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Brief history of the Jews of Congo

The first Jews arrived in Congo during the Belgian colonial period, at the very beginning of the 20th century. They are mostly Ashkenazi from Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Russia. They settle mainly in Elisabethville (current Lubumbashi), capital of Katanga, rich mining province. One of them, and the best known, is Benjamin Granat who opened a butcher’s shop and a printing press and founded a newspaper called “L’Etoile du Congo”.
In 1909 is created the “Jewish Congregation of Katanga” and the first oratory.
During the economic crisis of 1929 and the massive arrival of Sephardim many Ashkenazi Jews leave the country to emigrate to South Africa or Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
It was in 1922 that the Jews of Rhodes (then Italian colony) emigrated in order to improve their lives and those of their families. They took the initiative to go to Africa, and settled either in the Belgian Congo. Later, they called their families to join them. Among them, families: Benatar, Israel, Cicurel, Douenias, Codron, Pinhas, Soriano, Alhadeff, Avdarazel, Amato, Capelluto, Hasson, Fernades, Franco, Israel …
That’s how a few thousand people had the chance to leave the island of Rhodes before
World War II. Those who remained did not escape the deportations by the Nazis and were sent to concentration camps. Only 105 people (out of a total of 2000) survived the war and joined their families in Africa or America. On July 17, 1944, the deportation of Rhodes took place. Many of them will settle all along the railway network then under construction. They are dedicated to trading and also create factories textile mills and mills, and play an important role in the economic development of Congo.
The Congo then has a Jewish population essentially Sephardic; they build a synagogue in the city center of Elisabethville (synagogue that still exists)
and bring a Rabbi from Rhodes, Moses Levy, who will serve the community for 53 years.
The Jewish population in Congo will have up to 3,000 members, mostly in Elisabethville (where 2200 people were still living in 1967), in Leopoldville (Kinshasa)
and Luluabourg (Kananga) in Kasai province, in the center of the country, which has counted up to 300 souls. Following the unrest during independence, then problems related to the “Zairianization” wanted in 1973 by the then President,
Marshal Mobutu, many Jews emigrate, and finally most communities disappear during the serious unrest of 1991 and 1993.
The community of Kananga, Kasaï, had already disappeared in 1975, and only persists that of the capital, Kinshasa. There were 400 Jews in 1960, 750 in 1985 because of the arrival of Jews fleeing Katanga. A synagogue was built in Kinshasa in 1987 on land donated by President Mobutu, but since the looting of 1991 and 1993. Several natural children of Congo Jews could be listed in the archives of the famous bank “La Belgolaise” created at the time and whose access seems difficult nowadays. Some played an important role in Congolese history. This is the case of Kengo wa Dondo, born Léon Lubicz, former Head of Government and President of the Senate, whose father was a doctor of Polish origin,
and of Moses Katumbi Chapwe, son of a Jew of Rhodes, and former governor of Katanga.The fashion designer, Olivier Strelli born Nessim Israel.

Victor Alhadeff…

 

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