Tradition, accommodation, revolution and counterrevolution: a history of a century of struggle for the soul of orthodoxy in Johannesburgs Jewish community, 1915-2015

Over the past century, South African Jewry has undergone significant changes in its religious makeup. This dissertation provides the first comprehensive study of Orthodox Judaism within Johannesburg, the dominant religious movement within the single largest Jewish population centre in South Africa. From a splintered and largely immigrant community in 1915 with weak religious and educational institutions, and a pattern of religious laxity, Orthodox Jewry has transformed into a highly organized and structured community with high levels of religious observance. These processes of change accelerated from 1970 with the arrival of imported religious revival movements. Notwithstanding considerable emigration and political instability, Johannesburg Jewry today boasts high levels of religiosity with almost half its members labelling themselves Orthodox. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that Johannesburg was a united and largely homogenous community prior to the arrival of the revival movements, this study finds that already by the 1930s the Orthodox community was ideologically divided. While the Federation of Synagogues and Board of Jewish Education were led by academically trained rabbis with an inclusive interpretation of Orthodoxy, the religious Zionist Mizrachi movement and its affiliates sought to reintroduce East European traditions and advocated strict levels of observance that were unpopular with the majority of the community. Over the decades, and in alliance with the sometimes rival revival movements, the latter camp has come to dominate the Johannesburg religious landscape. The receding influence of the rabbis with a more inclusive orientation – partly because of retirements and emigration – is visible in the decreasing numbers of Jews in Johannesburg who describe themselves as “traditional.” This dissertation traces these developments through the decades and explains how and why the character of Johannesburg Jewry has changed

Bucking the Trend: South African Jewry and Their Turn Toward Religion

Across the Jewish world religious polarization is gaining momentum. At the secular end of the spectrum people are switching away from religion while at the religious pole fertility levels are high. This trend is evident among South African Jewry; data from the 2019 Jewish Community Survey of South Africa (N = 4193) show that the community is becoming polarized, and the traditional center ground is collapsing. However, unlike many other Jewish communities today, switching toward more religious subgroups than the one in which one was raised is more common in South Africa than switching away from them. This tendency is most pronounced among people born in the 1960s and 1970s. A similar trend characterizes South African non-Jews. We argue that coming of age in a period of profound political and social instability explains the increased likelihood of switching toward religion. The effect is more marked among Jews due to distinct communal characteristics and history that provided the optimal conditions for switching towards a more religious lifestyle. This paper highlights the necessity of examining internal processes that are unique to the Jewish community alongside broader developments to improve our understanding of religious polarization among Jews