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CLOSE-UP

Dark Skies

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Deputies. Cohen, father of two, is not
sure if he'll ever leave South Africa.
"My grandparents are buried here.
But I don't know where my children
and I will be buried. But wherever I
go, I'll still be South African!'
Despite the difficulties, both
financial and personal, in leaving,
leave they do. Many college graduates
barely finish their final exams when
they find themselves on a plane
north, east or west.
"For young people, leaving this
country has become less of a trauma.
It's fashionable," said Shira Zimmer-
man, 24, who left the comforts of her
home in Johannesburg last year to
live on a kibbutz in Israel. "In Israel
you're allowed to demonstrate and
won't be arrested, and you can be a
part of an organization. In South
Africa, if you join a leftist group, your
house is searched and you're likely to
be detained!'

.

commerce student in Johannesburg.
"We should care for Jews and Jews on-
ly. What did it do for the Jewish
Americans to support black rights if
they end up with an anti-Semite like
Jesse Jackson who stabs them in the
back? Jews in the States should spend
more time protesting for Soviet Jewry
than against apartheid. Don't get me
wrong; I sympathize with the blacks,
but if I stood up, the next thing I'd be
dead!'
But for all those who choose not
to cry out, there is a strong core of
Jewish activists daring to scream.
They are working everywhere — from
soup kitchens, to college campuses, to
parliament — hoping to speed up the
pace of change. Though only two per-
cent of the white population, South
Africa's Jewish community is well
represented in nearly all progressive,
anti-apartheid movements, including
Black Sash, UDF, Parents of De-
tainees and Jews for Justice.
As active as Jews are, they don't
deny their fear that a multi-racial or
black government may be hostile
towards Israel and the Jews.
"I don't mind a black govern-
ment," said Gordon. "As long as
there's freedom of religion?'

But under the government's strict
regulations, students here are not
allowed to campaign for release of de-
tainees. It's frustration from such
situations that pushes people to move.
And most Jewish college students
said they were giving up. "I'm leav-
ing next year," said Trevor Levens-
tein, - 22, a commerce student in
Johannesburg. "There's nothing I can
do here to help the situation and I

I

A young girl walks home through a black
township.

It's fear of such repercussions that
keeps much of South Africa's Jewish
community silent. They may oppose
apartheid, but they are not willing to
risk being sent to jail fighting it.
"If we stand up and protest, we
get arrested," said Yael Gordon, 19, of
Johannesburg. "Lack of freedom of
speech doesn't bother us. There's
apartheid everywhere in the world.
But I certainly don't want to get in-
volved. We're happy here. We have
everything. We treat the blacks well.
They live well here. The Americans
are very narrow minded!'
Some feel getting involved
politically will have negative reper-
cussions for the Jewish community.
"If we protest, it will be very bad
for the Jews;' said Ari Paikin, 20, a

931DAY

5 1988

n few places is the voice of
Jewish opposition to racial
descrimination as loud as on
the college campus. At the
University of the Witwater-
srand ("Wits") in Johannesburg, a
radical campus made up of 12,000
whites and 3,000 blacks and col-
oureds, the South African Union of
Jewish Students is the largest stu-
dent organization, with some 2,000
members.
In some ways, their activities mir-
ror those of American Jewish campus
organizations (Israeli dancing, Soviet
Jewry Week, etc.). And like U.S.
groups, South Africa's Jewish
students are used to run-ins with the
Moslem students.
But unlike an American campus,
in South Africa, protest usually leads
to run-ins with the police, tear gas,
water cannons, arrest and detention.
At present, there is an ongoing con-
cern about the fate of Raymond Sutt-
ner, 42, a law lecturer and anti-
apartheid activist at Wits who has
been detained since June 12, 1986,
the day South Africa first initiated
the state of emergency. He is the on-
ly Jew, in fact the only white male, to
have been held that long — put into
complete isolation for the last year.

A township road is closed during a recent
"stayaway."

can't live here and be a part of it.
Whether blacks are in power or
whites, this country is going down!'
For those who choose exodus,
especially those who go to Israel, no
one holds them back. "If a Jew is not
content here," said Rabbi Kurtstag,
"they should take their suitcase and
m _ ake aliyah."
But it isn't just to Israel that
young South Africans are running.
They are flocking to Australia, a
country some South Africans now af-
fectionately term "the new Israel!'
And they are a growing community
in England and Canada, particular-
ly Toronto.
But such moves aren't without
criticism.
"They have made the chicken
run;' said Joe Suskin, 31, a writer in

Johannesburg, who watched his
closest friends leave South Africa one
by one. Suskin chooses to remain, feel-
ing the urgent need to help in the
fight to eradicate apartheid. "They
are cowards," he said of those who
have left.
But the emigrants say it was not
cowardice but helplessness. "We
always felt uncomfortable with the
political situation and helpless to do
anything," said Anne Solomon, a
social worker from South Africa who
came to the United States with her
husband Hugh 11 years ago and is
now settled in Ann Arbor. "We knew
it wasn't right and wasn't what we
wanted for our children . . . as Jews,
we weren't as connected to the land
as the Afrikaners, (the Dutch-
descended immigrants who settled in
South Africa three centuries ago)!'
Some said the parents have the
most difficult situation; as their
children are literally scattered
around the globe. "I'm one of the
lucky ones. I still have two children
here," said Elsa Zimmerman, who has
a daughter in Israel, a daughter plan-
ning the move and another son and
daughter remaining in South Africa.
"I have friends who are left alone
here. In another year, I'll decide
whether to follow my children to
Israel. But I have dual loyalties," she
said, pointing to the pictures of her
grandchildren on the shelf. "My five
grandchildren are here!'
As varied as the South African
Jewish response to the present situa-
tion is, even more diversified are the
visions of the future:
"Things are going to change for
South Africa. The question is how
violent is it going to be said Shira
Zimmerman.
"South African society as we
know it will die," said Michelle Cox-
head, 23, secretary for the South
African Union for Jewish Students at
Wits.
"The government is liberalizing,"
said Corporal Biddle. "I believe things
will only get better. So tell the bloody
Yanks that if they want to criticize
this country, they better come over
and have a look before shooting off
their mouths!'
"Most people that leave are com-
ing back," said Ari Paikin, a claim
made by many but rarely substan-
tiated by numbers.
"There will always be Jews here,"
'said Gary Zolty, 21, a dental student
at Wits. "But it will be a small com-
munity. At least until the moshiach
comes — and let him come soon!' ■

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