A survey of the Jewish Population of South Africa by L. Hotz

Introduction.

THERE are many aspects of Jewish life in South Africa—and those not the least important—which cannot be expressed or interpreted in terms of figures. For one thing, there is a notable absence of accurate and comprehensive statistical material on large sections of Jewish activity in this country, though here, it may be remarked in passing, the Jewish Historical Society can play its part in repairing some portion of the gap. Even more relevant than the lack of statistics, in a study of Jewish conditions in South Africa, is the fact that there are many elements in the situation which are not amenable to numerical statement. Who shall pretend to estimate, even tentatively, the extent of the Jewish contribution to the economic, social and intellectual progress of the sub-continent? Nor, despite Dr. Maurice Hexter and others who endeavour to translate sociological phenomena into statistical formulæ, has any one yet invented a yardstick by which one may measure the cultural and psychic life of a people, and least of all of the Jewish people, whose very being is motivated by ideals and aspirations which have no determinable value.

These reservations are necessary at the outset of a somewhat cold-blooded and prosaic statistical analysis such as the present one. Once the word of caution has been voiced, however, it should be added that there is sufficient basis in the existing records for a reasonably adequate delineation of the Jewish population in South Africa and its development. In broad outlines the present Year Book, with its harvest of information gathered from many quarters, serves to give an impressionistic sketch of the topical situation of South African Jewry. It is the purpose of this article to fill in some of the details and at the same time to supply the general background against which the individual facts may be visualised in better perspective.

The Communal Life.

The contents of this Year Book are largely an epitome of the communal life of the Jews in South Africa. It is fitting, therefore, to dwell in the first place on such evidence of this communal activity as is available in the general records of the country. Fortunately, it is possible to present a fairly reliable picture of the Jewish communal organisation as it existed nearly twenty years ago. The year is 1911, when for the first time a complete enumeration was made of the people in the South African Union, and, inter alia, of their religious institutions.

In 1911, we learn, the number of separate Jewish congregations in South Africa was 44, of which 21 were in the Cape Province, 17 in the Transvaal, 4 in the Orange Free State and 2 in Natal. The urban areas in the Union in 1911 numbered about 350, so that on the average one centre in eight had a Jewish communion. The aggregate Jewish population in the Union at that time was about 47,000. Out of this number, a total of 7,471, or just under 16 per cent., belonged to an established congregation. If allowance is made for the number of younger people, the proportion would probably be not more than 25 per cent. This figure must be regarded in the light of the general circumstances of life in South Africa—the scattered population, the great distances, the rough-and-ready conditions of material existence in the backblocks, leaving little inclination or opportunity for non-material interests.

As is only natural, the percentage of male members of the population who were attached to some congregation was higher than that of the women. It would seem, however, that the association of the Jewish womenfolk in South Africa is probably more active and devoted than that of the men. On a rough estimate, at least 30 per cent. of the married women in the Union twenty years ago were members of a congregation, and there is no reason to believe that the proportion is less now.

A rather significant comparison may be made between the position in the several Provinces. In the number of congregation members, Natal ranked highest with an average proportion of 30 per 100 of the total Jewish population in the Province. The Cape came second with 22 per cent., the Free State next with 16 per cent., and the Transvaal last with just over 10 per cent. As the bulk of the Transvaal Jewish population has always been concentrated on the Reef, that figure gives a pretty fair index of the degree of communal organisation in Johannesburg and its environs twenty years back. The evidence is not conclusive, nor would it be just to read in these bare figures any evaluation of the spiritual condition of the Jewish communities in the early days of the present generation. But the figures do contain some suggestion of those conditions. Has there been an improvement in recent years? Similar testimony is not obtainable, but the pages of this Year Book should provide the material for an answer to the question.

Let us proceed to examine another side of the picture. In 1911 the revenue of the 44 congregations was reported to £35,300, over £20,000 of which came from individual donations and the balance mainly from membership fees. The annual expenditure of the Synagogues aggregated over £33,000, of which about 50 per cent. went towards the payment of salaries for ministers and staff. It is rather surprising to learn only £651 went as a contribution to education, while little more than twice that amount was devoted to charitable purposes. The explanation lies doubtless in the existence of other agencies who took care of these important aspects of the Jewish communal life. It is evident, however, that the conception of an intelligent centralisation of such activities, which is a feature of the Jewish situation in the larger centres of population, is of more recent growth.

