South Africa's All White Jewish Community and heyho ... you don't always have to be White to be Jewish and certainly not in Zion

South Africa's All White Jewish Community and heyho ... you don't always have to be White to be Jewish and certainly not in Zion

Ethiopian Jews in combat gear serving in the IDF. Ethiopians Jews are one of the most motivated and almost all volenteer for Kravi ( A fighting Unit)

All  Jews in South Africa are White .To hell with Genetics , God ( why should it be a woman) , DNA ....  Morris Alexander was my Great  Uncle. In 1930, the Quota Act of 1930 was intended to curtail the entry of Jews into South Africa.The act simply changed the status of Yiddish and decreed that it was no longer a recognized European Language . In order to immigrate to South Africa ( until then) immigrants had to speak a European Language or English ( with level of proficiency). Morris Alexander a Mk on Jan Smuts Party .... got involved and schlentered and schlentered until the clause was added that " All Jews who were hence forth deemed to be White and not of the Black Bantu Races, nor Coloured no Indian  nor Chinese"''.... White. That simple clause with a lot less words deemed from that moment on Jews in South Africa either born or immigrants who be deemed White. This clausewas challenged repeatedly during the Apartheid era especially when District Six in the Central Business Era that was populated by  mainly Cape Coloured ( mix race) and some Jews .....more than some. There was actually a District Six Synagogue . Civil rights lawyers had a field day in getting Coloured to convert to Judaism  and hey no one said Orthodox Judaism. These challenges cased a nearly 2 decade delay to the eviction of " non whites'' from the Central Business District of Cape Town .    

 The vast majority of Jews immigrating to South Africa came from diaspora communities in Lithuania. The 1937 The Aliens Act, motivated by a sharp increase the previous year in the number of German Jewishrefugees coming to South Africa, brought the migration to almost a complete halt. Some Jews were able to enter the country, but many were unable to do so. A total of approximately six-and-a-half thousand Jews came to South Africa from Germany between the years 1933 and 1939. ManyAfrikaners (i.e., Boers) felt sympathy for Nazi Germany, and organizations like Louis Weichardt’s "Grayshirts" and the pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwagwere openly anti-Semitic. During World War I, many Afrikaners, who had little respect for Britain, objected to the use of "Afrikaner women and children from the British concentration camps" in fighting the German territory of South West Africa on behalf of Britain. This had the effect of drumming up pro-German sentiment among a population of Afrikaners. The opposition National Party argued that the Aliens Act was too lenient and advocated a complete ban on Jewish immigration, a halt in the naturalization of Jewish permanent residents of South Africa and the banning of Jews from certain professions.^[13] After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews, generally a fairly Zionist community,madealiyah to Israel. While it is understandable that many South African Jews would feel uncomfortable with formerly pro-Nazi Afrikaners rising to power in 1948, many leading apartheid-era Afrikaner politicians publicly apologized to the South African Jewish community for their earlier anti-semitic actions and assured it of its continued safety in South Africa.

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between people of different races. It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948. Here again over 200 mixed race Jewish couples suddenly found themselves in violation of a disgusting piece of Apartheid Legislation. Civil Right Lawyers on their behalf challenged the the status of the mixed race or black partner and neither lost nor one.  Mixed Race Jewish couples were left alone but 95% of them left Azania larger for Zion..The 5% who did remain were challenged again by the Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952  

Native Laws Amendment Act, 1952
Act to amend the Native Labour Regulation Act, 1911, the Natives Land Act, 1913, the Native Administration Act, 1927, the Native Administration Act, 1927, Amendment Act, 1929, and the Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act, 1945; to repeal certain provisions of British Bechuanaland Proclamation No. 2 of 1885 and to repeal the Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Act, 1945.
Citation	Act No. 54 of 1952
Enacted by	Parliament of South Africa
Date of Royal Assent	24 June 1952
Date commenced	27 June 1952
Status: Spent

