Rabbi, made the writing of the book possible.
This fascinating book is the first full history of Jews who fought on the side of the Boers during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The narratives provide compelling and unique perspectives of the war from Jews who thus devoted themselves to serving the Boer cause.
Individual Jews were involved in nearly all the war’s best-known incidents, including the famous battles of Magersfontein, Colenso, Spioenkop and Paardeberg and the sieges of Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberley. Many were interned for lengthy periods in POW camps on St. Helena, Bermuda, Ceylon and elsewhere.
Among the exploits of these Jewish Boers that Saks relates is that of one individual whom he describes as ‘stubborn’. Falling seriously ill shortly after the war, he found himself on bed in a store owned by an Englishman. Gathering all his strength, he raised himself up and declared:
“I refuse to die in an Englishman’s bed. Put me on the floor.” And there, indeed, he died.
Another personality was one of three guards who watched over Winston Churchill following his capture by the Boer forces. Churchill, of course, subsequently escaped. Decades later, this former guard wrote to Churchill on his eightieth birthday, saying that had he not been off duty the night of his escape, the history of England would have been very different. Churchill replied humorously, saying that this Jew had “inflicted him on England”.
‘Jakkals’ Segall was one of the best known of the estimated 300 Jews who fought on the Boer side. He was born in Latvia and enlisted in the Free State commandos while still in his mid-teens and served with distinction under Generals JBM Herzog and Christiaan de Wet. He felt that it was an obligation for him to fight, and if necessary give his life, for “die ou Vrystaat”.
I have no hesitation in commending this thoroughly researched and entertaining book to anyone interested in not only in the Jewish history of South Africa, but the South African history of the time.
The book can be obtained through the Kollel Bookshop, Norwood, or directly through the author at david@beyachad.co.za.
Boerejode, Jews in the Boer Armed Forces,1899-1902 by David Saks, Charlie Fine Printing, Johannesburg, with the support of the Christa Maria Will Trust, 2010, 165p
