Jewish Leaders Say No Split Exists Between Johannesburg and Cape Town Communities

Jewish leaders here today denied a report in the London Jewish Chronicle alleging that a state of tension exists between the Jewish communities of Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The report alleged the existence of a sharp quarrel over whether the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations should participate in the funds to be collected in the forthcoming united Jewish campaign for South African Jewish needs. It claimed that the Board’s recent Congress excluded the Union from participation in this drive, but that the executive, “sitting in Johannesburg,” had reversed the decision of the Congress and “feeling in Cape Town was strongly aroused by this high-handed maneuver.” The report further accused the Board of Deputies of trying to impose the Union on the community in an attempt to ensure “that Jewish ecclesiastical life throughout South Africa would be ordered and ruled by an oligarchy in Johannesburg.”

Responsible community leaders today emphasized that the Board of Deputies is not seeking to “impose” the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations on an unwilling community and that there has been no “reversal” of any Congress decision by the Board’s executive, since no decision was in fact taken by the Congress to exclude the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations from the nation fund-raising campaign.