THIS article will deal with three Boards of Deputies,
namely, the “Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal," formed
on 15th April, 1903, "the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Cape
Colony," formed on 4th September, 1904, and the South African Jewish Board
of Deputies, formed on 7th August, 1912, by the amalgamation of the two
first-named bodies at a conference of delegates from Jewish institutions held
at Bloemfontein on 7th August, 1912. Until their amalgamation the two
first-named bodies led a separate existence, each dealing with the interests of
the Jewish communities in the geographical sphere designated by its name, as
above. With the establishment of Union in 1910, both Boards realised the
necessity of establishing one Board for the whole of South Africa, and this was
accomplished at the Bloemfontein Conference mentioned.
TRANSVAAL JEWISH
BOARD OF DEPUTIES.
The first official mention of the formation of a Board of
Deputies in the Transvaal occurs in a report of a meeting held on Sunday, 29th
March, 1903, in the former Jewish School attached to the late Park Station
Synagogue, called by the Hon. Max Langerman for the purpose of forming a branch
of the Anglo-Jewish Association of London. It was felt that such an institution
would be useless here in South Africa, and the following resolution was
unanimously carried:-
“That this meeting, while
thanking Mr. Langerman for giving those present an opportunity of forming a
branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association, considers the formation of such would
not meet local requirements and decides to abstain from forming the proposed
institution. This meeting further decides to call a meeting two weeks hence for
the purpose of deciding upon the formation of a Board of Deputies."
Accordingly, the first minutes of the former Board of
Deputies record the proceedings of a "meeting of the representatives of
the Jewish institutions of Johannesburg held on Wednesday, 15th April, 1903, in
the Schoolroom, De Villiers Street, Johannesburg." The "Schoolroom,
De Villiers Street," was the Jewish Government School attached to the
former Park Station Synagogue. At this meeting it was resolved-by 20 votes
against 5, for there were discussions and amendments—that a "Transvaal
Jewish Board of Deputies be formed." There was no opposition to the
formation of a Board of Deputies but the amendments and the discussion
concerned themselves with the wording of the resolution.
In view of the historic importance of this meeting, it is
essential to give the names of those present. Five institutions were
represented as follows:-
Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation: H. Freeman-Cohen, H.
Goodman, J. L. Ginsberg, D. Lavine, A. J. Cohen, B. Danziger, J. Klisser, A. S.
Goldberg, J. Frenkel, I. Broude and J. Ratzker.
Orthodox Hebrew Congregation: S. Kooper, B. Osrin, J.
Blieden, M. Said, B. L. Loon and M. Goldberg.
South African Zionist Federation: I. H. Guinsberg, Dr. A.
Abelheim, A. Osrin, A. M. Glasser, A. Getz and Harry Solomon.
Transvaal Zionist Association: S. Abelheim and J. Z.
Josephson.
Witwatersrand Hebrew Benevolent Association: Mr. A. Rogaly.
Witwatersrand Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society: S.
Shapiro, A. Guerine, W. Dember, J. Kark and J. Schlyer.
Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation: H. Simpson, M. A.
Lyons, J. Stone, J. Rosen, Manfred Nathan, J. Freundlich, S. Goldreich, Rev.
Dr. J. H. Hertz, E. M. Davis-Marks and B. Alexander.
Unattached: Max Langerman and S. Bebrow.
Mr. Langerman was elected to the chair, and Messrs. E. M.
Davis-Marks and A. J. Cohen hon, secretaries pro tem. The resolution to form
the Board of Deputies was proposed by Dr. Hertz and seconded by Dr. A.
Abelheim. A provisional committee of five was elected to draft the
Constitution. The provisional committee met on 23rd April and reported to a
further meeting of delegates of institutions held on 2nd May, at which Mr.
Harry Solomon was voted to the chair. At this meeting the name was altered to "The
Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal,” which it bore until its
absorption in the present South African Board. The copies of the draft of the
Constitution agreed upon at this meeting were sent to the Jewish institutions
in the Transvaal and Natal, and they were asked to elect delegates to the Board
in accordance with the terms of the Constitution, the same circular giving
notice of a meeting of the Board to be held on 13th June, 1903. Thus the first
duly constituted meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies, or as the official
records have it, "Meeting of the Delegates of the Board of Deputies,"
was held on Saturday, 13th June, 1903, in the "Schoolroom, De Villiers
Street, Johannesburg." The first list of elected Delegates comprising the
Board, who were all present at this historic meeting, was as follows:-
Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation: Max Cohn, Julius
Rosen, Max Langerman and Manfred Nathan.
Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation: J. Ratzker, H. Goodman, B.
Danziger and H. Freeman-Cohen.
Orthodox Hebrew Congregation: Ch. Kuper and A. M. Glasser.
South African Zionist Federation: I. H. Guinsberg, H.
Solomon, J. Kaplan, Dr. A. Abelheim, B. Alexander and S. Bebro.
Witwatersrand Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society: D.
Treesman, J. Freundlich, S. Shapiro and H. Simpson.
Durban Hebrew Congregation: Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz.
Durban Zionist Association: Mr. B. S. Ginsberg.
Mr. H. Freeman-Cohen was elected chairman for this meeting,
at which the Board of Deputies was declared duly constituted.
The first Executive of the Board, elected at this meeting,
were as follows: President, Mr. Max Langerman; Vice-Presidents, Messrs. H.
Freeman-Cohen and S. Bebro; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. B. Danziger; Hon. Secretary,
Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz (the present Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew
Congregations of the British Empire).
It is a remarkable and significant fact that the first
business to be transacted by the newly formed Board of Deputies was to decide
to issue an appeal for the sufferers by the pogroms in Kishineff. Although the
Board was formed only to “watch and take action with reference to all matters
affecting the welfare of Transvaal and Natal Jews as a Community," it is
typical of the spirit and broad-mindedness that have always ruled the
interpretation of the clauses in the Constitution defining its objects and
sphere of activities that the founders of the Board deemed the relief of their
co-religionists in Kishineff to come within the region of
the Board's work, just as in 1914 the Board considered it right not only that
it should take a leading part in the work of the Jewish War Victims Fund but
also that it should control that huge organisation.
Lord Milner was advised of the formation of the Board of
Deputies, and expressed to his satisfaction thereat. It was decided to arrange
for a public meeting “to inaugurate the formation of the Board at which His
Excellency would be present."
The first Constitution was considered at a meeting on 2nd
July, 1903, and the resolution adopting it was passed at the meeting held on
11th July. Thus the heading in the printed copies of this Constitution is
incorrect in describing it as having been adopted on 2nd July, 1903. There was
quite a heated discussion on some of the clauses; in fact, with regard to the
one dealing with the institutions entitled to membership one of the hon.
officers threatened to resign.
This first Constitution gave the name as mentioned, and
provided, somewhat prophetically as it happens, that if deemed advisable to
give representation on the Board to Jews of other South African Colonies, such
representation could be extended and the name altered accordingly. The objects
were defined as being:-
"(a) To watch and take
action with reference to all matters affecting the welfare of Transvaal and
Natal Jews as a community.
"(b) The Board shall make
observation of all proceedings relative to legislative and municipal
enactments, and shall use such means as they may deem requisite in order that
no infraction of the religious rights, customs and privileges of the Jewish community
may ensue therefrom; they shall also watch over the interests of the Jews in
these Colonies and take such action as may be deemed by the Board to be
conducive to their welfare and calculated to improve their general condition.
"(e) For the purposes
aforesaid the Board may adopt such measures as they may think proper and call
to their aid, co-operate with, and obtain the advice of, any persons, bodies or
institutions.
The Executive consisted of a president, two vice-presidents,
a hon. treasurer, a hon, secretary and two deputies specially elected by the
board. The deputies sitting on the Board held office from Shevuoth to Shevuoth,
and the annual meetings of the Board were to be held in the month of Sivan.
Finally, it is noteworthy that, with the different scales of membership fees
prevailing at different periods, the minimum membership fee now prevailing,
namely £5 5s. per annum, is the membership fee laid down in this first
Constitution.
Mr. E. M. Davis-Marks was elected assistant secretary at the
meeting of 11th July.
Address by Lord
Milner.
The now historic public meeting at the Wanderers on Tuesday,
28th July, 1903, at which Lord Milner, the then High Commissioner, gave a
remarkable address, was a great success in every way. The official records of
the Board claim for it that by this meeting the Board had gained a successful
advancement of Judaism "in this Colony and throughout South Africa,"
the approval of the public of the formation of the Board, and the recognition
of the Government. Mr. Max Langerman, President of the Board, presided. He and
the following speaker, Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz, the hon. secretary of the Board,
refuted the charge that was made in certain quarters that the Board was formed
as a Jewish political body for electioneering purposes. Dr. Hertz also put in a
plea for the acceptance of Yiddish as a European language.
