(Author: Naomi Musiker, Vol. 71, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2016)
At the close of the 19th Century, the leading Jewish congregations in Johannesburg were the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation (WOHC), the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation and the Johannesburg Orthodox Hebrew Congregation. The first two were established by English and German Jewish pioneers, and the latter by East European immigrants, mainly from Lithuania.
The WOHC felt the need to appoint a minister who ‘should belong to a higher class, socially and intellectually, than those previously holding the position’ and advertised in two journals, the American Hebrew (edited by Philip Cowen) and the Jewish Chronicle(London). It was believed that a minister with American experience would be better able to cope with pioneer conditions in Johannesburg. Cowen encouraged the young Rev Dr Joseph Herman Hertz to apply for the position. Hertz was a graduate of New York City College, Columbia University and the Jewish Theological College, founded by Sabato Morais. His first ministry was to the congregation at Syracuse, N.Y. The American Committee which sponsored Hertz’s nomination included Dr H Pereira Mendes of Shearith Israel, Dr Kaufman Kohler and Philip Cohen.1
Hertz was inducted as Minister of the WOHC in September 1898, a very critical time, following the Jameson Raid of 1896 into the Transvaal Republic. There was a great deal of anti-British sentiment and the Volksraad was fearful of granting civic liberties to the ‘Uitlanders’ (foreigners). Civic disabilities included exclusion of Catholics and Jews from state positions and the Volksraadand the withholding of educational subsidies from non- Afrikaner Protestant schools.
On 16 November, at the celebration of the WOHC’s tenth anniversary, Hertz delivered a passionate address in the Freemason’s Hall entitled ‘The Jew as Patriot – A Plea for the Removal of the Civil Disabilities of the Jews in the Transvaal’. He followed this up with an unsuccessful interview with President Kruger. His final recourse was to liaise with the Catholic community at a mass meeting organised by the Uitlander Committee, held at the Wanderers on 26 July 1899. Here he proposed the resolution: ‘That the removal of each and every disability on account of religious belief is a necessary reform, essential to the liberties of a free people’.
A decade later, he wrote an explanation of his participation in that historic meeting: ‘I did so because I should have failed in my duty as Jew and American, proved myself a traitor to the ideals of my revered teachers Sabato Morais – leader of orthodoxy, saint and fearless anti-slavery war preacher – and Marcus Jastrow – Talmudist, scholar and champion of Polish independence – if I had refused this opportunity effectively to plead for religious equality. And I did speak at that meeting as I have never spoken before and never expect to speak again.’2
As a result of his actions, Hertz was expelled from the Transvaal; he only returned to Johannesburg in 1901, shortly before the end of the Anglo-Boer War. He was highly regarded by the British High Commissioner Lord Alfred Milner, who appointed him a member of his Consultative Committee.
Following the war, there were many difficulties regarding immigration and naturalisation of Jews from Eastern Europe, and the resettlement of refugees who had fled the Transvaal in 1899. Together with Max Langermann, Hertz was the prime initiator of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal, established in April 1903. The first public meeting of the Board was held at the Wanderers on 28 July 1903, and was addressed by Milner. Hertz served as the first honorary secretary of the Board. He stated that its objectives were ‘to furnish the Governments in these Colonies with an official medium for authoritative information on all specifically Jewish matters. And as ignorance is always the mother of prejudice where the Jew is concerned, this Board proposes to itself the task of enlightening public opinion whensoever any Jewish question is beset with misunderstandings.’3
Hertz was equally devoted to the Zionist cause and served as vice-president of the SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) from 1899 to 1904. At the first conference of the SAZF in July 1904, he read a paper on ‘The Jew in South Africa’, much of which was incorporated into a later article on ‘South Africa’, in the Jewish Encyclopaedia. From 1906-8, he served as professor of Philosophy at the Transvaal University College. In 1911, Hertz returned to New York to head up the Orach Chayim Congregation. Two years later, he succeeded Dr Hermann Adler as Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.
On 16 September 1903, Rabbi Dr Judah Leo Landau took up his appointment as minister of the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation (JHC). Born in Galicia in 1866, Landau received his rabbinic diploma at the Rabbinical Seminary in Vienna and a Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Before coming to South Africa, he spent two years as rabbi of an eastern Jewish Orthodox congregation in Manchester. In 1915, the WOHC and JHC merged to form the United Hebrew Congregation, with Landau as ‘Ecclesiastical Head and Chief Rabbi of the Amalgamated Congregation for life’.