The Native Laws Amendment Act, 1952 (Act No. 54 of 1952, subsequently renamed the Bantu Laws Amendment Act, 1952 and the Black Laws Amendment Act, 1952), formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. It amended section 10 of the Group Areas Act.It limited the category of blacks who had the right to permanent residence in urban areas. While Section 10 had granted permanent residence to blacks who had been born in a town and had lived there continuously for more than 15 years, or who had been employed there continuously for at least 15 years, or who had worked continuously for the same employer for more than 10 years. Non-whites living in urban areas who did not meet these criteria faced forcible removal, Section 10  of the act was vigorously enforced. Ironically I as a 16 years old and leader of  National Youth Action, was detained for staying overnight in Guguleto a  Black Squatter Camp turned suburb of Cape Town. The original act did not use the word Black rather Race. If one Race stayed overnight in an Area not designated as that of that Race, he she or it was in violation of the infamous section 10 of the Act and hey ho hell No , After Mom and Dad two very liberal educated South African Jews bailed me out of the joint, the quod, slammer and jailhouse  they drove me back to Guguleto ( and 8 times spent a night in the holding pit of Sing Sing) Both My parents  joined the legal actual against the legitimacy of this and other Apartheid Acts. My Paternal Grandmother was Sarah Kaplan Drus who in the 1920's established the Communist Party in South Africa and stoold and lost a number of times for election to the South African Parliament. After the German-Soviet Treaty of Nonaggression,also called  Hitler-Stalin Pact, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in absolute horror and disgust Sarah Kaplan Drus Left the South African Communist Party ( whose leaders ironically continued to be Jews) and turned to Socialism and  Zionism and established Poalei Zion in South Africa whic today is the huge Bnoth   Zion Organisation.  My Material Grandfather was Chaim ( Hymie) Baker  who established Betar and the Herut party in South Africa ( with Meir Katz and Harry Hurwitz ( both were the next generation)  went head to head physically with the  Ossewabrandwag and the Grey Shirts.A total of approximately six-and-a-half thousand Jews came to South Africa from Germany between the years 1933 and 1939.^[12] ManyAfrikaners (i.e., Boers) felt sympathy for Nazi Germany, and organizations like Louis Weichardt’s "Grayshirts" and the pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwagwere openly anti-Semitic. During World War I, many Afrikaners, who had little respect for Britain, objected to the use of "Afrikaner women and children from the British concentration camps" in fighting the German territory of South West Africa on behalf of Britain. This had the effect of drumming up pro-German sentiment among a population of Afrikaners. The opposition National Party argued that the Aliens Act was too lenient and advocated a complete ban on Jewish immigration, a halt in the naturalization of Jewish permanent residents of South Africa and the banning of Jews from certain professions.^[13] After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews, generally a fairly Zionist community,^[6] madealiyah to Israel. While it is understandable that many South African Jews would feel uncomfortable with formerly pro-Nazi Afrikaners rising to power in 1948, many leading apartheid-era Afrikaner politicians publicly apologized to the South African Jewish community for their earlier anti-semitic actions and assured it of its continued safety in South Africa.

In 1950, D F Malan announced the NP's intention to create a Coloured Affairs Department. J.G. Strijdom, Malan's successor as Prime Minister, moved to strip voting rights from black and coloured residents of the Cape Province. The previous government had introduced the Separate Representation of Voters Bill into Parliament in 1951; however, four voters, G Harris, W D Franklin, W D Collins and Edgar Deane, challenged its validity in court with support from the United Party.The Cape Supreme Court upheld the act, but reversed by the Appeal Court, finding the act invalid because a two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament was needed to change the entrenched clauses of the Constitution. The government then introduced the High Court of Parliament Bill (1952), which gave Parliament the power to overrule decisions of the court. The Cape Supreme Court and the Appeal Court declared this invalid too.

In 1955 the Strijdom government increased the number of judges in the Appeal Court from five to 11, and appointed pro-Nationalist judges to fill the new places. In the same year they introduced the Senate Act, which increased the Senate from 49 seats to 89. Adjustments were made such that the NP controlled 77 of these seats. The parliament met in a joint sitting and passed the Separate Representation of Voters Act in 1956, which transferred coloured voters from the common voters' roll in the Cape to a new coloured voters' roll. Immediately after the vote, the Senate was restored to its original size. The Senate Act was contested in the Supreme Court, but the recently enlarged Appeal Court, packed with government-supporting judges, upheld the act, and also the Act to remove coloured voters.^[

Okay, let’s be real. Most of the world, and especially America, when it imagines what Jews look like, usually has an image like this sticking out in their mind:

Yep, thanks to Woody Allen, Hollywood, and plenty of other reasons that have no connection to reality, the majority of the world likes to think Jews are all white, nerdy, and short. And have been like that since day one.