It was, however, Lord Milner's speech at this meeting that
will ever make this one of the most, if not the most, memorable occasions in
South African Jewish history. After what he had heard from Dr. Hertz, he said,
he was quite prepared to believe that Yiddish was a European language.
Referring to the opposition in certain quarters to the formation of a Jewish
Board of Deputies, dealt with by the previous speakers, he asked why people
should attribute a bad motive to a movement which to him seemed so natural, so
above board, and so calculated to serve many useful purposes. The Jewish
community of the Colony was a large and influential one, not so large as
certain newspapers—not altogether friendly to the Jews would lead one to
suppose, namely, that the whole of the community consisted exclusively of Jews,
but still it was a very important factor. It had its own religion, its own race
traditions. There was nothing incompatible in this with the most thorough
British patriotism. It was oppression which made the denationalised Jew. Why,
then, should they look askance at an organisation intended to protect special
Jewish interests and to voice Jewish opinion when they did not look askance at
similar organisations abounding in every part of the British Empire whose
object it was to look after the interests of other sections of the community,
whether their bond be religion, as in the case of the Christian churches,
racial as in the case of the Australian, Irish or Caledonian Associations, or
industrial and commercial, as in the case of the Chambers of Mines or Commerce.
Such sectional organisations are not inimical to the State; on the contrary,
they are calculated to render benefit to the community. What concerned him most
was that the Board was calculated to be of great assistance to those who were
concerned in the business of Government. There were many occasions when he had
been anxious for information on questions especially affecting the Jewish
population, and he would naturally have liked to go for guidance to some Jewish
authority. But his difficulty had been that whilst he had a variety of advisers
each claiming to represent Jewish feeling, the advice they gave was not always
identical; in fact, in some cases, it was diametrically opposed. And that alone
was a reason why he should welcome a representative body which on questions
especially affecting Jewish interest could speak with one voice. Lord Milner
went on to refer to an additional reason why a body like the Board could render
very exceptional services in that Colony at that time, namely, with regard to
the Jewish alien immigrants who came from countries where they had been
oppressed, who had no intention of returning there and who had not yet had time
to acquire the sentiments of loyalty and devotion to the country of their
adoption. Their natural protectors and guides were the Jews who had already
acquired the devotion to South Africa as their home, and they alone could create
the bond between these newcomers and their non-Jewish fellow citizens. "It
is for you, gentlemen," said Lord Milner, "who are bound to them by
community of race and religion, but who are British citizens of long standing,
to take them by the hand and draw them into fellowship with us in language, in
sentiments, and in ideas."
Naturally, only a brief—a very brief—idea of the High
Commissioner's historic address is given here, but I have given enough to make
it clear that no better or more comprehensive exposition of the necessity, the
justification, the true aims and objects of the existence of the Board of Deputies
could be made than that stated by this great non-Jew at this historic and
unique meeting.
At the first meeting after the historic Wanderers function,
the omission of electing two deputies to complete the first Executive Committee
above-mentioned was rectified by the appointment of Dr. Manfred Nathan and Mr.
Sigmund Shapiro.
It is interesting to record that at that same meeting an
application from the Delagoa Bay community for membership of the Board was
refused on the grounds that it was outside British South Africa.
At that time Natal refused to recognise Yiddish as a
European language, despite the fact that the Transvaal, the Free State and the
Cape Colony gave it that recognition, and moreover that the High Commissioner
had written to the Governor of Natal in favour of the latter granting Yiddish
that recognition. The Colonial Secretary in Maritzburg and the Governor of
Natal were, however, subsequently interviewed by representatives of the Board,
with the satisfactory result that instructions were given to the landing
officers that Yiddish was not a “non-European language."
The Board and
Politics.
On 30th January, 1907, a special meeting was held with
regard to references to Jews in the speeches of Parliamentary candidates, at
which a resolution was carried that it is not part of the Board's functions to
take any part in politics, and it considers that all voters of the Jewish faith
should exercise their electoral privileges as citizens of the country only, and
not upon any religious basis. This declaration was a most important one, and it
would serve a very good purpose if as a reminder it were repeated and published
every time a political election was being held.
A meeting of representatives of Jewish bodies on the Rand
was held on 6th March, 1907, under the auspices of the S.A. Zionist Federation
(Mr. Hyman Morris in the chair) to discuss the advisability of taking steps to
counteract the wave of anti-Semitism which it was alleged then prevailed in
South Africa. It was decided not to call a mass meeting, but the following
resolution was passed: "That this meeting of representatives of various
Jewish bodies, finding that the Jewish Board of Deputies is not a sufficiently
representative institution, hereby requests that body to take steps to become
more representative." At the Board meeting at which this resolution was
discussed, it was decided to write to Mr. Hyman Morris that the Board would
continue to do whatever it could in the interests of Jews as in the past, and
any representations he wished to make the Board would consider. At this meeting
the chairman (Mr. E. Friedlander) stated there was no wave of anti-Semitism,
although there were certainly instances of it. It may be mentioned that at the
time the Board was dealing with instances of anti-Semitism in the Johannesburg
Tramways Department, so much so that a Tramways Sub-committee had to be
appointed, and Mr. (now Sir) Harry Graumann was acting thereon, with the use of
the word "Peruvian" in the Sunday Times, concerning which another
member, Mr. Jack Andrew Cohen, saw the Editor, with the use of the word
"Jew" in the charge sheets and in the press reports of criminal
cases, etc. It may also be mentioned that in all these instances the Board was
successful in putting a stop to these practices, although, with regard to the
tramways allegations of anti-Semitic practices have since occurred from time to
time, but not of recent years.
In May, 1907, it was decided to present Sir Mathew Nathan
with an illuminated address of welcome on behalf of the Board on his
appointment as Governor of Natal.
The same year the threat of a new Jewish disability in the
Education Bill, namely, a clause making the conscientious teaching of both the
Old and New Testaments compulsory, thereby excluding Jewish teachers, was
removed as a result of representations by the Board; also, because of the
Board, the new Immigration Law recognised Yiddish as a European language.
A Jewish
Newspaper.
The same year also the Board considered the matter of
establishing a Jewish newspaper. The project was gone into, but eventually
nothing came of it.
At a special meeting of the Board in October of the same
year, it was decided to nominate two Jews for election to the then newly formed
Witwatersrand School Board under the new Education Act. Of the two nominated,
Mr. Manfred Nathan was successful at the election.
Naturalisation and
Immigration.
The large number of refusals of naturalisation certificates
began to occupy the attention of the Board in August, 1909, when it was stated
that Major Mavrogordato, the then head of the local C.I.D., refused the
applicants "simply because he did not like the look of their faces."
The Chairman (Mr. Alfred Rogaly) stated that naturalisation was an act of grace
and granted entirely at the Government's discretion. At the following month's
meeting, it was reported that Major Mavrogordato showed that 40 per cent. of
Jewish applicants had been refused by him, and that he would be only too
pleased to have the co-operation of the Board in the matter.
On Union being attained in 1910, the Board sent appropriate
messages to General Botha, the first Prime Minister, and to Lord Gladstone, the
Governor-General.
At a meeting of the Board on 19th July, 1910, it was
reported with regard to the use of the word “Jew" in summonses, that “the
Minister of Justice, General Hertzog, had given instructions removing any
possibility of stigma in the treatment by the State officers of an important
and law-abiding section of the community." General Hertzog said that Jews
themselves were to blame because when asked their nationality they answered
"Jews."
The number of cases of prohibited Jewish immigrants was now
beginning to grow in volume and importance, so much so that in September, 1910,
it was resolved “to give the question of immigration the Board's special
attention." Thereafter, at almost every meeting there was reported a
number of immigration cases having been dealt with.
At the 1910 annual meeting it was stated that six gentlemen
(a self-constituted deputation) had gone to Pretoria to see the Prime Minister
in order to get a Jew appointed as Senator, and it was resolved that in future
no delegates of the Board approach the authorities on any Jewish matter without
the Board's consent.
In May, 1911, a sub-committee was appointed to deal with the
new Immigration Bill. The following October, General Smuts was interviewed
regarding the Bill, and in November (the annual meeting having taken place in
August) another sub-committee was appointed to deal with the Bill. A special
meeting was held in February, 1912, at which the various clauses of the Bill
were fully discussed and decisions come to with regard to them. A few months
afterwards (August, 1912), the Transvaal Board ceased to exist, having been
merged in the South African Board.
Other Matters.
Among other happenings of interest may be mentioned the
following:-
A Mohelim Board was formed in December, 1903, consisting of
Drs. Hertz and Landau, Rabbi M. Freedman, Dr. Abelheim and Mr. S. Shapiro to
examine Mohelim and issue certificates to qualified Mohelim. Later, Dr. H.
Goodman and Revs. S. Manne and W. Woolf were added to the Board.
It was reported at a meeting in 1904 that nine Russian Jews
had been appointed as special plague inspectors by the Johannesburg Town
Council.
