Judaism in Madagascar

The "Malagasy secret" —a local adaptation of the red heifer mentioned in the Torah. There is a widespread, centuries-old belief in Madagascar that Malagasy people are descended from Jews, with "probably millions" of people in Madagascar claiming genealogical origins in ancient Israel. This belief is termed the "Malagasy secret", and is so common that some Malagasy refer to their people(s) as the (Malagasy Jewish Diaspora). The origin myths, which vary across clans, often include ancestors arriving at the shores of Madagascar wearing white and bearing "red zebu", a localized adaptation of the biblical red heifer tradition. Katherine Quanbeck records an oral testimony from a man of the Tavaratra clan, from Sandravinany, of his people's ancestors who... These same legends assert that the rosewood used in the construction of the Temple of Solomon came from the lowland forests of Madagascar. Betsileo legend associated with a site called Ivolamena describes two Betsileo ancestors, Antos and Cathy, sent by Solomon to Madagascar to look for gold and precious stones. Antemoro people claim Moses as their forebearer. Sakalava and Antandroy people explain certain taboos within their respective cultures as originating with ancient Israelite ancestors. Some Malagasy theories of Jewish provenance suggest ancestral origin in one or more of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, most commonly Gad, Issachar, Dan, and Asher. Another narrative linking ancient Hebrews to Madagascar asserts that Madagascar was the site of the Garden of Eden (with various island rivers around the Malagasy settlement of Mananzara cited as the true Biblical Pishon), and that Noah's Ark departed from Madagascar at the time of the flood. One Antemoro legend recounts that the Islamic prophet Mahomet had five sons who all became kings in Arabia: Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus, the last four of them having fathered Tsimeto, Kazimambo, Anakara, and Raminia. The Ivolamena and Vohisoratra sites are today revered as a supernatural holy site by Betsileo claimants of ancient Israelite ancestry, who believe that both cliffs' inscriptions were left by their forebearers during a voyage to gather materials for Solomon's Temple during which they married the locals of a legendary "Zafindrandoto" tribe and settled to found the earliest Betsileo communities. The "Jewish thesis" , that the red, white, and black royal lamba (pictured above on King Andrianampoinimerina) shares roots with similar Levite robes described in the Midrash.The theory that Malagasy people can trace their ancestry to ancient Jews—termed the "Jewish thesis"—is asserted in the earliest writings on the question of Malagasy origins, and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries had become a "conviction" of the many European chroniclers of the island. observance of a lunar calendar; and life-cycle events resembling those in the Jewish tradition, circumcision in particular". The introduction (credited to Captain William Mackett) of Robert Drury's 1729 memoir suggests that "the Jew derived a great deal from [the Malagasy], instead of they from the Jews... their religion is more ancient". Samuel Copland wrote in 1822 that "The origin of the [Malagasy], is, by the generality of writers, ascribed to the Jews." The naturalist Alfred Grandider affirmed supposed evidence of two waves of ancient Israelite migration to Madagascar in 1901, concluding: "The fleets sent by King Solomon towards the Southeast coast of Africa [to procure materials for his Temple] had probably some of their ships lost on the coasts of Madagascar and it is not unlikely that, in ancient times, some Jewish colonies had been founded, voluntarily or not, in this island." That same year, Irish anthropologist Augustus Henry Keane published The Gold of Ophir: Whence Brought and by Whom?, in which he proposed that Ophir's gold was brought from Madagascar. In 1946, Arthur Leib wrote that Malagasy practice of numerology is the product of Jewish influence on the people. Also in 1946, Joseph Briant published ''L'hebreu à Madagascar'', an influential comparative study of the Malagasy and Hebrew languages that purported to find substantial commonalities between the two. Lars Dahle wrote critically on the comparative arguments for the thesis in 1833: "The truth is, I think, that similarity of customs is nearly worthless as a sign of relationship, if not supported and borne out by other proofs of more importance". In 1924, Chase Osborn protested at the Jewish thesis that "not one of the [Malagasy] tribes have the great Jewish nose which has followed that people during all time and is a sign of strength." Contemporary analyses of colonial European theories of Jewish Malagasy origin have noted that "the identification of Levitical customs was an obsession of the missionaries and early European anthropologists," Nathan Devir judged the possibility of Malagasy racial descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes to be "unlikely but possible" given the body of genetic research on Malagasy origins. Edith Bruder writes that "the presence of Idumean colonies or Arab Jews from Yemen in Madagascar may be considered." == Jewish and Judaic communities in Madagascar ==

