South African Jews Urge Retention of University ‘conscience Clause’

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams of Capetown, called on the Government today, in separate petitions, to disapprove elimination of the “conscience clause” from the bill pending in Parliament to establish a university for the Bantu, the South African Negroes. The Bantu are not permitted to attend South African universities.

The “conscience clause” is the traditional provision in the charter of South African university charters against religious discrimination in appointment of faculty and admission of students. It was originally included in the Bantu University Bill but was subsequently dropped. Elimination of the clause, the Government has stated, should not concern Jewish and other groups since the proposed university would be restricted to Bantu and there were no Jewish Bantu.

The Board of Deputies, in its demarche to the Government today, said that elimination of the clause “must be a cause for disquiet not only to persons of the Jewish faith and other religious groups, but also to all concerned with safeguarding religious and academic freedom in the universities.”

Rabbi Abrahams recalled that the late Premier and Nationalist leader, Dr. Daniel F. Malan, had strongly defended the “conscience clause” as Minister of the Interior, taking the position that it was necessary in the universities to safeguard “honesty and liberty of thought and inquiry.”