Jewish writers defend Holocaust horror tweet

TALI FEINBERG

Media and political commentator Kim Heller and academic and historian Dr Rebecca Hodes, voiced their controversial opinions in the media since the Mngxitama tweet: “For those claiming the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative think about the lampshades and Jewish soap.” He later followed up with: “The aroma of the burning flesh from the furnace of the holocaust may wet (sic) the appetite of the SA cannibals.”

Heller wrote in “Condemn all holocausts” on the New Age Online website: “The Jewish community in South Africa is especially bad at self-reflection. The fate, fortunes, and fortitude of South African Jews have on the whole been erected on an exclusive fortress of protectionism and group solidarity, and it is an insular and inward-focused community which does not look kindly on critique from outsiders…”

 “I have great respect for him as a politician,” said Heller to the SA Jewish Report, referring to Mngxitama. She feels the “Jewish community should sit down with radical black leaders” to engage on societal issues in this country.

Her view is that “South African Jews, like all whites, have not been unknowing onlookers in the degradation of the human rights and dignity of black South Africans, but active, culpable beneficiaries of oppressive racist regimes in this country,” and for those reasons, they should only stand up for themselves if they stand up for others.

In response, the SAJBD’s David Saks said: “It appears that only Jews are required to prove their broader human rights credentials in order to be taken seriously when they raise the question of anti-Semitism,” he said.

He added that Heller’s “blanket condemnation of an entire community” and “sweeping negative generalisations” would be regarded as “racist if levelled against any other racial, ethnic or religious group”.

Heller’s article came hot on the heels of another opinion piece in the Daily Maverick by Hodes, who chose the angle of agreeing to “herald Mngxitama’s call” to look at the benefits of the Holocaust.

While it invoked strong emotions and condemnation, a close reading of Hodes’ piece demonstrates that she was trying to unpack and explore how such a statement could have been made, which is what “any good historian should do”, she said.

And in an e-mail to the SA Jewish Report, Hodes wrote that “of course I think Andile is dangerously loony, and that the tweets were abhorrent”.

She adds: “It’s peculiar to me how some of the more angry reactions have focused on me, rather than what I’ve written. There are two broad categories of the nastier reactions: 1. You’re too clever; 2. You’re not clever at all,” said Hodes to the SA Jewish Report.

“In the first, there’s an allegation that academic language is exclusive and irrelevant, with little to offer by way of insight on public affairs. In the second, there’s an allegation that I’m an illegitimate scholar, that I don’t have the right professional credentials to write about history.

The “Holocaust gave to us a contemporary archive of how easily forms of hatred – racism, homophobia, xenophobia and anti-Semitism – can be combined in the service of tyranny, and in the hands of articulate fascists.

“If anything, let Mngxitama’s recourse to history be a reminder of this.”

After reading Heller’s article, Hodes said: “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of elected Jewish leadership or of other formations in the Jewish community, to condemn all anythings (sic). I don’t think we should require Jews to be more morally culpable or socially responsive than others: this is another side of Jewish exceptionalism.”

Heller said she would welcome an opportunity to engage with the Jewish community, “to reflect on ‘other holocausts’ with the same compassion as our own”.

She said that “all whites are guilty of apartheid complicity” and that the Jewish community should sit down with Mngxitama instead of taking him to court.

When pressed on the graphic, shocking nature of his tweet, she again said that “it has been criticised out of context” and that she cannot respond to it in isolation. In response to both Hodes’ and Heller’s articles, Saks said that “the right of the Jewish community to dignity and equality, is an absolute one. This is in no way conditional on what Jews and/or its representative organisation choose to say or do.”

Saks pointed out that “it is palpably untrue that the SAJBD only speaks out when Jewish rights are violated. Anyone who takes the trouble to check its record, will find that it regularly condemns bigoted behaviour against other groups (including the Muslim community and foreign nationals)”.

He concluded: “Strongly implied throughout Heller’s intemperate attack is the notion that as a group that benefited under apartheid and colonialism, Jews in South Africa have no right to protest when their own rights to dignity are infringed, and indeed are guilty of hypocrisy for doing so.

“That historically speaking, Jews, as part of the ‘white’ population, did indeed benefit under those unjust systems, is common cause. However, this in no way provides a licence for people like Mngxitama to make racially demeaning and hurtful comments about them.”

On Tuesday the SAJBD launched an Equality Court case against Mngxitama. In its court papers it said it wanted the court to impose a fine of R150 000, order Mngxitama to apologise on Twitter, remove the offending posts and participate in an education programme at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre.