So. African Jews Have Not Suffered from Discrimination, Board of Deputies Parley Hears

Despite the concern of the South African Jewish community when the Nationalist Party came into power last year, “there has been no discrimination against Jews living in South Africa,” S.M. Kuper, retiring chairman of the South African Jewish Beard of Deputies, told the 350 delegates from all parts of the Union who are attending the Board’s 17th biennial congress, now in session here. “On the contrary,” he said, “all signs point to a resolve that racial discrimination of this kind be avoided.”

Concern on the part of many members of the Jewish community, he stated, had arisen as a result of the discriminatory Nationalist proposals of the war years but in October, 1947, he added, Dr. Daniel F. Malan, then leader of the Nationalist opposition, had affirmed that the Nationalist Party was not anti-Jewish, He reaffirmed this statement to a deputation from the Board after the elections.

“We sincerely hope this will continue to be the policy of the Nationalist Party,” Mr. Kuper declared, “that it will continue to recognize the Jews as full citizens of the Union, completely identified with the future of this country. For our part, we seek the friendship of all and would like to reestablish the friendly relation: which existed between the Jewish community and all sections of the South African population before foreign doctrines, imported from, abroad during a period of world crisis, received support in certain quarters.”

Mr. Kuper, however, expressed regret that the Nationalist Party of the Transvaal, South Africa’s largest province, still maintained its ban against Jewish membership. “The existence of this ban is a contradiction of democratic practice and profession of non-discrimination,” he declared, “We have the right to ask removal of the tan, making it possible for every Jew to join any political party in this country with equal freedom.”