South African Zionist Federation
Standing for Israel, then and now.
The SAZF looks after matters relating to Israel and its image in South Africa. As advocates for Israel in this country, our mission is to build strong support and love for the Land and State of Israel. This support remains powerful among the SA Jewish community and millions outside the community. We work pro-actively to reduce the amount of anti-Israel sentiment in South African political, religious, and cultural communities through education, advocacy, and lobbying.
Founded in 1898, the SAZF enabled South Africa’s Jewish community to assemble over its shared love for the piece of land that is no bigger than our famed Kruger National Park.
More than a century later, however, South Africa has become regarded as “Ground Zero” for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) that was modelled on the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. As such, the image of Israel in the media, political sphere, and society has often been misconstrued and vilified. Yet, the global campaign against Israel (particularly in South Africa), has emboldened the SAZF to remain even more committed to defending Israel and preserving her relationship with the people of Africa.
A Unified Vision.
On 11 December 1898 the first Congress of Federated Zionist Societies took place in Johannesburg, resulting in the establishment of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), the first Jewish body to achieve a countrywide organizational framework in South Africa. During the Boer War and the period immediately following it, more than eighteen Zionist societies were either founded or reconstituted.
The Cape included Ceres, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Wynberg, Simonstown, Durbanville, Beaufort West, Uniondale, Middelburg, Calvinia, Outshoorn (like Vilna in Lithuania it became known as the “Jerusalem of South Africa”).
The SAZF, headed by Samuel Goldreich, had from the beginning regarded itself as “being especially charged with the proper care of the local aspects of the Jewish question”. Goldreich laid the foundations for the pre-eminence of the SAZF in community life, declaring in his first presidential address to the first SAZF Conference in 1905: “We have deserved the name that has been bestowed on us by the Zionist Congress and Central Committee – ‘The Jewish Consulate in South Africa.’”
The SAZF since its inception has represented South African Jewry in Zionist and Israel-related matters, safeguarding their interests and assisting socially, politically and economically. The SAZF also began publication of the “Zionist Record”, its official mouthpiece, in 1908.
Consolidating the Community
Zionism was part of the spiritual baggage which Lithuanian Jews brought with them to South Africa. Some had been members of “Chovevei Zion” (Lovers of Zion) societies which sprung up throughout Russian Jewry in the 1880s and were the first organizational manifestations of Zionism as a movement aiming at the return of Jews to Zion and the restoration of Zion as a homeland for the Jews. The first Chovevei Zion society was formed in 1896 through the initiative of Moshe Weiner of Wilkomir, Lithuania.
This followed a number of prominent personalities who were either English-born or anglicized Jews of German origin who were convinced Zionists from the outset. The first president of the Chovevei Zion society was Maurice Abrahams. Another Anglo Jew was Lennox Loewe whose father was the secretary and travelling companion of Zionist philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.
Loewe’s communication with Theodore Herzl, the founding father of modern Zionism, precipitated the first gathering of the Zionist Organisation of South Africa on 10 April 1898, during which the Anglo Jews were joined by the Litvaks. Only six months after its founding there were 5000 members in Transvaal towns; and a society called Bnei Tzion (Sons of Zion).
Inspiring the Next Generation
Before 1948 and the proclamation of the State of Israel, the Youth Movements active in South Africa were Betar, Habonim, Hashomer Hadati and Hashomer Hatzir. Most Jewish youth movements were established in Eastern Europe towards the beginning of the twentieth century, motivated by the desire for the national revival of the Jewish people in their homeland.
The first Zionist youth movement was Blau-Weiss (Blue-White), established in Germany before World War I (1912) after German youth movements refused to accept Jewish members. The Jewish youth movement with the largest membership and most significant impact, though, was Hashomer Hatza’ir, with its Zionist-socialist ideology which operated in South Africa until the 1980s when the South Africa government banned the movement and arrested its members because of their anti-apartheid teachings and activism.
Women in particular played an important role in the development and sustainability of Zionist youth activity in South Africa, both through leadership within the movements themselves and through affiliated women’s Zionist organisations, which were instrumental in fundraising, education, welfare initiatives, and the promotion of Hebrew and Zionist cultural life. Figures like Katie Gluckmann and Ethel Hayman, who both served on the executive of the Federation.
Zionism in the 1940s
On 6 September 1939, the Union of South Africa followed the United Kingdom’s earlier declaration war on Nazi Germany. World War II had now officially begun and South Africa joined in the fight to liberate Europe from the tyranny of the Nazis.