In 1904, Lord Milner agreed that all Jews who had no permits
to stay here could apply for them through the Board of Deputies, who would make
the recommendation. A sub-committee was appointed to deal with these
applications, and shortly after their appointment, so strenuously had they
worked, it was reported that 300 applications had been recommended.
At the first annual meeting in 1904 a sub-committee was
appointed to deal with cases of compensations for war losses.
In connection with the question of providing children
attending the Government Schools with Hebrew education, it is interesting to
note that when in August, 1904, a deputation from the Board interviewed the
head of the Education Department on the subject to ascertain how far the
Government was prepared to assist in this matter, they were met by the
extraordinary complaint by that gentleman that "the Fordsburg Jews refused
to send their children to any school at all!" Why just the "Fordsburg
Jews" is wrapped in mystery.
In November, 1904, a sub-committee was appointed to assist
Jewish aliens to become naturalised, and later the Board was actively engaged
in endeavouring to obtain better conditions than were then in force for the
franchise of aliens.
From 1911 onwards, increasing correspondence was noted with
the London Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women regarding
cases of girls and women coming to this country, and with regard to White Slave
Traffic questions.
Personnel.
As a historical record, it is essential to give here the
personnel of the different Executives that held office. The first Executive has
already been mentioned.
At the first annual meeting held on 12th June, 1904, with
Mr. Max Langerman, President, in the chair, the following Executive was
elected: President, Mr. Harry Solomon, M.L.C.; Vice-Presidents, Messrs. Max
Langerman and David Holt; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. B. Danziger; Hon. Secretary, Mr.
W. Saphra; two deputies on Executive, Messrs. A. Epler and S. Shapiro. Dr.
Manfred Nathan was elected Hon. Counsel, and Messrs. B. Alexander and M.
Lichtenstein Hon. Solicitors.
At the first ordinary meeting thereafter, it was decided
that the Hon. Counsel and Hon. Solicitors have seats on the Executive, and that
no Rabbi of a Congregation be eligible for election as a delegate but shall
have a seat on the Board in an ex officio capacity.
In November, 1904, Mr. J. M. Patlansky was elected Hon.
Secretary in place of Mr. Saphra, resigned.
At the 1905 annual meeting. Mr. Manfred Nathan was elected
President, Messrs. B. Danziger and L. J. Reyersbach Vice-Presidents, Mr. Alfred
Rogaly Hon. Secretary. It was decided to dispense with a paid secretary for the
time being. A few months afterwards Mr. Rogaly resigned, and in April, 1906,
Mr. Richard Rosenthal was elected Hon. Secretary. Mr. Danziger carried on as
Hon. Treasurer till May, 1906, when Mr. Max Langerman was elected to this
office. Messrs. E. Friedlander and S. Shapiro were elected the two deputies on
the Executive.
At the 1906 annual meeting, Mr. E. Friedlander was elected
President, Messrs. Manfred Nathan and Hyman Morris Vice-Presidents, Mr. Max
Langerman Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Richard Rosenthal Hon. Secretary, Messrs. B. I.
Bloom and J. Pencharz the two deputies on the Executive. The following January
Mr. Langerman resigned as treasurer and Mr. Julius Vogl was elected in his
stead.
In 1907 the annual meeting elected Advocate Manfred Nathan
President, Messrs. E. Friedlander and Alfred Rogaly Vice-Presidents, Mr. J.
Vogl Hon. Treasurer Messrs. A. Levy and M. Melzer the two deputies on the
Executive, and the rest as before.
In 1908, Mr. A. Rogaly was elected President, Messrs. A.
Sprinz and S. Raphaely Vice-Presidents, Messrs. B. I. Bloom and Emile Nathan
the two deputies on the Executive, and the rest as before.
In June, 1909, Rabbi M. Freedman, of the Johannesburg
Orthodox Hebrew Congregation, was appointed an honorary member of the Board,
the others being Drs. Hertz and Landau,
The annual meeting of 1909 elected Mr. S. Raphaely
President, Messrs. B. Alexander and A. Sprinz Vice-Presidents, Advocate Emile
Nathan Hon. Counsel, and the others as before.
In 1910, Mr. S. Raphaely was re-elected President, Messrs.
A. Sprinz and A. Rogaly were elected Vice-Presidents, Mr. I. M. Goodman Hon.
Treasurer; Drs. Hertz and Landau the two members of the Executive. Mr. Richard
Rosenthal, after four and a half years' service, resigned as Hon. Secretary,
and the office was temporarily filled by Mr. I. M. Goodman till the following
December, when Mr. S. Friendly was appointed Hon. Secretary.
At the 1911 annual meeting Mr. Bernard Alexander was elected
President, Mr. S. Friendly Hon. Secretary, and the other hon. officers were
re-elected. These held office till the Board was merged into the South African
Board.
The question of the union of the two Boards of Deputies
began to come to the fore in 1909, and in the December of that year the
President (Mr. S. Raphaely) stated he was going to Cape Town and would discuss
the matter with Rev. Bender and Mr. Morris Alexander, the Chairman of the Cape
Town Board.
In 1910, Mr. E. Cotton, of Port Elizabeth, circularised the
Jewish institutions in the Eastern Province with a view to amalgamation with
the Board.
In December, 1911, Mr. S. Raphaely proposed, Mr. Emile
Nathan seconded, and it was carried, “that the Chairman of the Board (Mr.
Bernard Alexander) be requested to co-operate with and assist Mr. Ehrlich, of
Bloemfontein, with the view of holding a Conference of South African Jewish
institutions in Bloemfontein for the formation of a Jewish Board of Deputies
for the Union of South Africa, and that he be requested to do everything in his
power to bring such a conference to a successful issue."
Before the Board meeting on 16th July, 1912, there was
reported the receipt of the notice from Mr. W. Ehrlich-then Mayor of
Bloemfontein and President of the Bloemfontein Congregation of the conference
for the union of the Boards of Deputies to be held on August 6th and 7th, 1912,
at Bloemfontein.
The last meeting of the Transvaal and Natal Board was held
on 20th August, 1912, with Mr. B. Alexander in the chair, and the minutes
record that "Mr. S. Raphaely proposed, Mr. I. M. Goodman seconded, that in
accordance with the resolution of Congress to form a Board of Deputies for the
Union, the present Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal be dissolved,
and all papers and assets be handed over to the new Board." After a
lengthy discussion, the resolution was carried unanimously.
JEWISH BOARD OF
DEPUTIES FOR THE CAPE COLONY.
This was the official title of the Cape Jewish Board of
Deputies.
Just as the decision to form the Transvaal and Natal Board
of Deputies was come to at a meeting called for another purpose, so was the
formation of the Cape Board the outcome of a gathering that had been called
together for another purpose. On 28th May, 1903, Advocate Morris Alexander
introduced a deputation of delegates from 23 Jewish institutions to Mr. Justice
Graham, the Attorney General in the Sprigg Ministry, in connection with the
Immigration Act of 1902, with the result that Yiddish was definitely recognised
as a European language by the Government under that Act, and a promise was
given that this recognition would be confirmed by legislative enactment at the
earliest possible date. Owing to the difficulty experienced by Mr. Alexander in
arranging for the election of these Jewish delegates throughout the Colony, a
meeting was called for Sunday, 4th September, 1904, with a view to establishing
a body on the lines of the London Board of Deputies.
The meeting was held in Savings Bank Buildings, 117 St.
George's Street. Mr. Alexander was elected to the chair, and, according to the
official records, the following was the resolution formally establishing the
Cape Board:
“That the delegates here
assembled, together with the delegate representing the Ahavath Zion
Association, Maitland, hereby constitute themselves into a Jewish Board of
Deputies for the Cape Colony with power to add to their number the names of
those who may be duly elected hereafter to represent the remaining Jewish
Congregations and organisations throughout the Cape Colony."
Mr. Morris Alexander was elected President and Mr. S.
Alexander Hon. Secretary.
The Board for the Cape Colony from its inception worked
incessantly in the direction of having Yiddish recognised as a European
language by Statute and not merely by Government Regulation, and this object
was attained during the 1906 session of the Cape Parliament under Act 30 of
1906. The Board also succeeded in incorporating into this Act the provisions of
the English Aliens Act of 1905 regarding the right of asylum, an inestimable
boon to persecuted Jews coming from Eastern Europe.
The Board considered that the Half-Holiday Bill of 1905
injuriously affected the orthodox members of our community who kept their shops
closed on Sabbaths, and endeavoured to have such members excluded from the
operation of the Act. Parliament, however, would only agree to the privilege
being granted to such Jewish butchers as had their shops closed on the Jewish
Sabbath, and an amendment to that effect was introduced into the Bill and
passed.
In 1904, the Colonial Secretary asked the Board to report on
Jewish applicants for naturalisation in connection with which the Government
experienced great difficulty in obtaining reports. The Board agreed to do so,
and in this way it was the means of securing the naturalisation of close on
1,500 Jewish applicants.
