Nelson Mandela, Iconic Leader for Jews of South Africa — and World

From Mandela’s first days as a young lawyer, however, individual Jews played a significant role in his career. The first was an attorney, Lazar Sidelsky, who in 1942, flouting the customs of the time, accepted the young Mandela as a law clerk at his Johannesburg firm. In his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” Mandela said, “It was a Jewish firm, and in my experience I have found Jews to be more broad-minded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice.” Not long before Sidelsky’s death, almost 60 years later, at the age of 90, Mandela, in a typically thoughtful gesture, invited his former boss to a lunch at his Johannesburg home.

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