Portuguese exploration The first Jews involved in the
history of South Africa were explorers, cartographers and astronomers who were employed by the
Portuguese Crown. These men were employed in
attempts by Portugal to discover a sea route to the
Indian subcontinent. Jewish cartographers in Portugal, many of whom were members of the Portuguese
upper class, assisted explorers
Bartolomeu Dias and
Vasco da Gama who sailed around the
Cape of Good Hope to India in 1488 and 1497, respectively.
Dutch colonial era In 1652, the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a
colonial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope under the direction of
Jan van Riebeeck. Among the settlers in the colony were a number of
non-practising Jews who lived in
Cape Town. The first records of Jews living in the colony were a baptism record of two Jewish settlers living in the
Western Cape on
Christmas Day, 1669. Despite this, Jewish immigration to the colony remained small in number due to the VOC requiring all its employees and settlers to be
Protestant. In 1803, the Dutch colonial authorities granted
religious freedom to all inhabitants and prospective migrants; when the
British invaded and occupied the colony in 1805, they issued a confirmation of this policy the next year. After the South African gold rush began in 1886, the number of Jews rose. In 1880, the Jewish population numbered approximately 4,000; by 1914 it had grown to more than 40,000. So many of them came from Lithuania that some referred to the population as a colony of Lithuania; Johannesburg was also occasionally called "Jewburg".
Second Boer War Jews fought on both sides during the
Second Boer War (1899–1902), and Jewish soldiers, such as
British Army officer Karrie Davies, participated in some of the most significant engagements of the conflict, including the
siege of Ladysmith. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought in the war on the British side, and
The Spectator reported that 125 of them were
killed in action during the conflict. On the opposing side, roughly 300 Jews served on the Boer side; collectively they were known as the
Boerjode (Boer Jews). Jews who lived in the
Transvaal and
South African Republics and held citizenship rights were
conscripted along with other residents of the republics (known as
burghers), though other Jews volunteered. Jews fighting on the Boer side participated in many of the major engagements of the war, and continued to fight in the
guerrilla phase of the conflict as
bittereinders; 12
Boerjode are known to have been killed in action, while 80 were captured by the British. Captured
Boerjode were held in
prisoner-of-war camps in South Africa,
Ceylon,
Saint Helena,
Bermuda and
India.
Union of South Africa During this era the South African Jewish politician
Morris Alexander would be a notable community figure. In 1906 he helped pass a law that had
Yiddish reclassified as a
European language as opposed to a
Semitic one. This prevented Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants from being stopped on racial ground, which has been a frequent occurrence. Although South African Jews were granted equal rights after the Second Boer War, they again became subject of persecution in the days leading up to the
Second World War. In 1930, the
Quota Act, passed by the
South African government, was intended to curtail the immigration of Jews into South Africa. The vast majority of Jews immigrating to South Africa during this period came from
Lithuania. The
census of 1936 recorded a total of 17,684 Yiddish speakers in the Union of South Africa with 11,528 of them living in the
Transvaal. The 1937
Aliens Act, motivated by a sharp increase the previous year in the number of
German Jewish refugees coming to South Africa, brought such migration to almost a complete halt. Some Jews were able to enter the country, but many were unable to do so. A total of approximately six-and-a-half thousand Jews came to South Africa from Germany between the years 1933 and 1939. During this period, many
Afrikaners sympathised with
Nazi Germany due to their
anti-British sentiment, and organisations such as
Louis Weichardt's "
Grayshirts" and the pro-
Nazi Ossewabrandwag were openly antisemitic. In the
South African Parliament, the opposition
National Party argued that the Aliens Act was too lenient and advocated a complete ban on Jewish immigration, a halt in the naturalisation of Jewish permanent residents of South Africa and the banning of Jews from certain professions. After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews
emigrated to
Israel. South African Jews in Israel number around 20,000 in the 21st century. During this time, there were also two waves of Jewish immigration to Africa from the island of
Rhodes, first in the 1900s and then after 1960. In this period, Jewish activism in South Africa also included attempts to secure the position of Jews overseas. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, a correspondent for the
South African Medical Journal reported on the systematic oppression of Jewish medical professionals in Germany. These actions included denial of graduations for Jewish medical students, employment bans, forced resignations, raids on a Jewish medical association, and violent attacks on individual doctors. The report concluded that the actions of the Nazi regime likely had the tacit support of the German medical establishment and ended with the request that South African doctors protest the actions.
