Chabad Lubavitch of Equatorial Guinea
Chabad-Lubavitch and Equatorial Guinea: no resident emissary or centre; holiday visits to Malabo by rabbinical students from Kinshasa, and a mezuzah fixed by Shlomo Bentolila at the La Paz Medical Center in Bata (2011)
| Chabad-Lubavitch in Equatorial Guinea
| |
|---|---|
| Type | No resident Chabad emissary or centre (visits and one-off activity only) |
| Headquarters | None in the country |
| Location | None in the country; served from Kinshasa |
| Area served | Malabo and Bata |
| Key people | None resident. Visits organised by Shlomo Bentolila (Kinshasa) |
| Remarks | Visits only |
Chabad-Lubavitch in Equatorial Guinea has no resident emissary or Chabad house. Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa, based in Kinshasa, lists "Punctual visits to Malabo & Bata" with synagogue services, holiday and summer programmes and an online Hebrew school. Equatorial Guinea is not marked as "permanent representation".[1]
Visits
There is no resident emissary or centre. All of the following are Chabad-side accounts.
- 2011, Bata. COLlive, republished on the Central Africa blog (6 November 2011), reported that Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila was invited to the inauguration of the new building of the La Paz Medical Center in Bata, where he "made a blessing and affixed a Mezuzah on the hospital's front door". The report said the centre was driven by an Israeli businesswoman, Yardena Ovadia, who "is said to have close ties to the country's President Teodoro Obiang", and that it employs many Israelis.[2]
- Chanukah 2011. Students from the new rabbinical school in Kinshasa travelled to Equatorial Guinea, among other countries, and "hosted public menorah lightings and holiday events".[3]
- 2012 and 2013. Chabad of Central Africa announced community seders in Malabo for Passover 2012 and 2013, led by rabbinical students. It said students were sent to Malabo for the 2013 High Holidays.[2]
- Passover 2015. COLlive reported that a community seder was held in Malabo.[4]
- Passover 2018. Chabad.org listed Equatorial Guinea among the places where seders would be held.[5]
Relations with the state and business
The only documented contact is the 2011 hospital inauguration in Bata. The ties to President Obiang that the report describes are Ovadia's; they are reported as "said to" and are not attributed to Chabad.[2]
Funding and controversies
None found.
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Equatorial Guinea
- Chabad Lubavitch of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Chabad Lubavitch of Gabon
- Chabad Lubavitch of Cameroon
References
- ↑ Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa, "Our Locations", JewishAfrica.com, accessed 22 October 2026 (undated). Chabad-side.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa, "Blog", JewishAfrica.com, accessed 22 October 2026; dated posts from 21 April 2010 to 2 December 2013, some republished from COLlive, Lubavitch.com and Chabad.org. Chabad-side.
- ↑ Karen Schwartz, "Rabbinical Students Fan Out Across Central Africa", Chabad.org, 3 January 2012. Chabad-side.
- ↑ "Pesach Celebrated Across Africa", COLlive, 16 April 2015. Chabad-side (community news site).
- ↑ Chabad.org, "2018 Passover Campaign" (media release), 2018. Chabad-side.