Milton Shain

Jewish cultures, identities and contingencies: reflections from the South African experience

The article traces the major streams of Jewish immigration to South Africa, the cultural baggage brought by the newcomers, and the evolution of a South African Jewish cultural identity contingently shaped within the specifics of South African society but influenced by global trends. Even though South African Jews faced the assimilatory impulses of a frontier society, the divided nature of the countrys white Afrikaans- and English-speaking population encouraged Jewish distinctiveness and provided a comfortable place for ethnic expression and an abiding support for the Zionist idea. Despite changes in the new South Africa, Jewish identity remains strong, with an ongoing religious revival that dates back to the 1970s. Buttressed by a dispensation that celebrates cultural and religious diversity, the Jewish community is grappling with its past in apartheid South Africa while finding its place within a new multicultural framework. Nation building remains in its infancy.

Constructing a Usable Past: History, Memory and South African Jewry in an Age of Anxiety

Three seminal studies published between 1930 and 1955 played a critical role in defining a received version of South African Jewish history. All three helped towards a self—definition of a community looking for a usable and respectable past in an age of anxiety and vulnerability. Shaped in significant measure by these texts, a collective memory emerged which incorporated a questionable understanding of the communitys origins, development and character. Critical dimensions of the South African Jewish experience were ignored or distorted in this drive towards acceptance and respectability.

Paradoxical ambiguity – D.F. Malan and the “Jewish Question”

This paper explores D.F. Malan’s attitudes towards the Jews in the context of burgeoning Afrikaner nationalism and the challenge of the radical right in the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with the Quota Act of 1930, Malan increasingly expressed hostility towards Jews. Fuelled by opposition towards German-Jewish immigration and subsequently calling for limitations on Jewish occupations and opportunities in South Africa, Malan denied any anti-Jewish animus. Yet his rhetoric was increasingly shrill through the 1930s. Was Malan simply an opportunist or was he genuinely hostile? While opportunism was a feature of his political style, and while some of his attacks were in all likelihood politically driven, too often he appeared consumed by imaginary Jewish machinations. Nevertheless, it needs to be acknowledged that Malan turned away from the “Jewish Question” soon after World War II and refused to kowtow to those wishing to maintain anti-Jewish policies.