Confronting antisemitism in the courts

Last Friday, encouraging progress was made in the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ (SAJBD’s) ongoing fight against online antisemitism when the Randburg Magistrate Court issued an interim protection order against one Jan Lamprecht.

This was in response to an application by SAJBD Gauteng Chairperson Professor Karen Milner, who earlier this year lodged a case of crimen injuria against Lamprecht for persistently propagating virulent antisemitism on his website and other online platforms. Milner applied for the order after Lamprecht had posted her personal details along with disparaging comments about her on his website, resulting in her receiving hate mail.

The SAJBD has to choose carefully when deciding what cases of online antisemitism to take on given how much time and resources it inevitably takes to follow each case through. We need to identify the incidents that are of an especially serious nature before making such a decision. The Lamprecht matter is one such instance. An unapologetic purveyor of pro-Nazi, white-supremacist, and radical antisemitic ideologies, this individual has over many years disseminated material that not only demonises and defames Jews in the most extreme terms, but even justifies and by implication encourages lethal attacks against them.

As frequently stressed in this column, the SAJBD prefers to follow the route of restorative rather than punitive justice when confronting the perpetrators of antisemitism. This means we would rather achieve resolution through the perpetrator/s admitting fault, sincerely apologising for the offence, and undertaking to educate themselves about the dangers of antisemitism and other forms of prejudice. While this approach is effective when addressing more ad hoc, isolated cases of antisemitic abuse, where the guilty party doesn’t have an obvious track record of such behaviour, conciliation and education isn’t appropriate when confronting died-in-the-wool, crusading antisemites who persistently propagate hatred and even incite harm against Jews. For this reason, we decided to lay a criminal charge against Lamprecht, with a view to call him to account for his actions and compel him to desist from repeating them in the future.

Remembering Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”tl

Along with the global Jewish community, we were saddened by the sudden passing of former United Kingdom Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”tl. Rabbi Sacks visited South Africa on various occasions, including in 1997, when he was the keynote speaker at that year’s SAJBD national conference. A theologian, philosopher, and thought leader of true international stature, his influence went far beyond the confines of the Jewish world. He was a great ambassador for Judaism through his extensive writings, public speaking, and interfaith activism, bringing its moral, ethical vision not just to his fellow Jews but humanity at large. At a time of rising concern over religious extremism, he eloquently argued that the diverse religious traditions of humankind should be a unifying force through which people of all backgrounds could confront the challenges of our times in a true spirit of compassion, humility, and mutual respect. While his untimely passing is a painful loss, Rabbi Sacks’ legacy will endure and the example he set will surely inspire all those who follow in his footsteps.

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