Judaism

Judaism in Africa is represented mainly by two separate groups of people: Jews from Europe and the Middle East and indigenous Africans who claim Jewish or Israelite descent. Jews from the Middle East arrived in Africa before A.D. 400, settling mainly in North African countries such as EGYPT and ALGERIA. Most worked as

Bishop Gordon: Judaism Will Bring Light to Africa - Bishop Samuel Gordon told Rabbi Shalom Arush Your book The Garden of Wisdom changed my life

Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews living primarily in the Maghreb of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as Sudan and Egypt. Some were established early in the diaspora; others after the expulsion from Iberia in the late 15th century.

In the forty-plus years in which the discipline of African history has flourished, it has focused on some central themes—the wide array of its peoples, topographical differences, climatic changes, diverse languages, varying and/or often syncretized religions, and complex cultures

Practices drawn from the Hebrew Bible are not new to the continent. Seeking full conversion to rabbinic Judaism is.

Judaism What do Jews believe?

Many people are surprised to learn that Judaism has a rich history on the African continent. Unique Jewish communities can be found in almost every country, and while each practices its own traditions, all share common attributes based in Judaism. Here are 10 things you didn’t kn

Over the last several decades, an astonishing phenomenon has developed: a Jewish rebirth of sorts occurring throughout Africa. Different ethnic groups proclaim that they are returning to long forgotten Jewish roots and African clans trace their lineage to the Lost Tribes of Israel. This book addresses the elaboration and the development of Jewish identities by Africans. Africans have encountered Jewish myths and traditions in multiple forms and under a number of situations. The context and circumstances of these encounters produced a series of influences that gradually led, within some African societies, to the elaboration of a new Jewish identity connected with that of the Diaspora. The book presents one by one the different groups of Black Jews from western central, eastern, and southern Africa, and the ways in which they have used and imagined their oral history and traditional customs to construct a distinct Jewish identity. The purpose of the book is to review the processes and immensely complex interactions which shaped these new religious identities. It explores the way in which Africans have interacted with the ancient mythological sub-strata of both western and Africans idea of Jews in order to create a distinct Jewish identity. It particularly seeks to identify and to assess colonial influences and their internalization by African societies in the shaping of new African religious identities. Along with these notions the book examines how, in the absence of recorded African history, the eminently malleable accounts of Jewish lineage developed by African groups inspired by Judaism co-exist with the possible historical traces of a Jewish presence in Africa.

Jewish filmmaker Laurence Gavron, who made history by being the first Senegalese-naturalized white person to be elected for parliament there, is soon to release a documentary on the Jewish history of African tribes.

Africa south of the Sahara: Selected Internet resources about Judaism in Africa.

In early 2000, Rabbi Avtzon was asked by his former classmate and Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Kinshasa, DRC and the senior Emissary for Central Africa to help them expand and open new centers for Judaism in Central Africa. Rabbi Bentolila is responsible for all Jewish activities throughout Central Africa and regularly sends groups of Rabbinical students for the High Holidays and Passover to Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Freetown, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, etc. In March 2001, Rabbi Avtzon flew out to Kinshasa for their Gala 20th Anniversary Celebration, at which time Rabbi Bentolila announced the opening of several new initiatives.  In August 2001, the first Rabbinical Seminary in Central Africa opened its doors for 10 students from New York. In November 2001, Chabad of Central Afica opened its first regional office in Lagos, Nigeria (later relocated to Abuja as they have a larger Jewish community). In December 2014, Chabad of Central Africa announced the opening of a new center in Luanda, Angola. In May 2015, Chabad of Central Africa announced the opening of a new center in Accra, Ghana. Plans are in the works for the opening of additional centers across Central Africa in the near future.

Since Biblical times, the Jewish people have had close ties with Africa, going back to Abraham’s sojourns in Egypt, and later the Israelite captivity under the Pharaohs. Some Jewish communities in Africa are among the oldest in the world, dating back more than 2700 years. Today,

Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews living primarily in the Maghreb of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as Sudan and Egypt. Some were established early in the diaspora; others after the expulsion from Iberia in the late 15th century.