In 1919, Landau was appointed, ex-officio, as a member of the SAJBD Executive Council, and later a vice-president. His relations with the Board were generally co-operative and even cordial. However, there were occasional disagreements with regard to the Board’s authority to act in certain matters which Landau felt belonged to the domain of the religious authorities. These included his wish to have a council of representatives of important congregations to discuss Jewish religions matters outside the proper sphere of the Board, such as shechita and proselytism. With the emergence of new Johannesburg synagogues in Yeoville, Bertrams, Jeppe, Mayfair and Berea between 1925 and 1927, he became further convinced of the need to set up such a co-ordinating body. In consultation with SAJBD President Bernard Alexander, a Conference of Presidents of Synagogues was held on 17 August 1924. A Provisional Federation of Synagogues Council was formed and problems concerning the Beth Din discussed. Siegfried Raphaely was elected President and delegates from the Chevra Kadisha, Berea Synagogue, Orthodox Congregation and Jeppestown Congregation were appointed to the executive committee. In 1932, the Federation was reconstituted and expanded to include the whole of the Transvaal. Rabbi Landau was appointed as its Chief Rabbi while Rabbi Isaac Kossowsky, head of the Orthodox Congregation, took up the position of Rosh Beth Din.
Landau admired Britain as ‘a firm rock of liberalism’, but considered that the English-speaking Jewries lack the fervent loyalty of the Eastern European communities and the cultural accomplishments of German-speaking Jewries. He greatly feared the forces of assimilation, and desired to acquaint his congregation with the treasures of the Jewish past and beauties of traditional Jewish life. Landau engaged in many literary and cultural activities, in promoting Jewish education, the Hebrew language and the cause of Zionism. One of his chief ambitions was the establishment of educational institutions, particularly Jewish boarding schools.
The SAJBD was primarily concerned with issues concerning immigration legislation, the naturalisation of immigrants and antisemitic and discriminatory incidents, mainly directed against East European immigrants. It widened the scope of its political activities to include the promotion of Hebrew education. In 1904, a deputation from the Board met with the head of the Government Education Board in connection with the provision of Hebrew education to children attending government schools. Together with the SAZF, the Board sponsored the South African Hebrew Education Conference in Bloemfontein in 1928, which resulted in the formation of the South African Board of Jewish Education (SABJE). SAJBD President Siegfried Raphaely had been actively involved in the formation of the United Hebrew Schools of Johannesburg in February the previous year. The Board also attended to matters of secular education in Government schools, including the attendance of Jewish children during instruction lessons and prayers. At the 1938 SABJE conference, attended by delegates from the SAJBD, SAZF, SABJE and Rabbi Kossowsky and his Orthodox colleagues, Rabbi JL Zlotnick was appointed as Director of the Board of Jewish Education of South Africa.
Landau entertained great hopes in Britain as the promoter of the Zionist cause, but was later to change his mind regarding the British administration of Palestine, expressing disappointment in Chaim Weizmann and in the High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel. The rise to power of Hitler in Germany in February 1933 and the insidious antisemitic campaigns of the various ‘Shirt’ movements in South Africa had a profound effect on SA Jewry. The Board organised a protest meeting in the Johannesburg City Hall on 8 May 1933, which was attended by church dignitaries, principals of universities and members of parliament. Rabbi Landau delivered a powerful oration at the gathering, which resulted in a resolution joining the citizens of Johannesburg in the world wide expression of sympathy for German Jewry. The main line of Board policy was to urge the Government for legislation outlawing hate speech against any specific group or section of the population. In 1936, when the Government initiated new legislation to limit the entry of German-Jewish refugees, Landau took part in protest deputations and in efforts to rally public opinion. He was in favour of a nation-wide petition but the Board opposed this, preferring ‘an approach by influential gentiles’ to the Government ‘in an informal way’.
Landau supported the Board in founding, in conjunction with the Witwatersrand Church Council and various ministers of religion, the Goodwill Movement and the Society of Jews and Christians to combat antisemitism, as well as the Board’s role in the appointment of Jewish Chaplains to the South African armed forces.
On 29 December 1942 the Board, in conjunction with the SAZF and the rabbinate, proclaimed a Day of Mourning for the victims of the Holocaust. Public meetings attended by prominent citizens and clergy of every denomination were held in all the large urban centres of South Africa and also in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. This commemoration became an annual event under the auspices of the Board, held at West Park Cemetery.
Rabbi Dr Judah Leo Landau, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of Johannesburg, 1915-1942, and of the Federation of Synagogues of South Africa, 1932-1942.
