(Authors: Gene Eisen, Les Glassman, Vol. 71, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2016)
Jews were involved in “The Struggle” against South Africa’s apartheid mainly because it is part of our DNA. In Deuteronomy (16:20), we are commanded “Justice, Justice you shall pursue.”
Even before the National Party gained power in 1948 and apartheid became official state policy, non-whites, the majority of the population, were subjected to tremendous inequality.
The draconian apartheid laws enforced the separation of the races. Blacks, coloureds and Indians were disenfranchised and were forced to live in separate areas. All amenities were separate, including schools, hospitals, transportation and the work place. The only exceptions were the English-speaking universities, including the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Cape Town. Here “privileged blacks” were allowed to study on equal terms with their white counterparts.
In 1950, Nelson Mandela was the only black student in the final year law class at Wits. The class included many Jews, several of whom Mandela befriended. At Wits, Mandela also met and befriended Joe Slovo, who later became head of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
Because of their traditions and history, many Jews in South Africa felt compassion and kindness towards oppressed blacks. It is not surprising that Lazer Sidelsky admitted the young Mandela to his law firm to enable him to serve his articles, an action that no other white law firm was prepared to take.1 Mandela met and developed close relationships with many liberal-minded Jews while working at the firm.
In 1958, Mandela met Arthur Goldreich, who had served in the Palmach in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Three years later, he took up Goldreich’s offer to live at Liliesleaf Farm, located in the then largely rural northern Johannesburg suburb THE JEWISH CONNECTION IN THE RIVONIA TRIAL, 1963-4*Gene Eisen, Les Glassmanof Rivonia. It was a “safe house” in which Arthur, his wife Hazel and their children lived while Mandela, in the guise of a caretaker-houseboy, stayed in the adjoining domestic workers cottage. Leaders of the ANC (which had been banned in April 1960) and Umkhonto we Sizwe met in secret and planned operations there.
During a raid on Liliesleaf on 11 July 1963, security police confiscated a six-page plan of an action called “Operation Mayibuye”. This, in Mandela’s words, “sketched out in general form the plan for a possible commencement of guerrilla operations and how it might spark a mass armed uprising” against the South African government. The police seized other documents, which implicated several ANC members with serious crimes against the state.2
The 50th anniversary of the Rivonia Trial, named after the suburb in which the raid took place, was commemorated with the issue of a Prestige Booklet on 26 November, 2013.3The handsome booklet, designed by Marie Vermeulen-Breedt, includes a souvenir sheet picturing the accused and a biographical sheet for each of the twelve ANC members arrested: Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, Arthur Goldreich, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi, Govan Mbeki, Harold Wolpe, James Kantor, Lionel ‘Rusty’ Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela.
The remainder of this article will focus on the Jewish participants in the trial – accused, defence and prosecution. All six of the whites arrested were Jews: Arthur Goldreich, Denis Goldberg, Harold Wolpe, James Kantor, Lionel Bernstein and Bob Hepple (whose mother, Josephine Zwarenstein, was Jewish). The defence lawyers included Bram Fischer, Vernon Berrange, George Bizos, Arthur Chaskalson, Nat Levy, Harold Hanson and Joel Joffe. Kantor’s defence team was separate and consisted of Hanson, John Coaker, George Lowen, Herbert C. Nicholas and Harry Schwarz. Of the above, Chaskalson, Joffe, Lowen, Hansen, Levy and Schwarz were Jewish.
The charges against the accused were made under the Sabotage Act. Sabotage was defined as:
- The recruiting of persons for training in the preparation and use of explosives and in guerrilla warfare for the purpose of violent revolution and committing acts of sabotage;
- Conspiring to commit the aforementioned acts and to aid foreign military units;
- Soliciting and receiving money for these purposes from foreign governments.
The charges of sabotage probably saved the lives of the men on trial, for if they had been convicted of high treason, it would almost certainly have carried the death penalty.