In interesting contrast to the apparent indifference of the Transvaal communities two decades ago to their organised communal institutions was the relatively good financial standing of the congregations in that Province. While the average income of all religious institutions in South Africa was £300 a year, and the income of Jewish congregations in the Cape averaged £600 per annum, the Transvaal average was over £1,000 a year each. When the large number of small congregations is taken into account, these figures present, from one point of view, rather striking evidence that, whatever may have been wanting in the spiritual devotion of the South African Jews, there was no lack of material support for their religious institutions.

Considerable space has been given to this one phase of the Jewish past in South Africa, but there is some justification for this. We are concerned here with a dominant aspect of Judaism, and the figures quoted represent the only extant record on the subject. A warning has already been given against drawing precise conclusions from statistics when considering these questions, and the caution must be repeated. Yet there is a fairly clear deduction to be drawn from those figures and others from the same source which cannot here be analysed. The deduction is that, taken at large, South African Jewry of twenty years ago—and probably the same applies to earlier generations—was somewhat lacking in a sense of communal unity and attachment to spiritual ends. If, as has been pointed out before, it is impossible to say whether or not there has been an advance in recent years, it will be the general experience that lately there has developed a greater communal consciousness, a deeper interest, if not in the religious institutions, then at any rate in non-material objectives. There has been progress, but whether the gains have been proportionate to the growth of the Jewish population and its material resources it would be difficult to affirm.

The Population Progress

From a consideration of this one aspect of the Jewish situation in South Africa, we turn to the more general question—what has been the character of the Jewish population movement in South Africa? No information for the country as a whole exists before 1904, while the latest enumeration does not bring us later than 1926. The twenty odd years covered represent, however, an important period in South African Jewish history—a formative and constructive period, in marked contrast to the hectic feverishness of the couple of decades which preceded it. The story of these latter years is told in the following table, which shows the Jewish population in South Africa at various intervals:—

In the light of the general white population movement in South Africa, the Jewish statistics are little short of remarkable. In the period covered, the total number of Jews in South Africa very nearly doubled itself, while the female population was almost trebled. The significance of the latter fact cannot be over-stressed. It is a clear indication of the character of the Jewish migration into the Union. The Jew came to South Africa not as a bird of passage but to make his home here. If he came alone, his family soon followed him across the water, and the promptness with which this generally happened suggests that the newcomer did not take long to find his feet.

In 1904 there were 36 more men than there were women in every Jewish group of 100 souls. In 1911 the excess had dropped to just over 18. In 1918 it had fallen to 11, in 1921 to under 10, and in 1926 it had declined to 8—in other words, among 100 Jewish people there were on the average 54 men and 46 women, compared with 68 and 32 respectively in 1904. The interesting point is not so much the figures themselves as the rapidity with which the sexes have approached numerical equality.

Regarding the general movement, we find that the Jewish population has increased at an average rate of about 4 per cent. per annum over the period dealt with. The largest absolute increase occurred in the period 1921 to 1926, though the percentage annual increment was somewhat greater in the years 1911 to 1918. The rate of growth of the Jewish population has been much more rapid than that of the population as a whole. In point of fact, however, the suggestion of an abnormal influx is not quite correct. The relatively high rate of the Jewish increase has been due mainly to the large number of Jewish women who came to join their men-folk after the Anglo-Boer War and the recent conflict. The male increase was not usually above that of the general population, and there have been occasions, especially during the economic crisis after the late war, when the annual increase of the Jewish population was well below the general rate. (It so happens that during the first three years after the war, when the Jewish migration was at a low level, the number of Scotchmen in the Union increased by nearly 25 per cent.—a very high rate! But this by the way.)

Some reference might be made at this point to the recent Jewish migration figures. The nett accessions to the Jewish population through immigration since 1925 are shown below:

Since May, 1926, when the last population census took place, the increase due to migration has totalled just over 5,000 persons of both sexes. It may, therefore, be estimated that with the natural increase (the excess of births over deaths) the Jewish population now numbers over 80,000—an increase of something over 100 per cent. in twenty-five years.

