The decision of the Nationalist Party of the Transvaal to withdraw its ban against Jewish membership was hailed today in a statement issued by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. The ban, the statement said, had “brought no credit to South African public life” and should never have been introduced. It expressed the hope that elimination of the discrimination will represent the “disappearance of the last vestige of the so-called Jewish question from the public life of this country” and reaffirmed that the only healthy position is one where the Jews are free to support any political party according to their convictions.
Dr. Colin Steyn, leader of the United Party in the Orange Free State, the party formerly led by the late Field Marshal Jan C. Smuts, welcomed lifting of the Nationalist ban in an interview published in the newspaper Die Vaderland. “I considered the ban a stigma on our public life and to the highest degree undesirable,” he declared. “Now, what I have always regarded as a canker on society, has been eradicated. I am glad of this because that canker could damage the South African people more than anything else. We are a small people and we must seek to make friends.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
