Shain’s seminal work on anti-Semitism, wins prestigious prize

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

CAPE TOWN

Pictured: The cover of Emeritus Professor Milton Shain’s “A Perfect Storm: Antisemitism in South Africa 1930-1948”.

Published by Jonathan Ball, the book is the second volume in a trilogy that Shain is writing on the history of anti-Semitism in this country. 

Jewish Report asked Shain, emeritus professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town, if he foresaw a possibility of the “Jewish Question” taking centre stage in this country as it did during much of the period described in the book.

“I don’t think the ‘Jewish Question’ will ever revive. It’s transformed maybe into the ‘Zionist Question’ insofar as the overwhelming number of Jews are pro-Israel, not necessarily always agreeing with the government’s actions, but want a Jewish state.

“That ’Question’ could develop, it may be manipulated, but the ‘Jewish Question’ as such and anti-Semitism, I don’t see evolving in South Africa in the foreseeable future.

“There’s a celebration of diversity, of cultural difference,” he explains. “There’s also a long history of struggle and in that long history, prejudice, racism is just not acceptable in the same way, so the idea of classic anti-Semitism getting a foothold in South Africa today is unlikely.”

But, he repeats: “It can be done in a mutation of old anti-Semitism into anti-Zionism, which in itself doesn’t have to be anti-Semitic, but often is informed by the old rhetoric of classic Jew hatred.”

Shain notes that the period under review has attracted relatively little scholarly interest. “It’s such a novel area of South African writing, except for Gidi Shimoni who has a chapter in his excellent ‘Jews and Zionism – the South African Experience’, written 35 years ago.

“Besides that, we know there were troubles in the ‘30s, but this is much deeper and hopefully more insightful than previously devoted to the subject,” he states.

“It allows one to see the unfolding and the contingencies of hatred – how it appears and then lessens by 1948.”

Shain refers to the “great paradox” of D F Malan (who in 1948 became the National Party prime minister) introducing the Quota Act of 1930, designed to keep out eastern European Jews on the grounds of their being “unassimilable”.

In 1955, Malan writes the foreword to Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams’ “The Birth of a Community”, where Jews are suddenly being seen as a model for white South Africans to maintain their identity in an African continent which is decolonising.

The author feels that Malan was “certainly driven” to his actions by the pressure exerted by the “radical right” who moved the “Jewish Question” from the margins to the centre of South African politics.

“In 1938, the general election really played it in a big way which people have minimised in the past,” he points out, explaining: “In South African historiography, minorities are not looked at until recently, in the new South Africa where there is this awareness of culture and celebration of diversity.”

Malan, when in opposition, had in turn pressurised the United Party, who eventually introduced the Aliens Act in 1937 which effectively stopped German Jews coming to the country. “This was a very frightening period for the Jews,” Shain states, referring in addition to the presence of groups “aping Fascism” such as the Ossewabrandwag.  

The lessons of history were evidently not lost on the judges who stated in making the award: “In a time when violent xenophobia regularly rears its ugly head across the country, the continent and the globe, this marvellous book is a timely reminder of what can happen when politicians in pursuit of power demonise a vulnerable group.”