Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Angola
An expatriate Jewish community of about 300 families served by Chabad since 2015, Arcadi Gaydamak and the Angolagate arms case, the Ascorp diamond monopoly and the SCG security deal with former Mossad and army chiefs, and Israeli state-backed construction credit
Angola has an expatriate Jewish community, put at about 300 families in 2016. It is made up of Israelis, Americans and Europeans, and Chabad has served it from Luanda since 2015.[1][2] During the civil war, the Russian-Israeli businessman Arcadi Gaydamak and his French partner Pierre Falcone organised military supplies to the dos Santos government worth $790 million, according to French prosecutors. This led to the Angolagate trial in Paris.[3] A London court later found that the Ascorp diamond monopoly, which Gaydamak said he shared with Lev Leviev, arose from a security-services deal with President José Eduardo dos Santos's representatives.[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community was found in Angola. Before Chabad arrived, visiting rabbinical students served the expatriate community during the summer months and Jewish holidays.[2]
The community today
In 2016 Chabad estimated that about 300 Jewish families lived full-time in Angola.[1] In 2014 Chabad linked the growth of the Jewish population to the foreign investment in infrastructure, minerals, diamonds, oil and land that followed the end of the civil war in 2002. It described the community as Israelis, Americans and Europeans.[2]
How far is it Zionist? No Zionist federation or Israeli fundraising body was found in Angola. The community is largely Israeli and business-based. Among the philanthropists at the opening of the Chabad centre was Haim Taib, whose Mitrelli group builds state-financed projects in Angola (see below).[1] Chabad itself is a religious rather than a Zionist movement.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Angola
In December 2014 Chabad announced that Rabbi Levi Itshak Chekly and his wife Dvora Léa would move from Paris to Luanda as its emissaries.[2] On 18 September 2016 Chabad Lubavitch of Angola opened its centre and synagogue with a new Torah scroll. About 150 people attended, including government officials and the philanthropists Jacob Karako, Ouriel Mansour, Elazar Benjamin and Haim Taib.[1][5] It is part of Chabad of Central Africa, which is based in Kinshasa.[6] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Angola.[7]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement or pro-Israeli advocacy group was found in Angola.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomatic relations
A 1992 JTA report said Angola was the latest nation to establish relations with "Israel". The step had been agreed in Lisbon that January between the Israeli foreign minister, David Levy, and his Angolan counterpart, Pedro de Castro dos Santos Van-Dunem.[8] The Israeli embassy dates relations to 1993. It says "Israel" opened its embassy in Luanda in 1995 and Angola opened one in Tel Aviv in 2000. It also says:
- MASHAV, the Israeli foreign ministry's aid agency, sponsors about 20 Angolans a year on courses in "Israel";
- in August 2002, Israeli companies in Luanda donated 25,000 tonnes of rice to the government.[9]
Gaydamak and Angolagate
Angolagate concerned arms sales from France to the dos Santos government in 1993–98, during the civil war. In 2009 a Paris court found Gaydamak and Falcone guilty of illegal arms dealing, tax fraud, money laundering and other offences, and sentenced each to six years. Gaydamak, tried in absentia, was recorded under his Israeli identity as "Bar Lev Arye". The court refused to consider his claim to diplomatic immunity as Angola's ambassador to UNESCO.[10] In April 2011 the Paris appeal court did not uphold the arms trafficking charge. It held that the sales had been made on the mandate of the Angolan state. It still sentenced Gaydamak, who had fled and did not appear, to three years and Falcone to 30 months, and fined each €375,000.[3]
Ascorp, Leviev and the SCG security deal
In 2011 Gaydamak sued the Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev in London. He claimed unpaid commissions and dividends from trading Angolan and Zairean diamonds.[11] He said he had helped set up Ascorp, the Angolan Diamond Selling Corporation, which had sole purchasing rights to Angolan diamonds. He also said the chief rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, had been entrusted with documents of the profit-sharing agreement and had lost them. He lost the case in 2012, and the judge called him "distinctly prone to exaggeration".[12] Maka Angola reported further details of the case:
- The judge, Mr Justice Vos, accepted that Ascorp had been created under an agreement between representatives of dos Santos and Gaydamak for the provision of security services.
- On 1 August 1998 Gaydamak set up SCG Israel Ltd with two partners: the former Mossad director Danny Yatom and the former IDF chief of staff Moshe Levi.
- On 19 September 1998 SCG signed a memorandum with Angola to create a unit to protect institutions and dignitaries and to carry out interventions.
- Gaydamak testified that the agreement was a front for SCG's arms shipments. The judge noted that it made no mention of diamonds, and highlighted the roles of Yatom and of Brigadier Avinoam Dagan, a manager on the project and another senior Mossad operative.[4]
Mitrelli and Israeli credit
In April 2021 a presidential dispatch authorised $782 million for three new towns in Bengo, Cabinda and Cunene provinces. The project was to be financed by Luminar Finance and built by Kora Angola. Both belong to the Menomadin group of the Israeli businessman Haim Taib, through its Mitrelli arm. According to Expansão, Luminar only finances projects in countries that have contracts with Mitrelli.[13]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records Israeli deliveries to Angola of eight second-hand Bell-212 helicopters (2004–05) and four Super Dvora Mk-3 patrol boats (2016).[14]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Angola separately in its main table of trade by country. Angola falls under "Other Countries".[15] Much of the Israeli business in Angola, in diamonds, security and construction, runs through private and offshore companies.[4][13]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Angola separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[16]
Political interference
During the civil war, the SCG memorandum offered the dos Santos government a protection and intervention unit from a company whose partners included former heads of the Mossad and the IDF.[4] Gaydamak's arms deals were carried out on the Angolan state's mandate, according to the 2011 appeal ruling.[3]
Jeffrey Epstein
In March 2014 a contact, James P. McGee, asked through Epstein's office whether Jeffrey Epstein had had any communication with the government of Angola and whether he would like to discuss "a potential opportunity with the Angolan government with respect to off-shore oil rights and licenses". The records reviewed do not show a reply.[17]
See also
- Chabad Lubavitch of Angola
- Lev Leviev
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Karen Schwartz, A Grand Day for Angola Jews, Complete With a New Torah Chabad.org, 22 September 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lubavitch World Headquarters, Chabad To Open in Angola Lubavitch.com, 3 December 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 AFP, Charles Pasqua relaxé en appel dans le procès de l'Angolagate France 24, 29 April 2011.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Rafael Marques de Morais, Gaydamak, Mossad e o Poder de dos Santos Maka Angola, 8 September 2012.
- ↑ COLlive, New Center Inaugurated in Angola COLlive, 21 September 2016.
- ↑ Shloimy Galperin, Getting Central Africa's Rabbis Into One Room Isn't Easy Chabad.org, 10 June 2026.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Angola Becomes Latest Nation to Forge Relations with Israel JTA, 17 April 1992.
- ↑ Embassy of Israel in Angola, Bilateral relations embassies.gov.il, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ TBCA, Angolagate – appeal decision, 2011 TBCA, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Simon Goodley, Partners fall out in dispute over African diamond mining interests The Guardian, 25 April 2011.
- ↑ The Moscow Times, Ruling Deprives Claimant of Diamond Riches The Moscow Times, 1 July 2012.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Telma Van-Dúnem, Grupo israelita financia, constrói e passa factura de 782 milhões USD Expansão, 7 May 2021.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ Email forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein, "Fw: Angola Opportunity", 11 March 2014, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 10, EFTA01934612 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.