Is Goodman Gallery Still an Anti-Apartheid Gallery?

Goodman Gallery has made meaningful contributions to the promotion of resistance against human rights abuses, by being a beacon for voices that were marginalized through unjust discrimination during South Africa’s apartheid era. However, the complex relationship between Goodman Gallery’s featured artist, William Kentridge, and Israel has led to claims of him using his anti-apartheid history to obscure Israel’s crimes of apartheid and the illegal settlements in Palestine. This prompts a further exploration of the gallery’s connection with Israel, focusing primarily on the roles of its owner and director, Liza Essers.

Since 2008, Liza Essers has been at the helm of the Goodman Gallery, and in 2020, she took on an additional leadership responsibility as a member of the Gauteng Council for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD)[1]. Although the SAJBD claims to represent the Jewish community in South Africa, its credibility as such is under question due to its vocal stance in defending Israel[2], its silence on far-right Zionists in Israel[3][4] and its non-inclusivity of all Jewish people in South Africa[5].

South African Jewish Board of Deputies

Goodman Gallery, throughout its history, has been a proactive force against the apartheid government’s policies and on the other hand, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies has cultivated a mutual relationship with that same government.

Gwynne Schrire, in her insightful article titled “Did the SAJBD Sit on the Fence Under Apartheid?” [6], argues that the rampant irrationality and violent discrimination during the apartheid era deterred the SAJBD from taking an assertive and activist stance against the government. She continues to argue that the SAJBD, as a protective and non-political group, chose neutrality due to the National Party’s anti-Semitic perspectives. This approach, she suggests, enables them to better protect the Jewish community without inciting any historical atrocities.[7].

Schrire’s historical underpinning of anti-Semitic sentiment within the National Party is true, because the Ossewa-Brandwag, Greyshirts, Blackshirts and the New Order, were all pro-Nazi. The Greyshirts for example were considered the “sister movement” by Nazis and the leader from the New Order, Oswald Pirow,[8] met with Hitler and Mussolini while the leader from the Greyshirts, Louis Weichardt,[9] was described as the leader of the South African Nazis.

A very Brief History between the SAJBD and the NP government

When the National Party (NP) came to power, many of the leaders of the anti-Semitic groups became influential figures in the government, for example, Oswald Pirow became the Minister of Justice, and Louis Weichardt became a senator of Natal province. The SAJBD’s warranted fear, however, was not realized, as the National Party did not emulate the genocidal history of Hitler’s Nazi party and the Afrikaners’ anti-Semitic tendencies seemed largely fueled by their efforts to shift the blame for their diminished influence in the country onto the Jewish population.

“If anti-Semitism was embedded in South African society, as argued by Milton Shain, and is evident from the intensive anti-Semitic rhetoric which characterised the NP and the widespread support enjoyed by anti-Semitic movements in the 1930s and 1940s, how did it dissipate with such ease after 1948? A partial answer, based on Shain’s analysis, can be found in the new historical context , where anti-Semitism was no longer necessary to define or consolidate Afrikaner identity, and scapegoating the Jew was no longer necessary to elevate the Afrikaner, who now held total power in SA.”[10]

The National Party furthered their diplomatic ties with Israel, due to the two country’s shared aspirations for a national identity. The National Party then fostered a close relationship with sectors of the Jewish community, especially the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies[11].

An example of the intertwined relationship between the SAZF and SAJBD with the government was when the Prime Minister, Dr. D. F. Malan became the first head of state to visit Israel in August of 1953[12], the SAZF and SAJBD honoured him with a banquet. To strengthen the relationship between members of the Jewish community with the government, Joseph Nossel[13]organized that Dr Malan was to have his name etched into the Golden Book of the World Zionist Organisation, the ‘highest honour’ the Jewish community could bestow to him. This acknowledged the Prime Minister’s contributions to both members of the Jewish community in South Africa and the Zionist movement abroad.[14]

In 1961[15], Israel voted alongside 67 other UN delegates in favour of censuring South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Eric Louw, for his defence of racial policies, which triggered a backlash from the South African government. This drove a wedge between South Africa and Israel and put South African Jewish leaders in a conflicted position, leading them to distance themselves from Israel and publically condemn Israel’s actions against the apartheid government. It was then when Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minister, labelled Israel as an apartheid state: “Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude. They took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.”[16]

In 1976[17], the South African Prime Minister, B.J. Vorster, went on an official visit to Israel, leading to a pact of economic, scientific, and industrial cooperation between the two nations. Upon his return, a banquet in his honour was organised by the South African Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies. The President of the SAJBD David Mann, issued the first public call for South Africa to accelerate its departure from discriminatory practices during the Banquet. He insisted that members of the Jewish community should convert their concern over racial discrimination into concrete actions. His remarks did not stir political controversy from the NP as they were in line with the government’s policies that had started prior to the Soweto uprising[18].

