OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Shain, Milton"

Browsing by Author "Shain, Milton"

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Open Access
The foundations of antisemitism in South Africa : images of the Jew c.1870-1930
(1990) Shain, Milton; Bradlow, Edna
Historians of South African Jewry have depicted antisemitism in the 1930s and early 1940s as essentially an alien phenomenon, a product of Nazi propaganda at a time of great social and economic trauma. This thesis argues that antisemitism was an important element in South African society long before 1930 and that the roots of anti-Jewish outbursts in the 1930s and early 1940s are to be found in a widely-shared negative stereotype of the Jew that had developed out of an ambivalent image dating back to the 1880s. By then two embryonic but nevertheless distinctive images of the Jew had evolved: the gentleman - characterised by sobriety, enterprise and loyalty - and the knave, characterised by dishonesty and cunning. The influx of eastern European 'Peruvians' in the 1890s and the emergence of the cosmopolitan financier at the turn of the century further contributed towards the evolution of an anti-Jewish stereotype. By 1914, favourable perceptions of the Jew, associated mainly with the acculturated Anglo-German pioneer Jews, had eroded substantially and the eastern European Jew by and large defined the essence and nature of 'Jewishness'. Even those who separated the acculturated and urbane Jew from the eastern European newcomer exaggerated Jewish power and influence. Herein lay the convergence between the philosemitic and the antisemitic view. War-time accusations of avoiding military service, followed by the association of Jews with Bolshevism, consolidated the anti-Jewish stereotype. In the context of the post-war economic depression and burgeoning black radicalism, the eastern European Jew emerged as the archetypical subversive. Thus the Rand Rebellion of 1922 could be construed as a Bolshevik revolt. As eugenist and nativist arguments penetrated South African discourse, eastern European immigrants were increasingly perceived as a threat to the 'Nordic' character of South African society as well as a challenge to the hegemony of the English mercantile establishment. Nevertheless antisemitism in the crude and programmatic sense was rejected. The 1930 Quota Act ushered in a change and heralded the transformation of 'private' antisemitism into 'public' antisemitism. While this transformation was clearly related to specific contingencies of the 1930s, this thesis argues that there is a connection and a continuity between anti-Jewish sentiment, as manifested in the image of the Jew prior to 1930, and anti-Jewish outbursts and programmes of the 1930s and early 1940s. In short, anti-Jewish rhetoric at this time resonated precisely because a negative Jewish stereotype had been elaborated and diffused for decades.
Open Access
The history of Yiddish theatre in South Africa from the late nineteenth century to 1960
(2003) Belling, Veronica; Shain, Milton
This dissertation sets out to investigate the history of Yiddish theatre in South Africa. Yiddish theatre first emerged in Jassy in Rumania in 1876. However with Czarist persecution and the great Jewish migration from Eastern Europe, the 1880s it had spread to Western Europe, the Americas, and South Africa. This dissertation attempts to answer the question as to why of all Eastern Europe's diasporas, Yiddish theatre at no stage put down permanent roots in South Africa. It aims to prove that the survival of Yiddish theatre was entirely dependent on the survival of the Yiddish language. Thus the fate of Yiddish theatre in South Africa was influenced by the early timing of the formative immigration, between 1890 and 1914, the common origins of the immigrants in Lithuania and White Russia, and their educational and cultural poverty. These factors were reinforced by the exclusive adherence of the Anglo-German Jewish establishment and the vast majority of the immigrants, to Zionism and the Hebrew revival. Yiddish was unequivocally rejected, so that it never featured in the construction of South African Jewish identity. Finally the Quota Act of 1930, reinforced by the Alien's Act of 1937, put a total halt to Eastern European Jewish immigration, the lifeblood of Yiddish theatre.