Zafy Ibrahim 17th century French colonial governor Étienne de Flacourt reported of a group called the Zafy Ibrahim, whom he'd encountered between 1644 and 1648 in the vicinity of the island of Nosy Boraha and judged to be of Jewish identity and descent. John Ogilby wrote in 1670 that the 600 "Zaffe-Hibrahim" inhabiting Nosy Boraha (which he called Nossi Hibrahim, 'Abraham's Isle') "will enter into no League with the Christians, yet trade with them, because it seems they have retain'd somewhat of the Ancient Judaism." He writes further that all the people from Plum Island to Antongil Bay call themselves Zaffe-Hibrahim and revere Noah, Abraham, Moses and David (and no other prophets). The Zafy Ibrahim have been theorized variously to be Yemenite Jews, Khajirites, Qarmatian Ismaili Gnostics, Coptic or Nestorian Christians, and descendants of pre-Islamic Arabs coming from Ethiopia. By the French colonial period, Zafy Ibrahim began to identify themselves as Arabs and integrate into the Betsimisaraka people, and the people of Nosy Boraha today call themselves "Arabs". Madagascar was governed between August 1918 and July 1919 by a French-Jewish politician, Abraham Schrameck. On July 5, 1941, Madagascar, then under Vichy France's colonial rule, instituted a law mandating a census of all Jewish residents. Jews had to register and declare their wealth within a month of the law's enactment. The census that year identified only 26 Jews, with half holding French nationality. Despite this small population, Olivier Leroy, Madagascar's Pétainist Director of Education, conducted a public conference in 1942 in Antananarivo titled "Antisémitisme et Révolution nationale"—"Antisemitism and national revolution". The implementation of Vichy France's antisemitic laws in Madagascar led to the exclusion of the island's few Jews from various sectors, including the military, media, commerce, industry, and civil service. It was described in 2017 as the only known Jewish grave in Madagascar. A series of letters from a Jew in Madagascar to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee were sent between 1947 and 1948, describing the conditions of Madagascar's Jews and requesting legal and financial assistance for the community. The author writes in his first letter: "Since June 1940, when armistice was signed between France and Germany, all Jews in Madagascar were in troubles. Even our properties were taken by the government ruling the country at that time. We are not allowed to work as merchants, because we are Jews. In 1942, my brother had a big stock of rice, corn and manioc which was requisitioned by the government and since that time he never received any payment for those goods ... A few people here in [Antananarivo] who are Jews do not want to declare that they are so as they are afraid ... Consequently, the Jew Community here cannot have any meeting (official)." He goes on in further letters to approximate the number of Jews in Madagascar as 1,200 including children, some of whom were born on the island., dated 14 April 1942, reporting that two Jews in the region had identified themselves in accordance with Vichy anti-Jewish legislation|250x250pxIn 1950, a council of Haredi rabbis in Paris sought the guidance of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, regarding the permissibility of consuming zebu meat under Jewish dietary laws. Their inquiry was part of an effort to set up kosher slaughterhouses in Madagascar for the purpose of exporting meat to Israel. The inquiry generated a halakhic controversy among rabbinic authorities. Rabbi Herzog's positive stance was prominently challenged by Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz. Ultimately, the Chief Rabbinate declined to approve the Malagasy meat, in deference to Rabbi Karelitz's argument. In 1955, the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Lubavitch-Chabad Hasidic Jewish movement, asked Rabbi Yosef Wineberg to go to Madagascar "in order to find any stray sheep of the House of Israel". At that time, the Jewish community in nearby South Africa was aware of only two Jews in Madagascar: a French doctor who did not identify with his Jewish heritage, and an Orthodox Tunisian Jew, Mr. Louzon, who had sent a telegram requesting conserved Kosher meats due to the lack of Kosher butchers in the region. "I'm sure you'll find there more than one [Jew]," the Rebbe reportedly wrote in a letter to Rabbi Wineberg. Wineberg found and made contact with "about eight" Iraqi Jewish families in Madagascar. He affixed mezuzot to their doors, gave them a shofar, and taught them how to pray as a group. The Rebbe maintained contact with Mr. Louzon and his wife. Communauté Juive de Madagascar The community of "a couple hundred" Malagasy Jews in Ampanotokana arrived at rabbinic Judaism in 2010 as the result of three regional Messianic Jewish groups splintering off and studying the Torah. In 2012, the community obtained state authorization to operate as a religious congregation, and in 2014 the group was recognized by the provincial office of the Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization, first under the Hebrew name ('Light and Joy'), and later as the formal (Jewish Community of Madagascar). Conversion and post-conversion activities of the