Cyril K. Harris, 68; Former Chief Rabbi of S. Africa

Cyril K. Harris, the former chief rabbi of South Africa, who helped ease long-standing mistrust of the Jewish community among poor blacks, has died of cancer. He was 68.

Harris died Tuesday in the southern coastal resort of Hermanus, near Cape Town, according to the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa.

His body was flown to Israel for a funeral in Jerusalem, the organization said.

Harris was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sept. 19, 1936, and moved in 1987 to South Africa, where he gained a reputation as a human-rights activist.

Under apartheid, the Jewish community was widely perceived by blacks as collaborating with the South African regime.

Harris became a good friend of Nelson Mandela and was invited to speak at his inauguration as South Africa’s first black president in 1994. The rabbi also gave a blessing at Mandela’s wedding to Graca Machel in 1998.

“In years to come, when the history of our transition is written, his name will be among those South African leaders who lent a hand in the efforts to establish democracy, to heal divisions and to start the process of building a better life,” Mandela once said of Harris.

The rabbi served on South Africa’s National Religious Leaders Forum, set up by Mandela to promote interfaith understanding and act as a collective religious voice on human rights and other issues.

Harris forged greater ties with Christian, Hindu and Muslim groups, while also sounding the alarm about what he perceived as rising anti-Semitism in the world.

Earlier this year, President Thabo Mbeki paid tribute to Harris’ “unstinting and selfless devotion to nation-building and reconciliation” while head of the nation’s Jewish community, which numbers between 70,000 and 80,000.

Ill health forced Harris to retire as chief rabbi at the end of last year.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II this year. In 2003, he received the Jerusalem Prize for services to the Jewish people.

Harris is survived by his wife, two sons and five grandchildren.