South African Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form the twelfth largest Jewish community in the world, and the largest on the African continent. As of 2020, the Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town estimates 52,300 Jews in the country. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies estimates that the figure is closer to 75,000.SA Jewish history South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Retrieved on 18 December 2023 As of 2026, the Jewish Agency for Israel estimates that the figure is 61,000.Hoffman, Alan (30 January 2026). Strengthening the Jewish Story in South Africa Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved on 5 June 2026.
The history of the Jews in South Africa began during the period of Portuguese exploration in the early modern era, though a permanent presence was not established until the beginning of Dutch colonisation in the region. During the period of British colonial rule in the 19th century, the Jewish South African community expanded greatly, in part thanks to encouragement from Britain. From 1880 to 1914, the Jewish population in South Africa grew from 4,000 to over 40,000. South African Jews have played an important role in promoting diplomatic and military relations between Israel and South Africa. South Africa's Jewish community peaked in the 1970s with an estimated 120,000 Jews living in the country. The Soweto uprising in 1976 and racial tensions led to an increase in Jewish emigration.Racial Unrest Spurs White Emigration From South Africa Washington Post. 14 May 1977 Since the end of apartheid, Jews have continued to emigrate, mostly to developed countries in the English-speaking world such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as a significant number emigrating to Israel. As of 2021, it is estimated that 92% of the Jewish population on the African continent is concentrated in South Africa.
History Portuguese exploration The first Jews involved in the history of South Africa were explorers, cartographers and astronomers who were employed by the Portuguese Crown. These men were employed in attempts by Portugal to discover a sea route to the Indian subcontinent. Jewish cartographers in Portugal, many of whom were members of the Portuguese upper class, assisted explorers Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India in 1488 and 1497, respectively.
Dutch colonial era In 1652, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a colonial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope under the direction of Jan van Riebeeck. Among the settlers in the colony were a number of non-practising Jews who lived in Cape Town. The first records of Jews living in the colony were a baptism record of two Jewish settlers living in the Western Cape on Christmas Day, 1669. Despite this, Jewish immigration to the colony remained small in number due to the VOC requiring all its employees and settlers to be Protestant. In 1803, the Dutch colonial authorities granted religious freedom to all inhabitants and prospective migrants; when the British invaded and occupied the colony in 1805, they issued a confirmation of this policy the next year.
British colonial era Jews did not arrive in significant numbers at Cape Town before the 1820s. The first congregation in South Africa, the Gardens Shul, was founded in Cape Town in September 1841. The first service was held on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) at the home of Benjamin Norden on the corner of Weltevreden and Hof streets. Benjamin Norden, Simeon Markus, together with a score of others arriving in the early 1820s and '30s, were commercial pioneers, especially the Mosenthal brothers—Julius, Adolph (see Aliwal North), and James Mosenthal, who established a major wool industry. By bringing in thirty Angora goats from Asia in 1856 they became the founders of the mohair industry.
Aaron and Daniel de Pass were the first to open up Namaqualand. From 1849 to 1886 they were the largest shipowners in Cape Town, and leaders of the sealing, whaling, and fishing industries. Jews were among the first to engage in ostrich-farming and played a role in the early diamond industry.
Jews also played a part in early South African politics. Julius Mosenthal (1818–1880), brother of the poet Salomon Hermann Mosenthal of Vienna, was a member of the Cape Parliament in the 1850s. Simeon Jacobs (1832–1883), was a judge in the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope. As the acting attorney-general of Cape Colony, he introduced the Cape Colony Responsible Government Bill and the Voluntary Bill (abolishing state aid to the Anglican Church) in 1872. Saul Solomon, leader of the Cape Colony Liberal Party, has been called the "Cape Disraeli." He was invited into the first Responsible government, formed by Sir John Molteno, and declined the premiership itself several times.
At the same time, the Jews faced substantial antisemitism. Though freedom of worship was granted to all residents in 1870, the revised Grondwet of 1894 still debarred Jews and Catholics from military posts, from the positions of president, state secretary, or magistrate, from membership in the First and Second Volksraad ("parliament"), and from superintendencies of natives and mines. These positions were restricted to persons above 30 years of age with permanent property and a longer history of settlement.
All schools taught in a Christian and Protestant spirit. Before the Boer War (1899–1902), Jews were considered uitlanders ("foreigners") and excluded from the mainstream of South African life.
A small number of Jews who settled among the rural white Afrikaans-speaking population became known as Boerejode (Boer Jews). Instances of intermarriage were generally accepted.