Jewish Economic Upward Mobility The overall Economic Upward Mobility of Jewish South Africans has evolved severely over time. Beginning with the early immigration to South Africa throughout the discoveries made of diamonds and gold, Jewish immigrants found their place in the fields that benefited from these discoveries. Specifically, opportunities were found in fields such as retail, mining, and manufacturing. These Jewish immigrants who found their place in these fields worked their way up the totem pole, benefiting from communal mutual aid programs to lift one another up and into the South African economy. Despite the obvious hardships and challenges they faced as immigrants, many members of the South African Jewish community have found their place in the South African economy and workforce due to innovation, entrepreneurship, and assimilation altogether, they have most definitely shown their contributions in South African society.
Development of the South African Jewish Cultural Identity South African Jewish Cultural Identity has developed with time between an interesting dynamic of community traditions, support, assimilation and adaptation into South Africa as a whole. As Jews immigrated to South Africa primarily from Eastern Europe, the large majority consider themselves to be
Ashkenazi Jews. They brought over many specific traditions and practices both religiously and culturally that have created a foundation for the modern day South African Jewish community, primarily concentrated in larger cities of South Africa such as
Cape Town and
Johannesburg. As the community continued developing with time, Jewish institutions such as Jewish Day Schools, cultural community centers, and synagogues developed as well. These institutions played a major role in the development of a united identity, unique to South African Jewry, finding a place for Jews in South African society even under an Apartheid Government. An array of Jewish newspapers, magazines and other publications were established, for example the
Afrikaner Yidishe Tsaytung, existing through 1931-1985, with a weekly readership of 3000 at its peak. In a Post-Apartheid reality, South African Jews have managed to properly integrate themselves into discussions of current events as the country continues to heal from overcoming such violent oppression for many years. Many South African Jews tend to link themselves to human rights discussions and initiatives to continue working towards equality in a country with such intense history. All of these developments have extremely shaped how we can see the South African Jewish Cultural Identity as it is today.
Post-World War II Integration Education Despite the previously mentioned sympathy and support many
Afrikaners had for Nazi Germany, thousands of Jews within South Africa began to integrate into urban life. Despite this urban integration of Jewish immigrants, many Jewish families sent their children to separate educational institutions. Christian anti-Semitism became a driving factor for keeping Jewish youth out of specific aspects of public life in South Africa. By 1970, the Jewish Educational Institutions within major urban hotspots around South Africa had become the primary source of education for majority of South African Jews. This began a long history of cooperation between Israel and South Africa on many levels. Elements of the South Africa Jewish community through such bodies as the
South African Zionist Federation maintained a cordial relationship with the South African government even though it objected to the policies of apartheid being enacted. South Africa's Jews were permitted to collect huge sums of money to be sent on as official aid to Israel, despite strict exchange-control regulations. Per capita, South African Jews were reputedly the most financially supportive Zionists abroad. Despite the anti-semitism of the ruling National Party, Jewish people were considered as white under the law and shared the same privileges as the Afrikaners. After the
Rivonia trial in which
Nelson Mandela and several co-defendants, some Jewish, were sentenced to life in prison, the Apartheid government praised then-
Attorney general Percy Yutar, who was Jewish as well, and held him as a 'savior of the country.' The apartheid government also secretly worked with Israel to develop a nuclear program. The Jewish establishment and the majority of South African Jews remained focused on Jewish issues. A few rabbis spoke out against apartheid early, but they failed to gain support and it was not until 1985 that the
rabbinate as a whole condemned apartheid (Adler 2000). The
South African Union for Progressive Judaism took the strongest stand of any of the Jewish movements in the country against apartheid. It opposed
disinvestment while women in the movement engaged in social work as a form of protest. This includes the Moses Weiler School in Alexandra founded by Rabbi
Moses Cyrus Weiler, where for generations the school has been funded and led by women from the Progressive movement, even in opposition to the Bantu Education Act, 1953 (Feld 2014).
Tony Leon who was the Federal Leader of the
Democratic Alliance (2000-2007) and
Helen Zille from (2007-2015) are both Jewish. ==Today==