Landau’s successor in March 1945, Rabbi Dr Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, was educated at the University of London and the Yeshiva Etz Chaim. From 1932 to 1939 he served as Minister at the Cricklewood Synagogue, London and during the Second World War was principal chaplain to the British Eighth Army. His appointment was largely due to the recommendation of Chief Rabbi Hertz. Rabbi Rabinowitz was a passionate supporter of the Zionist Revisionist Movement and a stern critic of Britain’s actions in Palestine against the Jewish resistance movements, the closing of the Jewish Agency offices and arrest of Jewish leaders. At a mass protest meeting in Johannesburg on 4 July 1946, in the presence of leaders of the SAJBD, SAZF and other dignitaries, Rabbi Rabinowitz denounced the British leadership and tore off his medals. The SAJBD dissociated itself from this extreme reaction. In 1942, it established the SA Jewish War Appeal to provide relief for the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. This was followed in 1948 by the Israel United Appeal (IUA) established jointly by the Board of Deputies and the Zionist Federation in order to merge overseas fund raising activities. Rabbi Rabinowitz served as vice-president of the IUA and participated in numerous fund-raising campaigns. In October 1949 the SAJBD initiated the United Communal Fund (UCF) for local communal purposes. This too was supported by the Rabbi up to the time of his retirement in 1961. In 1986, the IUA and UCF merged as an independent fund raising organisation.
By the 1960s, the SAJBD had extended its activities beyond the combatting of anti-Jewish prejudice and discrimination and concerned itself with all internal domestic Jewish affairs. These included assistance to the small Jewish platteland communities in religious and educational requirements, publication of Jewish Affairs, a monthly journal, cultural and adult education programmes, establishment of a Jewish historical archive and museum, a library of Jewish information and planning of programmes for Jewish youth and university students. Towards the end of his ministry, Rabbi Rabinowitz reviewed the Board of Deputies activities. He acknowledged that, under the Nationalist government there had been a mitigation of antisemitism prevalent in the 1930s. He commended the Board’s efforts with regard to its archives, museum and library, which he had occasion to use in his researches for the SA Jewish Sociological and Historical Society. Rabbi Rabinowitz was extremely critical of the Board’s caution in not openly declaring a Jewish ethical attitude on the question of race relations and the government’s apartheid policy, preferring to leave it to the individual conscience within the constraints of the law. He himself was fearless in denouncing apartheid in various sermons and public pronouncements, being particularly censorious of certain Jewish farmers who profited from the apartheid policy to obtain cheap convict labour.
As regards communal planning, another function of the Board, the Rabbi criticised the failure to establish a Union of Orthodox Synagogues, the short-lived existence of the Regional Community Councils and the abandonment of the plan for an all-embracing Johannesburg Area Committee. The Country Communities project had shown great progress under Rabbi Newman but, in Rabinowitz’s opinion, had deteriorated subsequently. He also thought that the cultural and educational programmes, initiated by the General Secretary, Gus Saron, including the People’s College, showed great initial promise but were allowed to lapse due to the apathy of the Board’s leadership. This was particularly distressing for the Rabbi, who had succeeded Landau as Professor of Hebrew at Wits University. Rabinowitz expressed pessimism about the continued existence of the Hillel Houses at the Universities and the Children’s Hostels such as Herber House.
Despite this pessimism, Jewish education had, by 1948, made progress with the opening of the SABJE’s Linksfield Hebrew Educational Centre, the forerunner of the King David Schools. The SABJE was hampered by a chronic shortage of funds and became a major beneficiary of the United Communal Fund in the 1970s.
Rabbi Dr Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, Chief Rabbi of the Federation of Synagogues of South Africa, 1945-1962.