Hepple was originally charged, but was later released after declaring he would testify for the prosecution. Presumably, this was why he was not included in the booklet. Hepple later fled the country and when in exile stated that he never intended to testify against the people he so admired.4
Harold Wolpe and Arthur Goldreich were never put on trial. Shortly after their arrest, they made a spectacular escape from the high security Marshall Square Prison by bribing a guard. With the help of their friend Barney Simon, a Jewish activist, playwright and theatre director, they escaped from South Africa disguised as priests, hiding in the trunk of a car as they crossed the Swaziland border. From Swaziland, they flew to Bechuanaland, now Botswana. Following the escape James Kantor, who was originally one of the defence attorneys, was arrested on suspicion of aiding the fugitives because he was Wolpe’s law partner and brother-in-law.
The Rivonia Trial began on 9 October, 1963. The prosecutor was Percy Yutar, who was also Jewish. Despite the prevalence of antisemitism in South African political circles, his ambition and strong determination had enabled him to rise through the ranks to his position at the time of the trial. As the trial proceeded, Yutar brutally cross-examined the defendants.
Justice Quartus de Wet at the end of the prosecution’s case dismissed all charges against Kantor. Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki, Motsoaledi, Mlangeni, Goldberg and Mhlaba were found guilty on all charges and Kathrada on one charge of conspiracy. De Wet decided that the death penalty was not appropriate and sentenced all to life imprisonment. Bernstein was found not guilty but was later rearrested, released on bail and placed under house arrest.
By the mid-1980s, the winds of change were sweeping South Africa. In 1985, Denis Goldberg became the first of the Rivonia defendants to be released. Nelson Mandela was the last, released in 1990. In April 1994, South Africans of all races went to the polls and the ANC won with 62% of the vote. On 10 May, Mandela took the oath of office as the first black President of South Africa.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…?
In 1964, Arthur Goldreich moved to Israel, where he had earlier served in the 1948 war. There, he pursued his career in art and design, and was in due course appointed as head of the Industrial and Environmental Design Department at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. He returned to South Africa in 2001 to attend a reunion of the Rivonia Trialists and their defence team at Liliesleaf. He also visited in 2004, participating in the SA Jewish Board of Deputies Freedom Seder at the same venue. He died at the age of 82 in Tel Aviv in May 2011. A few days before his death, it was announced that he had been chosen by the SAJBD for its Human Rights Award.5
Following his discharge, Lionel Bernstein suspected that the South African government was likely to indict him and his wife, Hilda, for undisclosed crimes. Therefore, the couple decided to escape by crossing the border to Botswana on foot. They eventually made their way to England, where their children joined them. In London, Bernstein worked as an architect and continued fighting for the abolition of apartheid. He briefly returned to South Africa during the first post-apartheid elections in 1994. He died in 2002 at the age of 82.6
James Kantor lost his law practice and decided to begin a new life with his family in London. There, he developed a successful publishing business. However, his health never recovered from the harsh treatment experienced while in prison awaiting trial. He suffered a series of heart attacks and died at the age of 48 in 1975.7
Denis Goldberg was the only one of the six Jews originally accused in the Rivonia Trial who was convicted. He was considered to be the “most dangerous white man in South Africa.” After spending 22 years in prison in Pretoria, the Israeli government interceded on his behalf, and he was released [in 1997 Julius Weinstein related to the editor how he, in his capacity of Chairman of the SA Zionist Federation, together with the then Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Eliyahu Lankin, met with President P W Botha and persuaded him to release Goldberg]. After first visiting his daughter, who was living on a kibbutz in Israel, he went into exile in London, where he joined his family and resumed his work for the ANC (1985-1994). He returned to South Africa in 2002 to take up a government position.8
Following his escape, Harold Wolpesettled in England, where he became a Nuffield Foundation Scholar at the London School of Economics (1964-65). Afterwards, he joined the Sociology Department of the University of Essex. In 1990, together with his wife, Annemarie (herself an activist), he returned to South Africa, where he became the Director of the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Western Cape. He passed away in 1996, aged 70.
