The bad news? Whites must move out of their pristine houses in the suburbs and into the township slums presently occupied by blacks.
The good news? With theft and burglary at an all-time high in South Africa, the whites don’t need to take much to the slums. Most of their possessions are already there.
That joke reflects a deep-set fear in the community, a fear that the privileged life Jews have enjoyed on the southern tip of Africa is about to end, despite the lofty ideals of the new government.
When apartheid was dealt its death blow a few years ago and Nelson Mandela took the helm after 27 years in prison, the world applauded loudly.
Jews applauded too, although an estimated 40,000 Jewish emigres were far from African shores by that time. The 90,000 Jews who remained were comforted by President Mandela’s reflections on South Africa’s Jewish community in his book, “Long Walk To Freedom.”
“I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice,” he wrote.
The country’s new Bill of Rights enshrines religious liberty and Mandela’s government has repeatedly distanced itself from anti-Semitism. But problems remain, and Jews are divided in their outlook on the future of South African Jewry.
“Jews have an important role to play in building up the country,” said Jonathan Silke, chairman of the Western Province Zionist Council.
“We have a true democracy now, where Jews can participate in the decision-making process. Provided we can overcome crime and stabilize the economy, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a bright future in South Africa.”
Others aren’t so optimistic.
But the division is nowhere clearer than in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the two main hubs of Jewish life.
For Johannesburg residents, crime and violence have reached intolerable proportions. Fears reign in Johannesburg, the effect strikingly apparent in the suburbs.
Neighborhood communities have resorted to recruiting the services of 24-hour armed guards, building gates and walls around their communities of homes, and erecting barriers at a single entrance point to a dozen or more houses.
Murder and rape are splashed across the newspaper on a daily basis.
It’s all too much for Alan Wolmer, a 28-year-old accountant who is relocating his wife and toddler to Australia, in search of a better life.
Wolmer cites high crime, the low standard of education and political turmoil as his prime reasons for leaving.
“I don’t feel comfortable letting my wife go out at night, what with all the hijackings,” he said.
“And they’re not just taking cars…they’re shooting and raping too. People say, `Overseas, there’s crime too.’ But it’s not violent crime, not like it is here. In Johannesburg, you have to be on the lookout for danger constantly.”
Wolmer recalled a happy childhood in the suburbs, where he rode his bicycle to school every day and lived a relatively peaceful life.
Today, Wolmer’s apartment block is surrounded by electric fences, with a 24-hour guard that won’t allow unexpected visitors to enter the complex.
Despite the fear, Johannesburg still represents the most dynamic and the largest center of Jewish life in Southern Africa.
The Lubavitch and Or Sameach movements are growing, with the latter attracting a significant following among thirty-somethings.
The city is home to the largest contingent of the country’s Orthodox Jews, many of whom moved here from other parts of southern Africa to live among Jews with a similar level of religious observance.
Instead of leaving the country, however, a number of Johannesburg Jews are moving to Cape Town, an act that some refer to as “climbing the mast on a sinking ship.”
Foremost among the threats in Cape Town is a militant Islamic group that calls itself People Against Gangsters and Drugs.
The group’s genesis a few years ago seemed credible enough, but it resorted to violence and murder to achieve its ends, thus robbing itself of legitimacy and refuting its noble-sounding title.
A small but vocal group within PAGAD has disconcerted Cape Town’s Jewry with its vehemently anti-Zionistic sentiments, loudly expressed in demonstrations on Israel’s 50th birthday celebrations and on Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Death to Jews,” its placards read.
Despite these occasional outbursts, Cape Town Jews are more positive than their Johannesburg counterparts about the future of the new South Africa.
Perhaps the best indication of a flourishing community is its growth and development. By the end of next year, construction of South Africa’s first Holocaust memorial center will be complete, as will a new South African Jewish museum, a new Jewish library and a new sociocultural center.
Enrollment is increasing at Herzlia, Cape Town’s Jewish day school, which boasts 90 percent of the city’s school-age Jews.