Incidentally, it is recorded that the relations between the
Government and the Board were always of the most cordial description.
The Board dealt with a number of immigration cases, with the
result that many deserving immigrants were allowed to land who would otherwise
have been sent back to the countries whence they came.
The Board also had occasion from time to time to deal with
anti-Semitic attacks on the Jewish community.
The Board held 19 meetings from its inception to April 2nd,
1907, when the President left for Europe. There are apparently no records of
any meetings held from then till August 1st, 1912, when among other resolutions
it was resolved that "on a South African Jewish Board of Deputies being
formed, this Board be dissolved," and that the President, Mr. Advocate M.
Alexander, represent the Board at the Bloemfontein Conference."
Another and final meeting was held on Wednesday, September
18th, 1912, at which Mr. Alexander reported the results of the Bloemfontein
Conference, and it was resolved “to dissolve the existing Board and to carry
out the other resolutions of the Bloemfontein Conference."
The Historic Union
Conference.
Bloemfontein, mainly by reason of its geographical position
the city of conferences and congresses of every description, has witnessed many
historic gatherings whose decisions have been fraught with the most important
consequences either to South Africa as a whole or to important sections of its
people. But rarely has there been held within its confines a conference of such
important significance, upon the success of which depended so much of the
future welfare of an important section of the population of South Africa in
particular, and of countless thousands of overseas people in general, and
which, nevertheless, in spite of these important considerations, was at one
time during its proceedings so dangerously far from attaining success as to
make imminent a failure which would have set back the clock of progress of
South African Jewry for very many years. Indeed, the failure would have
rendered worse than meaningless the very term “South African Jewry,"
denoting as it does to-day a cohesive whole composed of the organised Jewish
population of this sub-continent, its component and well-defined parts
organised and correlated to each other even more efficiently than is the case with
the Jewries of some of the much older countries.
This momentous and historic conference was convened by the
late Senator W. Ehrlich, then President of the Bloemfontein Hebrew
Congregation, at the request of the two Boards of Deputies, and was held at the
Town Hall, Bloemfontein, on Tuesday, 6th August, and Wednesday, 7th August,
1912, under his chairmanship. The letter convening the Congress stated that the
object was “to form a Board of Deputies for the Union of South Africa
(including Rhodesia)," and there was a splendid response from all parts of
South Africa. The Mayor of Bloemfontein, Mr. I. H. Haarburger, welcomed the
delegates, Messrs. J. Harris and A. S. Levenstein were elected joint hon,
secretaries for the Congress, and Mr. B. S. Hersch official interpreter for
Yiddish for the congress.
The great difficulty was the framing of a constitution
acceptable to all parties, and the success of the Congress therefore depended
on the work of the sub-committee to whom this task was entrusted. Therefore,
after the usual preliminaries had been disposed of, the congress passed a
resolution deciding to form a Board of Deputies “subject to the rules and
constitution to be adopted hereafter." This important sub-committee
consisted of the following: Messrs. B. Alexander, Morris Alexander, W. Ehrlich,
A. Rogaly, Max Langermann, W. Sagar, S. Raphaely, I. M. Goodman, J. Seelig, Dr.
H. Goodman and A. Sprinz.
The difficulty was to come to an agreement regarding the
Executive of the Board, its composition and locale, and eventually three
alternative proposals were submitted to Congress by the sub-committee. These
proposals were submitted to Congress and discussed in a spirit of compromise
that fortunately made itself more and more evident, so that ultimately Mr.
Ehrlich's proposition was carried unanimously. This provided for an Executive
Council consisting of one president, four vice-presidents (one for each Province)
and 25 members-13 for the Transvaal, 8 for the Cape, 2 for Natal and 2 for
Orange Free State. The seat of the Executive Council was to be in Johannesburg.
In addition, the Constitution provided for a Provincial Committee of the Board
to meet in each Province, at Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Durban,
to deal with and to act in local provincial matters. The Provincial Committee
was to consist of the Vice-President and members of the Executive of that
Province, together with the deputies of the constituent bodies in that
Province, with the Vice-President as the chairman.
Congress elected the following as the first Executive
Council of the South African Board: President, Mr. W. Ehrlich; Vice-Presidents,
Messrs. Bernard Alexander (Transvaal), Morris Alexander, M.L.A. (Cape), Ivan H.
Haarburger (Orange Free State), Max Langermann (Natal); H. Friedman, J.
Freundlich, H. Goodman, I. M. Goodman, B. S. Hersch, J. Kark, Manfred Nathan,
S. Raphaely, A. Rogaly, S. D. Sachs, M. Simon, A. Sprinz, D. Starfield
(Transvaal Members); D. Davidson, A. Ettman, C. Friedlander, J. Kadish, M. S.
Lipschitz, Rabbi Ch. Mirvish, J. H. Rogaly, W. Sagar (Cape Members); Lionel
Hart, F. C. Hollander (Natal Members); J. Friedman and B. Levy (O.F.S.
Members).
The election of hon. treasurer and secretary was left to the
Executive. The Congress was well summed up in a nutshell by the President in
closing the proceedings. when he said that he had at first had serious
misgivings as to the result of the Congress but that he had been encouraged by
the response to the invitations and the spirit of co-operation and compromise
which had dominated the proceedings. He also said that he would always remember
his presidency over that meeting as one of the events of his life.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN
JEWISH BOARD OF DEPUTIES.
The first meeting of the Executive Council was held on
Sunday, January 12th, 1913, at the Hebrew High School. Mr. W. Ehrlich, the
President, accompanied by Mr. I. H. Haarburger, the Vice-President for the Free
State, came specially from Bloemfontein to attend this first meeting. Mr.
Alfred Rogaly was elected Hon. Treasurer and Mr. Percy Cowen Secretary. It was
decided to admit the Press to all meetings of the Board.
The first two years of the South African Board's history
were chiefly concerned with matters of immigration and with consolidating the
Board's position. Soon after the Executive's appointment, all known Jewish
institutions in South Africa were sent copies of the Constitution and invited
to make application to the Board for membership. At the time of the second
Congress, held on August 4th, 1914, at Kimberley, there were 51 constituent
bodies represented by 60 deputies.
As soon as the draft of the Immigrants Regulation Act of
1913 was published, the Executive went fully into it. It was found that whilst
the Board's objections to the Act of 1912 had been met in so far as the
education tests and the establishment of appeal boards were concerned some
amendments were still required in the interests of desirable Jewish immigrants.
A deputation, consisting of the President, the Vice-Presidents of the Cape and
Orange Free State, together with the Jewish Members of the Legislative Assembly
(Sir Lionel Phillips, Sir David Harris, Messrs. Emile Nathan and C. P.
Robinson) interviewed the Minister of the Interior, the Hon. A. Fischer. The
Board's suggested amendments were submitted, the President urged the
advisability of appointing a Jew on the appeal boards, and Mr. Alexander
recommended that the Government should grant recognition to an official to be
appointed by the Board who should be stationed in Cape Town and whose duty it
should be to watch the interests of Jewish immigrants. The deputation was given
a favourable reception, and the Minister assured them that the Government were
very sympathetic towards Jewish immigration of the right kind, such as the
Board itself desired.
The suggestion that the Board appoint an immigration
official at Cape Town was warmly received by the Government, and on January
1st, 1914, Mr. B. S. Hersch was appointed in that capacity. He occupied that
office for some time, and during the war, when there was very little
immigration, the Board lent his services to the Government as Censor of
Yiddish. At first, a special Immigration Fund was established to provide the
wherewithal to pay the cost of the office. This means of raising special
revenue for this office was abandoned after some years, not proving the success
desired, and, as will be seen below, it was decided that all the expenses of
the Board's work should come from one general fund.
With regard to the appeal boards, not only was not a Jew
appointed but the immigration officers at each port were placed thereon, so
that they would actually hear appeals against their own actions and sit in
judgment on their own decisions. This absurdity at least was remedied.
On Mr. Hersch's appointment he resigned from the Executive,
and Mr. A. M. Abrahams, the President of the S.A. Zionist Federation, was
elected in his stead. Mr. Rogaly resigned as treasurer in June, 1918, and Mr.
D. Starfield was appointed. in his place. Mr. S. Friendly was appointed hon.
solicitor to the Board on his resignation as hon. secretary when the South
African Board was formed, and his firm—Messrs. S. & G. Friendly—have
worthily filled that hon. office ever since.
In Johannesburg, meetings were held of the Executive Council
and, less frequently, of the Transvaal Provincial Committee, both presided over
by Mr. B. Alexander, as Vice-President of the Transvaal, and the Cape
Provincial Committee held monthly meetings in Cape Town, presided over by Mr.
Morris Alexander, M.L.A. The other Provincial Committees did not meet.
The Second
Congress.
