Rise of Anti-semitism Noted at South African Jewish Congress

The serious situation caused by the growth of anti-Semitism in South Africa since 1933 was stressed today by the Executive of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies in its report to the board’s twelfth annual congress.

The report called attention particularly to the anti-Semitic policy of the Nationalist Party headed by Dr. D.F. Malan.

“For a long time past an unfriendly note has been detected in the utterances of Nationalist spokesmen and the Nationalist press,” the report declared. “Mass meetings, without a vestige of justification have declared that Jewish immigration is organized by Jewish bodies overseas and in South Africa.

“The recommendation of the Transvaal Congress that no Jew be eligible for membership in the Nationalist Party culminated in bitter attacks by Dr. Malan during debates in Parliament. Since then the more reactionary elements of the Nationalist Party have apparently been on the ascendant.”

The report declared, however:

“There have been a thousand indications that the heart and mind of the vast majority of the South African people remain sound. Their voice is heard in the utterances of liberals in and out of Parliament; in the vigorous stand taken up by leading newspapers, prominent churchmen and church organizations and by other forces directing public opinion.”