So. African Board of Jewish Deputies Holds Golden Jubilee Congress

The Governor General of South Africa, Dr. E. G. Jansen, and Minister of Transport Paul Sauer were, representing Premier Daniel F. Malan, were among the major speakers at the Golden Judilee Congress Dinner of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies here this week-end, which opened the organization’s congress. Other guests at the dinner, which was held at City Hall, included high government officials, Mayors of many of the Union’s major cities, the Minister of Israel, Jewish leaders and some 400 congress delegates from all parts of the country.

Dr. Jansen told the diners that South Africa appreciated the great contributions the Jews had made to the development of commerce and industry, the arts and sciences and other fields in the country, In the country, he stressed, the Jews were valued as highly as they themselves valued South Africa. Referring to Israel, the Governor-General declared that what the Jews were achieving there could be held up for the admiration of the world.

Minister Sauer were conveyed the government’s greetings to the gathering and stressed the many common aspects of the background and life of the Afrikaans and Jewish peoples including their deep religious convictions asserting that the Afrikaans were “an Old Testament race.” Another major speaker was Canon Reeves, Bishop of Johannesburg, who spoke of the “unfailing generosity of the Jewish community to all races and creeds in this country in their need.”

Edel J. Horowitz, chairman of the Board of Deputies, who reviewed at the dinner –which was broadcast over the national radio network — the history of the Jews in South Africa, declared that they were deeply sensitive to the friendship which always existed between them and all other communities in South Africa, He stressed that the Jewish community would always remember the part played by the late Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts in the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration and the assistance given Israel by the present South African Government.

Earlier, at the formal opening of the congress, Mr. Horowitz told the delegates that relations between the Jews and all other section of the population had improved vastly and that the “legacy of the Hitler period” was largely wiped out and the “intrusion into political life of unfriendly attitudes to the Jewish community was now a thing of the past.” The delegates at the opening session unanimously adopted resolutions greeting Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her coronation and hailing the people and Government of the State of Israel.