Jews of South Africa: Lithuanian Roots, Mining, and Anti-Apartheid Activism

The Litvaks at the Cape

They came from the small towns of Lithuania — from Kovno, Vilna, Ponevezh, and Shavl — carrying little more than the Yiddish language, a fierce commitment to education, and the determination to build new lives far from the poverty and persecution of the Russian Empire. They arrived at the southern tip of Africa, a place as different from the Baltic forests as anywhere on earth, and they built one of the most distinctive Jewish communities in the diaspora.

South Africa’s Jewish community is unusual in many ways. It is one of the most homogeneous in the world — overwhelmingly Lithuanian in origin. It produced both mining magnates and revolutionary activists. It thrived under conditions of profound moral complexity — building prosperous lives in a society built on racial injustice — and it produced individuals who risked everything to fight that injustice.

This is their story.

Arrival and Settlement

Jews first arrived in South Africa with the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century, but the community remained tiny until the discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) transformed the country’s economy.

The mining boom coincided with the great wave of Jewish emigration from the Russian Empire. Between 1880 and 1930, tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews made their way to South Africa, joining the rush of immigrants drawn by the promise of economic opportunity.

They started at the bottom — as peddlers, shopkeepers, and traders in small towns across the country. The smous (itinerant peddler) became a familiar figure in rural South Africa, traveling from farm to farm with goods that isolated communities could not otherwise obtain. From these humble beginnings, many families built substantial businesses.

Some rose spectacularly. Barney Barnato and Sammy Marks became mining magnates. The Oppenheimer family — beginning with Ernest Oppenheimer — built De Beers and Anglo American Corporation into global giants. Jewish entrepreneurs were prominent in retail, manufacturing, and property development.

But the community was never only about business. Education was paramount — a Lithuanian inheritance. Jewish day schools, modeled on the Lithuanian yeshiva tradition, produced graduates who entered professions at remarkable rates. South African Jews became doctors, lawyers, academics, and engineers in numbers far exceeding their proportion of the population.

The Apartheid Dilemma

The establishment of apartheid in 1948 — the same year as Israel’s independence — confronted South African Jews with an excruciating moral dilemma.

The community was white. Under apartheid’s racial classification system, Jews were classified as Europeans and received all the privileges of white South Africa — access to education, property, employment, and political rights denied to the Black majority.

The mainstream Jewish community, represented by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, adopted a cautious position. It did not formally endorse apartheid, but it also did not aggressively oppose it. The Board feared that confrontation with the government would endanger a vulnerable minority community — a fear rooted in centuries of European Jewish experience.

But individual Jews — acting outside and sometimes against the communal establishment — became some of apartheid’s most determined opponents.

The Jewish Anti-Apartheid Activists

The list of Jewish South Africans who fought apartheid is remarkable in both its length and its prominence.

Helen Suzman (1917-2009) was a member of Parliament who, for thirteen years, was the sole representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in the legislature. She challenged apartheid laws from within the system, visited Nelson Mandela in prison, and endured threats and ostracism from the white establishment. Her moral courage was extraordinary — and she drew explicitly on Jewish ethical traditions to explain it.

Joe Slovo (1926-1995), born in Lithuania, became a leader of the South African Communist Party and the chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe — the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was one of the most wanted men in apartheid South Africa. His wife, Ruth First, was assassinated by a South African government letter bomb in 1982.

Arthur Goldreich (1929-2011) purchased Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia — the secret headquarters of the ANC’s armed resistance. When police raided the farm in 1963, Goldreich was arrested. He escaped from prison in a legendary breakout and eventually made his way to Israel.

Denis Goldberg (1933-2020) was the only white defendant in the Rivonia Trial alongside Nelson Mandela. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and served twenty-two years.

Albie Sachs, a Jewish lawyer and ANC activist, lost an arm and the sight of one eye in a car bomb planted by South African agents. He later served on the Constitutional Court of the new South Africa and helped draft one of the world’s most progressive constitutions.

The Jewish presence in the anti-apartheid movement was disproportionate to the community’s size. Some scholars estimate that Jews constituted roughly 2.5 percent of white South Africa but accounted for a much larger share of white anti-apartheid activists. The reasons are debated — the prophetic tradition of justice, the immigrant experience of marginalization, the influence of left-wing Lithuanian Jewish political culture — but the fact is undeniable.

Community Life

Despite its small size — never more than about 120,000 people — South Africa’s Jewish community built an elaborate institutional infrastructure.

The Jewish day school system was among the finest in the diaspora. King David Schools in Johannesburg and Herzlia in Cape Town educated generations of Jewish children in both secular and Jewish subjects. The community maintained an Orthodox religious establishment aligned with the Lithuanian tradition — the chief rabbinate, the Beth Din, and a network of synagogues that reflected the Litvak heritage.

Zionism was a powerful force from early on. South African Jews were among the most Zionist communities in the world — a Zionism that intensified after 1948 and the establishment of the State of Israel. Many South African Jews made aliyah (emigrated to Israel), and those who remained maintained strong connections through philanthropy, cultural exchange, and family ties.

The community also developed a rich cultural life. Jewish theater, literature, and journalism flourished in both English and Yiddish. The South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town — housed in the original synagogue building — tells the community’s story with impressive depth.

Emigration and the Present

Since the 1970s, South Africa’s Jewish community has shrunk significantly. From a peak of approximately 120,000, the community has declined to roughly 52,000. The causes are multiple: concern about crime, political uncertainty, economic instability, and — for some — the discomfort of being a small minority in a rapidly changing society.

Many emigrated to Israel, where South African Jews (known as Saffers) have established vibrant communities, particularly in Ra’anana and Herzliya. Others moved to Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Those who remain have built a community that, while smaller, remains remarkably cohesive. The day schools continue to operate. The synagogues — particularly the large Orthodox congregations in Johannesburg — maintain active programs. The community’s philanthropic infrastructure, including organizations like the Chevra Kadisha (which provides social services far beyond burial) and the Jewish Board of Deputies, continues to function effectively.

The relationship between South African Jews and the broader society remains complex. The legacy of apartheid casts a long shadow. The community’s role — both its complicity in a racist system and its members’ heroic resistance to it — continues to be examined and debated. The prophetic tradition that inspired Suzman and Slovo remains a living challenge: what does justice demand of a privileged minority in a society still struggling with inequality?

South Africa’s Jews carry a distinctive heritage — Lithuanian learning, African sunshine, mining wealth, apartheid’s moral weight, and the courage of those who fought for what was right when it was dangerous to do so. It is a small community with a large story, and that story is far from over.