The Phoenix Jewish news., 1960-05-27
BY EDGAR BERNSTEIN
Copyright, 1860, JTA, Inc0

JOAaNNESBUR the hue
and cry against South Africa on
the question of apartheid, a num-
Der of Jewish Journals abroad are
criticizing South African Jewry for
not, as they put it, speaking up"
against apartheid. They pontificate
that South African Nationalists are
Nazis and anti-Semites and call up
on South African Jewry to put a.
side it's fear and attack the govern
ment and apartheid as a moral
duty.
South African Jews are bitterly
resentful of this attitude. They
would expect that Jews elsewhere
would try to understand the posi-
ton of community of fellow-Jews
before rushing in with criticism
and condemnation that insult the
communal record of the 10000
South African Jews.
South African Jewry is not living
in any fear of reprisals: it is fully
free to state any attitude it deems
necessary. The fact that it has not
considered it necessary to make
a ny community statement on
apartheid should suggest, to fellow
Jews elsewhere, that there are rea-
sons of principle, not fear or eX-
pediency, for not making the kind
of statement which overseas critics
would like to have.
In the first place, South African
Jews know that the present leaders
Of the Union are not Nazis and anti
SemiteS. Although the Nationalists
were infected by Nazi anti-Semi-
tism during the Hitler period, they
purged themselves of that infection
after the political tumult of the war
years had subsidized in South Africa
and returned to the traditional At
rikaner attitude of goodwill n d
friendship towards South Africa's
Jewish Community.
When they were returned to pow
er in the 1948 election, the late DR..
D. F. Malan, as the new prime
minister, publicly assured the Jew
ish community of equal treatment
by his government. When the late
j. G. Strijdom succeeded DR.. Ma
Ian in 1854, he gave similar as
Surance and so did DR.. H. F. Ver-
woerd when he became prime min
lister in 1858.
Nor have these assurances been
pious words. /. A. MaicelS, former
president of the South African
Board of Jewish Deputies; s. M.
Kupor, former chairman of the
South African Zionist Federation;
Mamie Philips, chairman of h e
Board of Deputies, and Edel Hor-
WITT, chairman of the Zionist Fed
GRAFTON, are all on record that the
Nationalists have faithfully carried
out their pledges to the Jewish
community, from 1948 to the pres
ent day. They have been helpful in
regard to Jewish communal needs,
and they have been helpful in re-
gard to Israel.
In the second place, South Afri-
can Jews feel they have given am
pie evidence in the past that they
are not craven community, afraid
W SpGdh up WIlGH lIley IGII lIldI
speaking up was necessary. They
are a community that has held
Jewish honor high in South Africa,
fought anti-Semitism without quar-
ter when it occurred, contributed
to the national welfare in every
direction, built strong institutions
for Jewish surviv wal in South
Africa; a community which has
contributed sturdily to Israel, in
manpower as well as materially,
and has interested successive
South African governments to sup
port first the Jewish National
Home and now the State of Israel.
If there is no political a n I'll
Semitism in South African today,
and less social anti-Semitism than
one encounters in either England
or the United States (there are no
South African hotels that bar Jew
ish clientele, very few clubs that