A CALL TO ACTION

Time is running out for South Africa's Jewish establishment to mobilise politically. For too long it has ignored, to its detriment, South Africa's body politic, avoiding meaningful political involvement, other than directly affecting the Jewish community. The lack of meaningful Jewish community involvement in political decision-making, or electioneering is not a new phenomenon. It had its dawning in the apartheid era following Jewish establishment's warning to all Jews not to awake the wrath of the regime. The warning was unneeded as an anxious Jewish community preferred to be discreetly seen, but not heard. Opposition to apartheid as a matter of policy was therefore unthinkable. Tacit, and at times, overt complicity in the evils of apartheid was the accepted norm in spite of Judaism's fundamental belief in the dignity of man. During apartheid a minority of South African Jewish activists courageously opposed apartheid. Some were either murdered, jailed, or exiled. Within the Jewish community they were stigmatised, regarded as political lepers, and a real and present danger to the wellbeing of the community. The implications of the phrase "Am I my brother's keeper?" in Genesis 4:1-9 was poignantly a non sequitur. In this respect, I for one, despite the passage of time, have yet to put aside residual animus towards the Jewish establishment for abandoning those of us in the struggle, by jettisoning the centrality of freedom from political oppression embedded in Jewish thought. The Jewish community did not differentiate between Jewish activists and the banned ANC leadership. The former were lumped together with Mandela, Sisulu, Tembo, and others under the catch-all communist-terrorist classification. When the opportunity presented itself to demonstrate commitment to the status quo under apartheid the Jewish community unhesitatingly did so. One simply has to recall the community's misguided pride in the selection of a Jewish prosecutor bent on securing a death penalty conviction for Mandela and his co-accused. The Jewish community's moral compass during apartheid was in lock-down mode. Silence on the evils of apartheid from the likes of the Jewish Board of Deputies, and religious leaders was not only deafening, but cowardly. It remains a deep-seated festering thorn in the side of today's ANC. With the birth of the new South Africa in 1994, Jewish religious and secular leaders experienced an epiphany as far as race relations were concerned. Those in the liberation movement were no longer pariahs, but heroes, to be feted at every opportunity - quintessential hypocrisy disguised in new found altruism. Not too long ago Obed Bapela, an ANC subcommittee chairperson singled out South African Jews serving in the Israeli military. He did not expressly say so, but his agenda was likely to question the loyalty of the Jewish community in South Africa. As expected the Board of Deputies criticised Bapela, adding that "the Jewish community has played an active and integral role in building South Africa". The loyalty issue continues to smolder due to the Jewish community's commitment to Israel in contrast to the ruling party's enmity, compounded by residual memories of Israel's close ties with the apartheid regime. Despite the Board's assertion of "the Jewish community's active and integral role in building South Africa", the ruling party remains unpersuaded by the Jewish community's 'overnight' non-racial transformation, because of its disconnect to the suffering of the black population pre-and post-apartheid. Against this backdrop the Jewish community should no longer passively remain in the shadows of South Africa's body politic. It must discard the shackles of the past, increase its visibility, and unwaveringly enter the political arena, even if it means confronting anti-Semitic attacks, or accusations of racism for criticising a black government for lack of good governance. There is a rightful place for Jews at South Africa's political table. But, sitting silently on the back seat of history is a perilous cop-out. It really is an issue of survival, failing which the plaintiff cry "that was the South African Jewish community that was" will be heard throughout Israel and the diaspora.