(Author: Ivan Kapelus, Vol. 76, #3, Spring 2021)
Feature image: Afrikaans, English and Jewish members of the Pietersburg Ambulance Fund Committee, 1929-1930
The 1930 Quota Act was aimed at severely curtailing Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, primarily from Lithuania. This Minister of Interior Dr D F Malan admitted in Parliament in 1937 when he said: “The Quota Act placed certain countries under restrictions … We definitely had the tremendous influx of Jews in mind at the time”. The impact of the Act was immediate, with the flow of immigrants from the “quota countries” dropping drastically. In the period 1931-6, a mere 3449 Jews from those countries were allowed to enter South Africa
The manner and timing of the passing of the Quota Act resulted in a deep schism between the Jewish and Afrikaans populations. Jews were now suspicious of and distrusted the National Party, which in turn saw the party adopt an increasingly menacing attitude towards the Jewish community. In an interview with Die Burger on 2 November 1931, Malan stated, ‘There is a section of the Jews seeking revenge on the Nationalist Party for the Quota Act, but they are, of course, afraid to come out in the open.’ He added that it was ‘very easy to rouse a feeling of hate towards the Jews in the country … if they want to hit us, they may be assured that we will hit back.’
South Africa was not alone in denying entry to Jews. As the situation of German and Austrian Jews became known, a conference was called by US President Roosevelt to discuss their plight. The conference was held in the summer of 1938 in the French resort of Evian and is thus known as the “Evian Conference”. Of the 32 countries attending, including the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, none besides the Dominican Republic agreed to take in Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis. South Africa was not among the countries attending.
Several Afrikaners who later became prominent in politics did postgraduate studies at German universities in the late 1920s and ‘30s. Among them were HF Verwoerd, Eric Louw (later Foreign Minister) and Louis T Weichardt. It was with this background that Weichardt, in October 1933, formed the South African Christian National Socialist Movement (SANP) with its offices in Cape Town. In May 1934, the organisation was registered as a political party, which Weichardt took great care to emphasise was an Afrikaner party. The SANP, known as the Greyshirts because of the uniforms its activists wore, was a paramilitary group that at its peak numbered 2000. It was just the first of many Nazi-type movements that came and went over this period.
In the 1933 election, the South African Party under J C Smuts and National Party under J B M Hertzog stood as a coalition, winning a handsome victory of 136 Parliamentary seats out of 150. They agreed to a merger of their parties into the United South Africa Party (United Party), with Hertzog becoming Prime Minister. The fusion that Hertzog sought was strongly resisted and eventually rejected by the Cape National Party led by Malan. Supported by MPs, who later became the “Who’s Who” of South African politics, he founded the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (Purified National Party). Some of those who supported Malan included future prime ministers Hendrik Verwoerd and J G Strijdom, future cabinet ministers Paul Sauer and Nico Diedrichs and Piet Meyer, later Head of the SABC.
From 1933 to 1936, a total of 6132 Germans fleeing Hitler, of whom 3615 were Jewish, arrived in South Africa. This resulted in much hysteria over Jewish immigration. With the impending arrival in Cape Town of the Stuttgart carrying 570 German Jews, a meeting of professors at Stellenbosch University led by Verwoerd protested on the supposed grounds that these Jews would make it even more difficult for Afrikaners to make headway in the professions and business. Speaking at the same university Malan, asserted that Jewish immigration was being organised by ‘Joodse geldmag’ (Jewish money power), even though Germany was not one of the scheduled countries in the Quota Act that he had proposed.
The weight of anti-Jewish vitriol in the Afrikaans press, led by Verwoerd in the Transvaler and Boonzaaier in Die Burger, as well as the support for Weichardt, resulted in Malan’s Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party moving ever more to the right and embracing an openly anti-Jewish platform. By November 1936, Malan was calling for the unequal treatment of Jews.
With all this anti-Jewish fervour, it was not long before another blow against Jewish immigration was felt, with the introduction by the ruling party of the Aliens Bill in 1937. The Bill made no mention of race, creed, or religion and made the selection of immigrants the prerogative of an Immigrants Selection Board, which had specific criteria to consider, in his address to Parliament. However, Prime Minister Hertzog made it abundantly clear that ‘the influx of the Jews is … one of the immediate causes for the introduction of this Bill’.
