Women to remember proudly

From standing by Mahatma Gandhi’s side, to being one of the first female Members of Parliament (MPs), to bringing IBM personal computers (PCs) to the country, South African Jewish women have long made their mark. As International Women’s Day approaches, we look at women who significantly impacted politics, human rights, and business but whose stories may be overlooked in mainstream history. 

While many of us are familiar with Jewish liberation struggle stalwarts like Helen Suzman and Ruth First, there are many lesser-known pioneering women who came before and after them. 

Sonja Schlesin is one example. Born in Russia in 1888, Schlesin came to South Africa as a child and later became a close associate of Gandhi. Alongside him, she became a key figure in the early Satyagraha, the Indian passive resistance movement. 

As a young woman, Schlesin ran Gandhi’s law office, managed his finances, and was instrumental in organising strikes and protests, often defying the colonial government in her fight for justice. “She was basically running his movement when Gandhi was away or in prison,” says Dr Veronica Belling, who did her doctorate in historical studies on South African Jewish women. 

Working in a similar era, Bertha Solomon was known as one of South Africa’s first champions of women’s rights. One of the first women to qualify for the Bar in 1923, she became one of the first female MPs. After Solomon waged a 27-year fight, the Matrimonial Affairs Act – called Bertha’s Bill by then Prime Minister DF Malan – was passed, giving women legal rights to their property, income, and children. 

Born in 1913 in Varaklan, Latvia, Ray Alexander Simons became a committed communist at the age of 13, influenced by a teacher at school.” 

Simons moved to Cape Town in 1929, where she began to organise black workers’ unions and joined the Communist Party at the age of 16. She was one of the founders of the Federation of South African Women, which fought for women’s rights and helped to draft the Women’s Charter. She later went into exile in Zambia with her husband, a lecturer. 

“Quite a few of the female Jewish activists in South Africa were communists,” says Belling. “They were generally influenced by their Eastern European parents, who were interested in communism and Bundism.” Bundism was a secular Jewish socialist movement that emerged at the end of the 19th century and championed workers’ rights, Yiddish culture, and Jewish autonomy within Eastern Europe. 

Born in 1924 in Lithuania, Esther Barsel dedicated her life to the liberation struggle, joining the Young Communist League in Johannesburg at just 14. She advocated for workers’ rights and was active in the underground, serving as a link between banned liberation movements and activists. 

Barsel and her husband Hymie were among the 15 accused in the Bram Fischer trial, and she served three years’ hard labour at Barberton Women’s Prison, known for its brutal treatment of inmates. While most other Jewish female activists of her time went into exile, Barsel remained in the country. She later became political activist Chris Hani’s private secretary until his 1993 assassination. “Barsel was the only one of all these women who was still alive when Nelson Mandela had his 80th birthday. She was one of 25 people he invited,” says Belling. 

South African Jewish women have also had a profound business impact. A ground breaker in the information technology (IT) sector, Joan Joffe brought the first IBM PCs into the country in 1982. After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1959, she met someone who introduced her to the world of computers, largely unknown at the time. “It was intriguing and suited me precisely because my undergraduate degree was around maths and logic,” she says. She later studied computer science at Stanford University and, back in South Africa, started her own successful computer company, Joffe Associates. 

When Joffe heard about IBM’s plans to launch a small computer, she identified an opportunity. She made an appointment with the South African chief executive of IBM and asked to become an agent for IBM PCs. “He stood up in his chair and glowered over me, and said, ‘Madam, IBM is a mainframe computer company, we will not be launching a small computer at all’, and he showed me the door.” 

Undeterred, Joffe travelled to her brother in the United States, found a female IBM PC supplier in Los Angeles, and became the sole importer in South Africa for a year. “IBM South Africa was horrified,” she says. “A few months later, IBM called me and asked to buy the PCs from me to train their staff. It was my best ever sale.” 

Joffe says that being a woman has, in fact, been a distinct advantage in her career. “Business is about differentiating yourself from competitors, and there were no other women in the IT sector,” she says. “I stood out, and people knew me, and I never had a problem getting an appointment.” 

She later became marketing director at Vodacom and a founding member of broad-based women’s empowerment group Nozala Investments. Today, she is a proud member of the South African branch of the International Women’s Forum and believes it’s critically important for women to support one another. 

Reeva Forman, who in the 1970s established her own cosmetics manufacturing business, was the first woman in South Africa to be invited to join the Young Presidents Organisation. While she experienced challenges along the way, losing and then reviving her business REEVA Beauty & Health, she’s always been driven by hope and faith. She maintains Temple Israel in Hillbrow for the few remaining Jews in the area, is the interfaith liaison for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, and is an honorary life vice-chair of the SA Zionist Federation. 

Forman says learning from women in every age is vital. In South Africa, the spirit of ubuntu aligns deeply with Jewish ethics, which is why women in the community have always played such a massive role. “We must speak of our women in history, not only for their memory, but to inspire the young woman of today. If we don’t go back and examine our roots, we won’t have a future.”