South African Jews rushed to support the war effort to the maximum. The South African Jewish community jointly launched with the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies the United South African Jewish War Appeal in 1940, the proceeds of which were to be used for reconstruction of the Yishuv in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine.
Important work was done by WIZO in assisting refugee women and children. The Union of Jewish Women of South Africa, formed in 1931 and representing all sections of South African Jewish women, also raised large amounts for the Mandate. Anti-Semitism was still rife in South Africa; and the SAZF began increasing its output of information on Zionism and the Mandate.
In 1943 the Western Province Zionist Council was formed to co-ordinate and centralize Zionist endeavours in that province, as was the Natal Zionist Council. In the same year the Bulawayo Chovevei Zion arranged a conference in order to create the Rhodesian Zionist Council, which became an affiliate of the SAZF until 1964 and the establishment of the Central African Zionist Organisation (CAZO). In 1949, the Bulawayo Chovevei Zion chaired by Abe Abrahamson hosted the largest Jewish gathering in Rhodesia’s history.
In this decade, the Jewish community issued a declaration pledging support for three demands: the immediate opening of the gates of the Mandate, a Jewish Army and the re-establishment of the Mandate as a Jewish Commonwealth. More than 37,000 people signed the Declaration.
In 1946 the SAZF and the Board of Deputies organized a march of 15 000 Jews through the streets of Johannesburg to protest the British occupation of the Jewish Agency’s offices in the Mandate and the arrest of its leaders. Meanwhile survivors of the Holocaust on their way to the Mandate through Africa were assisted by the SAZF. They were refused admission to reach the Mandate and about 1500 Jews spent many years in internment camps in Mauritius.
The Palestine Emergency Fund was launched at a meeting of the South African Zionist Council with representatives from the Jewish Board of Deputies and the S.A. Jewish Appeal; and the Israeli United Appeal was launched by the SAZF in conjunction with the SA Jewish Appeal to meet the needs of the newly-established state of Israel and the Jewish refugees in Europe.
Independence and Machal Volunteers
At 4’oclock in the afternoon of 14th May 1948, before the members of the Provisional State Council in Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel. Thanks to the efforts of the Federation, South Africa then became one of the first Western nations to recognise the nascent state, granting de facto recognition ten days later, despite considerable pressure from then British Foreign Secretary Bevan for Commonwealth nations to withhold recognition from the Jewish state.
The same year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the SAZF. It was now that the Federation was decentralized and provincial councils were set up in the then Western Cape, Eastern Province, Natal, Orange Free State, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Kenya.
The Federation established Universal Airways which aimed at resolving the difficult air travel between Israel and the Union and preceded El Al as the first Jewish airline that serviced Israel. In 1948 Telfed, the SAZF in Israel, was established to assist South African volunteers in Israel in the War of Independence. The SAZF was the first western Zionist Organisation to establish its own office in Israel.
Post-War Aliyah and Development
The Federation also raised funds for the creation of a new development town near the site of the biblical city of Ashkelon as well as the restoration of the Jaffa gate in Jerusalem. With the establishment of the State of Israel, the focus of the Federation shifted to building and maintaining relationships between the governments and respective communities of South Africa and Israel.
The Six-Day War of 1967 marked a turning point for the Federation and South African Jewry more broadly. The Federation mobilised extensive communal support for Israel through emergency fundraising campaigns, public rallies, and political advocacy. At its 1967 biennial conference, the Federation adopted resolutions expressing solidarity with Israel and praising the reunification of Jerusalem. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 similarly prompted widespread communal mobilisation.
The Federation coordinated emergency relief and fundraising efforts and intensified public advocacy on behalf of Israel. The period also saw heightened Zionist identification within the South African Jewish community and renewed interest in Aliyah and Zionist youth activity.
An Unshakable Cultural Bond
During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the Federation increasingly focused on Israel advocacy and combating anti-Zionism within South African political and civil society discourse. This became particularly pronounced following the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, where anti-Israel activism and rhetoric at associated NGO forums drew widespread controversy.
In the years that have followed, the Federation has evolved into the leading representative and advocacy organisation for the South African Zionist community. functioning as a central coordinating body for public engagement on issues relating to Israel and Zionism. Its work spans strategic communications, media engagement, and proactive efforts to shape public discourse, alongside sustained engagement with political stakeholders, civil society actors, and communal partners.
An Unshakable Cultural Bond
During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the Federation increasingly focused on Israel advocacy and combating anti-Zionism within South African political and civil society discourse. This became particularly pronounced following the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, where anti-Israel activism and rhetoric at associated NGO forums drew widespread controversy.
