Israel A. Maisels

Major I. A. Maisels served on the South African Jewish Board of Deputies' Executive Council from 1935 until he left for active service during the Second World War. He was also among the recipients of a military commendation in the King's Birthday Honours List of June 1944.[7] He resumed communal work after the war, and from 1949 to 1951 he served as chairman of the Board's Executive Council.[6]

As a Queen's Counsel, Maisels was elected president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies at its 1953 Biennial Congress and re-elected at the September 1955 Biennial Congress.[4][8] In November 1956, a presentation marked 21 years of service on the Executive Council, dating from his first election in May 1935.[8] During his presidency he wrote to Prime Minister D. F. Malan on the latter's retirement, conveying the Jewish community's appreciation for his public service and for the government's understanding toward Israel.[4] Board reports also list Maisels as a trustee of the South African Sociological and Historical Society and, at different points, as one of the Board's representatives on the Board of Directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.[4][8]

Maisels also led the South African Zionist Federation and is named among the successive leaders who shaped South African Zionism after the Balfour Declaration.[9][2] By June 1971 he was a member of the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors and chairman of the Resolutions Committee at the Agency's Founding Assembly in Jerusalem.[10] Presenting the committee's work, he stated: "We have been most concerned to insure that the Agency did not impinge on areas which were not rightly its own," explaining its effort to preserve the distinct functions of the Government of Israel, the World Zionist Organization, and the reconstituted Jewish Agency.[10]

Maisels appears in a list of distinguished Jewish lawyers in South Africa, although the accompanying statement that many later served on the bench does not specify that this applied to him individually.[6] A separate reference describes him as a leading advocate in human rights cases and records that he wrote memoirs, without supplying their title or publication details.[5]

Maisels led the defense in the 1956–1961 Treason Trial, in which Mandela and his associates faced charges under the Suppression of Communism Act.[2][3] The proceedings were held in part at a Pretoria synagogue because the building was unused and its large hall was suitable for the trial.[2] Maisels's daughter Helen recounted his advice to Mandela and Walter Sisulu: "If we conduct the trial emotionally — we'll lose, and you'll all go to jail. If I conduct the trial on points of law — we have a chance." She said that Mandela and Sisulu agreed to the approach.[2] The defendants were ultimately acquitted.[2][3]

A 2015 Jerusalem Post opinion article states that Maisels defended 156 people, including Mandela, in the 1956 Treason Trial while serving as president of the South African Zionist Federation.[11] This trial was distinct from the later Rivonia Trial, at which Mandela was defended by several Jewish lawyers, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.[3]

The relationship between Maisels and Mandela endured beyond the courtroom. After Mandela's release from prison, he called Maisels because he was concerned that the Jewish community was angry over the ANC's acquisition of weapons from the Palestine Liberation Organization. Maisels responded: "You took weapons from whoever you could. I understand." He then arranged a meeting between Mandela and the Jewish community.[2] Mandela later named a group of the Johannesburg Bar in Maisels's honor, and Maisels's coffin was draped in the African National Congress flag at his funeral in a Jewish cemetery.[2]

Maisels's career combined human-rights advocacy within South Africa's legal system with sustained leadership of the organized Jewish community.[5][4] He also occupied leading Zionist roles, including the presidency of the South African Zionist Federation.[9][2] His daughter recalled that he was respected by both the African National Congress and the white government, reflecting the standing he had built across South Africa's divided society.[2]

Nelson Mandela wrote of Jewish South Africans: "I have found Jews to be more broadminded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice."[12] Maisels authored memoirs and is described as one of South Africa's leading advocates in human rights cases.[5] The ANC flag draped over his coffin at a Jewish cemetery became a striking symbol of his relationship with the movement whose leaders he had defended.[2]

A 1996 essay in Avar VeAtid attributes to "Izzy Maisels" a role as Mandela's defense attorney in the 1964 Rivonia Trial.[13] That attribution is not corroborated by the World Jewish Congress account, which associates Maisels with the earlier treason trial and describes Mandela's Rivonia defense only as involving several Jewish lawyers.[3] The other consulted sources likewise do not independently document a Rivonia role for Maisels, so the attribution remains unverified.