Over time, Jewish women’s status and achievements have risen within the South African Jewish community and the wider society. White Jewish women used their historically privileged position (unprecedented for Jews) to assist those suffering from the oppressions of apartheid, notwithstanding democratization since 1994. Women have been prominent in more recent innovations and initiatives, so that even in the face of demographic decline, the community exhibits paradoxical vitality and resilience.

Katie Gluckmann was a prominent leader in South Africa’s Zionist movement of the early to mid-twentieth century. She was elected to the executive board of the Zionist Conference every year from 1928 to 1949, and she helped create the South African Zionist Council when male Zionists fought the creation of a South African branch of the Women’s International Zionist Organization in the 1930s.