The appointment of Rabbi Dr Bernard Casper as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation in 1963 coincided with the expansion of Hebrew education in South Africa. Rabbi Casper was born in London in 1917 and was a graduate of Jews College and Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving as minister at Higher Broughton, Manchester, he was appointed senior chaplain to the Jewish Brigade from 1941 to 1945. In 1946 he returned to his congregation at Manchester and in 1950 took up work as director of Jewish education. He was ordained as rabbi in Jerusalem in 1948. After serving two years as minister of the Western Synagogue, London, he became Dean of Students at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem from 1956 to 1962. He served the SA Jewish community from 1963 to 1987, initially as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of Johannesburg and subsequently as Chief Rabbi of the Federation of Orthodox Synagogues. In 1986, he became the first Chief Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues. Rabbi Casper saw as his duty the promotion of the Jewish life of his community as opposed to political interference and reformation of the societal order as a whole. In 1970, he participated in a peaceful demonstration with Christian clerics against detention without trial. During the state of emergency in South Africa in August 1985, he expressed concern and hoped that it would be a temporary measure. At other times he was careful to avoid government censure. Casper maintained his apolitical attitude despite harsh criticisms from Jewish activists, particularly from a group of Jewish students at the University of Cape Town in October 1972. The Rabbi reminded his accusers of the benefits the Jewish population enjoyed in South Africa ‘Would you suggest that the small Jewish minority group of this country, itself largely composed of comparatively recent immigrants, should embark upon a Jewish crusade for the solution of the issues arising from South Africa’s demographic composition and political system? As citizens it is your right, and perhaps your duty to be involved in these matters. But you have not the right to speak as though this is the special burden and responsibility of the Jewish community and its leaders.4
In contrast to Rabbi Casper’s attitude, a handful of rabbis, both orthodox and reform, condemned apartheid from the pulpit and also took part in public protests. These included Rabbis Abner Weiss and Selwyn Franklin (Durban), David Rosen (Cape Town) and Ben Isaacson (Har El congregation). Rabbi Norman Bernhard of the Oxford Synagogue initiated a more cautious approach to social issues through the Oxford Synagogue Social Action Committee (OSSAC) established in 1980. He also supported the antiapartheid social action group, Jews for Social Justice.
After 1976 the Board, under the leadership of Advocate D K Mann and A Suzman, gradually moved away from its previous cautious attitude towards the apartheid issue. At its 1985 National Congress, a resolution explicitly rejecting apartheid was adopted. In 1987, during the state of emergency, the Board’s Congress took various resolutions condemning apartheid legislation.
Rabbi Casper’s relationship with the Reform movement was not cordial. With the mediation of the SAJBD, a ‘Concordat’ was negotiated in July 1965 between Rabbi Casper and Senior Reform Rabbi AS Super. This clarified the procedures to be followed by respective Orthodox and Progressive Rabbis at West Park Memorial Ceremonies and other public occasions. The agreement was endorsed by the Board of Deputies but much criticised by the SA Union for Progressive Judaism.
Rabbi Bernard Moses Casper, Chief Rabbi of the Federation of Synagogues of South Africa, 1963-1986, and of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of SA, 1986-7.
Rabbi Casper was intent on promoting Jewish education and religious values in South Africa. Jewish religious leaders expressed great concern regarding the government’s policy of promoting Christian National education in public schools attended by many Jewish pupils. In 1973 the Board of Deputies arranged an interview with the Minister of National Education, Senator van der Spuy which resulted in official permission for Jewish pupils to be excluded from Christocentric education classes and receive separate Religious Instruction according to a syllabus specially drawn up by the SABJE. Rabbi Casper insisted on a more religious form of education in Jewish day schools than that followed by the King David school complex.
The Jewish day schools underwent tremendous expansion throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. The SA Board of Jewish Education experienced financial hardships despite subsidies from the United Communal Fund and the IUA. The Board of Deputies’ attempts to obtain increased government subsidies faced competition from Catholic and Anglican private schools. The situation was finally resolved by the establishment of a debenture scheme and a Trust Fund initiated by business leaders, Gerald Leissner and Monty Hilkowitz in 1985. Leissner had close connections with the Board of Deputies, serving successively as Chairman and President from 1987 to 1995. Russell Gaddin, SAJBE Chairman from 1987 to 1992, became Chairman of the SAJBD in 1999.
In 1989, the Bernard H Casper Memorial Fund for the advancement of Jewish Education was established in honour of the contribution made Rabbi Casper, who died in Israel in 1988. An educational complex was established on the King David Linksfield Campus.
In 1988, Rabbi Cyril K. Harris of St John’s Wood Synagogue was appointed Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation. He was born in Glasgow and educated at the University of London, obtaining his rabbinical diploma from Jews’ College. He was a well-known broadcaster with the BBC and served as Jewish Chaplain to the British Forces from 1966 to 1975. At his induction service in 1988 in Johannesburg’s Great Synagogue, he outlined his mission as ‘the continuity of traditional Judaism as a living force: the preservation of the bonds of the Jewish people with the State of Israel and the practical application of Jewish ethical teachings to the South African scene.’ In his New Year message of 1990, he maintained that Judaism utterly rejected the doctrine of racial discrimination and censured the Jewish community for not doing more to help establish a non-racial society. At the SA Jewish Board of Deputies Conference in August 1990, Harris questioned the moral ambivalence of the Jewish community. He quoted Mandela as wanting a non-racial South Africa and urged the Jewish community to contribute to the disadvantaged. As a result of his endeavours the Tikkun Jewish Communal organisation was formed to which he contributed the mission statement of 1996, embodying the upliftment of the disadvantaged towards nation building. He was a founder and co-chairman of Tikkun until his death in 2005. Tikkun was initially housed at the SAJBD offices but subsequently became an independent organisation.
