(Author: Honey Gluckman, Sol Cowan, Vol. 65, No. 3, Chanukah 2010)
The following is a response by two readers from the ‘Jewish Community’ to Daniel Macintosh’s article ‘Speaking out Against Injustice? Re-examining the SAJBD’s Response to Apartheid, 1948-1976’ in the Rosh Hashanah 2010 issue of Jewish Affairs.
We were forced to read this article several times, since it was often difficult to follow. Though Mackintosh specified that he was referring to the period 1948 to 1976, his use of phrases like, ‘propping up and supporting Apartheid,’ ‘during Apartheid’ and ‘the context of Apartheid’ seemed to indicate that he was referring to the whole period, 1948 to roughly 1990, when the policy of Apartheid broke down. This was already confusing, but what was particularly surprising was that the writer, not with standing his university education, should have been guilty of so many factual and logical errors in his effort to prove, among other points, that the Jewish Board of Deputies was not always politically neutral. Our response however, will be concentrating only on the accusations that he has made against the Jewish community. We will leave the Board of Deputies to defend themselves.
Mackintosh’s first and most serious logical error is in his constantly contradicting himself. He writes, “this essay will seek to analyse the actions of the Board only(our emphasis), rather than characterise the community as a whole.” Throughout his essay, however, he constantly refers to the Jewish community. Examples include such statements as, “neither should this absolve us from probing the role that the Jewish community played during Apartheid”, “the community justified their beneficial status in the context of Apartheid…” and “It is time for an honest assessment of our community’s role…during Apartheid.” Are these statements not “characterising the community as a whole?” Mackintosh also concedes that he would never know “what it was like to…walk directly into an oppressive Apartheid system. In no way am I suggesting we would have been different.” Yet this did not stop him from criticising those who had lived during those years. If you make a disclaimer, then ignore it, you are also contradicting yourself.
Secondly, in the generalised way he constantly uses it, Mackintosh is guilty of applying the concept of community dishonestly. According to various dictionaries, this concept of community has several meanings. It could, for example, refer to a body of people in the same locality. Jews, however live all over South Africa. It could further denote a group of people who have common interests, characteristics or culture. Again, this could not apply to all Jews who, as is the case today, were highly diversified. Socially, some were middle class and others were working class; some were professionals and others tradesmen; some were rich and some were scraping along. This still applies today, with charitable organisations having to provide many Jews with food on a weekly basis. Religiously, some Jews were ultra Orthodox, some Orthodox but not fully practising, some Reform and some agnostic or atheistic.
Politically, Jews have always voted for different parties. I recall the horror which many Jews felt when one Jewish man hit the headlines when he joined the Nationalist Party (later National Party). Most Jews voted either for the United or the Progressive parties. Mackintosh himself reveals this lack of uniformity by quoting from several sources. One stated that, “Jewish opinion on politics and racial issues is far from uniform.” Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd wrote that it had “not passed unnoticed” how many Jews had voted for the Progressive Party instead of the Nationalists. Immanuel Suttner, in his book Cutting through the Mountain (Viking, 1997), sought to explain why so many Jews were part of the anti-Apartheid struggle. The old joke, two Jews, three political parties, sums up the heterogeneity of those who call themselves Jewish.
Thirdly, Mackintosh nevertheless feels at liberty to unashamedly generalise about the Jewish community. May we point out to him that only one instance to the contrary negates an entire generalisation? Yes, there were many who did not speak out. They either accepted the status quo because that was what they had grown up in, or they were too intimidated to do or say anything (something which Mackintosh, living in a free society cannot comprehend) or were happy with the situation because they really were racists. But many South African Jews, as will be shown, did oppose the National Party government. What right, therefore, does Mackintosh have to arrogantly portray Jews as a monolithic, racist community having one mind or one set of values, and in doing so to condemn all Jews in this country? Have his studies and Hitler not taught him the dangers of generalisations?