Normally, the Jewish population in South Africa has owed its progress in a somewhat greater degree to immigration than to the natural increase. There are no definite statistics on the point, but one may hazard the guess that the Jewish rate of natural increase is, if anything, somewhat lower than the average European rate in South Africa. It is improbable that the Jewish death-rate is higher than that of the general population; owing to the smaller proportion of old people in the community, it is very likely lower at the present time. At the other extreme, the infantile death-rate among the Jews is probably below the general rate, owing to the favourable conditions in the average Jewish home. The explanation for what would appear to be the lower Jewish natural increase lies presumably in the fact that the Jewish birth-rate in South Africa is not high, and also in the relatively large proportion of unmarried men in the South African Jewish population. The point is again referred to below. These considerations, academic as they may at first sight appear, are of great significance, because they touch fundamental questions of population, without which all other problems lose a good deal of their meaning.

Distribution of Jewish Population.

At the present time the Jews number about 43 per 1,000 of the South African white population, compared with 41 in 1921, 37 in 1911, and 34 in 1904. Even more interesting are the figures showing the dispersion of the Jewish population in the Union. Recent details are not available, but in 1921 the Jews numbered 62 per 1,000 in the Transvaal, 33 per 1,000 in the Cape, 25 per 1,000 in the Free State, and 19 per 1,000 in Natal. In 1911 the Transvaal proportion was the same, the Cape proportion was only 29 per 1,000, while in the Free State and Natal it was 16 and 15 respectively, the increases in the two latter Provinces being notable. In 1904 the Transvaal population contained only 52 Jews per 1,000; the Cape proportion was 33 (a reflection of post-war conditions); Natal showed the same ratio as in 1911; and the Free State had only 11 Jews per 1,000 of the general population. The absolute numbers showed that between 1904 and 1921 the Jewish population in the Cape increased by less than 2,000; in the Transvaal by 18,000; in the Free State by 3,000 (or an increase of 200 per cent.); and in Natal by about 1,000.

The Jewish population in South Africa, as elsewhere, is predominantly a town-dwelling one. A little over 90 per cent. of the Jewish population has, as far back as the records go, lived in urban areas. In 1904 just over 60 per 1,000 of the urban population in South Africa were Jews, but only 6 per 1,000 of the rural population. In 1911 the proportions had risen to 65 and 7 per 1,000 respectively. Ten years later the Jews numbered just over 70 per 1,000 of the urban population and 8 per 1,000 of the rural inhabitants. The same general tendency doubtless exists at the moment, with possibly this additional feature, that while there has been a substantial rise in the urban proportion, there has also been a decided improvement in the rural position. It is probable that a greater proportion of the recent Jewish arrivals have sought a home in rural areas than was the case in the past, even though the Union has become more highly urbanised.

Just over three-quarters of the total Jewish urban population and about 70 per cent. of all the South African Jews have congregated in the nine principal urban areas—the Rand, the Cape Peninsula, Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein. About 60 per cent. of the whole Jewish population and two-thirds of the town dwellers live on the Reef and in the Peninsula. The tendency to concentrate in these two areas has, however, become less marked in recent years. The smaller cities, like Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, East London and Maritzburg, though they have a comparatively small number of Jews, have shown larger proportional increases than the big urban areas.

The Jewish population numbers about 12 per cent. of the total European inhabitants on the Rand. The Cape Peninsula comes next with 9 per cent. The other centres have a Jewish population ranging from 6 per cent. in the case of Bloemfontein to 1 per cent. in Pietermaritzburg. In other parts of the Union the proportion of the population which is Jewish nowhere exceeds 6 per cent. (the extreme case is Oudtshoorn). In most districts it is under 1 per cent. There is scarcely a corner of South Africa in which the Jewish people is unrepresented, the most notable exceptions being certain sections of Natal. It is an interesting point that quite a substantial number have made their homes in the Karroo and Kalahari districts, to the development of which they have greatly contributed.

Social Characteristics of Jewish Population.

What of the social and economic life of the Jewish population in South Africa? The statistical records of any value are meagre, as has been suggested before, but there are some broad indications of certain of the more tangible features.