Harris was a key participant in the National Religious Leaders’ Forum to promote interfaith relations with Christian, Hindu and Moslem groups. The South African Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace promoted the Desmond Tutu Peace Lectures from 1885 onwards to which the Rabbi, Franz Auerbach and Jocelyn Hellig contributed. However Archbishop Tutu alienated the Jewish community in 1990 by expressing support for the Palestinian cause in their right to resist Israeli aggression and organise themselves politically. This was the beginning of a deep divide between the Jewish community and Tutu which reached its peak in 2011 when the Archbishop testified at the Russell Tribunal set up to establish the links between apartheid South Africa and events in Palestine.
Rabbi Harris played a leading role in the Jewish contribution to the Constitutional Assembly in October 1996. He was on the panel of religious leaders which helped monitor the 1994 democratic elections and participated in Codesa 1 and 11. He was a member of the Constitutional Committee established by the SAJBD to draw up submissions and proposals on the working draft of the new SA constitution, including measures against racism, freedom of religion, belief and opinion, freedom of expression, state aid to private schools and universal right to welfare and social services. On behalf of the Jewish community he presented a submission to the Faith Hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in November 1997. He apologised to the TRC on behalf of the community, which he said had benefited from apartheid. He endeared himself to President Nelson Mandela and was the speaker at his inauguration on 10 May 1994. In January 1995 Harris gave a moving oration at the state funeral of Joe Slovo a Jewish activist and former National Chairman of the Communist Party who became Minister of Housing in 1994.
The SAJBD set up a Community Outreach Committee in 1991, with the assistance of Dr Franz Auerbach, a member of the National Executive Council, the Gauteng Council and subsequently a staff member. Through this committee, Dr Auerbach hoped to establish joint programmes with the South African Council of Churches and other ministries, Cosatu, National Youth Conference and African National Congress. Membership of the Community Outreach Committee included Jonny Frankel (Tiger Oats), Dr Selma Browde, Colin Coleman, Mrs Anne Harris, Seymour Kopelowitz and Leslie Harris (representing the SAJBD), Adv. David Mann, Jeremy Hayman (SAZF) Miriam Stein (Union of Jewish Women), Brenda Stern (SA Union of Jewish Students). Ex-officio members were Michael Katz and Gerald Leissner. The Board also established links with Gesher, the Jewish Movement for Social Action which commenced activities in 1996.
Through the Outreach Programmes, the Board hoped also to establish better communication and understanding of the Jewish community and combat racial intolerance and antisemitism.
Mandela and the African National Congress had strong ties with the Palestinian Liberation Congress, formed during the years of exile. This caused considerable anxiety among the Jewish Community. In August 1993, Mandela addressed the opening session of the Board’s Congress. He stated that the ANC equally recognised the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism and Zionism. However the Board was concerned about the rise of hostility and defamation among certain sections of the Muslim community which took the form of anti-Israel agitation with overtones of antisemitism. This was particularly prevalent in the Western Cape and on university campuses. Another disturbing factor was the rise in criminal activities which threatened Jewish schools, synagogues and other institutions. From July 1993, the Jewish community operated, in close cooperation with the police, a multifaceted Community Security Organization of young Jewish volunteers trained by a team of professionals.
The final years of Rabbi Harris’s period of office were permeated by the growth of the anti-Israel movement, mentioned earlier. Ronnie Kasrils, a former anti-apartheid activist and later Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, played a large role in organising the petition ‘Not in My Name’, a declaration of conscience on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict signed by ‘South Africans of Jewish Descent’, in November 2001. In addition, at the World Conference on Racism held in Durban in August to September 2001, there were pre-organised anti-Israel manifestations which forced the SAJBD to withdraw from the conference.
