Why Do Most South African Jews Support Trump?

Entrance to the Lion’s Shul in the Johannesburg suburb of Doornfontein, once largely Jewish, with seven functioning synagogues early last century. Today, only the Lion’s Shul is still open and serving Jewish South Africans. (Photo by Heather Mason.)

The first South Africans I ever met were fellow Jews, and through decades of friendship and several visits to this country, I’ve had quite a bit of exposure to South African Jewish life. I’ve been to wedding, unveilings, kosher delis, parties, religious services, and numerous recounting of the way life for Jewish South Africans has grown so much more difficult and perilous, not from their fellow citizens, almost all of whom are fine, but from their government.

South African Jews have been here for a very long time, several centuries for sure. As in America, immigration from the late 19th century through WWII greatly increased their numbers, until they were a significant portion of the the White population, which itself was at slightly over 15% for a generation or more up through the 1980s. (Now about half that much.) Jews could have been close to a quarter of the Whites at one point, or close to 5% of the total population. Since the ANC (African National Congress) took power in the post-apartheid era (1994), the Jewish population has been reduced to no more than 1–1.5%., or 50,000–70,000 out of…