The history of the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, until 1975, was closely connected with the history of Judaism through the former

Portuguese empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...

, particularly those elements of it operating on the coastlines of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. By the time the first Portuguese ships entered this ocean in the late 15th century, Jewish merchants and persons connected with sea work had lived on, and next to, this ocean for many centuries. As a European presence deepened by the late 19th century in the Portuguese East African colonial capital then called "Lourenço Marques", a cluster of Jews of diverse backgrounds were living there.

One synagogue

After 1900, the same history became closely connected with the identity and operations of what became the Maputo Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. The Maputo synagogue traces its congregational records to 1899 when political upheavals connected with the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

caused the rabbi

Joseph Hertz Joseph Herman Hertz (25 September 1872 – 14 January 1946) was a British Rabbi and biblical scholar. He held the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 until his death in 1946, in a period encompassing both world wars and the ...

, then of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, to briefly move to the Mozambique capital as a refugee. Rev. Dr. Hertz urged his co-religionists in

Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...

to take steps to organize themselves as a community, including the commencement of pathways for Jewish education and the acquisition of land parcels for a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. After a period of community development, these urgings flowered in 1926 with the construction of the Lourenço Marques Synagogue, a facility with a congregation of about 30 Jews. Events in Europe led to the Jewish population of Lourenço Marques peaking at approximately 500 in 1942. With other organized religious organizations then operating in Mozambique, the Maputo congregation was dispersed in 1975-1976 by the revolutionary

Frelimo FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's firs ...

government, and the synagogue was expropriated. The Jewish community reclaimed the building and reorganized in 1989; however, a report dated in 2008 indicates that the congregation had not recovered to pre-1975 levels. The Jewish community of Maputo, which was relatively coterminous with the overall Jewish permanent-residency population of Mozambique as a whole, was in 2008 approximately 20 persons. In 2010 the Jewish community of Maputo officially reorganized as Honen Dalim: The Jewish Community of Mozambique (Associação Honen Dalim - Comunidade Judaica de Moçambique). The original synagogue underwent a complete renovation in 2013. It currently hosts weekly services and events for the Jewish community of Mozambique, attracting permanent residents and guests from around the world. The number in the Jewish community was reported to be 35 in 2018, and described as "thriving."

References

Jews and Judaism in Mozambique {{Africa topic, History of the Jews in