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Thehistory of the Jews in Mauritius goes back to the firstJews who arrived inMauritius fromHaifa,British Palestine (nowIsrael), in the 1940s because they were denied entry to Palestine by the British Government.[1][page needed]
According to the 2011 census, there were about 43 Jews in Mauritius;[2] by 2022, it was reported that there were 100 Jews in the country.[3]
There is asynagogue inCurepipe, and aJewish cemetery inBambous.[4][5]Judaism is a minor religion in Mauritius.
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In September 1940, theAtlantic,Milos, andPacific, picked up 3,600 Jews fromVienna,Gdańsk andPrague inTulcea,Romania, to be sent to Palestine.[6] The Jews that arrived in Palestine came without entry permits and were subsequently denied entry by the British government, specifically SirHarold MacMichael, who was theHigh Commissioner. The British decided to deport the immigrants to eitherTrinidad and Tobago or Mauritius, both British colonies.[7]
On 25 November 1940, a bomb planted by theHaganah, a Zionist paramilitary organisation, who wanted the Jews onboard to stay in Palestine, detonated on thePatria, a ship which was carrying an initial 1,800 deportees to Mauritius.[6] It is claimed that the Haganah's intention was only to cripple the ship, however they miscalculated the required explosive force and instead it sank rapidly in Haifa Bay. There were 260 fatalities and 172 injuries. There were only enough lifeboats for 805, since the capacity was 805 when thePatria was a French ship. When the British repossessed the boat, they increased the capacity to 1,800 but still had the same number oflifeboats.[6]The surviving Jews were sent toAtlit detainee camp. The remaining 1,584 refugees from theAtlantic who were not on thePatria were initially also imprisoned in Atlit, but were sent to Mauritius on 9 December 1940.[1][page needed] When they arrived, they were sent to a detainment camp inBeau-Bassin.
In the camp, the detainees suffered from tropical diseases and inadequate food and clothing. Jewish organizations such as theSouth African Jewish Board of Deputies, theJewish Agency, and theZionist Federation, sent food, clothing, medicine, and religious items to the detainees. Initially, a ban on interaction between the sexes was enforced; the men were held in a former jailhouse and the women in adjacent iron huts. After the ban was lifted, 60 children were born in the camp. In total, 128 prisoners died in the camp, and were buried in the Jewish section of St. Martin Cemetery. At the end ofWorld War II, the detainees were given the choice of returning to their former homes in Europe or immigrating to Palestine. Most chose Palestine, and on August 6, 1945, 1,320 landed inHaifa.[5][8]
According to the population census of 2011, there are 43 Jews in Mauritius. The current community is unrelated to the 1940s fugitives.[2] The firstBar Mitzvah in Mauritius since World War II took place in 2000.[5]
There is also one synagogue inCurepipe, the Amicale Maurice Israel Center, which was opened in 2005. The Saint Martin Cemetery in Saint Martin near Beau-Bassin, is the only Jewish cemetery in Mauritius. The bodies of the 127 died detainees as well as other Jewish people are buried there. Part of this has been fictionalised in Natacha Appanah's 'The Last Brother'. It relates the childhood experiences of Raj and David, a little boy fromPrague.
In 2015, theJewish Detainees Memorial was opened in Beau-Bassin.[9]