Open Access
The holocaust and apartheid: similarities and differences: a comparative study
(2004) Peires, Juliette; Shain, Milton
In recent years it has become fairly commonplace to make comparisons between the Holocaust and Apartheid. This dissertation explores similarities and differences. It acknowledges that both systems were rooted in ideas of race, but while the tools used by the Nazis in Germany and the apartheid government in South Africa are superficially similar, their very different objectives brought about radically different outcomes once their policies were enforced. The dissertation opens with a discussion of the methods used by each of the different systems to define the victim races, and justify their inferior status. In Germany the reasons given were the desire to preserve the pure Aryan volk and protect the volkisch culture. In South Africa the stated premise was that each 'ethnic' group would best realise its full potential if it was encouraged to preserve its integrity and promote its own culture. In both countries separation was followed by deprivation of citizenship. Under German rule Jews were rendered stateless and expelled as far as possible from the Reich. In South Africa 'blacks' were made citizens of 'ethnic homelands'. Unlike the German Jews, South African 'blacks' had at least some kind of nominal right to equality in their designated 'homelands'. Freedom of movement was restricted and residential segregation enforced in both countries. Jews, previously prominent in the cultural, academic and economic life of Germany, were impoverished and dehumanized. 'Blacks' in South Africa were locked into their role of unskilled, manual labourers, a position that they had occupied since the beginning of 'white' settlement in the Cape. Initially Jews were confined to ghettos, eventually to labour and death camps. In South Africa people of colour were forcibly removed to rural 'homelands'. However the demand for cheap labour eventually necessitated their admission to the urban industrial areas, and although they were restricted to living in 'townships' their exclusion was never total and their physical destruction was never contemplated. In both countries government controlled local authorities kept tight rein on the administration of the residential areas that were demarcated for the disadvantaged. In Nazi Germany the SS appointed Judenrate (Jewish Councils) to administer the ghettos. These councils were used to secure the peaceful acquiescence of Jews en route to the death camps. Eventually the councillors were killed together with the people they were supposed to govern. In South Africa town councils were established for local government in the townships, but these councils were unsuccessful because they were government controlled and illegitimate. Their purpose was to administer the separate development areas, not to pave the way for eventual extermination of their inhabitants. In neither Germany nor South Africa did churches play an active role in preventing discrimination and injustice. In Germany this was simply a continuation of the traditional attitude of anti-Judaism nurtured by the refusal of Jews to convert to Christianity. In South Africa missionaries worked hard to convert 'blacks' to Christianity, but Dutch Reformed Church ministers believed that it was God's will that 'black' and 'white' should be kept separate, church services were strictly segregated, and this was in keeping with the apartheid ideal. With regard to the media, both Nazi Germany and the apartheid regime backed those sectors of the media that promoted negative images of Jews and 'blacks', while censoring those that were more liberally inclined. The fundamental differences between the Holocaust and apartheid became most apparent in their terminal stages. Whereas Nazism led to genocide, the leitmotif of apartheid was cheap labour, not planned extermination. The Nazis created death camps and designed advanced technology especially for the purpose of speeding up mass murder and body disposal. Apartheid killings in South Africa were carried out by traditional means on an individual basis and not by large-scale extermination techniques. The killings in South Africa were directed only at opponents of the regime and not for the purpose of exterminating a specific ethnic group. This dissertation presents two case studies of racist ideology which promoted discrimination and the elevation of a 'superior' race at the expense of the disadvantaged. In Germany this resulted in a programme of genocide whereas the apartheid system in South Africa, though intended to service the material interests of the ruling group, nevertheless proved dysfunctional and sowed the seeds of its own demise.
Open Access
Jesus' resurrection : a history of its interpretation from Reimarus to the present
(2006) Aggett, Michael; Wanamaker, CA; Shain, Milton
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).
Open Access
Justice and identity : the 'non-Jewish Jew', cosmopolitanism and anti-apartheid activism in twentieth century South Africa
(2008) Pugh-Jones, Alana Frances; Shain, Milton
Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-90).
Open Access
Mass murder and motivation : the Rwandan genocide
(2007) Aamaas, Åsmund; Shain, Milton; Adhikari, Mohamed
This project is about mass murderers and the motivation for becoming perpetrators of mass murder. The Rwandan genocide is chosen as a case study. The project strives to explain what seems inexplicable; why tens of thousands of Rwandan men and women turned into killers during the hundred days of genocide in 1994, most of them with no history of murderous behaviour. This project is a testimony to the human capacity for evil. The motivations behind the Rwandan perpetrators were probably not umque. Similar motivations were important to different mass murders. Other mass murders, most importantly the Holocaust, serve as a theoretical and empirical backdrop throughout this thesis. This adds a comparative dimension to the study. This thesis is divided into six chapters with the main focus upon three motivational factors behind the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide: history, ideology and ordinary human traits. The first chapter introduces us to the topic of mass murder and discusses methodological issues in connection with the thesis. A qualitative analysis will be dominant in investigating the data; the data was gathered through interviews undertaken in Rwanda, South Africa and Norway, reports, documentaries, court verdicts and other secondary sources. In the second chapter, perpetrators behind one massacre, the killing of several thousand Tutsis at the Catholic Church in Nyarubuye, speak about their motivations for becoming perpetrators. The third chapter gives an introduction to the history of Rwanda and shows how distinction between Hutus and Tutsis became an ever more important part of Rwandan society from pre colonial times until the 1994 genocide. The fourth chapter builds an understanding of the importance of ideology for the perpetrators involved in the mass murder. The fifth chapter shows that general psychological traits were important for turning tens of thousands of Hutus into mass murderers. As we shall see in the conclusion, a history of distinction, Hutu Power ideology and ordinary psychological traits were all factors motivating the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Open Access
Muslim anti-Zionism and antisemitism in South Africa since the Second World War, with special reference to "Muslim news
(2002) Bastos, Margo; Shain, Milton
This study examines South African Muslim attitudes towards Zionism and Jews since the Second World War, focusing in particular on Muslim News/Views, a national Muslim owned community newspaper. Prior to the War, Muslim attitudes were informed largely by religious teachings. Limited contact in a racialised society allowed stereotypes to evolve. In the main, Muslims consolidated their own identity and engaged with the challenges of living in a Christian society.
