African JewAfrican Jew has a variety of meanings:
Africans with ancient ties
- Remnants of longstanding Jewish communities remain in Morocco and Tunisia, with a strong Jewish community remaining as Djerba in Tunisia. However, as in the rest of the Arab world, since the founding of Israel, most have emigrated, mostly either to Israel, France, or Spain.
- The Lemba of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the South African region of Venda claim descent from King Solomon, although their actual history is controversial.
The Ethiopian Jews
The Falasha of Ethiopia were recognized by the Israeli government as "official" Jews in 1975 and many of them were air-lifted to Israel during the time of Prime Minister Menahem Begin who obtained an official ruling from the Israeli Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that they were truly descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes, probably from the Tribe of Dan as there are rabbinical responsa that discuss issues concerning them going back hundreds of years. This group of Jews has had one of the longest recorded histories and has practiced a Judaism based on the Hebrew Bible which they treausured and revered for millenia. They did not have any connection to the mainstream Jewish communities to the north of them, and therefore were not familiar with the development of the Talmud and later codes of Jewish law such as the Shulkhan Arukh. Rabbi Yosef ruled that upon arrival in Israel they must undergo a pro forma conversion to Judaism without the normal rigid requirements of gentile converts who have had absolutely no connections with Jews or Judaism.
From the Middle Ages
- King Manuel I of Portugal exiled about 2,000 Jewish children to São Tomé and Príncipe around 1500. Most died, but in the early 1600s "the local bishop noted with disgust that there were still Jewish observances on the island and returned to Portugal because of his frustration with them." [1] (http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/mozambique.htm) Although Jewish practices faded over subsequent centuries, there are people in São Tomé and Príncipe who are aware of partial descent from this population.
- Similarly, a number of Portuguese ethnic Jews were exiled to Sao Tome after forced conversions to Roman Catholicism.
Africans with modern ties
- The Abayudaya of Uganda are not ethnic Jews; their practice of the religion dates only from the early 20th century. [2] (http://www.ugandamission.org/news/Abayudaya.htm)
- The "House of Israel" community of Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Sui in Western Ghana claim that their Sefwi ancestors descend from Jews who migrated south through Côte d'Ivoire; however, their continuous practice of Judaism only dates back to the 1970s.
- The Jews of Rusape, Zimbabwe claim ancient Jewish tribal connections -- in fact, they claim that much of the Black African population is actually of Jewish origin. However, their own active practice of Judaism only dates back to 1903.
- There are people of undoubted Jewish ancestry in Timbuktu, Mali, although none of them today practice the religion.
Modern communities of European descent
- There is a substantial, mostly Ashkenazaic Jewish community in South Africa. These Jews arrived mostly from Lithuania prior to World War II. Connected to them were the small European Jewish communities in Namibia (South West Africa), Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Lesotho (Basutuland), Swaziland, Botswana (Bechuanaland), Zaire (Belgian Congo), Kenya, Malawi (Nyasaland), Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) all of which had synagogues and even formal Jewish schools usually based in the capitals of these countries.
- Historically, there was a Jewish community in Maputo, Mozambique, but in the independence era, nearly all left. The government has officially returned the Maputo synagogue to the Jewish community, but "little or no Jewish community remains to reclaim it." [3] (http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/dispersed.htm)
External link
|