The Quota and Aliens Acts succeeded in virtually stopping any further meaningful immigration of Jews to South Africa from Europe at the very time that they most needed access to a safe haven. The catastrophic impact this was to have on virtually every Jewish family in the country was apparent as the horrors of the Nazi “Final Solution” emerged. About 95% of Lithuanian and Latvian Jews perished in the Holocaust, some 200 000 souls out of a total Jewish population of 220 000. As the majority of Jews in South Africa hailed from Lithuania/Latvia, few were not touched by this tragedy.
In 1938, the country went to the polls and for the first time in South Africa a political party, the National Party, stood on an explicitly anti-Jewish platform. This engendered vigorous opposition from the United, Labour and Dominion parties, all of whom were outspoken in their condemnation of the NP’s antisemitism. The result of the election was a resounding victory for the UP, which won 111 seats to the 27 of the NP, with Labour and the Dominion Party winning three and eight respectively. The country had clearly rejected the antisemitism being propagated by the NP and its acolytes.
In January the following year the NP’s Eric Louw, with the full backing of his party, proposed a Private Members Bill that was an echo of Nazi antisemitism. Speaking in parliament, he said, “The main principle of this Bill is that it admits the existence in South Africa of a Jewish problem and faces up to that problem”. His solution was that “no applicant who is of Jewish parentage shall be deemed to be readily assimilable”. It went on to define “Jewish parentage” as “that person whose father and mother are or were wholly or partly Jews, whether or not they professed the Jewish religion”.
Not only did Louw’s Bill prohibit Jewish immigration but it proposed to deprive un-naturalised aliens who entered the Union since January 1930 of their immigration permits. Like the laws of the Nazis, it went further by imposing restrictions on foreigners being able to practise certain trades, professions, and occupations. The Bill was soundly defeated, but it demonstrated how the NP was using the antisemitic trope of the Greyshirts as a platform.
1938 was also the centenary of the Battle of Blood River – the defeat of the Zulus by the Voortrekkers on 16 December 1838. To celebrate that milestone and to strengthen Afrikaner nationalism in general, the National Party and its elite support group, Die Broederbond, together with its cultural wing, the Afrikaans Taal en Kultuurvereneging (Afrikaans Language and Cultural Society), conceived the idea of building a monument to the Voortrekkers on a hill outside of Pretoria. As a build-up to the gathering at the site of what would become the Voortrekker Monument, a symbolic trek by ox wagon from Cape Town to Pretoria was organised. The Great Trek celebrations unleashed a wave of Afrikaner nationalist pride.
War was looming in Europe, and when Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, the schism between Hertzog and Deputy Prime Minister General Jan Smuts came to the fore. Many Afrikaners were diametrically opposed to South Africa entering the fray. Hertzog called for South Africa to remain neutral while Smuts, who saw the coming conflict as a fight for the preservation of democracy and Western civilisation, advocated joining the Allies. After his motion in favor of neutrality was defeated by 80 votes to 67, Hertzog called for the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a general election, but the Governor General refused and asked on Smuts to form a government. South Africa’s entry into the war resulted in Hertzog’s resignation from the United Party. In January 1940, his and Malan’s followers merged to form the Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party; later just NP), with Malan as leader. It also led to a polarisation of Afrikaans- and English-speaking groups and to the conclusion that the only way forward for Afrikaners was an ‘uncompromising spiritual Afrikanerdom’. There was, it seems, no longer room for a middle way in South African politics on race and colour.
On the back of the enthusiasm generated by the Great Trek centenary celebrations as well widespread Afrikaner opposition to South Africa’s entering the war, the Ossewabrandwag (OB) was formed. The OB, with its own paramilitary organisation known as Die Stormjaers, was at the forefront of attempts to sabotage the war effort. It further adopted an avowedly anti-Jewish policy, attacking the ‘British- Jewish democracy’, ‘Jewish money power’ and ‘Jewish disloyalty’. It became an Afrikaner populist organisation with a membership variously estimated at between 100 000 and 300 000.
It is important to understand that not all Afrikaner politicians or people were antisemitic. This is illustrated by Abraham H Jonker in his book Israel – Die Sondebokke (in English called The Scapegoat of History) published in January 1941. At the time Jonker was a journalist. From 1948-1966 he was a Member of Parliament, first for the UP and later the NP. On p152 of his book he writes (translated from Afrikaans): “In seeking and finding the Jews as the complete scapegoat for all adversity and all our own shortcomings, we not only have the mighty weapon in the hands of ruling politicians to bind and govern the masses, but also harbours the pernicious germs of humiliation and denigration. Jewish hatred, as in fact, any racial hatred, is an appeal to the most primitive and lowest tendencies in human nature. A people of Jew haters or racists lowers itself by a constant call on the weakest characteristics of humanity”.
