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Joel Pincus (18 April 1907 – 12 October 1975) was a solicitor in Rhodesia and  a member of the Rhodesian Parliament from 1964 until his death in 1975.

Family Origins

Joel Pincus was born in Clocolaan (District of Ladybrand) in the Orange River Colony (formerly the Orange Free State, now the Free State, a province of South Africa) to Aaron Pincus and Esther Pincus (nee Daleski).

His father Aaron, a Jewish immigrant from Seduva, Lithuania, became a burger (citizen of the Orange Free State) and with the commencement of the Boer War rode in General de Wet’s Commando as a scout. He carried the honourable soubriquet Boerejood (Jewish Boer) in the Afrikaner community. He was captured by British forces and sentenced to death by the British for spying. After successful appeals for clemency by members of the local community he was imprisoned on Farrer’s Island in Bermuda until after the war. After his return to the Orange Free State, Aaron became Onderburgemeester (Vice Mayor) of the town of Clocolaan and married Esther Daleski, sister of a prominent Johannesburg solicitor.

Aaron and Esther had 4 children: Joel (1907-1975) Ariyeh Louis (1909-1973), Sarah (1914-1992) nicknamed Sissie (“little sister” in Afrikaans), and Sydney (1916- 2011). Aaron died of influenza in 1919 and is buried in Bloemfontein. Esther and her children moved to Johannesburg.

Ariyeh Louis, became the first managing director of El Al airways and also became Chairman of the Jewish Agency and held senior positions in the World Zionist Organisation and worked in Golda Meir’s government of Israel.

Professional and Political career

Joel was prominent at cricket and athletics at school. He went on to study at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, although he did not complete his degree he became an Articled Clerk and qualified as a solicitor in Johannesburg where he practiced at the side-bar until 1949.

Joel married Lily (nee Couzin) on 23 December 1936 and had three children, Jonathan David, Gideon Michael and Esther Sharon while living in Johannesburg.

While at Witwatersrand University he became in interested in Zionist politics and was later inspired by a speech given by Jabotinsky, a Revisionist Zionist who visited South Africa in 1938. Jabotinsky spoke of the impending holocaust in Europe and of the precarious position of European Jewry. Joel, convinced that the only solution to the plight of the Jews was the creation of a free and independent state in the ancient homeland of Palestine became an ardent Revisionist Zionist. He became active in Zionist politics rose to the position of Chairman of the South African Zionist Revisionist Party. He participated in the World Zionist Congress in Basle in 1946 and in subsequent years became closely acquainted with the leadership of what was to become the Herut (Freedom) party, including Menachem Begin, later Prime Minister of Israel. Joel was instrumental in organizing the escape of Yaakov Meridor from British internment in Africa. Meridor, a prominent leader of the Jewish underground in Palestine was later to become Minister of Economics in the government of Israel.

With the creation of the Jewish State in 1948, Joel gave serious consideration to emigrating to Israel but a shortage of personal finance and the difficulties of transferring his professional skills to a new language and a different system of law deterred him. However, after the election of the National Party in South Africa in 1948, he decided to emigrate with his family to what was then the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia. Here he joined the legal practice of Ben Baron and Partners where he worked until 1958 when his activity was curtailed by a heart attack. Ben Baron revoked the partnership and after several months of recovery, Joel opened his own practice under the name Joel Pincus, Attorney at Law. He joined the firm of Lazarus, Sarif and Partners in 1962 and subsequently left to create the firm Joel Pincus Konson and Partners which eventually became Joel Pincus, Konson and Wolhuter.

During this period Joel became intensely interested in the future of Southern Rhodesia. He disagreed with the moderate left/liberal policies of the then Prime Minister, Garfield Todd and saw them as leading ultimately to the collapse of white civilization in Rhodesia. He joined the Rhodesia Front Party in 1963 and stood for election in the constituency of Bulawayo East. The Rhodesia Front under the leadership of Ian Douglas Smith, swept to power capturing all fifty A-roll (Whites only) seats, and Joel entered Parliament. In 1965 the Smith government issued a unilateral Declaration of Independence thereby ceasing to be a Colony of the United Kingdom. Joel was a signatory to the declaration and was awarded the Rhodesia Independence Medal.

In 1966 he was elected to the Senate and played an active part in the Judicial Committee of the Senate. Whilst serving as a Senator he was asked by Ian Smith to become one of 3 members of the Senate Legal Committee, a constitutional watchdog body.

He died of a heart attack at the age of 68 in 1975 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Bulawayo.