Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Madagascar
Madagascar and the Zionist state: the 1940 Nazi plan to deport Europe's Jews to the island, relations renewed in 1994, Israeli cyclone aid, and a community of converts formed in 2016
Madagascar renewed diplomatic relations with "Israel" in January 1994.[1] In 1940 officials of Nazi Germany drew up the Madagascar Plan, a scheme to deport the Jews of Europe to the island.[2] In 2016 a group of 121 Malagasy people near Antananarivo converted to Judaism.[3]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community in Madagascar was found in the sources consulted. The JTA reported in 2016 that "a vast majority of Malagasies believe they are descended from Jews".[3]
The community today
- Some members of the community began practising Judaism around 2010. In May 2016 three Orthodox rabbis travelled to Madagascar to convert 121 people. They appeared before a rabbinical court and immersed in a river, which served as a ritual bath. Most had come to Judaism through Christianity. The community, based in Antananarivo, could not afford a synagogue.[3]
- The group Kulanu says it "facilitated over 100 conversions and a number of weddings" in Antananarivo in summer 2016.[4]
How far is it Zionist? No Zionist body was found in Madagascar. The community's outside links reported in the sources are with Kulanu. In late 2016 the community member Elysha Netsarh toured US synagogues to raise money for Kulanu's work.[3]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Madagascar, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Madagascar is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[5] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Madagascar.[6]
The Nazi Madagascar Plan
- The Jewish Virtual Library says the idea of settling Jews on Madagascar was taken up by the Nazi regime in the late 1930s. In March 1938 Adolf Eichmann was asked to gather material on "a foreign policy solution as it had been negotiated between Poland and France". The library adds that the idea was shelved at the start of the war and revived after the fall of France in 1940.[7]
- On 3 July 1940 Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish affairs section (D III) of the German Foreign Office, set out the plan. In the peace treaty, France would have to make Madagascar available "for the solution of the Jewish question" and relocate the approximately 25,000 French residents. The island would become a German mandate, and Diégo Suarez Bay would become a German naval base. The Jews sent there would not receive German nationality and would lose the nationality of their European countries. Their assets would be liquidated through an international bank.[2]
- Rademacher wrote that the arrangement "prevents the Jews from founding something like a Vatican State of their own in Palestine". It would also keep the Jews "in German hands as collateral for future good conduct by members of their race in America".[2]
- On 15 August 1940 the SS officer Dannecker sent Rademacher the draft "Madagascar Project" prepared by the Reich Security Main Office. According to the copy published by Yad Vashem, it covered "approximately 4,000,000" Jews.[8] According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Eichmann's plan was to ship them over four years, and the Reich officially endorsed it in August 1940.[7]
- The plan was never carried out. The Jewish Virtual Library says that by 1941 the Nazis were already carrying out the extermination programme. On 10 February 1942, a few weeks after the Wannsee Conference, the plan was officially shelved and replaced by talk of "evacuation to the East".[7]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Madagascar.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy and aid
- In 2011 the Israeli foreign ministry listed Madagascar as a non-resident post handled from the ministry in Jerusalem.[1] Ifri wrote in 2020 that "Israel" deals with Madagascar without designated representatives, though it has an honorary consul there.[9]
- In November 2024 the Israeli ambassador, Eliav Belotserovsky, whose posting was ending, introduced the interim chargé d'affaires, Adi Cohen Hazanov, to Emi-Haulain Kola, secretary-general of the Malagasy foreign ministry. Kola referred to 62 years of diplomatic relations and to Israeli aid after Cyclone Gamane. He called for wider cooperation in resilient agriculture, health, water management, tourism and transport.[10][11]
- Madagascar's disaster agency says the Israeli government gave food parcels of rice and cooking oil to people in the north-east affected by Cyclone Gamane. They were handed over by representatives working in South Africa for the Israeli embassy responsible for Madagascar.[12]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records no Israeli deliveries of major weapons to Madagascar.[13]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Madagascar separately in its main table of trade by country. Madagascar falls under "Other Countries".[14]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Madagascar separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[15]
Political interference
UN voting
Madagascar was absent from the 2012 General Assembly vote on Resolution 67/19, which made Palestine a non-member observer state.[9]
Jeffrey Epstein
In April 2014 a correspondent of Jeffrey Epstein's, whose name is redacted, suggested to him two volunteer programmes in Madagascar, one of aid for children and one in marine conservation, that "Could fit 10days".[16] Epstein's calendar for 21 September 2014 carried the reminder "madagascar?".[17] The records reviewed do not show that he went.
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mauritius
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mozambique
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Franz Rademacher, Doc. 92: Notes by Legation Counsellor Franz Rademacher, Reich Foreign Office, 3 July 1940 The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 (PMJ documents edition).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Josefin Dolsten, In Madagascar, 'world's newest Jewish community' seeks to establish itself JTA, 25 November 2016.
- ↑ Kulanu, Madagascar kulanu.org, 15 November 2017.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Jewish Virtual Library, The Madagascar Plan American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Yad Vashem Shoah Resource Center, Draft Copy of the Madagascar Project, Sent to Rademacher, the Head of Jewish Affairs in the German Foreign Office yadvashem.org, document dated 15 August 1940.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ Israël-Madagascar: Vers une nouvelle ère de coopération Newsmada, 20 November 2024.
- ↑ L'ambassadeur d'Israël à Madagascar, Eliav Belotserovsky, a présenté son successeur intérimaire 2424.mg, 20 November 2024.
- ↑ Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes, Don du gouvernement israélien au peuple malagasy sinistré dans la région Nord-Est de Madagascar bngrc.gov.mg, May 2024.
- ↑ 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 to Jeffrey Epstein, 23 April 2014, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 11, EFTA02698818 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Calendar reminder for Jeffrey Epstein, "madagascar?", 21 September 2014, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 11, EFTA02369888 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.