The apparent complicity of South African Jews with apartheid rule is of social scientific interest in that it is unexpected. Pronounced left-liberalism is considered to be the default position of Jewish politics in Western societies. Yet in South Africa, while a small minority of Jews were conspicuous players in left-radicalism, the vast majority of Jews seem to have complied with the discriminations and injustices of apartheid. This thesis challenges the commonplace assumption that the political records of SA Jewry under apartheid refutes the oft-noted pattern of left-liberalism among modern Jews in the Diaspora. I argue that political actions do not necessarily reflect political values, especially under authoritarian regimes. Jews may strongly subscribe to liberal values, but, as a result of pressures both extrinsic and intrinsic to their particular communities, be less able or less willing to express these values in a politically overt manner than Jews elsewhere. I suggest that, in the South African case, voting patterns and official postures obscure rather a Jewish preference for liberal values. The Jewish community in SA while unusually cohesive was, like other Diaspora communities, not monolithic. The ???united front??? presented by the Jewish community in apartheid SA disguised a predictably diverse range of political opinion. It is appropriate that our quest to understand and explain political values goes beyond that which is openly expressed and peers into the shadows of political behaviour. The point is not to morally redeem the South African community, whose record, after all, may still be found wanting. Rather, it is to recognise that hidden in the official deliberations and directives, and in the domestic dilemmas and incidental actions of SA Jews, is the material from which we may form a fuller picture of SA Jewish political values. More generally the case highlights the complexity of studying, comparing, and generalising about political behaviour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258473 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Leibowitz, Louise, Social Sciences & International Studies, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Social Sciences & International Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Leibowitz Louise., http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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