Chief Rabbi Bernard Casper has admonished a group of Jewish students not to assume that the problem of racial injustice in South Africa “is the special burden and responsibility of the Jewish community and its leaders.” Rabbi Casper, who heads the Federation of Synagogues, was replying to 23 Jewish students at Witwatersrand University who had accused him in an open letter of closing his eyes to racial injustice. The students criticized Rabbi Casper for saying in a Rosh Hashana message that South African Jews were grateful for the hospitality shown them in their country.
Rabbi Casper said in a published reply, “Would you suggest that the small Jewish minority in this country should embark upon a Jewish crusade for the solution of the issues arising from South Africa’s demographic composition and political system? As citizens, it is your right and perhaps your duty to be involved in these matters, but you have no right to speak as though this is the special burden of the Jewish community and its leaders.”
Rabbi Casper, defending his Rosh Hashana message, added: “When I reflect on the conditions in which three million Jews live in the Soviet Union, when I think of Jews in Arab lands, above all, when I consider our recent past, it seems to me that there is nothing improper or immoral in saying that the Jews of South Africa feel grateful for living in this country. We live as full citizens while showing our concern for our brethren in every part of the world.”
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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.
