Above: Terry Kalley, Julian Wendrow, Raphael Sapeika: Remembering life near Cape Town.

Left: Ros Slater: Leaving not for a job, but for principle.

The first group of Jews to leave South
Africa en masse were doctors, because
it was easier for physicians to gain ac-
cess to the United States. Accountants
often went to Toronto because Cana-
da was more open to that profession,
Mrs. Isakow says.
There was a rush to make it here by
the late 1970s, as the United States re-
stricted the entry of foreign doctors af-
ter Jan. 9, 1977.
Restrictions were not only on the
American side.
Although the apartheid government
did not hinder the practice of Judaism
or giving money to Israel, it barred emi-

gres from taking their wealth abroad.
Many Jews who left South Africa lived
well, with servants and large proper-
ties, from which they entertained fre-
quently.
Many of Detroit's South African Jews
miss the social life of South Africa. They
say Detroit's Jewish community pro-
vides some of the same, but not on such
a grand scale.
The Maisels emigrated after years of
trying to obtain visas; they had diffi-
culty due to lingering quotas from the
turn of the century which limited the
number of South Africans who could en-
ter the United States.