The second congress was called for August 4th and 5th, 1914,
to be held in the Town Hall, Kimberley. But when the delegates came together in
Kimberley, on that fateful day in August, the thunders of war were being heard
on all sides, and that very day England declared war against Germany. Under
those circumstances, people's minds were not attuned to the holding of
congresses, no matter how important they might be, and it was the unanimous
opinion of delegates that the proceedings should be as brief as possible and
the congress closed, so as to enable them to leave for their homes that very
day. The Congress was presided over by Mr. W. Ehrlich, the President, and was
welcomed by the Mayor of Kimberley. The report and balance sheet were adopted,
the Executive Council were re-elected en bloc, the resolutions on the
agenda were referred to the Executive, with the exception of one resolution to
alter the constitution by raising the membership fee from two to three guineas
per annum, which was carried.
The World War.
During the continuation of the War, the question of holding
a Congress was discussed from time to time, but the feeling that prevailed was
that the time was inopportune. In 1916, when according to the Constitution the
time for the third Congress was due, the summoning of the Jewish Congress by
the Board, in conjunction with the S.A. Zionist Federation, on Friday, April
28th, 1916, to discuss and pass resolutions on Jewish questions arising out of
the war did away with the necessity and also the advisability of another
Congress being called by the Board for the same year.
The Constitution.
Nevertheless, as time went on, the trend of events was being
watched very carefully, and it became more and more evident that the summoning
of a Board of Deputies' Congress was an imperative necessity. One of the main
reasons for this necessity was the unworkable Constitution, especially so in
connection with the Provincial Committees, which experience had proved a
failure. The Constitution adopted at Bloemfontein was in the nature of a
compromise, having been drafted mainly with the object of bringing about a
union of the two Boards. Everything else was subsidiary to that object and did
not receive much attention. Consequently, the experience of seven years'
working had proved that the Constitution had many faults. But the only
authority for altering the Constitution was Congress. Then again, the system of
Executive Councils proved too wieldy and unworkable. Members of an executive,
especially of so important a body as the Board, should be able to be summoned
at short notice, and should therefore live within a reasonable distance of the
meeting place. Scattered all over South Africa, the members of the Executive
could not be expected to attend meetings, as they were supposed to do, once
every month, and so the Constitution regarding the Executive Council was found
unworkable, and was nothing more nor less than a farce.
In January, 1918, it was decided to summon a Congress, to be
held in May, 1918, in Johannesburg. The responses received were most
satisfactory, both in number and in quality, and there was every indication of
the gathering being a success in every way. But again a critical time came
along, when everything else in public life had to be abandoned for the purpose
of concentrating on the work of recruiting. Certain false charges against the
Jews in this respect had to be and were disproved. A meeting of representatives
of all Jewish institutions on the Reef was called for the purpose of advancing
the recruiting movement amongst the Jewish community, and the visit of a Jewish
platoon under a Jewish lieutenant was arranged with the authorities to help the
Board in the work of recruiting among the Jewish eligibles. That was why the
Congress had to be postponed to the following year, when hostilities had
ceased, and there was every prospect of an early signing of peace.
Naturally, a great deal of the work of the Board from the
second to the third Congress, held in 1919, was in connection with the war, and
matters arising out of the war which affected the Jews of South Africa in
particular and Jewry in general. Very soon after the outbreak of hostilities in
1914, allegations were being made on public platforms and the Press in this
country that the Jews in South Africa were not responding to the call to arms
in sufficient numbers. As usual, the Jews were singled out for such unfounded
and damaging charges, the easiest to make and the most difficult to disprove.
As early as October, 1914, the Board realised the urgent necessity for
compiling a list of Jews at the various fronts, and appointed a sub-committee
to deal with the matter. Urgent circulars pointing out the necessity for having
a complete list of South African Jews serving at the front, and inviting lists
of names and particulars of such Jews, were sent to all Jewish institutions.
Notices were published in all the most important papers circulating in South
Africa asking for the names of Jews who had joined up. In addition, the Board
interested itself in conjunction with the Zionist Federation in the compilation
and publication by the "Zionist Record" of as many names as were
received in response to an appeal made through that journal, the Board paying
half the cost of the work. These and other methods were repeated at various
times, and the result of all these efforts, together with similar endeavours on
the part of the Jewish Statistical Bureau, established during the war in Cape Town,
something like 2,400 names were collected. These lists, however, were
necessarily very far from being complete, as proof came along that the
circulars of the Board had not reached everybody concerned in every part of
South Africa, that many Jews when joining did so under assumed non-Jewish names
and as members of other religions and that Jewish boys under military age had
without the consent or knowledge of their parents, "joined up” under
assumed common non-Jewish names, passing themselves off as years older than
they actually were. Calculating all these extra Jewish soldiers as numbering
all told about 600—a very modest computation for the various fronts,
German East, German West and overseas—brought the total to
3,000 names. Seeing that the total Jewish population of the Union of South
Africa, according to the census, was then under 50,000, that meant that six per
cent. of the total number of Jews in this country "joined up"—a
larger percentage in this respect than can be boasted of by the general
population of South Africa. There were 1,980 Jews serving in the German East
campaign alone. As a matter of fact, Zangwill, in his book, "The War for
the World," claimed that 5,000 Jews were in the South African forces, and
incidentally mentioned that the first British soldier to fall in German
South-West Africa was Ben Robinson, a famous athlete, and that in Bulawayo half
a company of reserves was composed of Jews. Thus the Jews of South Africa had
done more than their share in the fighting. and their record is one of which
South African Jewry may well be proud.
Yet the South African anti-Semite did not cease, both on the
platform and in the Press, from uttering the slander that the Jews in this
country did not join up in sufficient numbers, although the chairman of the
Johannesburg Recruiting Committee wrote to the Board testifying that the Jews
in Johannesburg were responding nobly to the call.
Everything possible was done by the Board to further
recruiting among the Jews. An invitation to the chairman of the Board (Mr.
Bernard Alexander) to join the Recruiting Committee was accepted by him, and
not only did he himself take part in the work but he also recommended some
prominent members of the Jewish community to the Recruiting Committee as
speakers at the recruiting meetings.
Nevertheless, things did not improve. These anti-Jewish
slanders were repeated over and over again, and received the but too willing
credence of their non-Jewish listeners. The consequence was that the elements
of danger to the welfare of the Jewish community became more than once so
pronounced that immediate and urgent steps had to be taken by the Board each
time to get into touch with the Government, the local authorities, and the
Jewish Members of Parliament, when Parliament was sitting, so as to ensure the
safety of the community and the prevention, as far as possible, of
disturbances.
Undaunted by such incidents and slanders, the Board
continued its policy of encouraging and helping recruiting in every possible
way. In April, 1918, it was decided to call together the chairmen of all the
Jewish institutions on the Reef, from Springs to Randfontein, in connection
with the recruiting movement. This meeting was held on Sunday, April 21st,
1918, over 70 institutions being directly represented. The meeting was most
enthusiastic, and passed resolutions pledging all those present to assist as far
as they could in obtaining the enlistment of Jewish eligibles, and that in each
centre on the Reef they would call upon Jewish eligibles to “join up." At
a meeting of the Board on June 11th, 1918, the chairman was in a position to
report that as a result of interviews he had had with the Director of War
Recruiting and with certain other military authorities, he was of the opinion
that people in general had become more satisfied than they had previously been
regarding the number of Jews who had “joined up." The lists of Jewish
soldiers compiled by the Board have since been handed to the Johannesburg
Jewish Guild War Memorial Committee.
At the time of the Rebellion, the loyalty to the Government
of the large number of Jewish storekeepers and farmers in the country districts
of the Free State and elsewhere, which was a well-known fact, was utilised by
the Board in the following manner: It was brought to the notice of the Board
that it could be of assistance to the Government by asking these storekeepers
and farmers to influence those with whom they came in contact—their customers,
fellow-farmers, etc.—to remain loyal to King and country. The Board accepted
the suggestion with alacrity, always ready to give every assistance to the
authorities in the promotion of the welfare, loyalty and patriotism of the
population, and published a circular in Yiddish and English, thousands of
copies of which were distributed throughout the country. This not only met with
the Government's approval, but a letter was received by the Board from General
Smuts expressing the Government's thanks and appreciation of the Board's action
in supporting it at that crisis.
It is not generally known that it was the South African
Jewish Board of Deputies that in 1915 suggested to the Conjoint Foreign
Committee in England and the chief representative bodies in the overseas
dominions of the Empire that, as the Prime Ministers of the various overseas
dominions would in all probability be asked to take part in the Peace
Conference, representative Jews in each of the dominions should interview their
respective Prime Ministers in order to enlist their sympathy and support for
the policy of obtaining a satisfactory settlement of the Jewish question at the
time when peace proposals would be discussed. The other dominions agreed to
this suggestion, and the Conjoint Foreign Committee in London also approved,
and stated that they would notify us of the proper time for making such
representations. When the Jewish Congress Committee was formed at the South
African Jewish Congress in 1916, as above mentioned, the correspondence, which
was of a most confidential nature, was handed over to it by the Board.
