Jewish Memories of Mandela

Jewish Memories of Mandela offers a fresh perspective of the story of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle as seen through the lives and recollections of Jewish South Africans who were a part of it. It gives new insights into such well-known personalities as Helen Suzman, Ali Bacher, Joe Slovo, Sol Kerzner, Tony Leon and Arthur Chaskalson and their role in South Africa’s democratic transformation.

Synopsis

Nelson Mandela’s legal and political work brought him into contact with a vast array of Jewish people across the spectrum: lawyers and legal clerks, communists and communal leaders, business leaders and bankers, physicians and philanthropists, rabbis and rabble-rousers. Jewish Memories of Mandela – a new book published in August 2011 under the joint auspices of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the Umoja Foundation – chronicles for the first time the extent to which individual Jewish men and women were involved in the life and career of Nelson Mandela. It also records the remarkable extent to which Jewish South Africans participated in the anti-apartheid struggle, as well as in the post-apartheid era of nation building, reconstruction and reconciliation.

Jews, notwithstanding that they constituted small minority within the population, have been involved to a remarkably disproportionate extent in Mandela’s life history, and indeed in the broader struggle for democracy in South Africa. Whether as lawyers, political activists, trade unionists, journalists, parliamentarians or business leaders, Jews have been intricately involved in the Mandela story, from his arrival in Johannesburg as a young man onwards. Many have themselves become famous names in the annals of South African history. They include Helen Suzman, Joe Slovo, Ali Bacher, Tony Leon, Rusty Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, Sol Kerzner, Ruth First, Gill Marcus, Albie Sachs and Arthur Chaskalson. The book also tells the stories of Mandela’s remarkable interaction with ordinary people, from the boy in 1996 who insisted on inviting the President to his Barmitzvah (he came, and danced) and a conversation with a ten-year-old with presidential ambitions.

Jewish Memories of Mandela interweaves into the central narrative the personal recollections of these Jewish South Africans of their association with Mandela. These throw interesting new light on some of the most significant episodes in modern South African history, such as the Treason Trial, the establishment of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Liliesleaf Farm police raid and ensuing Rivonia Trial and the long imprisonment of Mandela and other political activists. It further shows how the Jewish communal leadership, including the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris, went about leading the Jewish community in being an active part in the process of transition to multiracial democracy after 1990. Featured here is Jewish participation in such areas as the transformation of South African cricket, the inaugural democratic elections of 27 April 1994, the relationship between the ANC government and the opposition in parliament and South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The role of Jewish business leaders in post-apartheid reconstruction initiatives is also examined.

The book is a noteworthy addition to the historiography of anti-apartheid activism from within the white community, of which Jews formed a part. It further documents an inspiring chapter in the history of the South African Jewish community and of the contribution its members have made to the country.

Jewish Memories of Mandela is a copiously illustrated hardback coffee-table book with a linen cover. It contains over 200 colour and black-and-white photographs – many not previously published – and with the highest design and production values.

© South African Jewish Board of Deputies & the Umoja Foundation.
Text by David Saks
ISBN: 978-0-620-50613-7
SA release: August 2011
Hardback, linen-bound, 264 pages
Modern South African History/ Apartheid/SA Jewry

What the Reviewers Thought

“An impressive coffee-table book … a handsome, richly illustrated tribute to a great man and some of the … men and women … privileged to share part of his life journey … An attractive collector’s piece for those interested in Judaism and Mandeliana” John Boje, The Star Tonight

“The book is a gem … Its photographs … are magnificent … Well organised, lavishly reproduced and scrupulously researched … its emotional truth, conveyed in pictures which bring stinging tears to one’s eyes … makes it an extraordinary reference.” Gwen Podbrey, South African Jewish Report

“Its the handsome presentation and some of the very interesting photographs that really bring it to life.” Professor Anton Harber, speaking to Jenny Crwys-Williams on the Talk Radio 702 Book Show

“Jewish Memories of Mandela … will surely be treasured world-wide and will take its rightful place in the annals of South African Jewish history.” Professor Reuben Musiker, Jewish Affairs

“I liked … the author’s consciousness of the inclusiveness and complexity of the struggle. The text is tight, accurate and substantive, lightened with some delightful anecdotes.” Professor Norman Levy, former Treason Trialist, at Cape Town launch

Full Reviews

David Batzofin in The Citizen, 16 March 2012

John Boje, “Coffee-table books that make you think”, in the Star Tonight, 8 March 2012

Vivienne Atwood in the Sunday Tribune’s Sunday Magazine, 11 December 2011

John Boje, “From the history of humanity to portraits of power”, in the Pretoria News, 5 December 2011

Professor Reuben Musiker in Jewish Affairs, Channukah 2011

Nadine Ford-Kritzinger, “Jewish tribute to Madiba”, in The New Age, 2 November 2011

Amanda Watson, “The Ties that Bind”, in the Northeastern Tribune, 21 October 2011

Barabara Cole, “Community Inspired by Madiba”, Daily News, 1 October 2011

Chantal Abitol, “The Jews behind Mandela”, in the Australian Jewish News, 16 September 2011

Gwen Podbrey, “Mandela coffee table book is timely and apposite,” in the SA Jewish Report, 16-23 September 2011 page 11

Ant Katz, “We’re proud of our ‘rogues’ gallery’!”, myshtetl.co.za, 27 July 2011