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The recordedhistory of the Jews in Angola stretches from the Middle Ages to modern times. A very small community ofJews lives inAngola mostly in the capital city ofLuanda with a handful scattered elsewhere of mixed origins and backgrounds. There are also a number of transitory Israeli businesspeople living in Angola.[1]
Angola is a country in southwestern Africa. From the fifteenth century,Portuguese colonists began trading there and a settlement was established atLuanda during the sixteenth century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which wereruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as anoverseas province of Portugal in 1951. After theAngolan War of Independence (1961–1974) Angola's independence was achieved on 11 November 1975.
Some historians have noted the presence ofSephardi Jews in Portuguese West Africa by researching records from thePortuguese Inquisition relating to the New World. These show that there was a significant Sephardic presence in Angola andGuinea-Bissau trading posts and that Portuguese settlements were crucial in the development of aCrypto-Jewish diaspora across the Atlantic region.[2]
Some historians claim thatPaulo Dias de Novais (1510–1589), a grandson ofBartholomew Dias was a "Jewish" (probably meaning "Crypto-Jewish" or aConverso of some sort) colonizer who became "Lord-Proprietor" of Angola in 1571 who brought Jewish artisans toLuanda where a so-called "clandestinerabbi" was conductingservices in a secret Luandasynagogue. By the late eighteenth century more Jews arrived and a community was functioning inDondo.[3]
Historians record that there are a number of cases of PortugueseNew Christians, such asGaspar de Robles,Manuel Alvarez Pricto, testifying in the Americas that they were introduced to "Judaizing" by relatives and friends while in Angola, many attesting they were introduced to the "Law of Moses" in Angola.[4][5]
Mariana Pequena, a black woman from Angola, was exported as a slave toRio de Janeiro inBrazil in the late seventeenth century. After obtaining her freedom in Brazil, she began a relationship with a white Portuguese New Christian chose to convert to "Judaism" (perhaps meaning: Crypto-Judaism). In her confession, she revealed the full extent of her network which included many fellow believers. In 1711, being "accused of Judaism" she was condemned by thePortuguese Inquisition in Lisbon for her beliefs.[6]
Some of theJews of São Tomé and Príncipe later settled in theKingdom of Loango, along the coasts of continental Africa in what is now theCabinda Province of Angola,Gabon, and theRepublic of the Congo.[7]
There was a suggestion to create a Jewish "colony" oragricultural settlement in the Portuguese colony of Angola forRussian andRomanian Jews in the early 1900s. There was a prior proposal to set up a Jewish settlement in 1886 by theAlliance Juive Universelle encouraged by the Portuguese Jew S.A. Anahory. These efforts did not come to fruition.[8] Another failed effort was the so-called "Angola Plan" with attempts from 1907 to 1913 by theJewish Territorial Organization, under the influence ofIsrael Zangwill in Britain,[9] to set up an autonomous Jewish entity somewhere in West Africa with Angola as a strong possibility.[10] After 1910, Portugal's new republican leaders proposed Angola for Jewish colonization as both a practical solution to increasing the white population and to win support from liberal Jewish circles. By June 1912 the Portuguese chamber of deputies passed the final version of a bill to authorize concessions to Jewish settlers, clearly indicating Portugal's desire to use Jewish immigration to consolidate its hold over Angola. No financial support was offered and by 1913, many officials of the Jewish Territorial Organization in London turned against it in favor of settling Palestine.[11] Another failed suggestion to settle Jews fromEastern Europe in Angola resurfaced in 1934.[12]
In 2014 theChabad Lubavitch movement opened aChabad house in Luanda with many Jews in attendance.[13][14]
Angola–Israel relations refers to thehistorical and current bilateral relationship between Angola andIsrael. Angola has an embassy inTel Aviv and Israel has an embassy inLuanda. TheIsraeli government aided theNational Front for the Liberation of Angola in 1963 and 1969, during theAngolan War of Independence (1961–1974). In the 1960s,Holden Roberto, head of the NFLA, visited Israel and FNLA members were sent to Israel for training. In the 1970s, Israel shipped arms to the FNLA throughZaire.[15] The Israeli embassy inLuanda was reopened in 1995, andTamar Golan, who worked to maintain Israeli contacts with African countries throughout these decades, was appointed the Israeli ambassador. Tamar Golan left this post in 2002, but returned to Angola later on upon the request of the Angolan PresidentJosé Eduardo dos Santos in order to help establish a task-force, under the auspices of the UN, for the removal of landmines. The Israeli company "Geomine" provided Angola with mine detecting equipment, in order to facilitate their removal.[16] President Dos Santos visited Israel in 2005. In March 2006, the trade volume between the two countries amounted to $400 million.[17] The Israeli ambassador to Angola is Raphael Singer.[18] In 2010, the Angolan government refused to receive openly gayIsi Yanouka as the new ambassador due to his sexuality.[19]
In August 2012, the Angolan chancellor made a three-day visit to Jerusalem, where the governments of Angola and Israel ratified inTel Aviv an agreement to strengthen the bonds between both countries. Israeli PresidentShimon Peres said that this should be based on the fields of science and technology, economy, and security, and the Angolan chancellor expressed the desire to continue with the bilateral cooperation in health, agriculture, science and technology, and the formation of Angolan experts.[20]
A 2018 report in theAlgemeiner Journal: "Ambassador: Israel to Invest $60 million in Angola, Including Solar Power Plant," that Israel allocated $60 million to invest in Angola, including the construction of asolar power plant in the province of Benguela according to anAllAfrica.com report. AmbassadorOren Rosenblat made the announcement after a meeting withBenguela GovernorRui Falcão.[21]
In a 2006 article titled "Luanda Made Him a Billionaire and a Diplomat" in the Israeli newspaperHaaretz, it was reported thatArcadi Gaydamak was "one of the most influential business people in Angola and one of the closest to the corridors of power with ties to presidentJose Eduardo dos Santos and dos Santos' daughter businesswomanIsabel dos Santos, generals and high-ranking police officers trace back several years." According to this report the close relationship garnered Gaydamak an Angolandiplomatic passport, as well as French, Canadian, Russian and Israeli citizenship and holding a "title" in the Angolan embassy inMoscow. Angola turned him into a billionaire estimated at $3 billion in an interview with Haaretz. Flying the new president of the state-owned Russian rough diamond exporterAlrosa to Luanda to introduce him to dos Santos.[22]
In October 2009,Arcadi Gaydamak (b. 1952) aRussian Jew from Israel living in France and French magnatePierre Falcone were convicted by a French court of organizingarms trafficking in Angola duringthe civil war in 1993–1998, to the value of US$790 million, in violation of theLusaka Protocol. Gaydamak was sentencedin absentia, and it was unclear whether he would ever serve the six-year prison term,[23] since he returned to Israel where he is known as a generous Israeli philanthropist. His conviction on the arms dealing charges was overturned by theCourt of Appeal inParis on 29 April 2011.[24][25]
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