And, of course, when they think of religious Jews, they usually have this image in their minds:

Black hats, beards, and, most importantly: white as a sheet. Simply put: Jews are stereotyped.

Even more striking is the way women are stereotyped. Either as old (white) ladies fussing over their mini Woody Allens…



or young (white) JAPs, as that charming new reality show has painfully reminded us.



So, what’s a Jew to do? As a Sephardic Jew who also happens to be religious, I thought I should do a bit of an exposé on the beautiful rainbow that is the Jewish people. A people that can’t be defined as a race or be put into a convenient box. A people that defy all stereotypes.

Shall we begin?

Traditionally, dervishes, a group of ascetics committed to extreme poverty, is a strictly Islamic path. However, these two brothers were able to fully integrate themselves into the dervish way of life without sacrificing their Jewish identity. Read a more in depth description of this fascinating story here.




There’s something so powerful about this picture. Taken by a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii in a rare instance of color photography for the time, it beautifully captures a teacher and his pupils. The funny thing is, most of us think of religious Jews as only wearing black and white. This colorful image destroys that conception, reminding us that Jews, for much of their history, and many of the places they lived in, were a colorful people.




We often forget that there was a thriving population of Jews in the Middle East until very recently. Patriotic Jews that strongly identified with the countries they lived in. Here is a powerful images of a Jewish “scout” group in Iraq in the early 20th century. Behind them is their club flag and the Iraqi flag of the time. They look so normal. They fit in so well.





Taken by the fantastic photographer, Frederic Brenner, from his series “Diaspora” of Jews in far-flung places like Yemen. What is sad about this image is that it is doubtful anyone similar is left in the country after years of persecution and flights to Israel.



This fantastic image is of just a few of the many Ethiopian Jews that reside in Israel. A group of people part of the Jewish people, fighting with the Jewish people, and helping create a special culture within Israel.




I ran into this image through Reddit, and most people had no idea who this guy was. Some were worried that this guy might not really be Jewish, showing an immediate prejudce about what a Jew is “supposed” to look like. So I posted it on my Facebook page, and next thing I knew, this guy Rastaboy Raslion, an awesome DJ in Tel Aviv, claimed the pic. Such a special picture, and shows no matter how we look, what kind of hair we have, there is no way to easily categorize Jews.




This image is of Gulienne Rollins-Rison, who was featured in a recent powerful piece in New York Magazine. She is married to Manishtana, a writer and self-proclaimed social activist, who was also featured. Sadly, even within the Jewish community itself, there can be a misconception that Jews are supposed to look a certain way. As Gulienne says, “As a Jew of color, you’re this mythical creature that supposedly doesn’t exist. [Manishtana’s] been writing a book about his life that’s going to be called Thoughts From a Unicorn.”

Thoughts From a Unicorn has since be released and you can buy it on Amazon.




This photo is from the same series and is of my friend Baruch Arky and his wife Zehava, whose parents are Muslim and Christian. In my mind, I feel as even those of us who know that Jews of color are prevalent within the community assume that that they can’t possibly marry or integrate with the Ashkenazim of the bunch. As Zehava says, “Before I got married, when people would try to set me up, they would often set me up with another Jew of color, without considering if we might have anything else in common.”












I couldn’t pick just one from this incredible series of photographs profiling Chinese-Israelis. These men and women come from a community of Chinese people who have identified as Jewish for generations. However, because they passed Judaism through the father, when they decided to make Aliyah, Israel wouldn’t allow them to come without converting. This did not deter the ones who were determined to move, though. After years of going through the conversion process, half a dozen of them made Aliyah, accepted fully as Jews and Israelis, and another six are studying in Jerusalem and undergoing conversion. Beautiful. Read more here.

This is an image  made a little while ago that was playing off a famous ad campaign done by Levi’s Rye that essentially used people from different races in their ads to show people who “weren’t Jewish” enjoying their bread. Time to set the record straight.