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South Africa’s chief rabbi supports Donald Trump — but says his refugee program for Afrikaners is a ‘mistake’
Jewish Telegraph Agency ^ | May 14, 2025 | Shira Li Bartov

Posted on 05/14/2025 2:33:25 PM PDT by Miami Rebel

When Donald Trump entered his second term as president, he found a full-throated supporter in South Africa’s chief rabbi.

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein said in February that South Africans “should welcome the Trump administration’s interventions” in the country’s affairs, praising the president in a widely distributed video message.

A vocal critic of the South African government, Goldstein backed Trump’s opposition to South Africa for its cooperation with Iran and its new land expropriation law, which Goldstein believes will slow the country’s already sluggish economy.

But since Trump decided to admit some white South Africans into the United States as refugees — the only refugees he is letting in — Goldstein has changed his tone. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he sees the move as a “mistake.”

“It is wrong to think that the problems that saw white South Africans take up residence in the U.S. are unique to the white community,” said Goldstein. He challenged the Trump administration’s contention that the Afrikaners — a minority that arrived in South Africa in the 17th century whose members led the country’s system of apartheid until its end in 1994 — are being singled out for persecution and what Trump called “genocide” because of their identity.

Like Jewish leaders in the United States and elsewhere, Goldstein finds himself walking a tightrope when it comes to a U.S. president whose pro-Israel and philosemitic rhetoric is often matched by policies that many Jews oppose. Some American Jews have welcomed the attention the administration has paid to campus antisemitism, for example, but many have worried that his attack on universities has been too harsh, blunt and undemocratic.

In South Africa, where Jews strongly identify with Israel, Trump’s general pro-Israel stance is welcome. But there too that stance has clashed with local politics.

Milton Shain, an emeritus professor of South African Jewish history at the University of Cape Town, said the overwhelming majority of South Africans — Jews and non-Jews alike — were perplexed by the idea of some Afrikaners receiving refugee status. He called the rhetoric about a genocide against Afrikaners “absurd” and speculated that there could be a connection between Trump’s policy and South Africa’s decision to file genocide charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

“It seems to me that the Trump regime wants to target South Africa for taking Israel to the ICJ,” Shain said. “That is the only reason I can think of for such an odd and sustained initiative.”

But even before the war in Gaza that led to South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, both Trump and his South Africa-born advisor Elon Musk hurled accusations of “genocide” and “the large scale killing of farmers” at South Africa. Their claims are based on documented attacks against white farmers and the complaints echo a subset of South African white nationalists. Although the farm attacks have persisted for years, they represent a small percentage of the country’s high violent crime rate, which affects all parts of the population.

Goldstein said Trump has wrongly framed South Africa’s economic, social and political challenges in racial terms. He pointed to a poll by the Social Research Foundation, which found that 67% of Black South Africans wanted their children to live and work abroad for a better future.

The first group of 59 Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport on Monday. They were greeted with fanfare by Trump officials, including the Jewish deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau, who compared their journey to his father’s escape from Nazi-annexed Austria in 1938.

In the United States, some migration aid groups have said they are morally opposed to resettling the newly arrived Afrikaners. The Episcopal Church said on Monday that it was ending its decades-long partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees, citing its “steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation” and “historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.”

The U.S.-based Jewish refugee aid organization HIAS said it would support Afrikaners in their new home. But HIAS’ president Mark Hetfield told The New York Times it was “not right” that this group was singled out for admission.

“We are profoundly disturbed that the administration has slammed the door in the face of thousands of other refugees approved by DHS months ago, notwithstanding courts ordering the White House to let many of them in,” said Hetfield.

On Monday, Trump said he welcomed Afrikaners despite his anti-migrant stance because they were victims of a “genocide.” He suspended resettlement programs for other refugees around the world almost immediately after taking office.

White South Africans, of whom about half are Afrikaners, comprise some 7% of the country’s population and own about 78% of private farmland. Research shows white South Africans collectively have roughly 20 times the wealth of Black South Africans.

