Jews in Madagascar

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Legends of ancient Jewish ancestry in Madagascar often feature red zebu—a local adaptation of the red heifer mentioned in the Torah.

Accounts of Jews in Madagascar go back to the earliest ethnographic descriptions of the island, from the mid-17th century.

Portuguese Jewish conversos
making contact with Madagascar in the 15th century has been proposed.

Madagascar's small Jewish community faced challenges during the Vichy regime, which implemented antisemitic laws affecting the few Jews on the island. In the 21st century, some indigenous Malagasy communities informally identified with Jews and Judaism have adopted rabbinic Judaism, studying the Torah and Talmud across three small congregations and undergoing Orthodox conversion. The unified rabbinic Jewish community refers to its ethnic division within Judaism as Madagascar Sepharad.

Theories of Jewish origin of Malagasy people

Betsileo legend holds that the rosewood collected for Solomon's Temple came from Madagascar's lowland forests
.
It has been claimed by Prince Ndriana Rabarioelina, a member of the Merina royal family, that the red, white, and black royal lamba (pictured above on King Andrianampoinimerina) shares roots with similar Levite robes described in the Midrash.[1]

The "Malagasy secret"

There is a widespread, centuries-old[2] belief in Madagascar that Malagasy people are descended from Jews, with "probably millions" of people in Madagascar claiming genealogical origins in ancient Israel.[3] This belief is termed the "Malagasy secret", and is so common that some Malagasy refer to their people(s) as the Diaspora Jiosy Gasy (Malagasy Jewish Diaspora).[4] The origin myths, which vary across clans, often include ancestors arriving at the shores of Madagascar bearing "red zebu", a localized adaptation of the biblical red heifer tradition.[5] Further belief holds that Madagascar has been settled by Jews since ancient times, and that the island was associated with ancient Ophir.[6] These same legends assert that the rosewood used in the construction of the Temple of Solomon came from the lowland forests of Madagascar.[3] Descent from members of this Solomonic fleet is prominently claimed by the Merina and Betsileo peoples.[7] The Merina royal line has often claimed to descend from an ancient wave of Israelite migration that arrived via Asia in Madagascar, after being exiled by the Neo-Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar.[8] 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.[9][10][11]

Similar "crypto-Jewish" legends exist in neighboring Comoros and Mozambique.[11]

The "Jewish thesis"

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.[7] Common substantiations for the thesis included observations of "linguistic similarities [between Hebrew and Malagasy]; common physiognomic traits; alimentary and hygiene taboos; some sort of monotheism [with the Malagasy naming Zanahary as their one, un-picturable God];[12] observance of a lunar calendar; and life-cycle events resembling those in the Jewish tradition, circumcision in particular".[13][7] A similar "Arab thesis" was also prevalent, though less persistent and popular than its Jewish counterpart.[5]

The British merchant Richard Boothby of the

metzitzah b'peh and the ordeal of the bitter water.[18] 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.[7][19] In 1946, Arthur Leib wrote that Malagasy practice of numerology is the product of Jewish influence on the people.[20] 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.[21]

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".[7] The British explorer Samuel Copeland argued in 1847 that Malagasy people have "neither customs, traditions, rites, nor ceremonies sufficiently analogous to justify us in assigning their origin to that [Jewish] people."[22] 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."[23]

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,"[11] and that "squaring the Bible's assertion of universality and shared descent from Noah's three sons with the realities of global diversity was [...] a central preoccupation of generations of ecclesiasts and Christian voyagers."[7] Eric T. Jennings argues that the discourses about Jewish roots in Madagascar led to the selection of the island by Nazi Germany for the Madagascar Plan, a proposed forcible relocation of Europe's Jews to Madagascar.[7]

The highlands Betsileo commune of Alakamisy Ambohimaha is home to Ivolamena, a holy site where cliffs bearing inscriptions are held by believers as artifacts of ancient Solomonic ancestors of the Betsileo people.

Alakamisy Ambohimaha

A site called Ivolamena in

Hamito-Semites" may have been the first to bring zebu cattle to Madagascar. Another nearby site, Vohisoratra (meaning 'the mountain with writings'), was reported to bear "an inscription calling to mind Hebrew characters." The researchers had received tips from a Malagasy informant, who suggested that the Vohisoratra inscriptions might be dated "to the time of king Solomon, who sent the Israelites across the world to seek precious stones for the building of Jerusalem".[7] In 1962, Pierre Vérin summarized scientific opinions of the inscriptions as "divided", and asserted that geologists consider the supposed inscriptions to be the products of "natural erosion".[7][25]

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.

proto-Hebraïc" writings. Ratsiraka also reportedly requested that teams of Malagasy archaeologists investigate the question of Madagascar's Jewish roots and conduct digs in the Betsileo region to search for the biblical Queen of Sheba's treasure.[7] In 2009, residents of Alakamisy Ambohimaha threatened adherents of "Hebraic Judaism" who had come to the cliffs and sacrificed two lambs, one black and one white, despite the local fady (taboo) against slaughtering sheep. The Betsileo locals called for the government to recognize the commune as a sacred site of historical heritage, and protect it accordingly.[26]