On p77, Jonker quotes from a speech made in Parliament in January 1937 by then Deputy Prime Minister Smuts: “As for South Africa, I do not think, if we put our hands on heart that we can honestly and equitably say the Jews, few as they are in number, insignificant as they are from a numbers standpoint, have not made a huge and outstanding contribution to our lives and to our civilisation here in South Africa”.
Earlier in 1933 Isaac Frank, a town councilor and in 1938 Mayor of Van Rhynsdorp, in his personal capacity corresponded with several moderate Nationalist leaders. Frank held the view that no self-respecting Jew should join the NP until the ban on Jewish membership had been totally eliminated. This was N C Havenga’s reply: “My attitude towards the Jews is, and remains exactly the same as it was in the days of the old National Party under General Hertzog. I am not in favor of any discrimination against Jewish citizens who have become South Africans and I have reason to believe that this is also Dr Malan’s attitude.”
J H Hofmeyer was appalled by antisemitism, which he stated “has its origin in jealousy and intolerance and unworthy passions of the human heart”. He went on to say, “Assimilability does not mean conformity, it does not mean that everybody must think and feel the same”. Furthermore, as he put it, “the distinctiveness, the otherness, of the Jew and the success of the Jew” was remarkable and admirable.
By 1942, the NP was broadly accepted as the political vehicle of the Afrikaner. This did not mean that the NP was giving up its anti-Jewish rhetoric, however. On the contrary: in December 1940, the NP’s Transvaal Provincial Congress confirmed its decision of 1937 not to allow Jews to be members. It further called on the Federal Council to encourage the NP in other provinces to follow suit, but this did not happen. [This prohibition was repealed in 1953 after the National Party won its second general election.]
By 1943, South Africa and the world were becoming aware of the barbaric treatment of European Jewry. However, as news of the implementation of the “Final Solution” started to be reported, the Afrikaner politicians of the NP and press dismissed it as “Allied Propaganda”. It was only when the war ended and newspapers and newsreels showed the horrors of the death camps that this denial stopped. This made the blocking of access to South Africa by Jews from Europe even more difficult to accept.
In the middle of WWII in 1943, South Africa once more went to the polls. The UP, now without Hertzog and his followers won 89 seats to the 43 of the NP, with the minor parties, (Labour – 9, Dominion – 7, Independents – 2) giving Smuts a healthy majority and again demonstrating that the white population largely rejected antisemitism. In light of the evidence of the Holocaust, as well as the successful urbanisation of many more Afrikaners, the antisemitic rhetoric of the NP of the 1930s and early 40s disappeared. To the forefront was race, Black and White, Coloured and White – the fear of being overrun by the Blacks. In the 1948 election, Afrikaners won control of parliament, Malan’s (H)NP winning 70 seats and Havenga’s allied Afrikaner Party winning 9 for a total of 79 seats against the combined 74 of the UP under Smuts (65), Labour (6) and three Independents.
In October 1947, Malan had stated that while the NP stuck to its policy of Jewish immigration, “as far as its declared policy is concerned, the Party does not stand for legislative measures which discriminate between Jew and non–Jew”. After the party’s victory the following year Malan, now Prime Minister, reaffirmed this policy and added that he “looked forward to the time when there would be no more talk regarding the so-called Jewish question in the life and politics of this country”.
On 29 November 1947, the South African government at the UNO had voted with thirty -two other countries in favor of Resolution 181, thus paving the way for the creation of the State of Israel. After the 1948 election the NP government on 7 May voted in favour of Israel becoming a member of the UNO and gave the new State de jure recognition on 14 May 1948. A far cry from the antisemitic rhetoric of the previous twenty- five years!
The Afrikaner – Jewish Relationship 1930-1948
Undoubtedly, the antisemitic rhetoric of many Afrikaans nationalist politicians and Afrikaans language press during the period 1930-1948 was most distressing for the Jews of South Africa. The wave of antisemitism in 1933 led to the Jewish public, and the SA Zionist Federation, putting their weight behind the Jewish Board of Deputies, the body recognised as representing the Jewish community to government and society in general. Adv. Morris Alexander resigned as chairman of the Cape Board to travel to the country areas to educate the people (including gentiles) about antisemitism and to garner funds for the SAJBD for the battles and campaigns to come. Many communities that they had not done so heretofore joined the Board and paid their subscriptions.
