IT'S NOT ALL BLACK AND WHITE: THE SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH STORY
“I'm very proud of my South African connections. As an environmentalist, if I can use the tree as an analogy, I will tell you that for me, like most Jews, the roots of my tree are in our eternal homeland, Israel. The trunk of my tree is my formative years in South Africa, which helped to make me what I am, and my branches have taken me to Australia. Every part of that tree is important.” Robert Schneider, 1998 émigré
  
South Africans have been migrating to Australia since the late 1940s, when the Nationalist Party came to power. Subsequent migration occurred in waves triggered by cataclysmic events such as the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the 1976 Soweto Uprising. For some, the fear of living under a Black government following the first democratic elections in 1994 precipitated migration. More recently, many have emigrated to escape the increasing crime and violence.
It is estimated that between the late 1970s and 2006, almost a million Whites left South Africa. Of those, 47,000 were Jews, amounting to around 40% of the country’s Jewish community. The 2006 census enumerated 104,000 persons who were born in South Africa now live in Australia, of whom approximately 15,000 are Jewish. This figure is increasing every year.
This exhibition offers a glimpse into South African Jewish life from its beginnings around the 1840s through the development and success of the community and onto the events that led to waves of migration over the past few decades. The voices of former South Africans, now living in Sydney, give expression to a range of views and experiences. Jewish life in South Africa was characterised by a strong sense of community and an enduring connection with Israel. Jewish responses to apartheid are revealed as multifaceted, and motivations for emigration are seen to be similarly diverse. Most have integrated into Australian society with relative ease and many have made a meaningful contribution.
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