Despite a teeming rain, thousands of Johannesburg Jews closed their shops and crowded into synagogues and an open air stadium to pray for the salvation of European Jewry and to demand action to bring about their rescue.
Marking a nation-wide Day of Protest, called by Jewish organizations, a monster mass meeting was held in the Wanderers Stadium here with Minister of Justice Colyn Stein, the Bishop of Johannesburg and other notables, Jewish and non-Jewish, participating. Similar meetings, on a smaller scale, were held in other principal cities of the Union.
Mr. Stein told the meeting here that it is imperative that the United Nations act immediately to save the Jews of Europe. He emphasized that the persecution of Jews was not merely a “Jewish question,” but one which affected the entire democratic world, “since unless Nazism is destroyed, other nations will suffer as grievously as the Jews.” C. H. Clayton Bishop of Johannesburg, said that he brought a message of sympathy and solidarity from the Christian Church “which joins with you in mourning and in your determination that the enemy’s plans be foiled.” Bishop Clayton stated that he felt that the South African Government was not doing all it might to aid refugees and urged an unceasing fight against anti-Semitism, now and after the war.
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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.
