Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa - Couverture rigide

Shimoni, Gideon

 
9781584653295: Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 1584653299 ISBN 13 : 9781584653295
Editeur : Brandeis University Press, 2003

Synopsis

A fundamental fact underlies this provocative study: the Jews of South Africa shared in the status of the privileged in a society based upon a system of legalized racial discrimination. Viewed in the broad context of Jewish history, this was a highly unusual situation. What was the Jewish experience in these circumstances? What was the political behavior of Jews as members of the white group? What were the perceived implications of Jewry's moral heritage and historical experience? How did South African Jewish leadership, lay and religious, seek to reconcile these implications with its responsibility for the safety and welfare of its own community? Based on exhaustive research, Gideon Shimoni's Community and Conscience begins with a brief description of Jewish immigration to South Africa from Great Britain and eastern Europe and the consolidation of a South African Jewish community in the early twentieth century. Shimoni then turns his attention to that community under the Afrikaner nationalist regime that came to power in May 1948, which established apartheid as a governmentally sanctioned system of discrimination based on race. The body of the book explores the Jewish community's political relationship to the Afrikaner government and its policies. Shimoni looks at the behavior or Jewish political, religious, and educational institutions, South African Zionism and ties to Israel, and Israel-South African relations in the global arena. The author documents the apparent paradox that while many whites who actively opposed apartheid were Jews, few Jews were active opponents of apartheid. He seeks to explain both the largely bystander comportment of the Jewish community and the contrasting major role of Jews in all forms of resistance to apartheid. Balancing the more predictably conservative views of many Jewish institutions are riveting portraits of dozens of liberals and leftist radicals who worked to dismantle the apartheid regime. From the other side, Shimoni's look at black perceptions of the Jewish community (including the increasingly antagonistic views of the Muslim minority) suggests the contradictions of being Jews under apartheid, where, as whites, they had many privileges but, as Jews, raised strong and sometimes negative feelings in non-Jews, both white and black. Shimoni concludes his book with a discussion of new directions for the Jewish community in post-apartheid South Africa.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Présentation de l'éditeur

A fundamental fact underlies this provocative study: the Jews of South Africa shared in the status of the privileged in a society based upon a system of legalized racial discrimination. Viewed in the broad context of Jewish history, this was a highly unusual situation. What was the Jewish experience in these circumstances? What was the political behavior of Jews as members of the white group? What were the perceived implications of Jewry's moral heritage and historical experience? How did South African Jewish leadership, lay and religious, seek to reconcile these implications with its responsibility for the safety and welfare of its own community? Based on exhaustive research, Gideon Shimoni's Community and Conscience begins with a brief description of Jewish immigration to South Africa from Great Britain and eastern Europe and the consolidation of a South African Jewish community in the early twentieth century. Shimoni then turns his attention to that community under the Afrikaner nationalist regime that came to power in May 1948, which established apartheid as a governmentally sanctioned system of discrimination based on race. The body of the book explores the Jewish community's political relationship to the Afrikaner government and its policies. Shimoni looks at the behavior or Jewish political, religious, and educational institutions, South African Zionism and ties to Israel, and Israel-South African relations in the global arena. The author documents the apparent paradox that while many whites who actively opposed apartheid were Jews, few Jews were active opponents of apartheid. He seeks to explain both the largely bystander comportment of the Jewish community and the contrasting major role of Jews in all forms of resistance to apartheid. Balancing the more predictably conservative views of many Jewish institutions are riveting portraits of dozens of liberals and leftist radicals who worked to dismantle the apartheid regime. From the other side, Shimoni's look at black perceptions of the Jewish community (including the increasingly antagonistic views of the Muslim minority) suggests the contradictions of being Jews under apartheid, where, as whites, they had many privileges but, as Jews, raised strong and sometimes negative feelings in non-Jews, both white and black. Shimoni concludes his book with a discussion of new directions for the Jewish community in post-apartheid South Africa.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Brandeis University Press
Date d'édition
2003
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
1584653299
ISBN 13 
9781584653295
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
264
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780864866202: Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0864866208 ISBN 13 :  9780864866202
Editeur : David Philip Publishers, 2003
Couverture rigide