The Legacy of How SAJBD Treated Anti-Apartheid Jewish People

As discussed in the previous section the SAJBD had a close working relationship with the National Party, because of a perceived anti-Semitic fear members of the Jewish community felt. The SAJBD, therefore chose to value the community’s safety over moral righteousness in South Africa. Despite the majority of Jewish people conforming to apartheid it is important to take note that most white radicals and liberals were Jewish people.

These individuals were labelled as “self-hating Jews” because the community leaders perceived them as risking the community’s safety through their anti-government actions[19]. They were perceived as valuing the rights of black people over their community’s wellbeing. Consequently, the Board of Deputies and a majority of the community distanced themselves from these activists, often ignoring or ostracizing them.

It is, however, difficult to determine what Linda Givon, founder and former owner of Goodman Gallery went through during this time. Choosing to represent marginalized artists did direct the attention of the State Security forces [20] which would have made members of the SAJBD and SAZF anxious. We can however get an understanding of the Board’s sentiment towards her when looking at the female journalist’s case, Claudia Braude.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies continues to suppress opposing voices within the community as exemplified by Claudia Braude’s experience. This highlights a pattern that extends into South Africa’s post-apartheid era. In 1997, Braude aimed at authoring a critical article, for the Jewish Affair magazine, on Jewish leadership during the apartheid era. She wanted to write about Dr. Percy Yutar — as he was the lead prosecutor in Nelson Mandela’s case which eventually led to sending our former President to life imprisonment. While prosecuting Nelson Mandela, Dr Yutar also led Johannesburg’s United Hebrew Congregation, an alliance of Orthodox synagogues.

Even though Claudia Braude sat on the editorial board of the Jewish Affair, she was barred from publishing her article which led to her resignation from the magazine and then publishing her article instead in Mail and Guardian[21]. She was at the other end of the stick, receiving strong condemnation which did signify the Board’s and Jewish leadership’s reluctance to engage on their historic roles. However, progressive steps were later taken in 2010 when Daniel Mackintosh wrote an article in The Jewish Affair talking about Claudia Braude’s views of the SAJBD[22].

Claudia Braude has since her departure from the Jewish Affair written some articles about the South African Jewish community in Forward. In 2009 she wrote an article about Helen Suzman’s life[23] where she talks about the Parliamentarian’s critique of the SAJBD. She states that Helen Suzman did not believe the SAJBD was doing enough to resist the human rights abuses perpetrated during apartheid[24].

She also wrote an article about Arthur Goldreich in 2011[25] about his critical role in the fight against apartheid. Goldreich was the owner of the legendary Liliesleaf farm which housed many of our struggle leaders, most notably Nelson Mandela, who on the farm was a gardener known as “David”. Goldreich was a committed Zionist[26], who served in Israel’s Palmach[27] during the 1948 independence war before returning to South Africa to combat apartheid. Using his training and access as a white citizen, he offered indispensable warfare expertise to the African National Congress’s (ANC) military wing and secured weapon designs from Communist China. Despite his significant contributions, the Jewish establishment ostracized him and many like him during the apartheid years, aligning itself more closely with the apartheid regime. This decision remains a contentious issue today, as Goldreich, among others, was openly critical of Israel’s ties with apartheid-era South Africa. In an attempt to reconcile past actions and honour anti-apartheid heroes, the SAJBD awarded Goldreich posthumously with a human rights award. However, this move was seen by many anti-apartheid veterans as a revisionist act by a leadership that had previously disowned them. The event was largely boycotted, and many expressed their disapproval, highlighting how the Jewish community failed to support those like Goldreich in their struggle against apartheid and because the event was attended by Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s minister of information and the diaspora who is an ardent defendant of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, something Goldreich very vocally spoke out against. The intention of the SAJBD to honour the legacy of Goldreich through this award is conflicting with the values he actively fought and spoke out against.

Considering the lingering friction between the anti-apartheid Jewish people and the SAJBD it begs to ask the question why Liza Essers decided to join the SAJBD on an executive level?

Liza Essers and the SAJBD

Liza Essers was part of the Gauteng executive council from 2020 to 2022[28], and she has participated as a SAJBD Gauteng council member in projects such as the Atholl CAN (Community Action Network)[29], which aimed at raising funds for recyclers. This is a respectable initiative, yet, what is in question is how does her presence affect the historic and seemingly current stance of the SAJBD’s complicity with apartheid governments?