The Third
Congress.
By the time of the third Congress, which was held in the
Selborne Hall, Johannesburg, on Sunday and Monday, May 25th and 26th, 1919, the
number of constituent bodies had increased to eighty. At this Congress,
presided over by Mr. Bernard Alexander, the Chairman of the Executive Council,
a draft of a complete revision of the Constitution was submitted. This was
based on the necessity of doing away altogether with the provincial committees
and the large and unwieldy Executive Council, as above-mentioned—both of which
had proved a failure—and the substituting of a method whereby every constituent
body of the Board throughout South Africa would, through its deputy, have a
direct say in the carrying on of the Board's work. In addition, it proposed the
appointment by Congress of a small Executive Committee, consisting of a
President, Vice-President, Treasurer and six members, all resident in
Johannesburg, and of a Cape Town Executive Committee, consisting of three
members, to act during the sitting of Parliament and whenever necessary.
Congress adopted this Constitution which, with the exception of a few
alterations since, chiefly with regard to the membership fees payable by
constituent bodies, is the one in force at the present day.
With regard to immigration during the war period, the
Board's immigration office in Cape Town was closed in May, 1915, after having
since its inception dealt with thousands of cases, most of which would have
resulted in the Jewish immigrants being rejected had it not been for the work
of the Board in this respect. The Government fully recognised the value of the
Board's immigration office in Cape Town, and the Minister of the Interior in
1914 referred in Parliament during the debate on the estimates in highly
appreciative terms to the Board's immigration work. The Cape Town office,
however, had to be closed because of insufficient financial assistance obtained
by the Board for maintaining this office, and the reason for this lack of
support was undoubtedly the great falling off in the volume of Jewish
immigration owing to the war, in consequence of which the Jewish public did not
appreciate, as they do daily to-day, the necessity of this immigration office.
During the war period and for a few years afterwards, the Board was officially
connected with the Jewish War Victims Fund, that most wonderful, glorious, and
far-reaching of all the achievements of South African Jewry, which this Fund
first brought into the front ranks of the world's Jewries. It was the President
of the Board who presided at the meeting of delegates of institutions convened
by the United Hebrew Polish Society—a constituent body of the Board—and held on
January 27th, 1915. At the request of the War Fund Committee, the Board agreed
that the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary of the Board shall be the Chairman,
Treasurer and Secretary of the Fund. As a matter of fact, the then President of
the Board (Mr. Bernard Alexander) remained Chairman of the Fund until some two
years prior to its closing down, whilst the Board's Secretary occupied the same
position in the Fund from its inception till its conclusion.
Mr. I. M. Goodman was elected Hon. Treasurer in February,
1915, in place of Mr. D. Starfield, and held office till October, 1917, when he
resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Max Langermann.
Apart from the adoption of a new constitution, the third
congress was chiefly notable for the protest against the registration of aliens
clause in the Public Welfare Act then before Parliament. Mr. M. Kentridge, who
moved the resolution of protest, pointed out that 85 per cent. of the aliens
referred to in the Bill were Jews, and the clause was calculated to violate the
self-respect of Jews. Every alien would have to carry a passport just like the
native with his pass, and every Jew would strongly resent that, pointed out Dr.
Manfred Nathan. An amendment by Mr. B. S. Hersch was eventually adopted,
protesting against this introduction of a registration system for all aliens,
as it would be a violation of the rights of a large number of Jews in South
Africa and would lower the status of the Jews in this country. Congress
immediately telegraphed the resolution to the Prime Minister, the Speaker, and
to the Jewish Members of Parliament. The objectionable clause was ultimately
deleted from the Bill. Congress elected the following Executive Committee:
President, Mr. Bernard Alexander; Vice-President, Mr. Max Langermann; Hon.
Treasurer, Mr. A. Sprinz; Executive, Messrs. S. Raphaely, A. M. Abrahams, J.
Kark, Dr. H. Goodman, S. Shapiro and J. Ratzker. Cape Town Committee: Mr.
Morris Alexander, M.L.A., Rabbi Ch. Mirvish and Rev. A. P. Bender. The
last-named gentleman declined to accept the office.
After the War.
In the report to the 1921 Congress by the Executive
Committee, the fact was deplored that the signing of the Peace Treaty did not
bring about those blessings of peace that were looked forward to at the
previous Congress. In common with the rest of the world, the Jewish community
in South Africa was experiencing a severe economic depression, which rendered
it more difficult than usual for the communal institutions to make both ends
meet. But infinitely worse than that was the tragic effect of one of the results
of the war on the millions of our co-religionists in Eastern Europe. To the
horrors inflicted upon them by the war succeeded the even worse horrors of
innumerable pogroms that raged with sickening repetition throughout Poland, the
Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe.
It is therefore not surprising to be told that the
Executive, as a result of the war and its after effects, was obliged to go
beyond the strict letter of the Board's objects, as laid down in its
Constitution, and was called upon to deal with matters that affected the
welfare of Jews overseas in addition to concerning itself with the well-being
of “the Jews in the southern portion of the continent of Africa." Thus the
Board greatly widened its sphere of usefulness and activities and developed an
international phase of activity in connection with the work of Jewish
communities and such Jewish bodies overseas as had similar objects to those of
the Board. To give one instance, hundreds of all kinds of cases, such as the
tracing of missing relatives, the bringing together of husbands and wives,
parents and children, were referred to, and successfully dealt with by the
Board, by Jewish institutions in Russia, England, America, etc.
At the 1919 congress, a resolution protesting against the
pogroms in Poland and Galicia was passed and forwarded to the Governor-General
for transmission to the British Government. A sympathetic reply was received,
and the British Government promised to use its influence against their
repetition. Further outbreaks, however, occurred subsequently. In July, 1919,
the Board proclaimed a Day of Mourning throughout South African Jewry, on which
day memorial services for the pogrom victims were held in the synagogues
throughout South Africa, and mass meetings were also held protesting against
the pogroms. This Day of Mourning and Protest was solemnised throughout the
country on Sunday, August 10th, and in Johannesburg, for unavoidable reasons,
on the Sunday following. In Johannesburg all the congregations united and held
the Memorial Service in the morning at the Park Synagogue, and the protest mass
meeting in the Town Hall in the afternoon. A special session of Parliament was
sitting in connection with the Peace Treaty, and copies of the resolution
passed at this and other mass meetings held by Jewish communities in all parts
of the country were sent to every Member of Parliament, with a request that
they should see that the resolution was acted upon when the Union Parliament
dealt with the Peace Treaty. Most sympathetic replies were received from the
Prime Minister and members of the Government and the leaders of the other
political parties, and General Smuts also conveyed to the Board the reply from
the Imperial Government, promising that the Allies would give their most
careful attention to the safeguarding of the lives and property of the Jewish
inhabitants of Poland and Galicia, whilst, as regards Russia, the British High
Commissioner to South Russia had been instructed to investigate and report on
the question of the pogroms.
At the 1921 congress, held in the Selborne Hall,
Johannesburg, on Sunday, July 31st, it was reported that there were 92
constituent bodies of the Board, including one from Rhodesia.
Jointly with the S.A. Zionist Federation, the Board held a
reception at the Town Hall, Johannesburg, on November 3rd, 1919, in honour of
General Smuts on his return from the Peace Conference. An address, in Hebrew
and English, on behalf of the Jewish community of South Africa was presented to
him in appreciation of the services he had rendered to the Jewish people. A
similar address to General Botha, which it was intended to present to him at
the same function, was subsequently handed to his widow by the Presidents of
the Board and Federation, the Prime Minister having passed away shortly after
his acceptance of the invitation to the function.
In 1920 and 1921 Jewish immigration began gradually to
increase in quantity, and the Board published information and issued circulars
both here and overseas regarding the procedure to be adopted with regard to
immigration to South Africa, and was also in frequent communication with the
Government with regard to smoothing away arbitrary difficulties, mostly created
by overseas British consular officials, in connection with immigrants
proceeding to relatives or friends in this country, and the 1921 congress report
had occasion to record the Board's grateful appreciation of the consideration
shown by the High Commissioner's office in London in this respect. At the same
time, the number of cases of prohibited immigrants also began to increase,
making it necessary that the Cape Town office should be reopened.
In November, 1920, Chief Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz arrived on
the Witwatersrand in the course of his tour of the British Empire, and the
Board, on behalf of the different congregations on the Rand, organised the
numerous functions in connection with his stay here, culminating in an historic
banquet at the Carlton Hotel, at which the then Prime Minister, General Smuts,
and other distinguished guests were present.
