The recent civil unrest in South Africa, which began in the Durban area and lasted from July 9 to 17, left 337 dead and extensive damage in its wake. Coincidentally, on July 29, 87 Jewish South Africans made aliyah on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
South African Jewry, which at its peak half a century ago topped 120,000, has now dropped to 50,000, according to the Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town.
In the aftermath of the unrest, JNF-Australia organized a Zoom webinar on August 2, titled, “The future of South African Jewry,” which it asked me to moderate. The panelists were two top entrepreneurs – Reeva Forman and Mike Abel – Dr. Daniel Israel, a family practitioner in Johannesburg, and Mary Kluk, national president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Forman was upbeat about the situation, saying the “insurrection” (which she said was really an attempted coup sparked by the incarceration of ex-President Jacob Zuma) had been quelled, antisemitism is low compared to the rest of the world, and the future of the Jewish community is bright. “From my point of view as an entrepreneur who takes risks, I would still take every risk that I have on South Africa, as a proud Jew, Zionist and South African,” she said.
Dr. Israel said the coronavirus pandemic had hit the community hard, causing many deaths among the elderly and preventing communal gatherings. “I think that COVID-19 is the biggest challenge we have as a community in South Africa,” he said.
Abel posted an open letter to South African expats in July, slamming the schadenfreude among some and asking for their “love, concern and support” instead. Agreeing with Forman that Zuma flamed the unrest, he said, the firewood was poverty.
“The firewood is a 35% unemployment level in South Africa, and 70% youth unemployment. That is not a sustainable situation, so while Daniel looks at Covid as being the crisis in our country, I look at unemployment as being the crisis in our country, and unless we unlock the economy and develop a sharing economy and an inclusive culture, we will not be able to fix the country. But I am confident that this new crisis has precipitated a new opportunity for South Africa.”
Kluk, a resident of Durban, related how the community had rallied to provide food and supplies to the elderly and needy. “I have to say that the situation feels normal again, and human beings are incredibly resilient and our community is remarkable,” she said. “Each one of us wakes up every day and hopes in some way to be a contribution... to rebuild our country.”
Some 41% of Jews surveyed by the Kaplan Centre in 2019 said they were making plans to leave South Africa – 51% to Israel, 12% to the UK, 10% to the US, 10% to Australia, 4% to Canada and 13% elsewhere.
In this issue, Johannesburg businessman Arnold Garber argues that “despite the challenges, many Jews who are able to leave South Africa choose not to.”
Tzippi Hoffman, who with Alan Fischer wrote a 1988 book titled, The Jews of South Africa: What Future?, told me, “The community will eternally be singled out for their Zionist ties while celebrated for individual contributions to the South African mosaic. I’d say that the attrition rate for Jews leaving speaks for itself. While current Covid practices in South Africa may fuel immigration rates, long-term communal longevity will likely circle back to feeling comfortable as practicing Jews with a Zionistic bent.”
I was left with the feeling that despite their government’s increasingly anti-Israel stance, the Jews remaining in South Africa still believe they have a future. It is a myth that ostriches stick their heads in the sand. Neither do South African Jews.