In the years that have followed, the Federation has evolved into the leading representative and advocacy organisation for the South African Zionist community. functioning as a central coordinating body for public engagement on issues relating to Israel and Zionism. Its work spans strategic communications, media engagement, and proactive efforts to shape public discourse, alongside sustained engagement with political stakeholders, civil society actors, and communal partners.
In the wake of October 7th and the subsequent ICJ case brought by the SA government, the SAZF has shifted into its most active “defensive” era, combatting the BDS movement and representing the community at a time of extreme diplomatic tension.
During the 1975 UN Resolution 3379 (which falsely labeled Zionism as racism), the SAZF became a global frontline defender of Zionist ideology. They had to navigate the complex reality of being a Zionist organization during the Apartheid era.
On 6 September 1939, the Union of South Africa followed the United Kingdom’s earlier declaration war on Nazi Germany. World War II had now officially begun and South Africa joined in the fight to liberate Europe from the tyranny of the Nazis.
South African Jews rushed to support the war effort to the maximum. The South African Jewish community jointly launched with the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies the United South African Jewish War Appeal in 1940, the proceeds of which were to be used for reconstruction of the Yishuv in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine.
Important work was done by WIZO in assisting refugee women and children. The Union of Jewish Women of South Africa, formed in 1931 and representing all sections of South African Jewish women, also raised large amounts for the Mandate. Anti-Semitism was still rife in South Africa; and the SAZF began increasing its output of information on Zionism and the Mandate.
In 1943 the Western Province Zionist Council was formed to co-ordinate and centralize Zionist endeavours in that province, as was the Natal Zionist Council. In the same year the Bulawayo Chovevei Zion arranged a conference in order to create the Rhodesian Zionist Council, which became an affiliate of the SAZF until 1964 and the establishment of the Central African Zionist Organisation (CAZO). In 1949, the Bulawayo Chovevei Zion chaired by Abe Abrahamson hosted the largest Jewish gathering in Rhodesia’s history.
In this decade, the Jewish community issued a declaration pledging support for three demands: the immediate opening of the gates of the Mandate, a Jewish Army and the re-establishment of the Mandate as a Jewish Commonwealth. More than 37,000 people signed the Declaration.
In 1946 the SAZF and the Board of Deputies organized a march of 15 000 Jews through the streets of Johannesburg to protest the British occupation of the Jewish Agency’s offices in the Mandate and the arrest of its leaders. Meanwhile survivors of the Holocaust on their way to the Mandate through Africa were assisted by the SAZF. They were refused admission to reach the Mandate and about 1500 Jews spent many years in internment camps in Mauritius.
The Palestine Emergency Fund was launched at a meeting of the South African Zionist Council with representatives from the Jewish Board of Deputies and the S.A. Jewish Appeal; and the Israeli United Appeal was launched by the SAZF in conjunction with the SA Jewish Appeal to meet the needs of the newly-established state of Israel and the Jewish refugees in Europe.
Before 1948 and the proclamation of the State of Israel, the Youth Movements active in South Africa were Betar, Habonim, Hashomer Hadati and Hashomer Hatzir. Most Jewish youth movements were established in Eastern Europe towards the beginning of the twentieth century, motivated by the desire for the national revival of the Jewish people in their homeland.
The first Zionist youth movement was Blau-Weiss (Blue-White), established in Germany before World War I (1912) after German youth movements refused to accept Jewish members. The Jewish youth movement with the largest membership and most significant impact, though, was Hashomer Hatza’ir, with its Zionist-socialist ideology which operated in South Africa until the 1980s when the South Africa government banned the movement and arrested its members because of their anti-apartheid teachings and activism.
Women in particular played an important role in the development and sustainability of Zionist youth activity in South Africa, both through leadership within the movements themselves and through affiliated women’s Zionist organisations, which were instrumental in fundraising, education, welfare initiatives, and the promotion of Hebrew and Zionist cultural life. Figures like Katie Gluckmann and Ethel Hayman, who both served on the executive of the Federation
Zionism was part of the spiritual baggage which Lithuanian Jews brought with them to South Africa. Some had been members of “Chovevei Zion” (Lovers of Zion) societies which sprung up throughout Russian Jewry in the 1880s and were the first organizational manifestations of Zionism as a movement aiming at the return of Jews to Zion and the restoration of Zion as a homeland for the Jews. The first Chovevei Zion society was formed in 1896 through the initiative of Moshe Weiner of Wilkomir, Lithuania.
This followed a number of prominent personalities who were either English-born or anglicized Jews of German origin who were convinced Zionists from the outset. The first president of the Chovevei Zion society was Maurice Abrahams. Another Anglo Jew was Lennox Loewe whose father was the secretary and travelling companion of Zionist philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.