While Liza Essers was a member of the SAJBD Gauteng council both Amnesty International[30] and Human Rights Watch[31]’s reports of Israel’s crimes of apartheid came out. The sister organisation[32] of SAJBD the South African Zionist Federation baselessly accused Amnesty International’s report as an attempt to “vilify Jews and undermine the legitimacy of self-determination for the Jewish people.”[33] The SAJBD has also made no attempts to engage on Israel’s crimes of apartheid nor is the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians being addressed. The hope would be that because Goodman Gallery is sensitive towards apartheid, Liza Essers would have facilitated some discourse and re-negotiated the SAJBD stance on Israel in relation to these two damning reports on Israel’s unjust and inhumane treatment of Palestinians.

Goodman Gallery started representing Israeli artist Dor Guez[34], who is of Christian Palestinian and Tunisian Jewish origin[35] as well as Israeli-born artist Naama Tsabar[36] whilst she was an executive member of the Board. Goodman Gallery has also worked with the Jerusalem Foundation for the Augmented Reality exhibition “Seeing the Invisible”[37] which is for selected botanical gardens all over the world. This is quite progressive as Goodman Gallery is potentially facilitating a cross-border dialogue between Israel and Palestine. Artist Dor Guez has been especially vocal in furthering such a dialogue through his works of art[38] and considering that Goodman Gallery has become a more international gallery representing artists such as him is aligned with the core historic values of the gallery, however, there is still a concern regarding Liza Essers’s choice to take on this executive role at the SAJBD. Her decision would be more comprehensible if she could provide clarity on her intentions and aspirations to align the gallery’s position on human rights abuses with the SAJBD.

On numerous occasions the South African Jewish Board of Deputies has been publically criticised for not speaking out[39] against the disproportionate violence[40] exacted by the Israeli government on the Palestinians, the forced evictions of Palestinians, the ethnic cleansing exacted by the State of Israel and the alarming presence of the far-right in Israeli politics[41]. The SAJBD continues to claim neutrality and promotes itself as an umbrella organisation for the Jewish people, however, many Jewish people are being ostracized by the SAJBD for their outspokenness against Israel[42] and these individuals do not feel represented by the Jewish community the SAJBD claims to represent[43] and if Liza Essers has managed to overcome these challenges through her presence at the Board then that would be a benchmark moment for the SAJBD and a progressive step to giving an additional voice for the Palestinians.

The major concern is that, because the SAJBD has in the past used former struggle leaders such as Zionist Arthur Goldreich to link Israeli figures who are encroaching on the human dignity of the Palestinians to blur the morality of their actions. I sincerely hope that the artists represented by Goodman, who work with the trauma of colonialism and apartheid are not being used to accomplish a similar goal for the SAJBD.

A right-to-respond email was sent to Liza Essers on the 8th of January 2023 with the hope of understanding her actions, however, no response was given.

[1] https://www.sajbd.org/media/meet-the-nominees-for-the-sajbd-gauteng-council-for-2020-2022
https://www.sajr.co.za/a-revitalised-representative-sajbd-gauteng-council/ (“This year, an election wasn’t required as 15 nominees qualified for the 15 available places”)

[2] https://ewn.co.za/2018/05/15/sajbd-sa-s-double-standards-on-israel-are-outrageous

[3] https://www.news24.com/citypress/columnists/mondlimakhanya/mondli-makhanya-sa-jewish-board-of-deputies-must-remove-blinkers-and-see-the-apartheid-israeli-regime-for-what-it-is-racist-and-brutal-20210513

[4] https://mg.co.za/thoughtleader/opinion/2022-11-10-call-for-sa-jews-to-condemn-far-right-zionist-party-in-israels-coalition-government/

[5] https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/isie-maisels-bds-and-the-sajbd-a-reply

[6] https://www.sajbd.org/media/did-the-sajbd-sit-on-the-fence-under-apartheid

[7] “Historically, Jewish communities living as a minority in their societies had learnt that sticking their necks out on behalf of other groups being persecuted by the rulers was not a good survival strategy and might lead to those heads being chopped off.”, https://www.sajbd.org/media/did-the-sajbd-sit-on-the-fence-under-apartheid

[8] https://www.sajbd.org/media/did-the-sajbd-sit-on-the-fence-under-apartheid

[9] https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/5756/Ben-Meir_Atalia_1995.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (page 57)

