The history of the Jews in Zimbabwe reaches back over one century. Present-day Zimbabwe was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia and later as Rhodesia.
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Eastern European Jews from Russia and Lithuania settled in Rhodesia and became active in the trading industry. In 1894, the first synagogue was established in a tent in Bulawayo. The second community developed in Salisbury (later renamed Harare) in 1895. A third congregation was established in Gwelo in 1901. By 1900, approximately 400 Jews lived in Rhodesia.
The first Jews came by way of the southeast coast through Portuguese Beira, Mozambique. In 1898, the Central African Zionist Organizations were established in Bulawayo. In the 1920s and 1930s, Sephardic Jews moved there from the Greek island of Rhodes. By 1921, census data reported 1,289 Jews in Rhodesia.
In the late 1930s, German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution settled in Rhodesia. After World War II, Jews arrived from South Africa and England. In 1943, the Rhodesian Zionist Council and the Rhodesian Jewish Board of Deputies were established. By 1961, the Jewish population peaked at 7,060.[1]
By 1987, the Jewish community of Zimbabwe shrunk to approximately 1,200. Today, about 260 Jews live in Zimbabwe, chiefly in Harare and Bulawayo. A few Jews remain in Kwekwe, Gweru, and Kadoma. Most of the Jews have immigrated to Israel or South Africa.[2]
Since the late 1990s, Zimbabwe has suffered from food shortages, unemployment and inflation. In 2002 the mayor of Ashkelon invited Zimbabwe Jews to settle in Israel and several Jews immigrated there.[3]
The Lemba people, a Black-African tribe of about 70,000 people who live in central Zimbabwe[4] in southern Africa claim a common descent belonging to the Jewish people.[5][6]