{{short description|South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist (1915–1974)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Use South African English|date=April 2013}} {{infobox person | name = Ray Harmel | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Ruchel “Teibke” Adler | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1905|12|01|}} | birth_place = Raseiniai, Lithuania | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|3|11|1905|12|01|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | occupation = Anti-apartheid activist | citizenship = South Africa | spouse = {{marriage|Michael Harmel|1940}} | children = Barbara Harmel<ref name=barbara>[https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-10-16-barbara-harmel-even-the-children-of-revolutionaries-have-childhoods/ Barbara Harmel — even the children of revolutionaries have childhoods] ''The Daily Maverick''. 16 October 2018</ref> }} {{Apartheid}}
'''Ray Harmel''' (1 December 1905 – 11 March 1998) was a Lithuanian-born South African anti-apartheid activist. She was a member of the South African Communist Party, the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa and the African National Congress.<ref name=thesis/><ref name=mg>[https://mg.co.za/article/1998-03-13-ray-harmel-a-life-fulfilled/ Ray Harmel: A life fulfilled] ''The Mail & Guardian''. 13 March 1998</ref>
==Early life and family== Harmel was born Ruchel “Teibke” Adler in Raseiniai, a ''shtetl'' in Lithuania. Her father, Moise Adler ran a cartage business before going into trade. Her mother, Fagamilla, was the daughter of a Talmud scholar and was herself a strict Orthodox Jew. Ray was one of seven children and the family spoke Yiddish at home. The family lived in poverty and Ray began working to contribute to the household after five years of schooling.<ref name=thesis/>
Together with her friends, she formed a Jewish sports club that also hosted talks and lectures with a socialist bent. She was further influenced by her brother, Taffa, who returned from World War I a communist. She later lived in Vilijampolė, where she worked in a factory and then a bakery. She joined the Communist Party of Lithuania and became involved in its activities.<ref name=thesis/>
She faced arrest for her activities and decided to flee the country. She eventually boarded a ship in Hamburg that was bound for Cape Town.<ref name=thesis/>
Her parents and five of her six siblings were murdered in the Shoah. Only her brother, Sydney, survived.<ref name=thesis/>
==South Africa== She moved in with relatives that were living in Bertrams in Johannesburg. She took English lessons with the bookstore owner, Fanny Klenerman. She learned tailoring and worked in Sam Jaff's plant for the next decade. Around this time she joined the Garment Workers' Union of South Africa. She sparred with the factory owner and with the GWU general secretary, Solly Sachs, over a tactical stance on racial segregation.<ref name=thesis/> Sachs believed that only with racially segregated facilities would white Afrikaner garment workers be persuaded to join the union. Harmel rejected the approach as she was opposed to any form of racial segregation and discrimination. She also attempted to convince prominent Afrikaner women to adopt her stance on the issue.<ref>https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ray-harmel-nee-adler Ray Harmel (nee Adler)] South African History Online. Retrieved on 5 September 2024</ref>
In the early 1930s, she became a member of the South African Communist Party. Among her tasks were both fundraising and selling the party newspaper, ''Umsebenzi''. She was also Treasurer of the Johannesburg District Committee of the party.<ref name=thesis>Oralek, Milan (2020). Michael Harmel (1915-1974): A South African Communist and His Discourse. Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17144345.v1</ref>
After ten years as a factory worker, Harmel took on a new venture to sell clothes to Africans living in Sophiatown.<ref name=thesis/> In the 1950s, Harmel, a seamstress, opened a dress shop on Bree Street in central Johannesburg.<ref name=thesis/> She made Winnie Mandela's wedding dress in 1958.<ref name=thesis/>
==Exile in London== In 1963, Harmel and her political activist husband, Michael Harmel went into exile in London. From there, she worked for the African National Congress' London office.<ref name=mg/>
==Personal life== In the 1930s, Harmel was in a relationship with the Latvian-born communist activist, Lazar Bach, with whom she moved in with. Their union was cut short by his ill-fated trip to Moscow. There, he sought arbitration amid growing discord in South African communist politics. He was instead sentenced to hard labour in Russia and died at the age of 35 in 1941.<ref name=barbara/>
She married Michael Harmel in 1940, a fellow South African activist, with whom she had a daughter, Barbara. The couple separated in the mid-1960s, whilst living in exile in London.<ref name=thesis/> The family lived in Yeoville before building a family home in 1954 in The Gardens, a suburb of Johannesburg. This home became a place of welcome and refuge for key political figures being pursued by the South African police, such as Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Bram Fischer and Sheila Weinberg and her family.<ref name=mg/> A blue plaque now adorns their former home, commemorating the legacy of both Ray and Michael Harmel.<ref>[https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/plaque/harmel-home Harmel Home] ''The Heritage Portal''. Retrieved on 1 September 2024</ref>
Harmel and her husband were friends with Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie. Glamorous photographs of the couple in their wedding attire, including the wedding dress designed and sewn by Ray, were taken at the Harmel home in Johannesburg.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/27/nelson-mandelas-prison-letter-on-friends-death-up-for-auction Nelson Mandela's prison letter on friend's death up for auction] ''The Guardian''. 28 August 2018</ref>
Harmel spent her final years living in Hammerson House, a Jewish nursing home in Hampstead Garden Suburb in London.<ref name=thesis/> Cheryl Carolus, South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom at the time of Harmel's death, commended her as: “one of those women who… laid down the groundwork for future generations of women.”<ref>[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/harmel-ray Ray Harmel] Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved on 3 September 2024</ref>
==References== <references/>
==External links== *[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/harmel-ray Ray Harmel - Jewish Women's Archive]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harmel, Ray}} Category:Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists Category:South African anti-apartheid activists Category:South African socialists Category:Lithuanian socialists Category:Lithuanian human rights activists Category:Lithuanian women activists Category:Jewish socialists Category:1905 births Category:1998 deaths Category:South African exiles Category:Lithuanian exiles Category:South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:Members of the South African Communist Party Category:Members of the African National Congress Category:South African prisoners and detainees