Mr. M. Reuvid was elected to the Executive in 1920. In
August, 1919, the late Rabbi M. Friedman was elected an ex officio member of
the Executive in addition to Dr. J. L. Landau, who was thus elected at the 1919
congress. At the 1921 congress the following Executive Committee were elected
President, Mr. Bernard Alexander (re-elected); Vice-President, Mr. S. Raphaely
(re-elected); Hon. Treasurer, Mr. S. Hillman; Executive, Adv. P. Millin,
Messrs. M. Kentridge, A. M. Abrahams, J. Ratzker, J. Alexander and H. Kroomer.
Cape Town Committee: Adv. Morris Alexander, M.L.A., Rabbi Ch. Mirvish and Rev.
A. P. Bender (the latter, however, again declined to accept office); ex
officio, Chief Rabbi Dr. J. L. Landau and Rabbi M. Friedman.
The 1921 Congress.
The chief matter dealt with by the 1921 congress was the
protest against the raising of the fees for naturalisation, the fee being
raised from 2s. 6d. to £11 by a Government Regulation published in the Gazette
after Parliament rose and shortly before this congress. The resolution of
protest against this action of the Minister of the Interior was carried
unanimously. A deputation subsequently interviewed the Minister, but he
declined to withdraw the Regulation. It was then decided that the deputation
interview the Prime Minister and that Jewish communities throughout South
Africa be asked to hold meetings of protest against the Regulation in the event
of General Smuts's reply being unsatisfactory. This deputation was received by
the Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, and as a result the fee was
reduced to £5. The institutions were notified and advised that there was now no
need of holding the protest meetings.
This congress also considered the introduction of a new
system of membership fees to be paid by constituent bodies, namely, 2s. 6d.
payable by congregations per annum for each of their members, and a shilling by
other organisations, the minimum being five guineas per annum. This was to take
the place of the membership fee of three guineas per annum per deputy and
contributions to the Immigration Fund payable by constituent bodies. The
Board's finances were stated to be in a critical position, the Immigration Fund
did not work well, and this new system proposed the establishment of one fund
to pay all the expenses of the Board. No decision was taken at the congress,
but the Executive Committee were empowered to bring the new system in operation
should it consider it necessary. The Executive subsequently decided that it was
necessary, and the new system—the one now in force was brought into operation
as from October 1st, 1922.
One of the most historic controversies with the Government
that the Board has had was concerned with the Government's use of Section 4 (1)
(a) of the Immigrants Regulation Act No. 22 of 1913, against European
immigrants, and the solemn protest by the South African Jewish community
against Jewish immigrants being dealt with under this section of the Act, which
was originally intended to apply to Asiatics only. When this clause was debated
in Parliament in 1913, the Government gave an under-taking that it would only
be used against non-Europeans, but in April, 1922, contrary to that pledge, it
was being utilised to prevent Jewish immigrants from entering the country. To
that injustice was the added fact that immigrants restricted under this clause
could not have recourse to the Appeal Boards. Apart from a continual
correspondence with the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister, there
were deputations to the Government, letters and telegrams to all the Members of
Parliament, protest meetings by all the Jewish communities in South Africa, who
individually forwarded their protests to their respective Members of Parliament
and to the Government, questions in Parliament, distribution by the Board of
extracts in Dutch and English from Hansard containing the debate on this clause
in Parliament in 1913, when the then Minister of the Interior gave the solemn
assurance above mentioned, resolutions of protest passed at the Board's
congress held on August 5th and 6th, 1923, at Pretoria, at which they formed
the chief subject of discussion.
A concession granted by the Minister shortly after the
controversy began was that he agreed that the Appeal Boards should hear appeals
of immigrants stopped under Section 4 (1) (a) and act in an advisory capacity
to him with regard to them. In May. 1924, the Government agreed to withdraw for
a period of six months the application of Section 4 (1) (a) to European
immigrants—a course of action that had been previously suggested to the
Government by the Board. After the general election the new Minister of the
Interior assured the Board that he would not use this section against
Europeans. Thus ended this historic controversy.
The Cape Town immigration office of the Board was re-opened
on June 1st, 1923, with Mr. P. Jochelson in charge. In June, 1924, the office
was taken over by Mr. J. Carasov, the Board's present immigration official.
Ever since June, 1922, Mr. J. Rothstein has been acting in
an honorary capacity as the Board's immigration official at the Port of Natal.
Anti-Semites in South Africa and elsewhere did their utmost
in trying to utilise the March, 1922, revolt to do harm to South African Jewry.
Allegations were made in the Press and elsewhere that Russian Jews were largely
responsible for the outbreak on the Rand. After representations made to the
Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence, it was noticeable that the attacks
on Jews in the Press practically ceased. During the debate in Parliament on the
Indemnity Bill, General Smuts referred to South African Jewry in highly
appreciative terms, and Mr. Morris Alexander, on the same occasion, dealt in a
masterly manner with the false charges made against Jews in connection with
these disturbances. The above charges against Russian Jews were repeated in the
London "Times," and cables passed between the London Board of
Deputies and this Board, as the result of which a statement refuting them was
published in the London Press, above the signature of Lord Rothschild, as the
chairman of the Joint Press Committee of the London Board.
The Fifth
Congress, 1923.
At the Pretoria Congress (the fifth) above mentioned, Mr. S.
Raphaely, the acting President, presided in the absence overseas of Mr. B.
Alexander. The following Executive Committee were elected: President, Mr.
Bernard Alexander; Vice-President, Mr. S. Raphaely; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. J.
Alexander; Messrs. A. M. Abrahams, B. S. Hersch, J. Ratzker, H. Kroomer, Adv.
P. Millin and D. Getz. Cape Town Committee: Mr. Morris Alexander, K.C., M.L.A.
(chairman), Rabbi Ch. Mirvish and Mr. Isaac Ochberg. This congress passed a
resolution placing on “record its thanks to, and appreciation of, Mr. Percy
Cowen for the excellent work he has done for South African Jewry in his
capacity as Secretary of the S.A. Jewish Board of Deputies."
It is significant that in submitting its report to the 1925
congress, held in Durban on August 2nd and 3rd, the Executive Committee,
dealing with its two years' strenuous period of office, considered it
necessary, after all the years that the Board had already existed, to make the
following important statement: "Your Executive has always striven to
maintain the cardinal principle on which not only the success of its work but
the very existence of this organisation depends. This was well and concisely
put by your President at a special meeting of the deputies held on September
30th, 1923. In closing that meeting the President said, ‘There is only one body
that speaks in the name of the Jews of South Africa and that is the South
African Jewish Board of Deputies, and not any individual, no matter who he is’.
The minutes of the Board's proceedings in the last two years bear evidence that
there have been occasions—fortunately not frequent—in the period under review
when necessity arose for emphasising this cardinal principle, invariably with
good effect."
Special strenuous efforts were made in those two years to
get constituent bodies to pay their membership fees, so much so that
practically for all that time deputies of constituent bodies in arrears with
their payments were requested not to attend meetings of the Board until their
arrears were paid. It was pointed out by the Executive that the membership roll
of the Board was sufficiently strong to enable it to pay its way if only the
constituent bodies paid their subscriptions as provided for in the Constitution.
This fact is equally true to-day, which makes it all the more regrettable that
there are constituent bodies in arrears with their fees, as that must tend to
hamper the Board in the work it is striving to do for South African Jewry. At
the time of the 1925 congress there were 116 constituent bodies of the Board.
In January, 1924. the Class Areas Bill was considered by the
Board. This Bill set out "to make provisions for the reservation of
residential and trading areas in urban areas for persons other than natives
having racial characteristics in common," and as the Jewish community was
a class of persons having racial characteristics in common, on a plain
interpretation of the Bill the Jewish population in any urban area would be
compelled to trade and live in segregated districts within such area. The Board
protested to the Government and sent copies of protest to the Jewish Members of
Parliament, the latter of whom assisted the Board by taking joint action in the
matter. although they belonged to different political parties. As a result of
the Board's action the Bill was amended, excluding Europeans from the
provisions of that measure.
Ever since February, 1924, short resumés of the proceedings
are sent to the Jewish and general Press immediately after every meeting of the
Deputies.
Beginning with the 1925 congress, it has been the custom of
the Board to invite the Jewish Members of Parliament and of the Provincial
Councils to the Congress.
Adv. P. Millin resigned from the Executive in September,
1923, and Adv. N. E. Rosenberg was elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. A. M.
Abrahams resigned in February, 1924, and Mr. J. Distiller was elected in his
place. The following Executive Committee was elected at the 1925 congress:
President, Mr. Bernard Alexander; Vice-President, Mr. S. Raphaely; Hon.
Treasurer, Mr. J. Alexander, M.A.; Committee, Messrs. B. S. Hersch, D. Getz, J.
Ratzker, J. Distiller, Adv. N. E. Rosenberg and Dr. Charles Spiro. The Cape Town
Committee were re-elected.
