The Labyrinth of Jewish Security Arrangements in Johannesburg Thinking through a Paradox about Security

After more than a century of providing other sorts of communal services, organized Jewry in Johannesburg, South Africa began to provide security in the uncertain period after the end of apartheid. In documenting the short but eventful history of these initiatives, we stumble upon a paradox. In the very process of taking charge of its own security, and thus raising a drawbridge between itself and the society around it, organized Jewry felt the tug of a broader South African citizenship. We argue that this paradox, expressed in the simultaneous desire to protect ones own and to reach out to others, illuminates important aspects of security itself. Security, we argue, triggers feelings of extreme discomfort when it is traded for money or when it is hoarded by an exclusive group, and is thus, ironically, a resource in the construction of feelings of patriotism and national identity.