South African Jews are a small minority within the white minority, and their ranks are shrinking — after peaking at 120,000 in 1970, the population has declined to less than 50,000. Many Jews have connections to Israel and feel isolated by the frayed relations between Israel and South Africa. Some, said Shain, worry about being identified by their government as allies to its foreign adversaries.

“I believe Rabbi Goldstein’s supportive comments [of Trump] are problematic,” said Shain. “Jews are rapidly being identified as a fifth column, like the far-right Afrikaners, working against the interests of the country by cozying up to the Trump administration.”

Goldstein’s support for Trump drew criticism from other members of the local community. Journalist Anton Harber wrote an essay in February titled “The Chief Rabbi who lost his soul,” writing, “Something is very wrong when a Chief Rabbi sings the praises of political and business figures without mentioning their neo-Nazi affiliations.” Harber referenced a gesture by Musk that drew comparisons to a Nazi salute and his ringing support for Germany’s far-right AfD party, as well as Trump’s past socializing with antisemitic conspiracy theorists.

However, Shain and Goldstein agreed that Jewish South Africans have the same concerns as most South Africans as a whole — violence, corruption, poverty and high unemployment. Many young Jews are leaving South Africa for opportunities elsewhere.

“The challenges facing the community are the same as those facing the country,” Goldstein said. “The more that South Africa as a country will achieve economic growth and thrive, the more the Jewish community will.”


TOPICS: Local News; Miscellaneous; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: anotherbutarticle; antisemitism; concerntroll; concerntrolling; jews; shiralibartov; shj; southafrica; tds
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To: nopardons
You've been an old fart for 20 years. How long can you keep going? By the way, how come every time I argue with your wrinkled old ass, I have to log in again?

You are an uneducated BIGOT, have less than NO idea at all, about RSA, Afrikaners, the Boer War, nor anything else.

You want to try me? Better yet,. you want to tell me why the article I referenced is not correct? Or how about this?

https://x.com/JerrySalsita/status/1922462664875258231

Calling Mr. Nixon, the far lefty/Pinko/STINKING COMMIE catch phrase...

Not only are you a miserable geriatric, you are now either making things up out of thin air or just bereft of any reading comprehension. I never said anything about Nixon being a communist. You do this often. You get too hysterical, like old women do, and you aren't even reading what you are so outraged over.

But Kissinger, MENTOR TO KLAUS SCHWAB, was a friend to communist china, and likely had their best interests at heart when making deals with them. JEWS WERE BEHIND THE COMMUNIST CHINESE. REFUTE THIS:

https://forward.com/schmooze/159051/a-jew-in-maos-china/

In this Jewish publication, they are PROUD of this. Ever hear of Sidney Rittenberg? And we all know they were the architects of Russian communism, and their bolsheviks killed FAR more than 6 million people. https://x.com/TheRISEofROD/status/1879910254269583410

You can't refute the obsessive,, almost DNA-level compulsion for liberal jews to destroy the countries they live in with weaponized immigration. I'll challenge you again: Do you think it is odd or a cohencidence, that THE biggest pushers of legal immigration, and apologists of illegal immigration are Jewish individuals and organizations?

What the f--k are the odds ALEJANDRO MAJORKAS is JEWISH? Did you google quotes from Barbara Roche or Barbara Lerner Specter? Of course you didn't. You are not interested in learning or having a debate, and possibly being proved wrong. You are an ancient blowhard.

I haven't even scratched the surface. Until then, here's a song for you to sing. It's got a good beat and you can try to dance to it You might even relate to the chorus...

https://x.com/DrLoupis/status/1869785958020985298

101 posted on 05/15/2025 10:02:39 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: Toddsterpatriot

I don’t think you are as clever as you think you are with your “pithy” passive aggressive (and also non-sequitur) comments hiding your lack of substantive argument.


102 posted on 05/15/2025 10:07:53 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: Captainpaintball
Tsk, tsk, tsk...your poor reading comprehension skills, combined with your low class name calling, invectives, and benighted assumptions, truly are not helping you any.

First of all, I have been posting to FR for 27 years, not 20, ergo, you also are unable to do simple math!

Secondly, you have NO idea what my age is now, nor how old I was when I joined FR.

Neither do you know ANYTHING at all about me.

