On The Attitudes Of South African Jews Toward Apartheid (1948-1994)

After the establishment of the Union of South Africa, South Africa long performed thepolicy of racial discrimination. In1948, the government put apartheid into constitution.From then on, the South African apartheid system went into "legalization" period. Afterthe mid-17th century, in order to escape the persecution of the country, the EuropeanJews followed other Europeans, emigrating to South Africa. Due to the color and thenatural advantages of language, they were positioned as the white class and enjoy all theprivileges of whites after their arrival. However, after their arrival in South Africa, theywere mostly involved in jobs of high profits and advanced technology. To some extent,they crowded out the resources of the ruler and damaged their interests. As a result, theSouth Africa government formulated the “Immigration Act” to limit the Jews continuemoving to South Africa.After1948, in order to strengthen the dominance of the whites, the South Africangovernment roped in those influential South African Jews, which in turn altered theprevious anti-Semitic ideology. The government adopted an inclusive approach towardthose Jews. For these who have been suffering religious persecution and socialdiscrimination since the Middle Ages, South Africa is undoubtedly the new Eden. So,most of the Jews took the attitude of acquiescence and supported the apartheid system.However, still many Jews opposed it.In1970s and1980s, with the rising of the national liberation movement of Africancountries and South Africa’s Black Consciousness movement, the government had tomake reforms of the apartheid, and then to continue to maintain its rule. At this point,The Jews’ basic attitude toward apartheid system has also changed. They even publiclycriticized and accused of apartheid.In the late1980s, under the dual pressure from the international strong blame and thedomestic fight, the South African government’s rule was at the edge of crumbling. It wastoo late for the government to perform reforms to maintain its domination. In1994,South Africa has finally started the democratization process, along with the apartheidgetting off the historical stage. The Jews of South Africa has shown an attitude that onceapartheid was abolished, their privileged interests will also disappear.South African Jews has shown different attitudes in different periods of the apartheid. Their main purpose was to maintain their vested interests. It also reflected theircompromises toward South African policy and society.