Important consequences flow from the age-composition of a people. In South Africa the Jewish population bears the stamp of a pioneer community in a marked degree. The predominant age-group comprises the men and women in the prime of life, with a secondary emphasis on the children. The proportion of old people is low, and even below the South African average. Fifty per cent. of the male population is between the ages of 25 and 60, and over 30 per cent. is represented by boys under 15. The female population has a more even age distribution. Over 35 per cent. are girls under 15 years old, 21 per cent. are young women under 25, and nearly twice that number are women over 25 and under 60. The Jewish population comprises less children than the general Union average, the normal allowance of young men and women under 25, a considerably larger proportion of persons in the middle ages, and a smaller number of old people. A population so constituted is well fitted to take its part in the economic and cultural development of a young country.

On the other hand, the high proportion of Jewish men who are in the middle ages is not without its social repercussions and disabilities, though these are inevitable in an unsettled immigrant group. Some light is thrown on the situation by the fact that, while 55 per cent. of the men are over 25 years old (that being about the average age for marriage among South African men), only 37 per cent. of the men were ever married. The proportion of married women (including widows and divorcees) was about the same as the number of women over 25. Jewish custom generally favours marriage by women at a much earlier age than that. It would seem, then, that in South Africa there are either a considerable number of what would be considered marriageable Jewish girls under 25 who are unmarried, or else there are many Jewish women over that age who are not married, while at the same time there are a number of middle-aged men in the Jewish population who, probably in the stress of the economic struggle, have never contracted a marriage. In any event, it is clear that there is a social problem here, a problem which will ultimately solve itself as the Jewish population acquires a settled character; in the meantime, there is a good deal of maladjustment and individual unhappiness inherent in such a situation. Its relation to the problem of racial integrity is obvious. Is it perhaps a symptom of the problem that the proportion of Jewish divorced persons is somewhat in excess of the general average?

Economic Analysis of Jewish Population.

Turning to the economic distribution of the South African Jewish people, we find that 60 per cent. of the male population and 14 per cent. of the female population are engaged in gainful occupations. The South African averages are 57 and 10 per cent. respectively for the general European population. Only about 600 men and women in South African Jewry can be regarded as of independent means, that is to say, under 1 per cent. of the total. The proportion is certainly not greater than the Union average, and the figures do not suggest that the economic status of the average Jew is any different, for better or worse, than that of the average South African citizen.

The ratio of dependents in the Jewish population is less than in the general population. This refers not only to children but also to adults. The number of Jewish men who are described as dependents is about 6 per cent. of the total male population, and the number of women dependents (wives, mothers, etc.) is about 76 per cent. In the general population the proportions are 7 and 80 respectively.

The dominant economic interests of the Jewish people are vested in commerce. Two-thirds of the occupied males are engaged in trade and finance, compared with under 20 per cent. for the general male population. Of the Jewish women who are gainfully occupied, 72 per cent. are employed in commerce. In the general female population the percentage is about half of that. Second in importance among Jewish pursuits in South Africa are those relating to manufacturing industry. Sixteen per cent. of the men and 10 per cent. of the Jewish women who are occupied are engaged in industries. For the general population the proportions are 21 and 13 per cent. respectively. These figures suggest that the Jews are taking their fair share in the new industrial development of the country. The Jewish position in agricultural industry is less assured. Only 4 per cent. of the occupied Jewish population is engaged in farming, and only just 1 per cent. of the total Jewish population. The great majority of the Jews who live in the rural areas, numbering 10 per cent. of the Jews, are not farmers but traders. Many of them, to be sure, have subsidiary agricultural interests, and in the main they perform a useful function in the marketing of the products of the rural industries, but only 1 in 10 is himself a farmer.

A numerically more important group of occupations is represented by the catering and service trades (for example, hotelkeepers, liquor traders and hairdressers). Five per cent. of the Jewish occupied males are engaged in this group, and a somewhat larger proportion of the Jewish women. It is interesting to note that only 3 per cent. of the Jewish men are employed in the professions—about the same proportion as for the general population—and less than 1 per cent. in the administrative services of the country—a proportion obviously below the general South African average. No less than 10 per cent. of the Jewish women who earn a livelihood are occupied in the professions, including teaching, and again only 1 per cent. are employed in the public services. Other occupations, such as mining and transport, embrace between them 3 per cent. of the occupied Jewish male population, compared with about 12 per cent. for the total population.

