Jewish Women Hold First Conference in South Africa Since Apartheid’s End

The International Council of Jewish Women held its 16th triennial convention here this week, the first international Jewish conference to be held in this country since apartheid laws were largely repealed.

Helen Suzman, a Jewish opponent of apartheid who spoke out against white-minority rule in her many years in the South African Parliament, welcomed conference delegates and talked of the nation’s dramatic transformation.

First-time visitors to this country could “witness at close quarters the transformation of South Africa from an authoritarian regime, determined to maintain minority white domination at the tip of the African continent, to a non-racial democracy,” said Suzman, holder of the honorary Dame of the British Empire award for her struggle against apartheid and for human rights.

The Union of Jewish Women of South Africa, which hosted the convention, said the meeting was significant because Jewish groups, as well as other organizations, had shunned South Africa for decades because of its white-minority apartheid regime.

Delegates from around the world listened to the keynote speaker discuss the process by which South Africa has been led to end apartheid and describe what challenges still remain ahead.

“The causes of the decision to transfer power are to be found in economic factors at home and abroad, and in the escalation of black resistance in South Africa,” Suzman said.

She also reviewed the negotiating process and its setbacks, in particular the spates of violence that have beset the country. “It is no exaggeration to say that the escalation of violence — political — as the different factions strove for power; and criminal — as unemployment increased — has become the predominant obstacle affecting the transitional arrangements,” she said.

Regarding the Jewish community, Suzman said many Jews had left in past years to protest apartheid and that many continue to leave out of fear of what may transpire in the future.

Addressing Jewish issues, Suzman said there is “a modern diaspora in South Africa as far as the Jews are concerned.”

There has been an exodus after every major crisis and, unlike the earlier emigration caused by distaste for apartheid, today Jews are leaving South Africa because they are uncertain of a future under black majority rule.