Loewe’s communication with Theodore Herzl, the founding father of modern Zionism, precipitated the first gathering of the Zionist Organisation of South Africa on 10 April 1898, during which the Anglo Jews were joined by the Litvaks. Only six months after its founding there were 5000 members in Transvaal towns
On 11 December 1898 the first Congress of Federated Zionist Societies took place in Johannesburg, resulting in the establishment of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), the first Jewish body to achieve a countrywide organizational framework in South Africa. During the Boer War and the period immediately following it, more than eighteen Zionist societies were either founded or reconstituted. The Cape included Ceres, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Wynberg, Simonstown, Durbanville, Beaufort West, Uniondale, Middelburg, Calvinia, Outshoorn (like Vilna in Lithuania it became known as the “Jerusalem of South Africa”).
The SAZF, headed by Samuel Goldreich, had from the beginning regarded itself as “being especially charged with the proper care of the local aspects of the Jewish question”. Goldreich laid the foundations for the pre-eminence of the SAZF in community life, declaring in his first presidential address to the first SAZF Conference in 1905: “We have deserved the name that has been bestowed on us by the Zionist Congress and Central Committee – ‘The Jewish Consulate in South Africa.’”
The SAZF since its inception has represented South African Jewry in Zionist and Israel-related matters, safeguarding their interests and assisting socially, politically and economically. The SAZF also began publication of the “Zionist Record”, its official mouthpiece, in 1908.
Theodor Herzl’s vision of a Jewish homeland inspired the emergence of organised Zionism in South Africa during the late nineteenth century. His correspondence with early South African Zionist leaders helped catalyse the founding of the South African Zionist Federation in 1898.
Jan Smuts, one of South Africa’s most celebrated and longstanding leaders, author of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the preamble of the United Nations Charter, was a close ally of Chaim Weizmann and a major supporter of Zionism.
The South African Zionist Federation played a role in supporting the restoration and development of Ashkelon during Israel’s early decades. The project reflected the deep connection between South African Jewry and the building of the modern Jewish state.
Born in Cape Town, Abba Eban rose to become one of Israel’s most celebrated diplomats and international statesmen. His extraordinary intellect and eloquent defence of the Jewish state made this South African-born figure a global icon of Zionism.
Chairman of the South African Zionist Federation and leader of Nelson Mandela’s defence team during the 1956 Treason Trial, Maisels was famously carried shoulder-high by the acquitted Trialists as they emerged from court victorious.
One of South Africa’s first female Members of Parliament, known for leading the fight for women’s rights and equal suffrage, Bertha Solomon was a staunch supporter of Zionism and Hebrew University.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel’s second-oldest and most prestigious university, underwent a major expansion in the 1930s thanks to numerous South African bequests, including a £250,000 bequest from Isaac Ochberg, at the time the largest donation ever made to Mandatory Palestine.
Since the Kibbutz movement began, South African men and women have volunteered in Israel, with numbers increasing significantly during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when many assisted in both civilian and support roles.
Founded in 1931 and named in honour of South African statesman Jan Smuts, Ramat Yohanan symbolises the deep ties between South African supporters and the kibbutz movement.
One of South Africa’s most respected Jewish public figures, parliamentarian, women’s rights advocate and the most prominent voice of the liberal opposition to Apartheid, Helen Suzman maintained a strong connection to Zionism and Israel throughout her life.
A prominent parliamentarian and vice-president of the South African Zionist Federation, Morris Kentridge was one of the leading Jewish public figures in twentieth-century South Africa. He played an important role in advancing Zionism within South African political circles and strengthening ties between South African Jewry and the future State of Israel.
Born in South Africa, Leopold Kessler became an influential early Zionist figure and was a notable attendee at the Second Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl where a precursor to the modern-day Israeli Flag was adopted.
Israel’s founding Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion played a central role in the establishment of the State of Israel and the shaping of modern Zionism. His 1969 visit to South Africa drew large crowds and reflected the deep connection between South African Jewry and Israel.
Internationally acclaimed South African singer and anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba, visited Israel in 1963 during her years in exile. Her visit reflected a period of cultural exchange and engagement between Israel and prominent African artists and leaders.
Best known as the close friend and confidant of Mahatma Gandhi, Hermann Kallenbach played an important role in Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa. He was also an early Zionist who supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland and remained deeply engaged with Jewish national aspirations.
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry of 1946 examined the plight of Jewish refugees after the Holocaust and the future of Mandatory Palestine. Its recommendation to allow 100,000 Jewish survivors into the Land of Israel became a defining moment in the struggle for Jewish statehood.