Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Zambia
A once-large Jewish community now of a few dozen, served by Chabad since 2022, the first resident Zionist-state embassy in Lusaka in 2025, Hermes drones and other arms deliveries, and Pegasus and Circles surveillance systems
Zambia had a Jewish community of more than 1,000 people at its peak in the 1950s. Only about 35 Jews remained in 2013, mostly in Lusaka.[1] Chabad sent its first resident rabbi in more than 75 years in 2022.[2] Relations with "Israel" were cut after the 1973 war and restored in 1991. Under President Hakainde Hichilema they have grown quickly. "Israel" opened its first resident embassy in Lusaka in August 2025, and President Isaac Herzog made a state visit that November.[3][4] Zambia has bought Israeli drones, armoured vehicles and artillery.[5] Citizen Lab has found a Pegasus spyware operator and a Circles surveillance system there.[6][7]
Jewish community and religious life
History
Jews were among the first Europeans to arrive in what was then Northern Rhodesia, in the late 19th century. Most came from Lithuania and Latvia, and they were prominent in cattle and copper mining. A permanent congregation was founded in Livingstone in 1905. About 300 Jews arrived from Germany as the Nazis rose to power. The community peaked at about 1,200 in the mid-1950s, and its centre moved from Livingstone to Lusaka.[1]
According to the World Jewish Congress:
- Jews served as mayors of Livingstone, Broken Hill, Kitwe and Luanshya.
- Simon Zukas played a key role in the independence struggle and later became a government minister.
- Abe Galaun dominated the meat and dairy business. President Kenneth Kaunda called him "the man who feeds the nation".
- Stanley Fischer, who later became governor of the Bank of Israel, was born in Zambia and partly raised in its Jewish community.[1]
Independence in 1964 led many white residents, including many Jews, to leave. The remaining Jews founded the Council for Zambia Jewry in 1978.[1] The Lusaka Hebrew Congregation dates from 1910. Its synagogue was completed in 1942 and consecrated on 8 March 1946. In the 1970s a smaller influx of expatriates arrived, including many Israelis working in Zambia.[8]
The community today
The World Jewish Congress put the community at about 35 people in 2013. Its affiliate is the Council for Zambia Jewry.[1] Waronker describes the Lusaka congregation as still active, with about 100 members.[8] When the Hertzels first visited in 2022, Chabad described the community as a mix of three groups: descendants of Eastern European settlers, Israeli expatriates, and an African prince and former MP, Bendavid, who converted to Judaism.[2]
How far is it Zionist? The older community had strong Zionist ties. Saul Radunsky, who helped bring Chabad to Zambia, has said that his mother was a WIZO activist and that the family hosted Moshe Dayan and Chaim Weizmann.[2] Bendavid became an MP in 2006 and left parliament in 2009. In parliament he spoke about reconnecting with "Israel" and campaigned against BDS measures. He later converted under the auspices of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.[2]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Zambia
In November 2022 Chabad announced that Rabbi Mendy and Rivky Hertzel would open Chabad-Lubavitch of Zambia in Lusaka before Chanukah. Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila of Chabad of Central Africa, based in Kinshasa, had supported the move. He announced it in April 2021 in memory of his wife.[2] By 2026 Zambia was one of ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[9] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Zambia.[10]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist federation was found in present-day Zambia. The American Jewish Committee has been active in courting the Hichilema government. In 2023 Hichilema and his senior adviser Chipo Mwanawasa dined with Isaac Herzog during an AJC Project Interchange delegation of African business leaders. According to the AJC, its Africa Institute director Wayne Sussman also met Hichilema.[11] Hichilema told AJC's Global Forum in 2025 that Zambia could be a hub for trilateral cooperation between Africa, "Israel" and the United States. Zambia was due to host an AJC Agritech Summit.[12]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomatic relations
The Israeli embassy says relations began after Zambian independence in 1964, the year Golda Meir visited as foreign minister. It dates formal relations to 1965, when the first Israeli ambassador presented credentials.[13] The Times of Israel gives 1966 instead. It says the ties were cut at the behest of the Organization of African Unity after the 1973 war.[3] Bendavid told Chabad that the president "withdrew our embassy from Israel, and confiscated many Jewish properties".[2]
Relations were renewed in 1991.[13] According to the embassy:
- Zambia opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2015.
