There have been recent reports of harassment of Jewish residents of the student dorms at the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town by radicals from the Afrikaans community. During the period of Apartheid, this university was a bastion of the white Afrikaaner community, but after the change in regime in 1994, the institution was opened to everyone. Over the past several months, Jewish, black and gay students have been beaten up because they did not adopt the “white Christian culture”of the dorms, and the Jewish Students’ Organization had to lock its doors for fear of attacks. The Organization’s Chair, Yvonne Malan, received an antisemitic letter and vandals kicked in the door of her room at the dorms because she refused to participate in a Christian prayer meeting. Malan said that they told her that if she did not convert to Christianity she would have to resign from the Council of Student Representatives. She added that the Jewish students in the dorms are afraid to say that they are Jewish.