Later investigations

No genetic testing has been done on specific Malagasy populations to corroborate claims of Jewish phylogenetic heritage. Genetic and linguistic studies that inquire broadly about Malagasy origins generally point to Austronesian settlement as the earliest human presence on the island, followed by waves of migration from other regions including East Africa.[11] A 2013 DNA study of the Antemoro people found two haplogroups linked to Middle Eastern origins in their parental lineages. Haplogroup J1 was found to connect the Antemoro with, among others, Portuguese Jews and people from Israel and Palestine. Haplogroup T1 connected the Antemoro to Israel, Spain, Lebanon, and Palestine.[27][28]

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.[29] It has been alternatively proposed that Jews or their converted descendants may have been among the 10th-century Arab traders, or among the 15th-century sailors fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition, who came to Madagascar.[30][31] Tudor Parfitt, who describes 18th and 19th-century Merina royal tombstones with Hebrew writing, asserts that "There is good reason to believe that Portuguese anusim settled in Madagascar … There is no reason to doubt a historic connection with the Jews, but in the absence of any proof, it would be audacious to say there was a connection."[32]

Jewish 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.[33] The 500-600 people constituting the group were described in de Flacourt's account as being unfamiliar with Muhammad (considering his followers to be "lawless men"), celebrating and resting on Saturdays (unlike members of the island's Muslim population, who rested on Fridays), and bearing Hebrew names like Moses, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel and Noah.[12] The group collectively maintained a regional monopoly on religious animal sacrifice.[33] 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.[33] In 1880, James Sibree published an account of the Zafy Ibrahim in Ambohipeno, quoting one in affirmation: "we are altogether Jews".[33] An 1888 report described the Zafy Ibrahim's Hebraic rites and observances as "only a remote vibration of Judeo-Arabic influence."[34] 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".[33]

Colonial Period

An antisemitic caricature of Abraham Schrameck, the Jewish Governor General of Madagascar from 1918 to 1920, from the far-right newspaper Action Française

After France colonized the island and Europeans began settling there in the 19th century, a small number of Jewish families settled in Antananarivo, but did not establish a Jewish community.[35]

Madagascar was governed between August 1918 and July 1919 by a

French-Jewish politician, Abraham Schrameck.[36][37][38]

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.

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 26 Jews from various sectors, including the military, media, commerce, industry, and civil service.[40] These laws were strictly enforced. By August 15, 1941, those working in administrative roles were removed from their positions.[39] In one case, a civilian's letter to regional authorities identified Alexander Dreyfus, a rice merchant in Antanimena, as a Jew, and thus in breach of the law prohibiting Jews from trading in cereals or grains. The letter's author urged the administration to stop Dreyfus, lest the government seem "ridiculed by a common Jew". The regional leader in Tananarive ordered the police chief to see that Dreyfus "immediately cease his activities in the grain sector".[39]

In 2011, Adam Rovner found one Jewish grave on the island, belonging to Captain Israel Solomon Genussow. Genussow was a

South African Jewish soldier for the British Army who grew up in Palestine and died in action on July 30, 1944, at the age of 28.[36][41] It was described in 2017 as the only known Jewish grave in Madagascar.[42]

A series of letters from a Jew in Madagascar to the

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)."[44] 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.[45]

In 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.[46]

In 1955, the

Iraqi Jewish families in Madagascar. He affixed mezuzot to their doors, gave them a shofar, and taught them how to pray as a group.[48][49] The Rebbe maintained contact with Mr. Louzon and his wife.[50][47][51]

Communauté Juive de Madagascar

The country is home to a small normative Jewish Malagasy population (in addition to a greater number of Jewish-identifying practitioners of syncretic combinations of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and traditional ancestor-worship and animism, including the 2,000 members of the roughly twelve Messianic Jewish congregations in Madagascar, which syncretically incorporate Judaic elements into Christian belief).[3][52] 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.[31][30] In 2012, the state recognized the unified rabbinic Jewish organization as the formal Communauté Juive de Madagascar (Jewish Community of Madagascar).[11]

The community's president is Ashrey Dayves (born Andrianarisao Asarery), who leads alongside Peteola (Andre Jacque Rabisisoa), who serves as the Hebrew teacher, and Touvya (Ferdinand Jean Andriatovomanana), the community's

Dutch Jew who thought Ashkenazi tradition would be inappropriate for such a decidedly non-European population.[53][11][31]

Conversion and post-conversion activities

In 2013, group members came in contact with a

mikvah. Because the local Parks Department denied the Communauté's request to build a temporary structure on the Ikopa River in which to disrobe (with mikvah baths traditionally requiring complete nudity), the ritual occurred at a river far from town, and the converts built a tent from tarp and wood to protect their privacy.[57][58] 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.[59][31]

Nathan Devir analyzes Malagasy Judaic adherence in context of the ancestor-honoring traditions of Madagascar's culture, writing that for Madagascar's new Jews, "the imperative to live Jewishly is a way to honour the ancestors more truly and efficiently." He also notes that Malagasy Jews reject the ancestor-venerating funerary practice of famadihana because it is effectively prohibited by Jewish burial custom.[11]