[10] “If anti-Semitism was embedded in South African society, as argued by Milton Shain, and is evident from the intensive anti — Semitic rhetoric which characterised the NP and the widespread support enjoyed by anti-Semitic movements in the 1930s and 1940s, how did it dissipate with such ease after 1948? A partial answer, based on Shain’s analysis, can be found in the new historical context, where anti-Semitism was no longer necessary to define or consolidate Afrikaner identity, and scapegoating the Jew was no longer necessary to elevate the Afrikaner, who now held total power in SA.” https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/5756/Ben-Meir_Atalia_1995.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (page179)

[11] With the creation of Israel as a Jewish homeland aligning with the Afrikaner’s emphasis on maintaining their national identity, loyalty towards both nations became harmoniously compatible. In this landscape, Jews were viewed not as a threat to the NP or Afrikaner nationalism but as collaborators in the shared goal of South Africa’s welfare and advancement. In this arrangement, Jews were accepted and embraced as part of the collective effort.

[12] He visited Israel in his own private capacity, unlike Vorster who would later visit Israel officially as a South African Prime Minister.

[13] Joseph Nossel from Wynberg, did approach the Cape Board to help him start a Jewish wing of the National Party. The SAJBD did reject this. https://www.sajbd.org/media/did-the-sajbd-sit-on-the-fence-under-apartheid

[14] https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/5756/Ben-Meir_Atalia_1995.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (page 173)

[15] https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/5756/Ben-Meir_Atalia_1995.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (page 263–269)

[16] https://forward.com/news/468379/timeline-term-apartheid-israel/

[17] https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/5756/Ben-Meir_Atalia_1995.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (page 304–306, 329–334)

[18] Gwynne Schrire does note that the SAJBD's outspokenness only started when officials within the government began to question the morality of the apartheid.

[19] https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/5090/Herman_Jewish(2007).pdf;sequence=1

[20] https://www.sajr.co.za/linda-givon-turning-art-into-activism/

[21] https://mg.co.za/article/1997-03-27-yutar-and-holy-disbelief/

[22] https://www.sajbd.org/uploads/Articles/Jewish-Affairs/Rosh-Hashanah-2010.pdf Claudia Braude contends that the SAJBD responded to the Jewish community’s sense of self-doubt concerning their place in South Africa by “actively discouraging Jews from criticising government policy.” She argues that the Board referred to its pre-existing policy that “Jews had no right to comment on politics as Jews.” Braude notes that one of the major causes of the Jewish community’s lack of opposition to Apartheid was its increasingly close interaction with Afrikaner nationalism, which affected the way that Jews in South Africa saw their religion, history and role in politics

[23] She is currently a research fellow for the Helen Suzman Foundation https://za.linkedin.com/in/claudia-braude-914b417b

[24] https://forward.com/news/14904/helen-suzman-jew-to-the-world-not-always-at-home-03131/

[25] https://forward.com/news/143231/south-african-jews-struggle-with-legacy-of-aparthe/

[26] The state of Israel has a legitimate claim to existence, however, it’s illegal act of occupying Palestinian land and systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians should be strongly condemned.

[27] The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach was established in May 1941. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmach

[28] https://www.sajbd.org/media/meet-the-nominees-for-the-sajbd-gauteng-council-for-2020-2022

https://www.sajr.co.za/a-revitalised-representative-sajbd-gauteng-council/

https://www.sajr.co.za/gauteng-council-pays-tribute-to-outgoing-execs/

[29] https://www.sajbd.org/media/can-project-liza-essers-atholl-can-project

[30] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/

[31] https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

[32] https://www.sazf.org/affiliate-organisations

[33] https://www.ilfngo.org/amnestylies

https://www.sazf.org/current-issues/amnesty-international-against-israel

[34] Goodman Gallery announced the representation of Dor Guez on the 16th of April 2021

[35] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dor_Guez

[36] Goodman Gallery announced the representation of Naama Tsabar on the 17th of September 2020

[37] https://jingculturecrypto.com/seeing-the-invisible-ar/

[38] https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.2.162?seq=16 “Dor Guez presented an installation depicting a JNF forest used for recreation and shade, similarly planted over the ruins of a Palestinian village.” (page 177)

[39] https://thoughtleader.co.za/sa-jewish-board-of-deputies-must-codemn-israel/

[40] https://www.news24.com/citypress/columnists/mondlimakhanya/mondli-makhanya-sa-jewish-board-of-deputies-must-remove-blinkers-and-see-the-apartheid-israeli-regime-for-what-it-is-racist-and-brutal-20210513

[41] https://mg.co.za/thoughtleader/opinion/2022-11-10-call-for-sa-jews-to-condemn-far-right-zionist-party-in-israels-coalition-government/

[42] https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-23-tensions-rise-over-great-divide/

[43] https://www.groundup.org.za/article/why-should-south-africans-care-about-israels-apartheid/