Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

UNKNOWN: Thank you Mr Chairperson, brothers and sisters and deal   colleagues. Firstly, I want to welcome this opportunity on behalf of the Jewish   community to participate in our faith hearings. We feel it's a wonderful opportunity   to try to heal divisions and to start the process of building a better life.   We must examine the past. We must admit failings of the past. But those failings   must prompt us all to move us in some way to do something now and in the years   ahead to build a better country for the millions of our brothers and sisters   who live in this country and who hope for a better future. One of the greatest   things which has happened in our country is that principles, values and concepts,   which are normally considered abstract have come gloriously alive in these historic   times that we're going through. The brotherhood and sisterhood of the human   family has taken on increased meaning. Everyone knows "Simunye", we   must try to be one. The TRC has given new meaning to wrongdoing and forgiveness.   These are not abstract ephemeral notions, but they're notions which get to the   heart of the past of our country and to the soul of its future. The inter faith   dialogue has moved beyond a mere tolerance and debate to allow us collectively   to try and create the building blocks for the future. And the most important   concept as far as the communities of this country are concerned is the concept   of sharing, which is also not an abstract religious principle. In our country   at this time, that the "haves" must share with the "have-nots"   is not merely a political, economic nor social certainty, it is a moral imperative. 
I would like to pinpoint the failings are far as the Jewish community is concerned   of all that happened in the apartheid era. The Jewish community did not initiate   apartheid. Many in the Jewish community did not agree with apartheid. Almost   everyone in the Jewish community had a kind of awkward tension about apartheid,   but most of the Jewish community benefited in one way or another from apartheid.   I want to read what Stephen Friedman, the Director of the Centre for Policy   Studies recently wrote
"No Jew who lived in South Africa during the apartheid period can plausibly   claim that his or her circumstances today are not in some measure a result of   apartheid. Anyone who succeeded in business, benefited from a right to economic   activity which was denied others. Anyone who received a professional qualification,   enjoyed a place at school, college, university which was denied to the majority   on racial grounds alone. Anyone who enjoyed an authentic Jewish family life,   Judaism is a domestic religion, did so in a home which persons not classified   as whites could neither own nor occupy, save as a hired servant, in which latter   case they were not permitted to enjoy a family life of their own. Any member   of our community who found a job in a corporation or as a skilled artisan, probably   occupied a post from which those classified not-white were barred".
This, of course, touches only on the formal legal stipulations which enabled   the Jews along with other South Africans labelled white to get on in life at   the expense of others. Apartheid was more than a set of racial laws. Its workings   offered whites cheap labour in their homes and factories, subsidised their services   and facilities and in general provided them with every tool for personal advancement   which was denied to others. Its effect was to ensure that at least under apartheid's   latter days, few if any whites, failed to achieve a degree of affluence as a   direct result of the fact that others were forced to live in penury. This context   creates a profound personal and collective responsibility for every apartheid   reared Jew, for it raises the possibility that their attainments today may have   been achieved only because of apartheid's role in denying to others what we   now enjoy ourselves. 
He goes on to say, and I think it's important, to anticipate an objection.   "Yes, many Jews who made it during the apartheid era (let's get away from   the impression that all Jews are millionaires - it's not at all true. We have   meals on wheels for many old and poor Jewish people to this day). Yes, many   Jews who made it during the apartheid era would have done well in countries   which allowed equal opportunity to all."
Yes, many worked hard to achieve what they now have and employed much natural   ability to do it. But can we really say that all of us would be what we are   today, in the Jewish community, if apartheid had never existed? Can anyone of   us, as a matter of principle, since it is impossible to determine how South   African Judaism would have feared without apartheid, declare confidently that   we enjoy no skills, capabilities and possessions which apartheid gave us? We   bear responsibility today, whatever role we played in the past, however many   letters we wrote to the newspapers, however many bursaries we sponsored, however   civil we were to our workers or servants, because it is possible, indeed probable,   that our personal circumstances are products of apartheid. And if we are responsible   for this country's past, we are of course responsible for its future. In that   the Jewish community benefited from apartheid, apology must be given to this   commission.
The second question's more difficult. What did silence ...[inaudible] Very   easy - that poster "The truth hurts and silence kills" which is true,   but we need a sophisticated and in depth look at what happened. Now there were   many Jewish individuals who were not silent, and we have in our written submission,   we mention Professor Asmal Kadar Asmal, the current Minister of Water Affairs   and Forestry, who recently saluted the Jewish heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle.   He said the Jewish community of South Africa has produced proportionately more   heroes in the struggle against apartheid than any other so-called white group   and he went on to list a lot of names, which I won't bother to read, you've   got them there and they're all well known. It is important to indicate that   these were individuals not all of whom were practising Jewish males or females   but that they were moved by either Jewish, and more often than not, humanitarian   motivations to speak out and some of them suffered very greatly for it. But   they weren't there, and I think it's an important part of our Jewish submission   that this should not be overlooked. For example, more than half the 23 whites   involved in the treason trial of the 1950's and all five whites apprehended   in the Rivonia arrests of 1963 were Jewish. Most Jews voted for the United Party,   subsequently for the Progressive Federal Party, and eventually the Democratic   Party. Whatever might have been the reasons for the voting patterns, it's not   worthy that more than half of the 23 whites involved in the treason trial, as   mentioned, and the Rivonia trial were Jewish. 
Seeking peaceful change, Jews actually wanted to use the vote. The vote as   an individual, which unfortunately so many millions didn't have, to try to effect   change. Whatever might have been the reason for these voting patterns, clearly   in election after election, the truth is that Jews overwhelmingly and continuously   voted against the governing National Party, more so than any other white group   in South Africa. Members of the Jewish community also participated significantly   in various protest groupings such as the Five Freedoms Forum, Jews for Justice   in Cape Town, Jews for Social Justice in Johannesburg and the Black Sash. So   there were individuals and there were groups. We must explain to you, and this   is our obligation, the silence of the general Jewish community as distinct from   individuals and specific groups during the apartheid era. What does silence   denote? It denotes acquiescence and accommodation. One of the great evils of   apartheid (I know there were so many evils) was that it desensitised decent   people to the suffering of millions. They just got used to apartheid. The accommodated   themselves to it, they were acquiesce in it. Another reason could be cowardice.   [SIDE 2]must be appreciated in the Jewish context otherwise it would be   unfair. Another reason was plain fear. Apartheid was a very repressive regime,   got more and more repressive, until thank God, the democracy came. The Jewish   community is very small in numbers. It is a very silly mistake of many people   to think that there are millions and millions of Jewish people in this country.   There have never been! At its height, it was a community of 130000. At its height.   And this was a very small community and of course, it may be a very high profile   community, but it's a very small community in numbers, it's a post-holocaust   generation. Do you know what the Nazis did to the Jewish people? So therefore,   Jewish people all over the world have a sensitivity, one would say a hyper-sensitivity   towards survival. At all costs they want to survive. I am not condoning the   silence of the Jewish community in the apartheid era, I am attempting to explain   it and I am asking for your understanding. 
There is always a fear of anti-sematism Before the Second World War, the parliament   of this country banned Jews from this country. With the Aliens Act. The Jewish   community would be very much larger now if Jews, the refugees from Europe had   been allowed in to South Africa. They weren't allowed in. Regarding the Nationalist   Party in the early days, 1940's and 50's, there was always the fear of anti-sematism,   so fear played a very great part, it shouldn't have done but it did.
The next point is, and I think as these are religious hearings, we should go   into it.