racial segregation are very much in
place: the race classification legisla-
tion, the Group Areas Act, restricting
certain races to certain areas, and
political rights of blacks remain to be
addressed. To claim that blacks and
coloureds have the same rights and
opportunities as whites is gravely
untrue.

owhere is the contrast be-
tween blacks and whites
as vivid as in the black
townships just outside —
but never within — South
Africa's major cities. The areas often
resemble the aftermath of an earth-
quake. Under constant watch of police
and soldiers, who circle the townships
in massive tanks, arming certain
residents with guns as long as
broomsticks, the situation here often
boils. And with the unrest, townships
like Soweto, just outside of Johan-
nesburg, have captured international
headlines, inspiring the world to put
political and economic pressure on
South Africa to change its ways.
But there are South Africans, in-
cluding Jews, who resent the world

ZIONISM
vs.
APARTHEID

Scratched onto a wall at the
University of Cape Town, a mostly
white, liberal university built into
a mountain overlooking South
Africa's oldest city, was the slogan
"ZIONISM = APARTHEID."
The same words are found on
posters and buttons at demonstra-
tions all over Europe and even in
the United States. But here in
South Africa, the words are
somehow more powerful. And the
condemnation from the Jewish
community of such accusations is
quick and clear.
"You have to look at the results
of apartheid and Zionism," said
Gaby Stein, 22, a medical student
at UCT. "Apartheid is a system
designed to entrench minority rule.
The result of Zionism is Israel,
with freedoms of movement and
speech. The result of apartheid is
quite different."
Apartheid, South Africa's
system of racial segregation, was
the creation of the Afrikaners, the

pressure and quite frankly would
prefer the rest of the world to mind its
own business.
"All those Jews sitting in Detroit
haven't got a clue of the complication
of the problem," said Rabbi M.A.
Kurtstag, of B'nai Akiva in Yeoville,
a small religious area in Johan-
nesburg that in some ways resembles
Oak Park. "To say that Jews are part-
ners to oppression here is untrue. To
charge Jews for policy in South Africa
is wrong. I'm confused by the Jews in
America fighting apartheid without
any consideration of the Jewish corn-
munity here."
But Jews outside of this country
have long had trouble understanding
how Jews can remain in a place where
the vast majority lives under oppres-
sion. The Jewish response to South
Africa is by no means monolithic.
While many Jews choose to leave,
there are many left behind who
vehemently fight apartheid. Among
these, the most prominent is the op-
position leader, Helen Suzman, South
Africa's longest sitting member of
parliament, who has spent most of
her life fighting discrimination.

Dutch-descended Calvinist im-
migrants who first landed in Cape
Town in 1652 and now make up the
majority of South Africa's five
million whites. Like the Jews,
which make up two percent of the
white population, the Afrikaans
people are a tight community. They
are responsible for creating this
system of apartheid, a system
designed by the Nationalists who
came to power in 1948 to enshrine
South Africa as an Afrikaner na-
tion by preserving for them perma-
nent political domination.

Ari Paikin:
A realist's viewpoint.

South Africa became for the
Afrikaners what Israel, founded
the same year, was for Jews — a
homeland and the fufillment of a
biblical dream.
But unlike the Israeli pioneers,

"The role of the Jew here is the
same as any person who objects to in-
justice and racial discrimination,"
said Suzman. "But not all Jews are
liberals, though a lot of Jews are."
As part of a general swing to the
right, individual Jews have come out
increasingly in support of the Na-
tional Party of President P.W. Botha
that created apartheid. Then there
are others who don't care either way
about apartheid,and still others who
resent even being asked the question.
Most are unashamed about living
in South Africa. "This is one of the
few countries in the world that
guarantees religious freedom;' said
Evan Bloom, 21, a law student in
Johannesburg, active with the Jewish
Students University Program.
"Because I live here, I don't necessari-
ly support apartheid. I'm indifferent
to it because it doesn't affect me."
There are hundreds of Jews pro-
udly fighting in the South African
Defence Force. "I could have packed
up and gone long ago;' said Colin Bid-
dle, a corporal in the SADF. "I didn't
want to. It's out of my own free will
to stay here and support the govern-

pushing for a free homeland for the
Jews, the Afrikaners rallied behind
two concepts: maintaining white
supremacy and guarding their
culture against perceived oppres-
sion by English speakers, roughly
40 percent of the whites.
In 40 years, the platform has
been power and jobs for Afrikaans-
speaking whites. The party has
kept a tenacious grip on power,
gaining support of the English-
speaking while building the legal
structure of apartheid.
Unlike South Africa, where
whites alone maintain power, in
Israel, (as South African Jews are
quick to point out) Druse, Bedouins
and other Moslims serve in Israel's
parliament.
"They're two totally different
issues," said Dr. Stephen Cohen,
director of the South African Board
of Jewish Deputies. "To equate
them is an oversimplification of the
issue. Apartheid was deliberately
created to separate, denying
political participation. Israel is in
different circumstances."
A main source of the connec-
tion made between Zionism and
apartheid is the strong financial
and military ties between Israel
and South Africa. But survival,
South Africans say, is the key to

ment in power and to serve the SADF.
This country has given me every-
thing, a home, an education. It's given
my parents life and me life. I feel I owe
this country something. This is my
country. As Jews, we're treated very
well here, with a lot of respect. My
parents will grow old here in South
Africa, and I'll be here for a good long
time."
But "growing old" seems aptly to
describe South Africa's Jews. For of
those who are leaving, the majority
are in their twenties. It is the elderly
who remain. "The community will
dwindle:' admitted Rabbi Kurtstag.
"It won't be liquidated but it will be
smaller and the structure will
change. We'll need more old age
homes and fewer schools. But all that
depends on the political outcome."
As close as this community is,
everyone has a brother, sister, cousin,
aunt or uncle who has left. But not
everyone can leave. There are those,
even in this wealthy community, who
cannot afford to. "Do you understand
the cost involved in relocating?" ask-
ed Dr. Stephen Cohen, director of the
South African Jewish Board of

these relations.
Made up mostly of arms and
commercial trading, the relation-
ship is one South African Jews are
often called upon to defend to the
oppressed blacks of South Africa.
One who is often found defending
this relationship is Jewish politi-
cian Helen Suzman, an opposition
parliament member for 37 years.
"I do my best to explain to the
blacks that Israelis do not support
race discrimination or support
apartheid. The relationship is one
of survival. Israel receives
numerous resources from South
Africa that they can't get
anywhere else and South Africa
receives numerous things from
Israel that they can't get anywhere
else."
Some understand why the con-
nection is made but still condemn
such contentions.
"If you look at Zionism from
the outside;' said Ari Paikin, 20, a
commerce student in Johan-
nesburg, "It seems racist. We ex-
clude ourselves. We don't inter-
marry and we want a Jewish state.
But it's a matter of survival. We
won't stop others from doing what
they want, but we have to sur-
vive." ■
L.O.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

25