Arthur Goldreich

Arthur Goldreich (1929 – 24 May 2011) was a South African-Israeli abstract painter and a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement in the country of his birth and a critic of the form of Zionism practiced in Israel.

Goldreich was born in Pietersburg, South Africa, and settled in Israel, where he participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as a member of the Palmach, the elite military wing of the Haganah. In time he became a leading figure at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In 1966, he became the head of Industrial and Environmental Design Department, which he helped transform into an internationally recognized center for design.

By the age of 33, Goldreich had moved to South Africa where he became one of the country's most successful artists. In 1955, he won South Africa's Best Young Painter Award for his figures in black and white, but to the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's government, he was a key suspect in the clandestine operations of the anti-apartheid underground.

Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, a lawyer, used South African Communist Party funds to buy Liliesleaf Farm, which was to become the key location in the Rivonia Trial, following the arrests of 19 African National Congress members and leaders by the National Party there. Goldreich and Wolpe also helped locate sabotage sites for Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military arm of the ANC, and draft a disciplinary code for guerrillas.

Wolpe, father of Nicholas Wolpe, the administrator of the new Liliesleaf Trust, was arrested shortly after the Liliesleaf raid where Goldreich, along with Nelson Mandela and others were also jailed. He was taken to Marshall Square prison in the city, where Goldreich was already being held.

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