And finally, I NEVER said that Mr. Nixon was a "COMMIE"; what I posted is HOW and WHY the Pinkos, Fellow Travelers,and actual stinking COMMIES labeled him "TRICKY DICKIE"! You falsely used it, to smear Mr. Nixon, and yet, still don't understand that that put YOU in their camp!

It really must hurt to be as uneducated and benighted as you are. Pity that..............................

103 posted on 05/15/2025 10:40:41 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Captainpaintball
I don’t think you are as clever as you think you are

Cleverer than you. I know that's a low bar.

hiding your lack of substantive argument.

"Israel destroyed South Africa to distract from their misdeeds", that's pretty damn funny.

But the opposite of substantive.

104 posted on 05/16/2025 6:09:29 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (TANSTAAFL)
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To: nopardons
Since I am a Noahide who believes that Judaism is the One True Religion and have supported Israel my entire life, I wouldn't fit in very well with the Ku-Klux Klan. In fact, the original Reconstruction Klan came after my ancestors because they fought for the Union.

I've been fighting Nazis and anti-Semites on this forum for over a quarter of a century (my screen name was chosen to tweak Jew-haters). You must be relatively new, because no way could you be so wrong about me otherwise.

The fact that once upon a time, over a century ago, some Afrikaners were socialists has absolutely nothing to do with anti-Semitism and is not an insult to anyone. Religious rural American farmers were socialists in the 1890's (the Populist movement). Merely observing this doesn't insult anyone. Ever hear of William Jennings Bryan?

Have you seen my tagline?

105 posted on 05/16/2025 8:00:35 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: nopardons

Good gravy! You’re a ‘98’er and don’t know about me? There’s no excuse for that.


106 posted on 05/16/2025 8:01:56 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
I've been here longer than YOU have, have a GREAT memory for nics, and trust me, YOU and YOUR posts are just NOT memorable at all!

I can't read Hebrew, so your tagline means NOTHING at all to me.

For a supposed devout JEW, you certainly have posted quite a LOT of Anti-Semitic, KKK, as well as completely UNEDUCATED comments on this thread!

For all of the pompous attitude, your knowledge of both American political and complete RSA history is fallacious in the extreme!

And IF, as you claim, you have been fighting anti-Semitisme here for decades, your posts during the Anti-Drudge and AND Anti-Semitisme threads, here, way back when, were obviously so unmemorable, that I am completely unable to recall YOU ever being on a single one and fighting along side ME!

107 posted on 05/16/2025 2:04:34 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Zionist Conspirator
There's far LESS excuse for YOU not knowing ME, than the reverse!

Get over yourself; you're a NOBODY here...as well as a NEVER WAS.

108 posted on 05/16/2025 2:05:58 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Oh...and of COURSE I know full well (AND WITHOUT LOOKING HIM UP) all about that blowhard, William Jennings Bryan, his stupid CROSS OF GOLD speech, his two FAILED runs for president ( YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY for McKinley! ), his third loss, that time to Taft (YAAAAAAAAAAAY TAFT! ) and his involvement in the SCOPES "MONKEY TRAIL"!

You're attempting to best someone you really need to stay faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from.

109 posted on 05/16/2025 2:20:46 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Miami Rebel

Which group do you think will be on welfare 10 years after arriving and which will be self supporting?
This country should only take in the ones who will be self supporting.


110 posted on 05/16/2025 2:27:55 PM PDT by Varda
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To: nopardons
For a supposed devout JEW, you certainly have posted quite a LOT of Anti-Semitic, KKK, as well as completely UNEDUCATED comments on this thread!

I am a Noahide, a non-Jew who believes Judaism is the True Religion and who accepts the Seven Noahide Laws.

Just where are my "Anti-Semitic, KKK" comments? I thought I had only posted one comment about Afrikaner political history when you flew into a rage.

I'm going to go through my posts here and see just what set you off. Maybe you have me confused with someone else?

111 posted on 05/16/2025 3:55:24 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: nopardons
I have looked at my posts and it seems you have me confused with "Captainpaintball." How you managed to do that I don't know, but I am not "Captainpaintball."

Like all FReepers, my thread history is easily looked up.

Have a good day.