With reference to the reduction of the naturalisation fee
above mentioned, the Board, not satisfied with the reduction to £5, continued
to make representations to the Government, with the result that in January,
1925, the fee was reduced to £2 10s., which it is now. The Board's continued
effort for a further reduction, the goal aimed at being a reversion to the
original fee of 2s. 6d., has so far proved futile, the Minister maintaining the
services rendered by the authorities justify the fee. (At the time of going to
press, it seems probable that the fee will be reduced to £1 as a result of
further representations.—EDITOR, S.A.J.Y.Î’.)
At the same time that the Board obtained this further
reduction, it made representations to the Government on the question of
reciprocity, that is to say, that a naturalised British subject in South Africa
should be recognised as such in Great Britain, and vice versa, which was then
not the case, people naturalised in this country being regarded as aliens when
in England. The Minister advised the Board that its representations were being
considered by the Government, and that a legislative measure to bring that
about was under consideration for introduction in the following Parliamentary
session. The draft Bill was published shortly after, and this met the wishes of
the Board as far as reciprocity was concerned. But there were serious
objections to other parts of the Bill, such as giving the right to the Minister
to cancel a Naturalisation Certificate already granted.
The Executive held a large number of special meetings on the
subject, and with Mr. Morris Alexander went exhaustively into the matter and
drew up a number of amendments that were submitted to the Minister. The Bill
was not proceeded with that year, and the following year (1926) a new Bill was
introduced which was free from the serious objections the Board had raised
against the previous measure and was placed that year on the Statute Book. This
recognises a person naturalised in South Africa as also a British subject in
Great Britain and other parts of the British Empire. From the sixth to the
seventh congress—from 1925 to 1927—the Board had a very strenuous time, both
with regard to anti-Jewish agitation from without, as well as to important
movements and happenings within the community that manifested themselves in
that period.
Educational
Matters.
Matters of education, secular and Hebrew, claimed more of
the Board's attention in that period than usually. Deputations met the
Transvaal Director of Education and the Administrator regarding difficulties
experienced for some inexplicable reason by Jewish children in obtaining
admission into certain Government schools in Johannesburg—a matter that is
still occupying the attention of the Board, whose aim it is that the registers
of the applications for admissions and of the admissions should be available to
those interested, as that would be the most conclusive evidence as to whether Jewish
children were really being differentiated against as far as certain schools
were concerned. The attendance of Jewish children during the recital of
Christian prayers, insulting remarks about Jews made in class teaching by
teachers, Jewish teachers in the Free State and other parts being
differentiated against with regard to their employment solely because of their
being Jews, and Jewish representation on the school boards—each of these formed
the subject of representations made to the authorities at one time or another
during this same period.
The Board took an active part in promoting the welfare of
Hebrew education. Together with the Zionist Federation it sponsored the South
African Hebrew Education Conference held in Bloemfontein in 1928, which
established a South African Board of Jewish Education that is doing good work;
and the Board's President, Mr. S. Raphaely, took an active part in the
formation of the United Talmud Torah Schools of Johannesburg, presiding at the
successful mass meeting held at the Selborne Hall on February 13th, 1927, at
which the amalgamation was unanimously decided upon.
In the latter part of 1925 and the first half of the
following year, anti-Semitic manifestations were very much to the fore. There
was the League of Gentiles campaign, to which the Board never attached very
much importance and would have noticed even less were it not for the
sensational publicity given to it in the Press.
More serious, however, was the huge Press campaign against
Jewish immigration, led by the chief newspapers in the country, in which Jews
were actually accused of being a danger to the community! So violent and
virulent did this campaign become that in April, 1926, a deputation from the
Board interviewed the Minister of Justice (Mr. Tielman Roos) and pointed out
that this sort of thing constituted a danger to the preservation of public
peace and order. A period of comparative quiet followed.
From the beginning of 1927, an epistolary controversy has
been taking place between the board and the Union Government arising from a
resolution of protest against the anti-Jewish atrocities in Roumania, passed by
the Board in February, 1927, in which the Government were urged to make
representations to the League of Nations with a view to bringing pressure to
bear upon the Roumanian Government to put a stop to the excesses. The
Government maintains that it has no locus standi in the matter, whereas
the Board contends that as a signatory to the Minorities Treaty with Roumania
and as a member of the League of Nations the Union Government can do—and has
every right to do—what the Board asks of it. The Board's attitude is based on
the opinion of the Joint Foreign Committee of the English Board of Deputies, of
which that expert and world-renowned authority in these matters—Mr. Lucien Wolf—is
the secretary. At the time of the last congress there were 125 constituent
bodies, and at the time of writing there are 132, so that from this article it
will be seen that the Board has made steady and continued progress in the
number of its membership since its inception onwards, keeping pace with the
progress made in the number of the institutions and in the size of the South
African Jewish community.
There were many changes in the personnel of the Executive
reported to the last congress. In March, 1927, Mr. Bernard Alexander, after a
fourteen months' absence overseas, resigned the Presidency of the Board, which
he had occupied since the 1919 congress. Mr. J. Alexander, the Hon. Treasurer,
resigned from the Board in February, 1926, as did also Mr. J. Ratzker and Adv.
N. E. Rosenberg. Mr. B. S. Hersch resigned in March, 1926, and Mr. D. Getz in
February, 1927. In March, 1926, Mr. M. I. Isaacson was elected Hon. Treasurer
in place of Mr. J. Alexander, and Messrs. M. J. Shindler and G. A. Friendly in
place of Messrs. Ratzker and Rosenberg, whilst the following month Adv. Morris
de Saxe was elected to take the place of Mr. Hersch. In February, 1927, Mr. Isaacson
resigned, and Mr. Harry Carter, M.P.C., was elected Hon. Treasurer in his
place; and Mr. L. Snider was elected to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Getz's
retirement.
The 1927 Congress.
The following Executive Committee were elected at the last
(1927) congress held at the Johannesburg Jewish Guild on Sunday, July 31st and
Monday, August 1st, which was presided over by Mr. S. Raphaely, the President:
President, Mr. S. Raphaely; Vice-President, Dr. Charles Spiro; Hon. Treasurer,
Mr. Harry Carter, M.P.C.; Messrs. G. A. Friendly, H. Lourie, Adv. M. de Saxe,
L. Snider, I. Broude, B. Moss Morris. The Cape Town Committee were re-elected en
bloc. These gentlemen all hold office at the present day.
Prior to the last congress a sub-committee was appointed to
co-operate with the Witwatersrand Central Juvenile Affairs Board in an advisory
capacity in order to assist in the placing of Jewish youths with Jewish
employers. This was the outcome of a statement by the secretary to that Board—subsequently
verified as quite correct—published in the Press, that Jewish employers usually
apply to that Board for non-Jewish boys, and that it was almost impossible to
place Jewish lads with Jewish employers. At the last congress, a resolution was
carried that a special committee be convened to bring about the establishment
of an Employment Bureau for Jewish boys and girls. In conjunction with Dr. Leon
Bramson, who was present at congress, where he delivered an address on the
Jewish position in Eastern Europe, a number of meetings were held under the
chairmanship of Mr. S. Raphaely, the Board's President, for the purpose of
establishing an Employment Bureau, which was eventually brought into existence
under the name of the General Information Bureau of the S.A. Jewish Board of
Deputies, and began its activities in February, 1928, with Mr. S. B. Friede as
chairman and Mr. A. Ovedoff as secretary. In the short period of its existence
the Bureau has done excellent work in placing over five hundred applicants in
positions and, in addition, is at the present time engaged in important
preparatory work for the ultimate carrying out of a scheme of Jewish land
settlement in South Africa, which is already assured of prominent and popular
support from all sections of the community.
Almost every congress has had on its agenda resolutions
urging the Board to compile Jewish statistics, establish a Statistical Bureau,
etc., as among other things it was felt that the publication of such statistics
would be the best answer to anti-Semitic attacks in this country. The
Executive's report presented to the last congress welcomed the then recent
formation of a South African Jewish Historical Society in Johannesburg and the
establishment in Cape Town of a committee for compiling the record of the early
history of the Jews in the Cape, and assured both of the Board's whole-hearted
support. At this congress, a resolution was unanimously carried to support the
Historical Society and its programme of (a) collecting South African Jewish
records, (b) establishing a Jewish Statistical Bureau, and (c) the publication
in co-operation with the Board of Deputies of a South African Jewish Year Book
and official Communal Directory. This volume is proof of the success of this
undertaking.
A department of the Board's work that is little known to the
general public is that which concerns itself with all kinds of private
investigation cases received from all manner of Jewish organisations and
individuals in different parts of the world. And many are the human dramas,
tragedies, aye and even comedies, that could be told in connection with these
cases that come to the Board's office by almost every overseas mail. In
referring to this important work, one cannot refrain from mentioning the excellent
and successful assistance in this connection given gratuitously in recent years
by Mr. J. Kaufman, whose whole-hearted co-operation with the writer therein is
greatly appreciated.
