Jock Isacowitz

Joseph "Jock" Louis Isacowitz (7 February 1915 – 18 June 1974) was a South African Liberal Party politician, anti-apartheid activist and co-founder of the Springbok Legion.¹²

Isacowitz was born in Benoni in the province of Transvaal in 1915 to Jewish parents, Sarah Leah Bear and Israel Isacowitz.³¹ His father, Israel died at the age of 34-35 in 1921 when Jock was six-years-old. He attended Benoni High School and later the University of the Witwatersrand, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons).³ He was of Lithuanian Jewish descent.¹

At university he befriended Jewish students Rusty Bernstein and Kurt Jonas. He was influenced by Jonas, who introduced him to Marxism.⁴⁵⁶ For a time he was a member of the South African Communist Party and identified as an atheist.⁷⁵ He resigned from the party in February 1946, writing that its totalitarian character "offended my conscience."²

He fought in the Second World War with South African forces in East and North Africa, where he was a sergeant-major and was wounded in action.³¹ The horrors of the Holocaust led to his rejection of anti-Zionism and joined a socialist Zionist organisation.⁵¹ He joined the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, serving as a delegate on the national executive and went on missions to visit Holocaust survivors in Displaced persons camps in post–World War II Europe and absorption centres in Israel.¹

Prior to the formation of the Liberal Party, he co-led with advocate Jack Unterhalter, one of three separate liberal groups in Johannesburg.⁷ Their formation sought to establish relations with the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress.⁷

He was a founding member of the Liberal Party, attending their inaugural meeting in Cape Town in 1953.⁴ He achieved his earlier aim by setting up meetings between the party and the ANC.⁷ However, he expressed his frustration: "I was not happy with the attitude of many members of the National Committee towards the ANC... I recognise the difficulties arising from difficult personality differences with the ANC but I am afraid that some of our members can't divide this from a proper appreciation of the historic role of the ANC. I do not feel justified in opening discussions again and carrying them on further, until we have clarified our own basic attitude towards the ANC."⁷

He built up the party's support base in the Transvaal and served in several positions as Transvaal Chairman and National Vice-Chairman. He was also a key organised for the party and chaired its conferences.⁸

He was regarded as a threat by the apartheid government and banned from attending all meetings for two years. In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, a State of Emergency was declared and he was jailed for 3 months.¹²

He married Eileen Lurie and they had three children together. His son, Roy, later made aliyah to Israel, where he became a newspaper journalist.⁹

He died of Leukemia on 30 January 1962, 18 months after his prison release.¹² He was survived by his wife and children, as well as his mother, Sarah. Sarah died in Netanya in Israel in 1982 and Eileen died in 2010 in Johannesburg.