Gustav Saron will complete tomorrow thirty years of service in South African Jewry’s top administrative post — that of general secretary of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Warm tributes on this milestone in South African Jewish communal service were paid to him by communal leaders at an inter-provincial conference of the Board in Johannesburg.
Born in Johannesburg 60 years ago, Gustav Saron had a brilliant academic career at the Witwatersrand University and Oucen’s College, Oxford. Returning from Oxford, he joined the staff of the Witwatersrand University, first as lecturer in classics, subsequently as lecturer in Hebrew, and read for the Bar, where he practiced until he was invited to assume the senior Board of Deputies post in July 1936. He played the central role in South African Jewry’s defense work against Nazi propaganda in the Hitler years, and under his administration the Board expanded to become the formidable central organization of South African Jewry of the present day, Mr. Saron has represented South African Jewry at numerous overseas conferences.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