Fourthly, Mackintosh shows a glaring bias by ignoring his own sources, as well as articles and books written which proved that there was a high proportion of Jews who opposed apartheid. Just one example is Maurice Ostroff’s Facts About South African Jews in the Apartheid Era (http://maurice-ostroff.tripod.com/id27.html). Ostroff notes that of the 23 whites in the 1956 Treason trial, 14 were Jews. All the whites arrested in 1963 at Lilliesleaf farm, home of Arthur Goldreich, were Jewish. He named Jewish anti-apartheid activists, such as Harold Wolpe, Joe Slovo, Albi Sachs, Ruth First, Janet Love; opposition politicians such as Helen Suzman and Harry Schwarz; advocates I.A. Maisels and Sydney Kentridge, who defended the Treason Trialists and, in Kentridge’s case, Solly Sachs, secretary of the Garment Workers Union as well; Arthur Chaskalson, who established the Legal Resource Centre, which provided legal services for Blacks, and Wolfie Kodesh, who provided a safe refuge for Mandela in an apartment in Berea. There were also many Jewish members in the Springbok Legion, the Torch Commando and the Black Sash, all of which opposed the Nationalist government. Jewish students, as Mackintosh acknowledges in his footnotes (#40) but ignored in his own essay, also spoke out. For example, in the mid-1970s Michael Mendelowitz, in his capacity as Wits S.R.C. president as well as that of a member of NUSAS, fought tirelessly against the Apartheid laws of the time.
In 1985, moreover, after the Rand Daily Mail was closed down, Irwin Manoim and Anton Harber, helped by civil rights lawyer David Dison and Clive Cope as managing director, started the Weekly Mail (now the Mail and Guardian). To quote Manoim, “The Weekly Mail…defined its role as reporting on the hidden face of South Africa.” And despite the many dangers they all faced, they reported constantly on the grim truth about Apartheid.
From our own experience, when racial interaction was forbidden, we can recall the work of Bertha Egnos, who staged the black musical Ipi Tombi, and Leon Gluckman, who staged King Kong. In 1978, Sylvia Glasser started South Africa’s first non-racial dance studio. Ina Perlman started and ran Operation Hunger for many years (which unfortunately collapsed after she retired, when it was taken over by a non-Jew). Educationally, Marc Suttner was the founding editor of Learn and Teach, which published readers and books relevant to the needs and experiences of African children and adults. Paulette Bethlehem started and for many years ran upgrading courses for black teachers (at which your co-author, Honey Gluckman, was a volunteer trainer), and the Oxford Synagogue ran adult education programmes as well as providing other services. Charities such as the Union of Jewish Women and ORT did and still do outreach work.
In 1978, a Jewish lecturer was an early pioneer in the concept of reaching out to those in need, initiating and for over fifteen years organising a Community Education Course for Johannesburg College of Education teachers in training. Every student had to give thirty hours of service to black underprivileged pupils, students and adults. A Jewish pharmacist, distressed by the many Africans who came into his shop looking for work, started a campaign to provide jobs for those seeking them. As the campaign got underway, it was killed by the emerging black trade unions.
The point about this incomplete list of names of people and organizations is that all of them chose to act, rather than merely speaking out. The latter course, given the intransigence of the Nationalist government, was a waste of time.65
Because some Jews became wealthy during the Apartheid years, Mackintosh concludes that it was Apartheid that brought about their wealth. For him, intensive study, hard work, intelligence and perseverance evidently had nothing to do with their success. Rich Jews (and non-Jews) everywhere else are allowed to become wealthy through these attributes, but Jews in South Africa, according to Mackintosh, could only have obtained wealth because they lived in an Apartheid state. Would he have preferred them to sabotage their intelligence and energy so as to remain poor?
We believe that Mr. Mackintosh owes an apology to those many Jews who -in their own way – fought against Apartheid. Could it be that his failure to address the question of Jewish behavior under apartheid in a fair manner is due to the bias he holds against Israel, something demonstrated by his sudden demand at the end of his article for “an explicit condemnation of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people”? Is this the reason why, having stated that he is writing solely about the Board of Deputies, he concludes by speaking about the Jewish community as a whole? One could plausibly surmise that his failure to mention the many Jews who took part in well-documented anti-Apartheid activities can be attributed to his anger towards those Jews who do not condemn Israel’s legitimate efforts to defend herself against those who would destroy her.
Honey Gluckman is a former lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies at JCE, now the Education Faculty of Wits. Her subjects included Philosophy of Education, with an emphasis on Critical Analysis. She is today part of the ‘Granny Program’ run by the Chevra Kadisha, assisting young black learners in acquiring language skills using educational games she has developed. Sol Cowan has been an ANC City Counselor since 1995 and a member of the Executive Mayoral Committee of the City of Johannesburg since 2001. He holds an MSc. (Public Management) from Soas University of London.
