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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Jews under the Apartheid Regime, 1948-1988
Author:Arkin, A.J.ISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Africana Journal
Volume:17
Pages:271-288
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Jews
apartheid
Politics and Government
Ethnic and Race Relations
Religion and Witchcraft
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
Abstract:In the forty years under review, 1948-1988, the number of Jews in South Africa grew from 108,497 in 1951 to 119,220 in 1980, although the Jewish growth rate declined from one third of the white growth rate in 1960 to only one twentieth in 1980. The main factors affecting the growth of the Jewish population are the birth and death rates, migration, assimilation, and mixed marriages. Significant differences in education levels when compared with the total white population, a long history of urban experience, and close group identity, have resulted in considerable upward mobility for the Jewish community from the period prior to World War II until 1960. Historically, Jews in South Africa have concentrated in commerce and as entrepreneurs in manufacturing. The low proportion of Jews employed in the public service may be the result of perceived discrimination in promotion opportunities, since the origin, ideological outlook, and attitude of others to Jews and Jewish immigration had long-term consequences for the community. For at least the first half of the 1948-1988 period, Afrikaner-Jewish relations were strained, although National Party control of government led to a reduction in Afrikaner fears of Jewish 'domination' of the economy, and the creation of the State of Israel removed the question of Jewish immigration from the political agenda. In the 1980s growing concern about anti-Semitism from the right has to a large extent been neutralized by the Jewish community being increasingly perceived as part of the mainstream of white South African opinion. Ref.
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