A New History of Jews who fought on the side of the Boers, 1899-1902 has just been published.
During the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902, an estimated 300 Jews served in the Boer armed forces. These ranged from those fighting in the commandos through to medical officers, POW guards, commissariat officers and town guard members. Individual Jews were involved in nearly all of the war's best-known incidents, including the famous battles of Magersfontein, Colenso and Spioenkop, the sieges of Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberley, the capture and escape of Winston Churchill and throughout the guerilla campaign. Many were interned for lengthy periods in POW camps on St Helena, Bermuda and elsewhere. While a number of shorter articles on this subject have appeared over the years, no attempt to date has been made to write a full history of this still little-known aspect of South African Jewish and Anglo-Boer War historiography. A new book, entitled Boerejode -- Jews in the Afrikaner Freedom Struggle, 1899-1902 by South African journalist and historian David Saks, has now filled this gap. Boerejode is based on original research conducted by the author in the State Archives, the archives of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and the library of the SA Museum of Military History. It further builds on the extensive original research conducted by Rabbi L I Rabinowitz and well-known authors like Eric Rosenthal and SA Rochlin in the 1930s and 1940s. These include the reminiscences of some of the Jewish "Oudstryders" (veterans), which provide compelling and unique perspectives of the war from Jews who devoted themselves to fighting for the Boer cause. An appendix provides an annotated Nominal Roll of all Jewish participants in the Boer military. Photographs and documents from the SAJBD Archives are included. About the Author David Sacks is a writer, historian and Jewish communal professional. He has written extensively on South African Jewish, political and military history for a wide range of local and international publications. He is editor of the journal Jewish Affairs and the Associate Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. The ISBN is 978-0-620-46112-2. Softcover, 166 pages. The U.S. price including postage is $25.00 from David Sacks, P.O. Box 87557, Houghton 2041 South Africa. His email is: da...@beyachad.co.za. Donald Hirschhorn Boca Raton, FL --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
