History of the Jews in Madagascar

Madagascar has a small Jewish population, but the island has not historically been a significant center for Jewish settlement. Despite this, an enduring origin myth across Malagasy ethnic groups suggests that the island's inhabitants descended from ancient Jews, and thus that the modern Malagasy and Jewish peoples share a racial affinity. This belief, termed the 'Malagasy secret', is so widespread that some Malagasy refer to the island's people as the (Malagasy Jewish Diaspora). As a result, Jewish symbols, paraphernalia, and teachings have been integrated into the syncretistic Christian practices of some Malagasy populations. Accounts of Jews in Madagascar go back to the earliest ethnographic descriptions of the island, from the mid-17th century.

Theories of Jewish origin of Malagasy people

The 'Malagasy secret'

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 bearing "red Zebu", a localized adaptation of the biblical red heifer tradition. Further belief holds that Madagascar has been settled by Jews since ancient times, and that the island was associated with ancient Ophir. These same legends assert that the rosewood used in the construction of the Temple of Solomon came from the forests of Madagascar. Solomonic descent is prominently claimed by the Merina and Betsileo peoples, the latter of whom venerate boulders rumored to bear Solomonic inscriptions as a holy site in the commune of Alakamisy Ambohimaha. 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 Mananjary cited as the true Biblical Pishon). Claims of Jewish Malagasy provenance are substantiated with alleged "linguistic similarities; common physiognomic traits; alimentary and hygiene taboos; some sort of monotheism ith_the_Malagasy_naming_Zanahary_as_their_one,_un-picturable_God.html" ;"title="Zanahary.html" ;"title="ith the Malagasy naming Zanahary">ith the Malagasy naming Zanahary as their one, un-picturable God">Zanahary.html" ;"title="ith the Malagasy naming Zanahary">ith the Malagasy naming Zanahary as their one, un-picturable Godref name=":3">; observance of a lunar calendar; and life-cycle events resembling those in the Jewish tradition, circumcision in particular". Similar 'crypto-Jewish' legends exist in neighboring Comoros and Mozambique.

The 'Jewish thesis' and later studies

The British merchant Richard Boothby of the East India Company posited in 1646 that the people of Madagascar are descended from the Hebrew patriarch Abraham and his wife Keturah, and were sent away by Abraham to "inhabit the East". The naturalist Alfred Grandider affirmed evidence of an ancient Israelite migration to Madagascar in 1901, concluding: "The fleets sent by King Solomon towards the Southeast coast of Africa o procure materials for his Templehad 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." Grandider also compared the cultural practices of the Malagasy to those of the ancient Israelites, finding in common thirty-five features including animal sacrifice, scapegoating, similar funerary conventions, and practices comparable to ''metzitzah b'peh'' and the ordeal of the bitter water. 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 ewishpeople." 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."

There is a linguistic link between surnames of the Central Highlands of Madagascar and certain Hebrew surnames.

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.

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.

Jewish communities in Madagascar

Zafy Ibrahim

17th century French governor Étienne de Flacourt reported of a group called the Zafy Ibrahim in the vicinity of the island of Nosy Boraha (a name meaning ''the Island of Abraham'') who were of Jewish identity and descent. 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. The group collectively maintained a monopoly on religious animal sacrifice. The Zafy Ibrahim have been theorized variously to be Yemenite Jews, Khajirites, Qarmatian Ismaili Gnostics, Coptic or Nestorian Christians, and pre-Islamic Arabs coming from Ethiopia. In 1880, James Sibree published an account of the Zafy Ibrahim in Ambohipeno, quoting one in affirmation: "we are altogether Jews". By the colonial period, Zafy Ibrahim began to identify themselves as Arabs and integrate into the Betsimisaraka people, and today the people of Nosy Boraha call themselves Arabs. An 1888 report describes the Zafy Ibrahim's Hebraic rites and observances as "only a remote vibration of Judeo-Arabic influence."

Extant Jewish communities

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

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), and there is a small trickle of aliyah to Israel from Madagascar. The community of "a couple hundred" Malagasy in Antananarivo began practicing Judaism in 2010, and three separate communities formed from it, each embracing a different strand of Jewish spiritual practice. Many of those in the Antananarivo Jewish community belonged to Messianic Jewish congregations, which incorporate elements of rabbinic Judaism but retain belief in Jesus. The state recognized the unified religious organization in 2012 as the formal (Jewish Community of Madagascar). In 2013, group members searched for religious resources about Judaism online and ultimately 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 believed themselves to already be Jewish.US State Dept 2022 report
/ref> 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 " awtheir 'Jewish blood' as precluding the need for any formal conversion process." In May 2016, 121 members of the Malagasy Jewish community were converted in accordance with traditional Jewish rituals; appearing before a beit din and submerged in a mikvah. The conversion, presided over by three Orthodox rabbis, was followed by fourteen weddings. The group prays in Sephardic-accented Hebrew and practices a Sephardic-style liturgy.

William F.S. Miles documents various Malagasy religious communities claiming Jewish lineage, including a robe-wearing, animal-sacrificing " Aaronite" sect in the 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. The Jewish identity of Mananzara villagers is also expressed in the logo of their elected leader, which features a six-pointed Star of David alongside a Malagasy valiha (which many Malagasy claim are inherited from King David). 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. Nathan Devir describes Merina traditionalist groups, among them the ''Loharanom-Pitahiana'' (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 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. They reject the Talmud, Kabbalah, and other post-biblical texts, and have "politely declined" invitations to integrate into the '.

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.

Foreign affairs

In the summer of 1940, the Madagascar Plan was proposed by the Nazis, under which 4 million European Jews would be forcibly relocated to the island. The plan ultimately became unfeasible, and was scrapped.

When Madagascar gained independence as the Malagasy Republic in 1960, Israel was one of the first countries to recognize its independence and send an ambassador. Relations between both countries are close and friendly. Malagasy politician Raherimasoandro "Hery" Andriamamonjy reported that relations between Madagascar and Israel soured following the United Nations' adoption of General Assembly Resolution 3379, which contended that Zionism is a form of racism. Following the resolution's adoption, Andriamamonjy said, Madagascar had "jumped on the anti-Israel bandwagon". In 1992, Andriamamonjy founded Club Shalom Madagascar, an organization liaising diplomatic, cultural, and commercial relations between the two countries. Bilateral relations were restored in 1994.

See also

*Religion in Madagascar
*Lemba people
*Crypto-judaism

External links

Jewish Virtual Library websiteJewish Photo Library images from Madagascar

References

Jews
Madagascar
Madagascar
Madagascar
Judaism
Madagascar
Israel–Madagascar relations
Jewish Madagascar history

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