Bob Hepple, assisted by Bram Fischer, the lead counsel for the defence, escaped with his wife Shirley via Bechuanaland Protectorate and Tanzania to England. Although legally trained, Hepple acquired further English qualifications at Clary College, Cambridge, where he read for his LLB (1964-65). He rose to become a Queens Counsel and distinguished internationally renowned legal academic. Hepple was knighted in 2004.
Arthur Chaskalson lefta successful legal practice to become a human rights lawyer, helping to establish the Legal Resources Centre to pursue justice and human rights for non-whites in South Africa. He served as the Centre’s director from 1974-1983. Chaskalson became the first President of South Africa’s new Constitutional Court (1994-2001) and served as Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001-2005. The court’s first decision under his leadership was the abolition of the death penalty on 6 June 1995. Arthur Chaskalson died in 2012, aged 81.
Joel Joffe and his family resumed their plans to immigrate to Australia, which had been postponed by the Rivonia Trial. However, before they could leave the country, Joffe’s South African passport was withdrawn. They eventually moved to England. Joffe left the law profession and went into a successful financial services venture, which enabled him to retire in 1991. He served as Chair of the British charity Oxfam from 1995-2001. He actively pursues a number of charitable activities. In 1999, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and made a life peer in 2000, becoming Baron Joffe of Liddington.
Harry Schwarz had a distinguished political career as an anti-apartheid parliamentarian. After being expelled for ‘disloyalty’ from the United Party, he founded the Reform Party, which in 1975 merged with the Progressive Party to form the Progressive Reform Party, renamed the Progressive Federal Party in 1977. In 1990, Schwarz became the 13thSouth African Ambassador to the United States. He died in 2010, aged 86.
After the Rivonia Trial, Percy Yutar’ssuccessful career continued. He became the first Jewish attorney general of South Africa in the Orange Free State (1968) and subsequently in the Transvaal (1975). Yutar remained a controversial figure. For example, he stated that he had in fact saved the lives of the Rivonia defendants by charging them with sabotage instead of treason, an argument that was challenged by both the accused and the defence attorneys.9 After Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, in a spirit of reconciliation, he invited Yutar to lunch. Mandela clearly was a remarkable individual to have essentially made peace with the proseMandela possessed an incredible hakarat hatov – gratitude. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedomhe wrote,“In my experience I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves havecutor through whom he had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mandela maintained a close relationship with his friends in the Jewish community who had helped him in “The Struggle.” He also had a very special bond with the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Cyril Harris. In September 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ben Gurion University. In November 1999, he made a historic visit to Israel, where he was hosted by President Weizmann.
Mandela possessed an incredible hakarat hatov – gratitude. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom he wrote, “In my experience I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice.” This remarkable individual – a regal personality and a world icon in our generation – passed away in December 2013, aged 95.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of The Israel Philatelist, and is reproduced here, with certain emendations and additions by the editor, with the kind permission of the Society of Israeli Philately.
NOTES
- Co-author of this article Les Glassman is a very close friend of Lazer’s son, Dov Sidelsky.
- http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Rivonia_Trial
- http://www.postoffice.co.za/group/philately/2013/; Embrey, J, South Africa-50th Anniversary of the Rivonia Trial. Judaica Thematic Society Newsletter, 105:5, Dec. 2014
- http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Rivonia_Trial; Broun, K, Saving Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial and the Fate of South Africa. Oxford University Press, New York, 2012.
- It was presented posthumously at the SAJBD’s national conference later that year and accepted by his sons, Paul and Amos.
- http://www.rusty-bernstein.com/profile_rusty_bernstein
- http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/james-kantor
- http:/www.sahistory.org.za/people/professor-denis-theodore-goldberg
- Rathbone, Emma, ‘Mandela’s Prosecutor’, Virginia Quarterly Review, 89 (4): 158–168, (Fall 2013).