The SAJBD concentrated initially on three areas: pressing for anti-defamation legislation, and taking to the courts wherever possible against antisemitic acts; monitoring anti-Jewish propaganda and refuting it “by exposing its sources and objectives” [an example of this was their successful libel action against prominent Greyshirts leaders who claimed to have found the Protocols of the Elders of Zion when spying on a meeting held by Rev Levy of Port Elizabeth] as well as putting the objective facts before the public; and promoting better relations between the Jewish community and other sections of the White population.
Despite all the antisemitic rhetoric, the only laws ever passed in South Africa that directly affected Jews as Jews concerned immigration. In every other respect, Jews enjoyed the same rights, privileges and protections of other whites. In addition, as borne out by the election results of 1938 and 1943, most whites and the government were opposed to antisemitism and would not allow discrimination against the local Jewish community,
An opinion survey, conducted in the early 1940s by Simon Herman, a Jewish academic at Wits University, revealed an increase in antisemitism among English speaking whites. Most South African Jews were familiar with the English clubs that did not take Jews as members. No Afrikaans clubs had such a prohibition! Herman also conducted a survey among Jewish students at Wits in early 1943, in which students spoke of the antisemitic taunts and discrimination they had suffered as children. Even those from the rural areas said that “they grew up with it” and regarded it as “natural and inevitable”. Yet one student expressed the view that in Europe Jews had “actually been persecuted. Here the antisemites have just been talking about it and done nothing”.[1]
Does that mirror the attitude of the Afrikaner people and their relationship to the Jews in their communities? Can we answer this question with facts, rather than relying on the “historical memory” as Milton Shain puts it in his chapter “If It Was So Good, Why Was It So Bad” in the book Memories, Realities and Dreams?[2]
To examine this question, we need to appreciate how differently the Jews in the cities lived compared to those living in the “country” (platteland) during the period 1930-1948. Then about 90% of the Jewish population lived in the urban areas, mainly in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with smaller communities in Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, and Bloemfontein.
Particularly in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the “Litvaks” from early after their arrival, lived in communities of their own, almost like a silo society, where they had synagogues and other community organisations. As they became more prosperous, so would they move to more salubrious suburbs, almost as a group. Very often their social circle would be entirely Jewish, and some even then would have had little, if any social interaction with Afrikaners. Their children would attend the local English medium school and on at least three days a week “cheder” (Hebrew school) until after Bar Mitzvah, as well as being members of the Zionist Youth Movements.
In large measure, the same could be said of the urban Afrikaans community, who would live near their church and wanted their children to go to Afrikaans medium schools. As we have seen, the urbanisation of the Afrikaners was rapid. In 1910, with the formation of the Union of South Africa, only 29% of Afrikaners lived in urban areas. By 1936, it was 50%, making up 25% of the White population in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In 1936, the total white population of metropolitan Johannesburg was 266,455, with the Afrikaans population being 25% = 66,612. The total Jewish population of SA in 1936 was 90 645, so if 40% of them lived in Johannesburg they would have numbered 36 258, about half the number of Afrikaners!
Yet despite the antisemitic rhetoric of the time, and the remarks made to Simon Herman in his interviews, three Jews were elected mayor of Johannesburg during this period: Maurice Freeman (1934 -1935), L Levenson (1942 – 1942) and G.B. Gordon (1947 – 1948). As the above population figures show, it was not possible for the “Jewish vote” to get them elected. They were joined on the City Council by other Jewish councillors. In Pretoria, where the Afrikaans population was 50% of the whites by 1936, Ivan Solomon was elected mayor for the period 1932 to 1936. Once more it could not be the Jewish vote that secured his election, as the Jewish population at the time was only 2369 souls.
Cape Town over the years has had many Jewish mayors and City councillors. During the period 1930-1948 it had two Jewish mayors, Louis Gradner (1933-5) and Abe Bloomberg (1945-7). Once more, it could not have been the Jewish vote that propelled them to this office! All this despite the antisemitism propagated by Boonzaaier of Die Burger with its vicious Hoggenheimer cartoons!
