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NEWS
Ongoing Cemetery Desecration in South Africa Cause
Concern
by D. Saks
Jewish leaders in South Africa are expressing concern that
isolated Jewish cemeteries in the small rural towns are being
singled out for vandalization. This comes in the wake of the
desecration of the Vereeniging Jewish cemetery last month, in
which forty gravestones -- more than a fifth of the total --
were severely damaged, many beyond repair. The attack was a
recent occurrence, since a former resident had visited the
cemetery only a few weeks prior to this and found everything
in order. Other recent acts of vandalism have been recorded
in Riversdale and Heidelberg, and also in Cape Town.
The South African Jewish community has often expressed its
thankfulness at the fact that, compared with other Diaspora
communities, levels of antisemitism in their country are
relatively low. However, the frequency of the attacks on
country Jewish cemeteries is beginning to undermine this
confidence.
Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, spiritual leader to the country
communities, is among those who believe that the targeting of
specifically Jewish cemeteries for destruction indicated that
the incidents cannot be written off as pure vandalism. He
acknowledged that in most recorded cases of cemetery
desecration there had been no direct evidence of
antisemitism, such as offensive graffiti, and that in
addition, adjoining general cemeteries had also sometimes
been targeted. The fact remained, however, that vandalizing
non-Jewish graves was by comparison relatively rare and in
addition such graves had seldom been damaged to the extent
that Jewish ones had been. This strongly suggested that
Jewish graves were indeed being singled out specifically
because they were Jewish.
Jewish country cemeteries are very vulnerable because today
very few Jews still live in the South African rural
districts. It therefore falls on the Country Communities
Department of the S. A. Jewish Board of Deputies, which is
based in Johannesburg, to take over the upkeep of the country
Jewish cemeteries. There are well over 200 of these spread
out around the country, amounting to some 20,000 graves in
total.
Vereeniging, which is still run by its own committee, does
not fall under the jurisdiction of this department. Rabbi
Silberhaft nevertheless had made a point of visiting its
Jewish cemetery when he was in the area, and prior to the
attack he had become concerned about the deteriorating
situation there. Among other things, he noted that the
surrounding fence and the doors and door frames of the
ohel had been stolen.
The most serious incident of cemetery desecration to have
taken place in recent years in South Africa occurred in
Lichtenburg in late 1999. At that time, nearly all the
tombstones in the Jewish cemetery, along with a handful of
graves in the adjoining general cemetery, were badly damaged.
The culprits -- three white teenagers -- were subsequently
caught, charged and convicted and the cemetery was afterwards
restored by the S. A. Jewish Board of Deputies. To minimize
future vandalism, as well as normal day-to-day weathering,
the new stones were laid flat in a bed of concrete. A number
of other country Jewish cemeteries, such as Aliwal North's,
have also been restored in this way under Rabbi Silberhaft's
supervision.
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