Jews against apartheid
JVL Introduction
On 1st March 2011 the postal services of Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone simultaneously issued a set of three commemorative postal sheets in memory of twelve South African Jews who fought Apartheid.
The stamps came out thanks to the efforts of Grant Gochin, a Jewish South African-born, Los Angeles-based money manager. Seven of the twelve activists Gochin chose to honour were women and eight were Communists, while at least half the names are likely to be new to most British opponents of apartheid.
It would be fascinating to know how the three African governments were persuaded to participate in the project and how selection of those commemorated on the stamps was made. Probably only its originator can tell us and we hope Gochin will share that story one day.
In he meantime, we have this wonderful postal tribute to South African Jewish anti-apartheid activists.
Reproduced below is Jonah Lowenfeld’s contemporary article, containing detail about those appearing on the stamps as well as more overarching information about Jewish involvement in South Africa’s internal anti-apartheid struggles.
“The Voice of International Lithuania” website adds further information, reposted below.
[31 August 2021: this intro was rewritten in the light of information received.]
This article was originally published by Jewish Journal on Wed 13 Apr 2011. Read the original here.
African stamps honor Jews who fought apartheid
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These comrades, like the fighters of the International Brigades, are our heroes and should be revered for all time.
What a wonderful story. Thank you for unearthing it. The exclusion of Joe Slovo and Ronnie Kasrils is telling.
The choice of people to commemorate looks rather arbitrary. It includes one of the white Rivonia Trial defendants – Rusty Bernstein – but none of the others, that is, Denis Goldberg, Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe, James Kantor and Bob Hepple. Of these, Goldreich and Wolpe escaped from prison before the trial, James Kantor was let out (he was the decent but totally apolitical brother in law of activist Wolpe, who was only arrested as revenge for Wolpe’s escape) and Hepple was also released, whereupon he jumped bail and fled the country. This left only Goldberg and Bernstein as the white defendants who actually stood trial. And of the two of them, only Goldberg was jailed (for life, but served twenty two years) while only Bernstein got a stamp.
The stamps also include a remarkable number of women – seven out of the twelve – including two who were activists in their own right, but who have mostly been portrayed as the wives of activists, namely Hilda Bernstein and Norma Kitson. By contrast, David Kitson, another Jew, who served twenty years in a South African jail. is also not remembered in the stamps.
The stamps also celebrate many Communists (eight out of the twelve), and do so openly and unapologetically: Eli Weinberg, Esther Barsel, Hymie Barsel, Ray Alexander, Norma Kitson, Ruth First, Hilda Bernstein and Rusty Bernstein. In addition Baruch Hirson was a Trotskyist, and Yetta Barenblatt was a trade union activist (who married a member of the CP, though, as far as I can find, she wasnt), while Helen Suzman can be described as a liberal and Ronald Segal as an independent socialist.
So, irrespective of the Zionism of the person who instigated this project, he seems to have achieved something very inspirational, giving credit especially to women and Communists . Pretty remarkable, it seems to me. I wish I had a set of those stamps!
How marvellous that Norma Kitson should be remembered in such a way.
I remember her as the driving force behind the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group which, in the 1980s, organised a non-stop picket outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square. I also remember her in a much darker way: Norma and her husband, David, were betrayed by British trade union leaders who reneged on a promise to provide him with a job at Ruskin College, Oxford , when he was released after 20 years in a South African prison. Hard-line bigots in the British Communist Party demanded that David should repudiate the campaigning activities of Norma – and when he refused to do so he, too, became an “unperson”.
At the time, I was a union organiser among journalists and recall a visit by one of the London representatives of the African National Congress. He was most insistent that I and other members of the NUJ should not support the Kitsons. Years later, I discovered that this ANC “representative” was really working for the South African government and betraying the struggle against apartheid.
Norma and David Kitson were people of outstanding courage and integrity – and are rightly honoured. But the way they were treated by people who never spent a day in jail or endured a moment of torture, should also be remembered – not in a spirit of revenge but because we should be cautious about those who are rigid and doctrinaire in their political judgements.
It is a measure of the greatness of Nelson Mandela that after his release from prison he made sure that the suspension of the Kitsons’ members ship of the ANC was rescinded.
Thank you for posting this article, which someone forwarded to me. I am not a member of JVL.
I am certain I have a set of the stamps somewhere back in Cape Town. I found them on sale at Milnerton Flea Market (ex-Capetonians will know it )
I remember visiting the grave of Ruth First in Maputo a few years ago. The cemetery needs some attention, the place is overgrown and full of puff adders. It is where a number of others killed at that time are also buried.
My Mothers cousin Jack Tarshish was arrested in April 1963, and convicted on trumped up charges and subsequently sent to Prison for 12 years. Ethel de Keyser his sister was banished from SA and ended up serving as The Secretary for the Anti Apartheid Movement ( UK ). He ran his late fathers business from a Building they owned on Caledon Street. Opposite the main Police offices in Cape Town. He would gather information from cleaners working in the building and pass this on.
Jack would sometimes purchase a ticket in my Mothers name for the Union Castle weekly mailboat service. My mother would board the ship ( very well dressed of course ) accompanied by a “Porter”.When the departure whistle was blown, my Mother would leave the ship and return to shore, leaving the “Porter” hiding in the Cabin until the ship had left SA waters. Many in the SA Jewish community made their own quiet contributions like paying school or medical fees or supporting the many grassroots organisations working to improve lives in the townships.
There is a wonderful book “Cutting Through The Mountain. Interviews with SA Jewish Activists” All the AAM records, posters in Ethel’s possession , and all the personal correspondence between Ethel and Jack, The correspondence she had with many others were donated to The Bodlean Library which has a large archive of AAM materials.
What a sneering, churlish comment from Naomi Wayne “So, irrespective of the Zionism of the person who instigated this project, …….I wish I had a set of those stamps!”
When I find the stamps, the Jewish Museum in Cape Town or Lillislief in Jo’burg would be a perfect place for them. Or maybe the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria.
Ex South Africans might be interested in a documentary film called “The Snowball Rolled South “ made by Lithuanian TV. It looks at the story of the Jewish emigration from Lithuania to South Africa, from early life, WW2, the contribution to Israel, to those who made a contribution to ending Apartheid, and post 1994. I believe a copy is available at the Beit Hafutzot Museum in Tel Aviv.
This is a highly interesting and informative article, with its insights into some differences as also within the knowledgeable responses of colleagues. Thank you Jewish Voice for Labour for again contributing to my education. As a stamp nerd, I rushed off and bought the set of the heroes. The only one familiar to me and probably to most is the great and famous Helen Suzman. It is obvious that there were many heroes resisting apartheid. The original South African version may have been slightly worse than the variant of apartheid within Israel now, but everyone should now have moved on.
Oh and the lesson of apartheid is that it came to an end.
I am totally baffled by your correspondent, Claude Coopersmith who described part of my comment as ‘sneering’ and ‘churlish’. In case anyone else reads something into what I wrote that wasnt intended, I am not a Zionist, and was making the point that any disagreement over Zionism that I might have with Gnochin didn’t stop me seeing his stamps project as brilliant in its own right. And in a rare foray onto ebay, I have since bought the stamps!
My old friend Joel Joffe was not only a quietly determined foe of apartheid in South Africa, but made an enormous contribution to British life when he came here after organising the Riivonia Trial defence.
He told some of his story on Desert Island Discs:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0084b4l
His memorable account of the Rivonia trial is here:
https://sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/joel_joffe_the_state_vs._nelson_mandela_the_tribookos.org_.pdf