Thursday, 29 May 2014

Stephen Darori and Nelson Mandela , "Long Walk to Freedom"

In the early 1940s, at a time when it was virtually impossible for a South African of color to secure a professional apprenticeship, the Jewish law firm Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman gave a young black man a job as a clerk.
It was among the first encounters in what would become a lifelong relationship between Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s  bustling liberal  Jewish community, impacting the statesman’s life at several defining moments — from his arrival in Johannesburg from the rural Transkei region as a young man to his years of struggle, imprisonment and ascension to the presidency.
Mandela,  wrote of the early job in his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” and acknowledged the disproportionate role that Jews played in the struggle against apartheid. Lazer Sidelsky, one of the firm’s partners, treated him with “enormous kindness” and was among the first whites to treat him with respect.
“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,” Mandela wrote.  When Nelson Mandela visited Israel in 1997 he specifically asked to meet , Lazer Sidelsky’s son, Rabbi Sodelsky. and  Stephen Drus ( Stephen Darori after he hebrewaized his surname ) the nephew of Professor Ethel Drus. Both of whom had immigrated to Israel in the 80′s . Rabbi Sidelsky for ideological Zionist reasons and Stephen Drus , ” I was the last of my family in South Africa and after been detained without trial repeatedly and hassled by the South African Security Police , I simply folded , gave up and  joined the Struggle to Release Mandela, in the South African Diaspora”.
Professor Ethel Drus, was a renown UCT Educated Historian, who won three Alexander Prizes for History awarded by the Royal Society of Historians ( the equivalent of the Fields Prize in Mathematics)   . Professor Drus Chaired the Committee of Twelve who drafted the Freedom Charter , the he statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of theAfrican National Congress and its allies - the South African Indian Congress, theSouth African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress. It is characterized by its opening demand; "The People Shall Govern  The committee of Twelve consisted of Three Blacks ( Mandela, Tambo and Mathews ) and Nine Jewish Academics and Civil  Rights Lawyers that included Ethel Drus, Ruth First, Abie Sachs, Joe Slovo ( Ruth’s First’s Husband) , the Bernsteins, the Lipmans ,Helen Joseph,  …). They agreed to disagree on the question of Nationalization and the Redistribution of Land that Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela felt appropriate for inclusion then but agreed to reevaluate their position in the future and after he became the first Black President, Nelson Mandela chose not to make either central to the philosophy he followed. Mandela here top Sir Ernest  Oppenheimer  advice an rather than antagonize all the Whites and Indians  pursued an affirmative action program while he  and other Jewish Business Leaders accelerated the transition of Blacks into Big Business in south Africa by  adding them to the Board of directors of JSE companies and even giving them management control of major JSE Groups like JCI – Johannesburg Consolidated Investment.
Stephen Drus was active in the Progress Federal Party that became the Progressive Federal Party in Parliament and the Official Opposition. It is the Democratic Alliance today . Stephen Drus served as both Chairman of the Progressive and then Progressive Federal Party Youth Organization in both the Western Cape and then Nationally. He was a founder and treasurer of first the short lived Mass Democratic Movement ( banned) and then the United Democratic Front and was the financial connection between the UDF  and major South African businessmen that included Harry Oppenheimer, Mendel Kaplan, Donald Gordon, Sol Kerzner , Susman of Woolworths, Ackerman of Ackermans , Yach and many other leading Jewish businessman in Cape Town in particular.   Professor Ethel Drus then Emeritus Professor of History at Southampton University in the United Kingdom who was an authority of South African banned organizations and the legislation that did so ,advised  her nephew Stephen Drus to insist that no leadership was elected to the United  Democratic  Front. And so it was .Without leadership, the Union of over 400 Anti Apartheid Organizations ( both large and small) that all called for the Release of Mandela , technically did not exists and could therefore not be banned. And so it was. the UDF  led the campaign thereafter for the Release of Mandela  and then evolved into the Grassroots Organization of the African National Congress after Nelson Mandela was released from the Victor Vester Prison  on February 11th, 1990 at 2.30 pm.
The Democratic Alliance, the liberal opposition in the new South African Democracy Parliament was led by Tony Leon  for thirteen years and currently by Helen Zille who has Jewish Grandfathers.
South Africa’s Jews remembered Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, as a close friend, one with deep ties to prominent community figures and a partner in the decades-long effort to end apartheid.
“I was extremely privileged to lead the community during his presidency,” said Mervyn Smith, who was chairman and later president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the community’s representative body. “We met with him on many occasions and the talk was direct and open.”
For Mandela, who rose to prominence as a leading opponent of the discriminatory racial regime known as apartheid, Jews were vital allies. Jewish lawyers represented him in multiple trials, and Jewish activists and political figures played leading roles in the fight.
But Mandela’s ties to prominent South African Jews were personal as well as political. The former president’s second marriage, to Winnie Madikizela in 1958, took place at the home of Ray Harmel, a Jewish anti-apartheid activist. Harmel made Winnie’s wedding dress at Mandela’s request, according to David Saks’ history “Jewish Memories of Mandela.”

When Mandela married again, in 1998, he invited Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris to offer a private blessing on the nuptials that were scheduled to take place on Shabbat.
“After a warm exchange of greetings, Rabbi Cyril spoke quietly to them and blessed them,” Cyril’s wife, Ann, wrote later. “They stood through the blessing holding hands and with eyes closed. One could almost imagine the huppah.”

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