Open Access
A study of the nature and development of orthodox Judaism in South Africa to c.1935
(1996) Simon, John Ian; Shain, Milton
This dissertation examines the manner in which Orthodox Judaism developed in South Africa from the foundation of the first congregation in 1841 up to about 1935, and considers what distinctive features, if any, characterised South African Judaism. Locating the emergence of South African Judaism within the context of Western and European Judaism, the dissertation examines the interaction which developed between those Jews who derived from Anglo-Jewry and, to a lesser extent, from German-Jewish stock, on the one hand, and those who came from Eastern Europe, particularly after 1880, on the other hand. At all times, the impact of the wider South African context on the nature of South African Judaism is considered. The harsh realities of the need to make a living in what was at, first an alien environment led to South African Jews having to abate, if not entirely abandon, the canons of strict religious observance. The dissertation examines in greater detail the main centres where the Jewish communities established themselves. Particular attention is given to Cape Town and Johannesburg where the larger communities had set themselves up, but the opportunity is also taken to examine smaller communities such as Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Kimberley. There were also particular features of the so called "three digit communities", i.e. those having no more than a thousand souls, which constituted an important section of the South African Jewish community, those who settled in the smaller country towns and whose religious life took on a certain character. The dissertation then proceeds to examine the principal influences which determined how the South African Jewish community took shape. Amongst these influences were the authority of the Chief Rabbinate of the United Kingdom, which was particularly important whilst the community consisted primarily of Jews of Anglo-Jewish origin; and the way in which this influence gradually lessened as the community became more independent and as the Eastern European section began to predominate. The background and mind-sets of the Jews from Eastern Europe played a very important part in the way the community shaped itself. Other influences which were brought to bear included the Zionist movement, the internal authority of the important religious figures and institutions such, as the Ecclesiastical Courts, Batei Din, and the influence of particularly important charismatic and influential lay leaders. A fairly close examination is conducted of the most important religious leaders during the period under review. A special chapter is devoted to the issue of proselytism and the way in which it presented itself and was perceived and encountered by the South African Jewish community. The dissertation concludes with some general arguments contending for the homogeneity of the South African Jewish community; with some indication as to what identifiable characteristics it assumed and how its future would have been viewed in 1935; the comments bringing the matter up to the modern day.
Open Access
Tracing Hitler, the rise of Nazism and the final solution : observations from the Cape Times, 1933-1945
(2009) McNally, Samuel; Shain, Milton
This study intends to look at the Cape Times' coverage and editorial response to the Nazi regime's treatment of Jews from its rise to power in early 1933 to its demise in 1945 at the end of World War II. As such, this paper follows a path broken by Andrew Sharf and his study of British press reaction to Nazi atrocities committed against Jews, Deborah Lipstadt and her book analyzing American press coverage of the same, and Sharon Friedman's thesis on the Afrikaner press' treatment of Nazi Germany and the Jews. In acknowledging these predecessors, it is essential to explain why this study of the English South African press, in the form of the Cape Times, is necessary.
Open Access
Two far south : the responses of South African and Southern Jews to apartheid and segregation in the 1950s and 1960s
(2003) Mendelsohn, Adam D; Shain, Milton; Phillips, Howard
This dissertation uses the comparative historical method to compare and contrast the responses of Southern and South African Jews to apartheid and segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. It focuses on the interrelationship of the two communities with reform rabbis and international Jewish organizations. The dissertation argues that the nature of individual and institutional responses was significantly shaped by exposure to a set of factors common to the South and South Africa. The dissertation is thematic, employing a variety of case studies. The dissertation begins by examining the effect of frontier conditions on reform rabbis. The author argues that the dispersed reform pulpits prevalent in these two contexts, and the type of rabbi that they generally attracted, served to inhibit civil rights activism. Differential exposure to these conditions, together with the presence of various liberating features, determined the risks and opportunities that frontier rabbis encountered. Thereafter, the dissertation analyzes the interactions of the Southern and South African Jewish communities with northern-based national Jewish organizations (in the case of the former) and international Jewish organizations (in the case of the latter). The author compares the interplay of the Southern lodges of the B'nai B'rith with the Anti-Defamation League, and the interrelationship of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies with various overseas Jewish groups. Whereas in the first section, rabbinical responses in the South Africa and the South are analysed together, here the two communities are dealt with separately. The author argues that the responses of external organizations were shaped by pressure from constituencies in the South and South Africa. These pressures competed with other philosophical and political considerations in determining policy towards segregation and apartheid.

Browsing by Author "Shain, Milton"

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