The Jewish communal organisational structure of Johannesburg and the country communities had undergone considerable change by the close of the 20th C ent u r y. D ue to decreased membership through emigration, many of the larger synagogues which formed the original United Hebrew Congregation closed down and were replaced by smaller congregations. Organisations such as the SAZF and SAJBD downsized and came together under the Beyachad umbrella. The Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation and the office of the Johannesburg Beth Din were transferred to the HOD Centre in Orchards and the Wolmarans Street Synagogue was replaced by the Great Park Synagogue in Glenhove Road, Houghton with its own spiritual leader. Conversely, the number of religious communities, including the Chabad and Ohr Somayach movements, increased despite lower membership numbers. Most country communities became defunct as their membership dwindled.
Chief Rabbi Harris maintained a warm relationship with all religious groups, conducted numerous pastoral visits throughout South Africa and introduced an annual rabbinical conference of all the rabbis of South Africa. A reorganisation of the country communities took place with the establishment in 1994 of the African Jewish Congress. The Country Communities Rabbi appointed by the Board of Deputies became, in addition, head of the African Jewish Congress which included Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.
Chief Rabbi Harris retired in 2004. As a tribute to his great contributions, the Rabbi Cyril Harris Communal Centre was established in the Great Park Synagogue precinct. Largely on his recommendation, he was succeeded by Rabbi Warren Goldstein in 2005. Rabbi Goldstein was the first South African incumbent to hold the position, having received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Azriel Chaim Goldstein at the Yeshivah Gedolah of Johannesburg and the Eretz Hemda Institute in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Cyril K Harris, Chief Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa, 1988-2004
In addition, he was unique in having legal qualifications, including a PhD in Human Rights and Constitutional Law from Wits University. His doctoral thesis compared Western and Jewish law and was published as a book, ‘Defending the Human Spirit: Jewish Law’s Vision for a Moral Society’. Rabbi Harris, at his inauguration, proclaimed Goldstein to be a “Master of Torah, a Doctor of Laws and a fierce campaigner on behalf of the vulnerable’.
In previous decades the SAJBD, which had a strong legal representation among its leadership, had been the chief communicator with the government of the day. Rabbi Goldstein undertook to engage more personally with the government on public views of the highest interest affecting South Africa and its Jewish community. He was the co-founder and co-chairman of the Community Active Protection organisation, a community based anti-crime initiative, strongly supported by the Board’s Community Security Organisation which had been set up in 1995. He contributed regularly to print, radio, television and the electronic media on issues of moral regeneration, crime, education, poverty alleviation and religious values. As a member of the National Religious Leaders Forum, Rabbi Goldstein engaged with other faith communities on such issues.
In order to encourage Talmud learning, the Chief Rabbi established a Beth Midrash learning programme at the King David and Herzlia schools, and promoted the annual Sinai Indaba colloquies, Generation Sinai events and Shabbos Projects, the latter of which gained world- wide acceptance. This was complemented by the Limmud SA programmes.
Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa since 2005.
A serious problem affecting contemporary Jewish communities worldwide was the growth of the anti-Israel movement. This was supported and propagated by pro-Palestinian organisations such as the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which gained a vociferous following in South Africa, particularly in the universities. The Board and Chief Rabbi combined efforts in defending Israel in the local and international press, the electronic media, presenting arguments which supported the Israeli side of the argument.
As a contributor to the development of the new South African Constitution from 1997 onwards, the Board continues to make submissions on racist hate speech, including the monitoring of the social media and submits proposals on how the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) could be made more effective in dealing with this phenomenon.
The Jewish community has undergone a fascinating development from the early pioneer structures of the late nineteenth century to the early 21st Century, gaining in influence and religious observance despite all obstacles.
Naomi Musiker, a veteran contributor to Jewish Affairs and long-serving member of its Editorial Board, has contributed numerous biographical articles for the Dictionary of SA Biography and the Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa and, as an indexer, has worked for some of South Africa’s leading publishers and indexed many important reference works. She has held the position of archivist at the SA Jewish Board of Deputies since 1992.
NOTES
- Quoted by Gus Saron, Unpublished manuscript, ‘Dr Joseph Hertz: His Appointment’, SAJBD Archives. Biographical Section 199 HER.
- Dr Joseph Hertz and the Transvaal: A reply to the Hon. J.C Smuts. Letter to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, 9 June 1911.
- Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal: Inaugural Public Meeting at the Wanderers’ Rink, Johannesburg, 28 July, 1903. In 1912, a congress was held at Bloemfontein to arrange for the creation of an amalgamated SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD). After the creation of the first Executive Council of the South African Board all Jewish institutions in South Africa were invited to apply for membership. By 1914, there were 51 constituent bodies, represented by sixty deputies.
- SA Jewish Times, 3 November 1972.