Members of the Communauté Juive de Madagascar reported

refused to register Jewish children after learning of their religious affiliation, and one landlord cancelled a lease contract after learning that the rental house was going to be used as a Jewish religious school. Members of the community also reported "unwelcome attention" and comments for their religious attire.[60]

In 2018, 11 more members of the Ampanotokana Jewish community underwent Orthodox conversion, presided over by a Belgian-Malagasy rabbi.[61] In November 2019, the group formed a Vaad (rabbinical council) to handle and publish guidance of halakha (Jewish law).[62] In 2021, the Communauté Juive de Madagascar opened a printing shop to generate income for the community and print Jewish texts.[63][64]

Malagasy people with a valiha, an indigenous musical instrument believed by many Malagasy to have been inherited from King David.

Aaronites

William F.S. Miles documents various Malagasy religious communities claiming Jewish lineage, including a robe-wearing, animal-sacrificing "

Aaronite" sect in their village of Mananzara, who assert that their Jewish ancestors, among whom they count Aaron, brother of Moses, 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.[65] 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).[3][11] Miles also documents a group of contemporary "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.[66][3] Nathan Devir describes Merina traditionalist groups, among them the Loharanom-Pitahiana (meaning 'the Source of the Blessing') of Ambohimiadana, who are identified with rabbinic and Messianic Jewish communities on the island but do not feel a need to align their own religion, which they prefer to call "Hebraic religion" or "Aaronism", with the norms of rabbinic Judaism, which they regard as a later and somewhat strayed derivation from the ancient Israelite creed inherited by the Merina. While many Malagasy claim such treasures as the Ark of the Covenant, fragments of the Tablets of Stone, and Moses' staff to be kept in Vatumasina, though the kings and scribes maintain that the Hebrew treasures were lost in a fire during the French repression of the Malagasy Uprising of 1947.[30] They reject the Talmud, Kabbalah, and other post-biblical texts, and have "politely declined" invitations to integrate into the Communauté Juive de Madagascar.[3][11]

Other Judaic groups

The Église du Judaïsme Hébraïque is a charismatic cult in Madagascar led by the Judaic mystic Rivo Lala, whose teachings circulate via the internet.[3] Nathan Devir describes Lala's religion as "a mélange of spiritualism, Catholicism, and theosophy with a healthy dose of Aaronite-descent propaganda and a cultlike emphasis on his own supernatural abilities." Lala's followers are described as wearing kippot and flowing tunics similar to Arabian thawbs.[11] In 2012, Lala publicly claimed that he could guarantee a return to acceptance and power for the then-exiled former President of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana "if he accepts me as [his] rabbi and agrees to follow the religion of Hebraic Judaism".[11][67] 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 found wooden idols in his car.[68][11] His arrest incited a frenzy in the town, with the families of the allegedly possessed girls demanding that Lala be handed over to them.[69] He was sentenced to one year in prison for witchcraft in January 2016, and was acquitted in June of that year.[70][71]

The Trano Koltoraly Malagasy celebrating the Malagasy new year in March 2012

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.[9]

Foreign affairs

The Madagascar Plan

Léon Cayla, the Governor-General of Madagascar from 1930 to 1939, was a strong opponent of Jewish relocation to Madagascar.

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.[7]: 174  In 1937, Bealanana and Ankaizinana, two very remote areas with high elevations and low population densities, were identified by a French "expert" delegation of three men, two of whom were Jews, as a possible site for Jewish relocation.[36][7]

censored Malagasy press reflected this opposition, expressing concern that the relocated Jews "would not remain engaged in agriculture for long but would move into trading or compete with the locals for the remaining jobs" and would receive favorable treatment and assistance from the Colonial Minister over the indigenous Malagasy and long-established French settlers on the island. It was "unanimously lamented" that Madagascar was willing to spend money on the internment of Spanish refugees in France and the resettlement of Polish Jews, but did nothing for its colonies.[72] 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.[7]
: 199 

The plan, which relied on the French colony of Madagascar being handed over to Germany, was shelved after the British capture of Madagascar from Vichy in 1942. It was permanently abandoned with the commencement of the Final Solution, the policy of systematic genocide of Jews.[73][7]

President Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, Foreign Minister of Israel Golda Meir, and Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi signing a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance in 1961.

Relations with Israel

When Madagascar gained independence as the Malagasy Republic in 1960, Israel was one of the first countries to recognize its independence, send an ambassador, and establish an embassy on the island. President Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar and President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi of Israel each visited the other’s country during their overlapping terms. Bilateral relations were suspended after the Yom Kippur War in 1973.[74][35] In 1992, Malagasy politician Raherimasoandro "Hery" Andriamamonjy Andriamamonjy founded Club Shalom Madagascar, an organization liaising diplomatic, cultural, and commercial relations between the two countries.[66] Bilateral relations were restored in 1994.[35] In 2020, Madagascar formed a parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus, chaired by Retsanga Tovondray Brillant de l’Or, as part of the Israel Allies Foundation.[75]

See also

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External links