Nelson Mandela's legal and political work brought him into contact with a vast array of Jewish people across the spectrum: lawyers and legal clerks, communists and communal leaders, business leaders and bankers, physicians and philanthropists, rabbis and rabble-rousers. Jewish memories of Mandela – chronicles for the first time the extent to which individual Jewish men and women were involved in the life and career of Nelson Mandela. It also records the remarkable extent to which Jewish South Africans participated in the anti-apartheid struggle, as well as in the post-apartheid era of nation building, reconstruction and reconciliation. Jews, notwithstanding that they constituted small minority within the population, have been involved to a remarkably disproportionate extent in Mandela's life history, and indeed in the broader struggle for democracy in South Africa. Whether as lawyers, political activists, trade unionists, journalists, parliamentarians or business leaders, Jews have been intricately involved in the Mandela story, from his arrival in Johannesburg as a young man onwards. Many have themselves become famous names in the annals of South African history. They include Helen Suzman, Joe Slovo, Ali Bacher, Tony Leon, Rusty Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, Sol Kerzner, Ruth First, Gill Marcus, Albie Sachs and Arthur Chaskalson. The book also tells the stories of Mandela’s remarkable interaction with ordinary people, from the boy in 1996 who insisted on inviting the President to his Barmitzvah (he came, and danced) and a conversation with a ten-year-old with presidential ambitions. Jewish memories of Mandela interweaves into the central narrative the personal recollections of these Jewish South Africans of their association with Mandela. These throw interesting new light on some of the most significant episodes in modern South African history, such as the Treason Trial, the establishment of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Liliesleaf Farm police raid and ensuing Rivonia Trial and the long imprisonment of Mandela and other political activists. It further shows how the Jewish communal leadership, including the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris, went about leading the Jewish community in being an active part in the process of transition to multiracial democracy after 1990. Featured here is Jewish participation in such areas as the transformation of South African cricket, the inaugural democratic elections of 27 April 1994, the relationship between the ANC government and the opposition in parliament and South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The role of Jewish business leaders in post-apartheid reconstruction initiatives is also examined. The book is a noteworthy addition to the historiography of anti-apartheid activism from within the white community, of which Jews formed a part. It further documents an inspiring chapter in the history of the South African Jewish community and of the contribution its members have made to the country.