112 posted on 05/16/2025 4:04:57 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Nope, you and another poster are two different people, however, neither of you ( though admittedly most Westerners and specifically FReepers know NOTHING factual of RSA/Afrikaner history ), post blindingly fallacious tripe about that nation and her populace, which, AFTER DECADES of my posting FACTS/HISTORY LESSON about both, civilly, now gets on my last nerve.

You don't like that? TOUGH!

Having your tagline not ONLY in Hebraic letters and I'm guessing also the Hebrew language and expecting everyone else to know what it means is pompous, patently ridiculous, and beyond reason.

So you are NOT Jewish, but believe that it is "THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION"? If it is, why haven't you/don't you convert to it? You could also become a MESSIANIC JEW...one who practices Judaism, but also believes that Jesus was/is the MESSIAH ?

You come on here and condemn ALL Jews, by naming SOME Jews, whom you "feel" were/are "bad people". That's contradictory to your present argument.

You also called out and smeared ALL Afrikaner with outright LIES!

Unlike many Americans, in earlier times, Afrikaners NEVER formed "SOCIALIST COMMUNES"; NOR COMMUNES OF ANY KIND.

Then you threw Bryan at me, for NO reason.

Yes, DO go back to ALL of your posts, start with #66.

113 posted on 05/16/2025 6:07:47 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Frankly, I have less than NO interest in your posting history here, nor you.

If you care all THAT much about posting histories...do, by all means look at mine; yes, ALL 125,000 PLUS of them. Have fun!

114 posted on 05/16/2025 6:09:58 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Toddsterpatriot
"Israel destroyed South Africa to distract from their misdeeds", that's pretty damn funny. But the opposite of substantive.

Did you not read the article link I provided earlier? I don't know how old you are, but If you have been on earth three decades, let alone 5,6,7...you couldn't even guess that if something like what is going on in South Africa is happening anywhere, there isn't some Jewish orchestration behind the scenes? Do you not have a BRAIN?

Here's the president of south Africa giving a shoutout to his jewish friends https://x.com/GarbageHuman24/status/1887005492683399635

And in all this discussion I failed to mention "Broom of Israel". If you are feeling frisky, go to x and search for the videos of this and "America as Edom". Here's a short video for you to watch and learn: https://x.com/sovereignbrah/status/1908047893015200001

There is no group more invested in the destruction of the West through mass immigration than the Jewish Left. It seems to be a compulsion: https://x.com/GarbageHuman24/status/1886763191168074001

It is happening in Norway, too: (Have the guts to click on the link) https://x.com/wayotworld/status/1909993887260631113

Here's a beauty. Please tell me how this is a mere "nothingBERGer": https://x.com/Kahlissee/status/1888362262471057443

And it works! Why? Maybe because stupid white christians read THIS garbage written by...(take a guess) https://x.com/LetsGoBrando45/status/1896275604338888976

115 posted on 05/16/2025 8:07:53 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: nopardons
First of all, I have been posting to FR for 27 years, not 20, ergo, you also are unable to do simple math!

Oooh. You really got me there. I was merely generalizing, and despite throttling you around the forum, I was STILL trying to be gracious by making an elderly woman seem just that little bit younger than she really was. No more. Heck, I have been on FR more than 20 years, so I know you have too.

If that was the best you can do to, I don't think you realize how poor you have been doing. You have yet to refute anything of real substance, and if I asked you to look at the very short links I provide on post #115, I am sure you would have nothing to say about those either.

116 posted on 05/16/2025 8:18:08 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: Captainpaintball
You haven't done anything, let alone "throttling" me; uoi just keep LOSING.

Oh whoopy doo...look at links,YOU imagine are factually correct, when I have FIRST HAND, EYE WITNESS to history, FROM THE SOURCE, to rely on, which are unbiased? LOL

You're a masochist, obviously enjoy being shown up and humiliated by someone posting actual facts, and far too blinded by your own narcissism, to just stop. Pity that...

