Madagascar Safari: Madagascar’s Recently Converted Jewish Population and Malagasy Assertions of Jewish Ancestry

No, you did not read the title of this blog post wrong. On May 13^th, 2016, a group of over 100 devoutly observant Malagasies converted to Orthodox Judaism. They had apparently been teaching themselves about Judaism for five years without any outside instruction and finally contacted an organization in New York, Kulanu, that helps isolated Jewish communities. The Malagasy Jewish community was praying every Saturday in a makeshift synagogue, and keeping Sabbath. They even decided to keep kosher, which meant going vegetarian, since no kosher meet was available. The rabbinic court of the conversions was lead by Moroccan French speaking Orthodox Rabbi, Achiya Delouya, who lives in Montreal. Deborah Josefson of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the nascent Jews started studying Torah after they became “disillusioned” with the messianic Christian sects they were a part of. For people reading this who are not familiar with Judaism/Jewish conversion, note that it is incredibly difficult, quite frankly almost impossible, to convert to Orthodox Judaism. The process takes days, includes intensive Torah study, interviews, etc. The three articles that I read about this discuss the unexpected prevalence of Jewish lore in Madagascar. Apparently, some Malagasies believe that they are descended from seafaring members of the Lost Tribes of Israel and claim Jewish ancestry, although they do not practice the faith. Malagasies also assert that Madagascar is the wealthy biblical nation of Ophir, from which king Solomon received incredible riches every three years.

Religious studies professor Tudor Parfitt recently traveled to Madagascar to investigate oral traditions/legend that connects the Malagasies to the Jews. Parafitt discusses 18^th and 19^th century Malagasy tombstones inscribed with Hebrew letters, and posits that “there is good reason to believe that Portuguese Anousim (Jews forcibly converted during the inquisition) settled in Madagascar.” Northeastern political science professor, William F.S. Miles, also recently voyaged to Madagascar to investigate the then yet to be converted population of devout Malagasy Jews. In his article, he cites another theory about how Jews could have landed on Madagascar: during the 10^th century, Muslim merchants who may have been forcibly converted from Judiasm settled on eastern Madagascar. Miles visited the village of Vatumasina in Vohipeno (Southeastern Madagascar) to meet with locals who claim: “Our ancestor was Alitawarat, he was originally from Jerusalem, and his first language was Hebrew. Romans attacked Jerusalem ‒ with dogs, even ‒ and so he fled to Mecca, where he began to speak Arabic. It is there that he also learned the Koran, which he brought to Madagascar. But Alitawarat still used the Torat Moshe – the teaching of Moses.” What to make of this? Rabbi Sussman reported to Breaking Israel News that many of the May 13^th Malagasy converts discussed freedom and anti-colonialism in relation to their newly official Judaism. Christianity was indeed the religion of Madagascar’s colonial oppressors, and Judaism is not associated with colonialism. Sussman describes that, during the conversions, “there was definitely a feeling that they were going back to their roots and overcoming colonialism.” For a non-proselytizing religious group, in fact a group that historically did not allow conversion of any sort whatsoever, self-taught “Jewish” populations like the Malagasy pose a bit of a puzzle, if not an outright problem. For some. Others see them as the salvation of the Jews.