After the South African gold rush began in 1886, the number of Jews rose. In 1880, the Jewish population numbered approximately 4,000; by 1914 it had grown to more than 40,000.Aubrey Newman, Nicholas J. Evans, J. Graham Smith & Saul W. Issroff, Jewish Migration to South Africa: The Records of the Poor Jews' Temporary Shelter, 1885-1914 (Cape Town: Jewish Publications-South Africa, 2006) . So many of them came from Lithuania that some referred to the population as a colony of Lithuania; Johannesburg was also occasionally called "Jewburg".Martin Gilbert, The Jews in the Twentieth Century, (New York: Schocken Books, 2001).
Second Boer War Jews fought on both sides during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), and Jewish soldiers, such as British Army officer Karrie Davies, participated in some of the most significant engagements of the conflict, including the siege of Ladysmith. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought in the war on the British side, and The Spectator reported that 125 of them were killed in action during the conflict. On the opposing side, roughly 300 Jews served on the Boer side; collectively they were known as the Boerjode (Boer Jews). Jews who lived in the Transvaal and South African Republics and held citizenship rights were conscripted along with other residents of the republics (known as burghers), though other Jews volunteered. Jews fighting on the Boer side participated in many of the major engagements of the war, and continued to fight in the guerrilla phase of the conflict as bittereinders; 12 Boerjode are known to have been killed in action, while 80 were captured by the British. Captured Boerjode were held in prisoner-of-war camps in South Africa, Ceylon, Saint Helena, Bermuda and India.
Union of South Africa During this era the South African Jewish politician Morris Alexander would be a notable community figure. In 1906 he helped pass a law that had Yiddish reclassified as a European language as opposed to a Semitic one. This prevented Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants from being stopped on racial ground, which has been a frequent occurrence.
Although South African Jews were granted equal rights after the Second Boer War, they again became subject of persecution in the days leading up to the Second World War. In 1930, the Quota Act, passed by the South African government, was intended to curtail the immigration of Jews into South Africa. The vast majority of Jews immigrating to South Africa during this period came from Lithuania. The census of 1936 recorded a total of 17,684 Yiddish speakers in the Union of South Africa with 11,528 of them living in the Transvaal. The 1937 Aliens Act, motivated by a sharp increase the previous year in the number of German Jewish refugees coming to South Africa, brought such migration to almost a complete halt. Some Jews were able to enter the country, but many were unable to do so. A total of approximately six-and-a-half thousand Jews came to South Africa from Germany between the years 1933 and 1939. During this period, many Afrikaners sympathised with Nazi Germany due to their anti-British sentiment, and organisations such as Louis Weichardt's "Grayshirts" and the pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwag were openly antisemitic. In the South African Parliament, the opposition National Party argued that the Aliens Act was too lenient and advocated a complete ban on Jewish immigration, a halt in the naturalisation of Jewish permanent residents of South Africa and the banning of Jews from certain professions.The Rise of the South African Reich – Chapter 4
After the war, the situation began to improve, and a large number of South African Jews emigrated to Israel. South African Jews in Israel number around 20,000 in the 21st century.The Columbia Gazetteer of the World: P to Z - Page 3471, Saul Bernard Cohen - 2008 During this time, there were also two waves of Jewish immigration to Africa from the island of Rhodes, first in the 1900s and then after 1960. (Encyclopedia of Diasporas, Vol 2)
In this period, Jewish activism in South Africa also included attempts to secure the position of Jews overseas. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, a correspondent for the South African Medical Journal reported on the systematic oppression of Jewish medical professionals in Germany. These actions included denial of graduations for Jewish medical students, employment bans, forced resignations, raids on a Jewish medical association, and violent attacks on individual doctors. The report concluded that the actions of the Nazi regime likely had the tacit support of the German medical establishment and ended with the request that South African doctors protest the actions.
Jewish Economic Upward Mobility The overall Economic Upward Mobility of Jewish South Africans has evolved severely over time. Beginning with the early immigration to South Africa throughout the discoveries made of diamonds and gold, Jewish immigrants found their place in the fields that benefited from these discoveries. Specifically, opportunities were found in fields such as retail, mining, and manufacturing. These Jewish immigrants who found their place in these fields worked their way up the totem pole, benefiting from communal mutual aid programs to lift one another up and into the South African economy. Many 19th century Jews worked as smouse (itinerant merchants) trading in remote rural regions. As time went on, many of these Jewish South Africans succeeded at furthering their careers from starting positions to becoming professionals in various fields such as law, banking, and medicine. This can be attributed to accessible education, mutual aid networks, and hard work. Despite the obvious hardships and challenges they faced as immigrants, many members of the South African Jewish community have found their place in the South African economy and workforce due to innovation, entrepreneurship, and assimilation altogether, they have most definitely shown their contributions in South African society.
Development of the South African Jewish Cultural Identity