- The Israeli defence minister Avigdor Liberman visited in 2018.
- Hichilema made a state visit to "Israel" in 2023.[13]
Netanyahu hosted Hichilema in Jerusalem on 2 August 2023.[3] Zambian accounts date the visit to June 2023 and say a General Framework Agreement of Cooperation was signed then.[4][12]
The Lusaka embassy
In January 2025 the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, announced a permanent embassy in Lusaka, and he inaugurated it in August 2025. Until then "Israel" had relied on a non-resident ambassador to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. That ambassador, Ofra Farhi, became ambassador in Lusaka while keeping her other posts. She had earlier been a department director at MASHAV, the Israeli foreign ministry's aid agency.[3] At the opening, Sa'ar called Zambia "a strategic partner for Israel in the southern part of Africa".[12]
Herzog's state visit
Isaac Herzog made a two-day state visit on 10–11 November 2025. Open Zambia called it the first official visit by an Israeli head of state. The talks covered agriculture, health, education, technology, trade and investment, under the 2023 framework agreement.[4][12] Open Zambia reported:
- Israeli pledges of a trauma and emergency unit at a hospital in Livingstone;
- the training of hundreds of Zambian agricultural students in the Negev;
- Hichilema's invitation to Israeli investors in critical minerals, water and agriculture.[12]
Aid and MASHAV
The Lusaka Times reprinted an AJC article saying that "Israel" has worked with Zambia on agricultural projects to improve food security.[11] Zambian students have trained in the Negev, as noted above.[12]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records these Israeli deliveries to Zambia:
- three Hermes-450 drones, ordered in 2016 and delivered in 2017;
- ten Musketeer armoured personnel carriers, ordered in 2019 and delivered in 2021;
- six ATMOS M-46 130mm self-propelled guns and six CARDOM 120mm mortar systems (SPEAR Mk-2), ordered in 2020 and delivered in 2021.[5]
As early as 2001 the Christian Science Monitor cited a Tel Aviv University study listing Zambia among the Israeli arms industry's customers.[14]
Surveillance
- Pegasus. In 2018 Citizen Lab identified a NSO Group Pegasus operator it called "MULUNGUSHI", active from February 2018 and focused on Zambia. It found suspected infections on MTN Zambia and in South Africa.[6]
- Circles. In 2020 Citizen Lab identified what appeared to be a single system in Zambia run by Circles, a phone-surveillance firm affiliated with NSO Group. It was run by an unknown agency and seen in scans in early 2018.[7]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli imports from Zambia of $0.5 million in 2025 (2024: $7.6 million; 2023: $4.8 million), and exports to Zambia of $2.1 million (2024: $2.4 million).[15]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Zambia separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[16] Many Jews left after independence in 1964.[1]
Political interference
The Pegasus operator and the Circles system found by Citizen Lab point to Israeli-made surveillance tools in use in Zambia. The customer agencies were not identified.[6][7] The AJC's work with Hichilema's office shows a pro-Israeli advocacy group building ties with the Zambian presidency.[11]
No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Zionist or Israeli activity in Zambia was found, so this page has no Epstein section.
See also
- Chabad Lubavitch of Zambia
- NSO Group
- Circles
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Zimbabwe
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 World Jewish Congress, Community in Zambia World Jewish Congress, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Bruria Efune, Rich in Jewish Tradition, Zambia Welcomes First Rabbi in Over 75 Years Chabad.org, 20 November 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Nava Freiberg, Foreign minister departs for Zambia to inaugurate new embassy The Times of Israel, 19 August 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kevin Kabwe, President of Israel leaves Zambia Lusaka Times, 11 November 2025.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Bill Marczak et al., Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles The Citizen Lab, 1 December 2020.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jay A. Waronker, Lusaka Hebrew Congregation African Synagogues, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 AJC Global Voice, Is Zambia the next big frontier in Israel-Africa relations? Lusaka Times, 8 September 2023.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Open Zambia, Israel's President Herzog Arrives in Zambia to Promote Investment Open Zambia, 10 November 2025.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Embassy of Israel in Zambia, Bilateral relations embassies.gov.il, last updated 18 June 2026.
- ↑ Ben Lynfield, Israeli riot-gear sale fuels concern The Christian Science Monitor, 23 August 2001.
- ↑ 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.