To sum up, the Jews provide one-seventh of the trading classes of the country, just under 2 per cent. of those engaged in productive industry (mining, farming and manufacturing), and just over 2 per cent. of the professional and public service classes. As the Jews number about 4 per cent. of the total European population, the distinctive feature of this occupational distribution is the abnormal proportion engaged in trade. Here there is a suggestion of over-development of one phase of Jewish activity. But is there not also a suggestion of over-concentration of economic interests in other directions amongst the general South African population? The distributing function is a vital one in modern society, and in the final analysis it makes not the slightest difference what group of individuals discharge this function, so long as it is adequately discharged. Yet a greater variety and a more even dissemination of economic functions confers a valuable social advantage on any section or group, and the point is of no less application to the South African people as a whole than it is to the Jews.

There is reason to think that the Jewish position in this respect is undergoing some important transformations. The movement to attract more Jewish youths to the land, as well as to divert the new stream of immigrants from the towns to the countryside—not as traders but as farmers—will surely bear fruit. Then, again, there is an increasing number of Jewish industrialists and entrepreneurs, and Jewish boys are availing themselves in larger numbers of the facilities for industrial training and apprenticeship which have been developed in South Africa in recent years. It will be a matter for surprise if the occupational distribution of the Jewish population at the next census does not show some radical changes. Great as has been the Jewish contribution to South African progress in the role of distributors, it will not be seriously doubted that such a widening of economic interests must be beneficial to everyone concerned.

NOTE.

Since the above article was written, it has become possible to supplement the picture which has been drawn of certain aspects of the Jewish situation in South Africa.

It has been officially reported that the number of people professing the Jewish faith in South Africa at the enumeration made in 1926 was 71,816, of whom 38,817 were males and 32,999 were females. These are the figures which should, strictly speaking, be compared with the Jewish population as returned at earlier censuses. On setting side by side the particulars of professing Jews and the numbers reported as being of Jewish parentage, we find an interesting discrepancy. The last-named class totalled 72,169 (males 39,014, females 33,155) as compared with the figures shown above. There is a difference of 353, of whom 197 were men and 156 women. Does the group represent the number of persons of Hebrew descent who at the time of the census had definitely disavowed the faith of their parents? At any rate, this much is evident, that in 1926 there were at least 353 persons in South Africa of the first generation who acknowledged themselves to be of Jewish parentage but who explicitly refused to profess the Jewish faith. There are, unfortunately, no independent means of checking the statement, but perhaps these figures serve to throw light on the degree of “assimilation” in South Africa. Roughly, it is equivalent to 5 per 1,000 of the Jewish population, the proportion being about the same for men and women.

There is another point of some interest in the same connection. A further calculation shows that in the rural areas of the Union the number of men of this type represented about 13 per 1,000 of the Jewish rural population, and the number of women 8 per 1,000, whereas in the urban areas the proportions were under 5 per 1,000 in each case. This phenomenon is not unexpected. The conditions in many of the rural areas of South Africa operate to loosen and in many instances to sever the links with the Jewish faith. The numbers are, however, not large, and other evidence tends to show that on the whole the traditional integrity of the Jewish people stands in no greater danger in South Africa than it does in most other countries.

Without sacrificing in any measurable degree its own historic individuality, it is clear, however, from what has been said in the main text that the Jewish population in South Africa has from the first identified itself with the broad current of South African life and development. Valuable testimony on one aspect in this connection may be found in the fact, which emerges from an official report, that the Jewish community comprises more than the average proportion of bilingual persons—that is, people who can speak both official languages. In 1926 no less than 60 per cent. of Jewish South Africans were bilingual, compared with 54 per cent. in the case of the total white population. In the country areas no less than 81 per cent. of the Jewish people spoke English and Afrikaans. If bilingualism is regarded as a significant test of South African citizenship, then the showing made by the Jewish element is as satisfactory as could well be expected from a community which has grown up largely within one generation. The fact becomes even more impressive when it is recalled that the present Jewish population in South Africa contains a substantial proportion of recent arrivals whose bilingual qualifications must be insignificant.

It must, of course, be recognised that the position of the Jew as the South African middleman par excellence makes it essential for him to have a command of the two principal languages. A study of the figures for other groups, the members of which are also largely devoted to commercial activity, shows, however, that the Jewish population is generally more adaptable than the other sections. This conclusion points to a characteristic which has frequently been noted in the Jewish people—their readiness to adopt the cultural modes and expressions of a free environment, while preserving the distinctive features of their own cultural ethos.