Jewish community in Ampanotokana In 2013, group members came in contact with a Jewish outreach group, who helped the community to organize a group Orthodox conversion. Some members of this community were reportedly hesitant to convert to Orthodoxy because they understood themselves to already be ethnically Jewish. Nathan Devir interpreted the Malagasy view of Judaism—which considers it an inherited parentage to be enacted through religious practice—as being "out of step" with the traditional notion of conversion. He reports that in 2013, some Malagasy Jews opposed to the prospect of conversion "[saw] their 'Jewish blood' as precluding the need for any formal conversion process." Rabbi Moshe Yehouda, now the community's spiritual leader, came to Madagascar after the conversion and established a Madagascar beit din to conduct conversions locally. underwent conversion in accordance with traditional Jewish rituals; appearing before a beit din and submerged in a river mikvah. The men, all of whom were already circumcised, underwent the ritual of hatafat dam brit. The conversion, presided over by three Orthodox rabbis, was followed by fourteen weddings and vow renewals under a makeshift chuppah at a hotel in Antananarivo. The following year, after "multiple public interactions with the leaders of other religious groups that served as examples for the public", a leader of the reported an improvement in attitudes toward the community, with local communities no longer critical of their religious dress and Jewish children no longer being denied private school enrollment. In 2018, 11 more members of the Ampanotokana Jewish community underwent Orthodox conversion, presided over by a Belgian-Malagasy rabbi. In November 2019, the group formed a Vaad (rabbinical council) to handle and publish guidance of halakha (Jewish law). In 2021, the opened a printing shop to generate income for the community and print Jewish texts. The effort was led by Rabbi Moshe Yehouda., an indigenous musical instrument believed by many Malagasy to have been inherited from King David|left Aaronites holding the election flag of mayor Roger Randrianomanana, which features a Magen David and a valiha William F.S. Miles documents a robe-wearing, animal-sacrificing sect claiming Aaronite descent in the village of Mananzara. The group asserts that its Jewish ancestors were swept to Madagascar in the deluge of Genesis. Mananzara's Aaronite community is organized with priests (analogous to kohenim) and their assistants (analogous to Levites) officiating to the community. The Jewish identity of Mananzara villagers is also expressed in the logo of their elected leader Roger Randrianomanana, which features a six-pointed Star of David alongside a Malagasy valiha (which many Malagasy claim are inherited from King David).|left Miles also documents a group of contemporary Antemoro "kings and scribes" in Vatumasina, who claim descendance from an Arabized Jewish figure named Ali Ben Forah, or Alitawarat (Ali of the Torah), who came to Madagascar from Mecca in the 15th century. Lala has been arrested several times, and in November 2015 was arrested in Miandrivazo for "witchcraft against around fifty high school girls" after authorities alleged to have found wooden idols in his car. He was sentenced to one year in prison for witchcraft in January 2016, and was acquitted in June of that year. Since 2004, a Malagasy organization called Trano koltoraly malagasy has advocated for a Jewish origin and identity among Malagasy people, proposing origins among the Israelites of the Exodus. The group observes a "Malagasy new year" at the end of March or beginning of April. ==Foreign affairs==

The Madagascar Plan In the summer of 1940, following various similar proposals made by Jews and anti-semites alike since the late 19th century, Nazi Germany proposed the Madagascar Plan, according to which 4 million European Jews would be expelled and forcibly relocated to the island. Eric T. Jennings has argued that the plan's persistence—from its earliest public proposals to its explorations by the French, Polish, and German governments during World War II—stems from the "Jewish thesis" discourse regarding Madagascar's supposed ancient Jewish roots. Two antisemitic letters to Cayla from Malagasy artillerymen stationed in Syria, both expressing opposition and concern at the prospect of Jewish settlement of the island, were apparently marked by Cayla for inclusion in a collection of negative reactions to potential Jewish immigration, to be shown to his superiors in Paris. In 2017, The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the South African branch of Israel's national emergency service, Magen David Adom, sent aid to Madagascar amidst a serious outbreak of the plague. In 2020, Madagascar formed a parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus, chaired by Retsanga Tovondray Brillant de l'Or, as part of the Israel Allies Foundation. Madagascar was represented at the inaugural Africa-Israel Parliamentary Summit, which took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2024. Representatives "affirmed Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital and pledged to enhance diplomatic, economic and security cooperation with the Jewish state". ==See also==