Remembering the ‘Boerejode’ 120 years later

DAVID SAKS

This is my favourite among the photographs in the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ (SAJBD’s) archives of Jews who served in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

Existing evidence suggests that about 300 Jews ultimately served in the Boer forces during the war. That number increases somewhat if one includes those who played a more supporting, background role, such as in guarding POWs, mines, and bridges, or serving in the various town guards.

At least 10 were killed in action, while nearly 100 were made POWs (occasionally on suspicion of having supported the commandos rather than actually fighting with them), three of them dying in in captivity.

Unlike the Dutch, Germans, Irish, and other foreign volunteers who fought for the republics, the “Boerejode” didn’t make up a distinct corps, but were scattered throughout the Boer forces. As a result, there is a Jewish angle, however small sometimes, to all the major aspects of the war. These include the key battles and sieges, the guerrilla campaign, the home front, the POW camps, and even to a limited extent the tragedy of the concentration camps, where a number of Jewish children are known to have died.

Some volunteers were themselves of Dutch or German origin, and a number accordingly served in those units. The majority, however, were recent immigrants from Lithuania and other East European territories forming part of the then Russian Empire.

Naturally, most Transvaal Jews opted for neutrality. Those who fought tended to be young, unmarried men between the ages of 16 and 25, although a few were considerably older.  

While most of the Jewish Boers were no doubt content simply to do what they had to and come through it all in one piece, there were some noteworthy exceptions who achieved some distinction.

It was Chief Rabbi Dr Louis Rabinowitz who unearthed the story of Herman (Chaim David) Judelewitz, a former Slobodka yeshiva bochur (student) who served under General Piet Cronje, took part in the Prieska rebellion in the Northern Cape, and eventually died in action heading up a commando of Cape Rebels.

Another heroic figure discovered was Joel Charles Duveen, whose bluff and daring saved his commandant’s life at Spioenkop. With the rank of lieutenant, he performed many daring individual feats during the guerrilla campaigns in the Eastern and Northern Transvaal. On contracting a fatal dose of Blackwater Fever shortly after the war’s conclusion, it’s recorded that he insisted on being laid out on the floor to die. This was because the only bed available belonged to an Englishman, and he refused to die in an Englishman’s bed.

And just as there is a wolf and jackal pairing in Afrikaner popular folklore, so was there such a pairing in one of the Free State commandos, comprising two landsleit (natives) from the Latvian shtetl of Pilten – Wolf Jacobson and Joseph “Jakkals” Segall. 

Against such tales of intrepidness is the account by Jacob Leviton of his meeting a frightened little Jewish shopkeeper whom he discovered trembling in his tent gabbling tehillim (psalms) just prior to the British attack at Colenso. Leviton successfully approached General Louis Botha to allow the poor man to return home since he obviously wasn’t going to be of any use to anybody.

Several Jews were involved in the capture not only of Winston Churchill outside Ladysmith, but also in the arrest of Churchill’s fiery aunt, Lady Sarah Churchill, near Mafeking. There is even an amusing Jewish coda to the story of Churchill’s famous escape from captivity in Pretoria. Many years later, the great statesman received an unexpected letter from a certain Sam Judelsohn. In this tongue-in-cheek missive, he informed Churchill that he had been one of his guards who had fortunately been off duty the night of the escape. Had he been at his post, Judelsohn wrote, the history of England would have been very different. Getting into the spirit of things, Churchill sent his reply, “T[hank].G[od]. Sam Judelsohn you weren’t on duty – poor England!”  

In 2012, I was part of a joint SAJBD-Ladysmith Historical Society initiative that erected a small monument in memory of the Jews who died in the service of the Boer republics. It’s located close to the main Burgher Monument on the Platrand outside Ladysmith.

We commemorate the 120th anniversary of the outbreak of the war this Friday 11 October.