With all the antisemitic rhetoric, there were no official boycotts of Jewish businesses or professionals! The Greyshirts tried to encourage the boycotting of Jewish businesses in some country towns, but these almost always fizzled out. No pogroms or physical attacks on Jews! Perhaps the remark of the student at Wits “Here the anti-Semites have just been talking about it and done nothing” is an accurate reflection of the behavior of most Afrikaners!
Of the 36.1% shown under “Rest of SA” some 10% lived in the rural areas or as it was referred to “the country” (platteland”). In these communities the Jews lived with and among their non-Jewish compatriots, mainly Afrikaners, with whom they socialised in every way, belonging to the local sports and social clubs, and participating in local public affairs. So, during the height of the Afrikaner led antisemitic rhetoric, these country Jews were interacting with the local Afrikaans community daily.
As some 90.6% of all Jews in SA lived in the Cape and Transvaal, it seems sensible to look at these areas, to see how they coped and how their lives were affected by this rhetoric? Fortunately, we have three volumes of “Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities” researched by The South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth as a guide!
We should look at the rural areas of the Transvaal, as it was the centre of the antisemitic movement, where its branch of the National Party banned Jews from being members from 1937 until 1953, being the only branch of the National Party to do so. Furthermore, as the population figures show, it was also the province with the most Afrikaners and Jews during the period 1930 to 1948.
The population of the villages are gleaned from two sources; the census figures for the years 1936, 1951, 1980 and 1991 that show the number of Jews, White and Total (including Blacks), augmented by the Jewish community records that only show the number of Jews in the village and surroundings, for the years 1943, 1953 and various years while Jews still lived there. In many of these villages, during the period 1936 to 1951, there so few Jews that no reliable figures were available, in others the numbers varied from a number of families, where they never established a community or built a synagogue, to others with 50 to 350 Jews, where they formed active and enthusiastic communities.
It seems that all these towns and villages experienced a level of antisemitism during the period 1936 to 1945. To educate the local (gentile) population about the nature of the anti- Jewish organisations, Morris Alexander of the SAJBD visited several towns in 1936 in the Northern Great Escarpment, including Lydenburg and Pilgrim’s Rest. In the tiny village of Graskop, near Pilgrim’s Rest, a public official was dismissed as a result of the efforts of a Mr Israel Rabinowitz, for a “blatant and crude” act of antisemitism.
Yet throughout the period 1936 to 1948 Jews were elected to serve on the Town Councils and act as mayors, even where the Jewish population was a paltry 48 persons. So, in Nelspruit Julius Schneider served on the Village Council from 1928 to 1933 and Mr Burman served from 1938 to 1940 and on the Town Council from 1940 to 1945.
In the Towns with more substantial Jewish populations, members of the Jewish community served on the Town Councils and were elected mayor throughout this period: Witbank, Louis Trichardt and the surrounding villages experienced and recorded no antisemitism, Pietersburg remained relatively free from antisemitic activity during most of the 1930’s but in the surrounding area of Tzaneen and Duwelskloof, antisemitism was rife. In 1938 the situation worsened and in 1941 Robey Leibrandt, a Nazi spy, was active in the area, He was pursued by the police and later captured in Pretoria.
Potgietersrus experienced little antisemitism and the relationship with the Afrikaans community was generally good. An exception was reported in the Daily Express in 1937 when speeches at a “Dingaans Day” gathering in neighboring Potgietersrus attacked the English and Jews.
So, overall, even in the Transvaal rural areas, the Afrikaner/Jewish relationship remained respectful of each other and Jews were valued as citizens, being elected to public office even “during the worst of times” to quote Milton Shain. Once more there is no evidence of the Afrikaans population of these towns, where they were by far the largest White group, taking any adverse action against their Jewish neighbors.
It is much more difficult to deal with the huge areas in the Cape as it covers such a large area. What one notices is, that those areas that are within easy driving distance of Cape Town, the Boland, Fairest Cape and Swartland including West Coast – appear to have experienced more activity by the antisemitic movements like the Greyshirts, than the less accessible areas such as, Central Karoo, Namaqualand, Kalahari and Griqualand West. Even in these areas, antisemitism was present and felt during the period 1930 to 1948, although violence against Jews and their property were extremely rare.
Such antisemitism did not go unopposed. So, for example in Ceres in 1935, the Gentile Protection League was refused permission to hold a meeting in the town, so the meeting was held on a farm! In 1937, after a report in the Sunday Times of the introduction of racism in the municipal elections, three councilors, E.W. Krige, L.E Cohen and GG Baysken, resigned in protest at antisemitic propaganda being introduced in the municipal election.