117 posted on 05/16/2025 8:27:04 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons
I haven't scratched the surface, while you are just scratching your butt. My links include the evildoers in their own words.

when I have FIRST HAND, EYE WITNESS to history, FROM THE SOURCE,

Is one of your sources KIM HELLER?

https://x.com/LimesEuropa/status/1889335135847231504

https://x.com/SABCNews/status/1922338959511662877

You STILL can not challenge what I am showing you. Including THIS, in his own words. Not faked. Not edited..

https://x.com/DisprinXtra/status/1923342656416985160

118 posted on 05/16/2025 8:39:01 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: Captainpaintball
My sources are many generations of and current Afrikaners, many different books on the history of RSA, by EXPERTS and eyewitnesses, as well and having been a life long student of all kinds of history.

You, OTOH, are blinded by your own biases and beliefs, garnered from ONLY people whom you stupidly agree with.

Israel caused the downfall of RSA? Oh yeah, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuure, and YOU claim that that is a "fact"?

Just WHY would Israel do that, when RSA had been a steadfast ally of Israel, prior to the ANC take over?

You don't know ANYONE who was there/still is there, of any prominence at all; but I DO! And they aren't Jewish! Nor were they ever Socialists/Marxists/Commies!

And before you ask for names, you wouldn't know them if I were willing to name drop. Nor, would you probably be able to search the net for info on them, in the context of this discussion.

You might now come back at me, claim that I am a LIAR; however, I'm not a "liar" at all.

119 posted on 05/16/2025 9:14:37 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Captainpaintball
I'm lousy re TECH stuff, so no, didn't use your non-clickable links; however, I DID look up Kim Heller, who is obviously a weirdo NUTCASE of THE highest order, and a gigantic LIAR!

The laws, now passed, re taking white owned land and ALL property of ANY and ALL kind, sans restitution/payment, is BRAND NEW!

It has less than NOTHING, zip, nada, zero,to do with Mandela forward, until Ramaphosa!

Re Afrikaners "NEVER accepting black rule" is THE biggest damned LIE yet, re the whites of RSA! Without some white votes AND white help, Mandela would NEVER have been president!

Yes, there was crime before Mandela's presidency; however, it grew exponentially under him ( replacing 95% of ALL police with inept blacks, who did nothing to keep caught & tried black criminals in prison and turning a blind eye to just about ALL criminal behavior didn't help any either! ), to a point where now it is shocking beyond belief and even encouraged!

A vast majority of ALL races, hoped that Mandela would be if not great, or even a good president, it was worth a try. At the least he KNEW that he had to work WITH whites, had some in his cabinet ( and NO they were NOT ANC supporters, nor SOCIALIST/MARXISTS/COMMIES! ) and so, while things were NOT going well, the more lefty ANCers forced him out!

There then was hope for Thabo Mbeki, the next president, who was extremely well educated, appeared to be reasonable...to the populace; however he was worse than Mandela! And with each new president, things grew more violent, dangerous, and disastrously untenable.

You want to know WHY ALL people in RSA are now VERY lucky to MAYBE have electricity for 4 or 5 HOURS, every few days?

IT'S BECAUSE THE WHITE MAN WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF IT ALL WAS ALMOST MURDERED ( thankfully he sort of has survived, but no longer has a job! )BY A BUNCH OF SAVAGE BLACKS, ONLY BECAUSE HE IS WHITE! And there isn't one black person, there, who has the slightest idea, nor even cares about getting it fixed!

Potable RUNNING water......THERE IS NONE! WHY?

Yes, there has been droughts; however, blacks are running that operation.

People who live in houses collect RAIN WATER; people who live in apartments are in trouble. And blacks don't even understand what to do!

And before you claim that there aren't any educated blacks there, OH HELL YES THERE ARE! And even under Apartheid, blacks WERE going to decent to good schools AND to great universities!

I realize that you won't believe a word of what I've posted, but that makes YOU a fool!

I've know all about RSA for not quite 30 years now. I know MORE FACTS, old and current, about it, than ANYONE else on this site and know things that NOT a one here, nor the vast majority of Americans will EVER know, without my telling them and some things, that even many now American citizens Afrikaners, here, know about it!

So back off, stop posting tripe about what you neither know nor understand, and go away.

120 posted on 05/16/2025 10:40:16 PM PDT by nopardons
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