As we have seen on page 6 above the relationship between the Jews and Afrikaners in Calvinia even in 1932 was friendly and co-operative, with very little antisemitism until the years before WWII, with a few incidents involving the Greyshirts, OB and even Dr DF Malan of the NP, did not enjoy great support in the town and district.
By 1940 the relationship between Jew and the mainly Afrikaner community was back to normal as they socialised and played sport together.
In the huge area of the Central Karoo the relationship between the Jewish and mainly Afrikaans communities was almost always good and they lived comfortably together.
In Stellenbosch, the hotbed of objection to Jewish immigration in the 1930’s. strong links were formed between the Jews and the broader community, and particularly between the Jewish and Dutch Reformed community. Each year a function was held where the theological students who studied Hebrew were invited to meet members of the congregation.
A group of fourteen professors and five lecturers of various faculties at the university issued a manifesto, protesting against national-socialism and called for a more democratic society that did not contribute to racial conflict.
David Gross in his Honours Thesis “The Story of a Unique Jewish Community in Stellenbosch” records the remarkable history, not only of the Jewish community of the Town but also of the special relationship that it enjoyed with the University and the local community, even in “the worst of times” in the 1930’s and 1940’s!
We have seen how the attitude of the Afrikaner population and the National Party towards the Jewish community changed post their 1948 election victory, and this is highlighted by Gross in his Chapter headed “The 1960 Summer Camp”, a summer school of some three weeks (10 to 31 January 1960) run by the SAJBD with renowned Jewish scholars Professor Judah Goldin, of Yale University and Professor Leon Roth of Hebrew University, Israel being the keynote speakers.
The lectures were held on the campus of the university by courtesy of Prof H B Thom, the Rector and was not only attended by the many Jewish students from all over Southern Africa, but also by non-Jewish students, lecturers from the University and Theological School, as well as members of local Churches. Their attendance was encouraged by Prof Erika Theron, as well as the student newspaper “Die Matie”.
In 1937, when Upington had a Jewish population of 210 souls (White population – 16,801), its new communal hall was opened by Adv Morris Alexander, having been welcomed by the mayor, Mr van Copenhagen. Mr S. Malan, representing the Dutch Reformed Church, spoke of the warm friendship that existed between the Jew and Gentile.
And finally, Beaufort West, the constituency of Eric Louw MP, the arch Anti-Semite. In a report to the SAJBD dated 1940, stated that antisemitism was only found in the Railway Camp, where Louw had great influence. After WWII antisemitism was in decline but there was still a problem with some school principals and teachers.
In almost every village the Jews played an active role in the civic life of the village with many serving on the local Council and some serving as mayor even during the period of antisemitic activity.
By 1948 the number of Jews in the “country” had dwindled considerably, as parents made for the cities. There was both a pull and a push factor; their children (and grandchildren) lived in the cities after having completed their studies or training, and the economic opportunities were so much more attractive (pull), but the economic environment in the villages and country towns had also changed, as a result of the success of the Farmers Co-Operatives, as well as the urbanisation of the Afrikaners.
Perhaps the extract from a letter written by Mrs Florence Malan and published in the Cape Argus of Cape Town sums up the cordial relationship that by and large existed between the Jew and the Afrikaner in the “platteland”:
The Jews brought joy to Calvinia. No village should be without a Jewish Community. Their homes with lovely linen, silver, and glassware that they had brought with them from Europe was a source of inspiration for the pioneers who had been largely cut off from their European roots and immersed in their struggle to exist. Their residence here was a golden period in the history of the village where they helped and supported each other.
Ivan Kapelus holds a BA, LLB from Stellenbosch University and an LLM (Tax) from Kings College, University of London. He has an extensive legal and international tax planning background. His books include Reflections on a Visit to Lithuania” (2009) and From the Baltic to the Cape – the journey of three families (2013). Part 1 of this article appeared in the Vol. 76, #3, Autumn-Winter 2021 issue of Jewish Affairs.
NOTES
[1] Richard Mendelsohn, Milton Shain, The Jews in South Africa- An Illustrated History”, Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 2008, pp121-2
[2] Mendelsohn, R, Shain, M (eds), Memories, Realities and Dreams: Aspects of the South African Jewish Experience, Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2005, p78.
