Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Republic of the Congo
A small expatriate Jewish presence in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire served by visiting Chabad rabbis, the 1973 break and 1991 restoration of relations, Israeli trainers hired by Pascal Lissouba in 1994, and the government's 2024 denial of talks on taking in Gazans
The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) has no organised Jewish community. Visiting Chabad rabbis have served the expatriate Jews in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.[1] It broke relations with "Israel" at the end of 1972 and restored them in 1991.[2][3] In 1994 President Pascal Lissouba paid the Israeli firm Levdan $50 million to train his forces with Israeli reserve officers and former intelligence agents.[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community was found in the Republic of the Congo.
The community today
There is a small, mainly expatriate Jewish presence. Chabad reports that the Jews of Brazzaville "tried organizing regular activities", helped by visits from young rabbinical students at Passover and Chanukah. Efraim Meslet, who later moved to Ivory Coast, first came into contact with Chabad there while spending a few weeks of each month in Brazzaville.[5]
How far is it Zionist? No Zionist federation, Israeli fundraising body or communal organisation was found in the Republic of the Congo. The country's Jewish life depends on visits from Chabad, a religious rather than a Zionist movement.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of the Republic of the Congo
As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Levi Itshak Chekly, later Chabad's emissary to Angola, often travelled to Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville to lead services and Jewish activities.[1] In 2026 Chabad of Central Africa listed its permanent centres in ten countries. The Republic of the Congo was not among them.[6] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in the Republic of the Congo.[7]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement or pro-Israeli advocacy group was found in the Republic of the Congo.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomatic relations
In late 1972 "Israel" replaced its ambassador in Brazzaville with a non-resident chargé d'affaires. Shortly afterwards Brazzaville broke off relations, without giving a reason. Israeli officials blamed "growing radicalization" in parts of Africa and propaganda by Libya and Saudi Arabia.[2] Le Monde reported the restoration of relations in July 1991.[3]
Levdan and Lissouba's militia
- Recruitment. In February 1994 Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Tel Aviv firm Levdan had recruited 60 reserve officers and former intelligence agents to spend a year in Congo as military trainers. A Levdan representative confirmed a $50 million contract with Lissouba's government.[4]
- Israeli debate. Naomi Chazan of Meretz objected that "Israel" "should not get involved in its internal politics". The Israeli defence ministry backed its original approval of the deal.[4]
- "Gentlemen". Lissouba defended the hiring of about 60 reserve officers and former Shin Bet agents, commanded by reserve general Ze'ev Zacharin: "these are gentlemen who have know-how, and we have set about buying that know-how" (in translation).[8]
- Purpose. According to Le Temps, Levdan was hired to form and train Lissouba's personal guard and close-protection service.[9]
- The militia. A 1996 CERI study of Brazzaville's militias found that the "Réserve ministérielle" was trained from 1994 by about forty Israelis. This was a state militia drawn from the civilian members of the presidential guard and set up in August 1993. The study describes it as the regime's "mercenaries".[10]
The 2024 displacement reports
In early January 2024, the Israeli outlet Zman Yisrael reported that "Israel" was in talks with "Congo" about "voluntary migration" of Palestinians from Gaza. It quoted a security cabinet source as saying that "Congo will be willing to take in migrants".[11] The Brazzaville government's spokesman, Thierry Moungalla, denied any contact with the Israeli authorities on the subject and told Anadolu the idea was "inimaginable" for Congo. The DRC issued a similar denial.[12]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli exports to the Republic of the Congo of $0.8 million in 2025 (2024: $2.5 million), and Israeli imports from it of $1.8 million (2024: $0.2 million).[13]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list the Republic of the Congo separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[14]
Political interference
Levdan's contract put Israeli trainers, with the approval of the Israeli defence ministry, behind one side of Congo's political conflict. The Meretz party objected that "Israel" should not take part in Congolese internal politics.[4] According to the CERI study, the militia they trained had been fighting openly in Brazzaville since November 1993, and some of its members were behind insecurity in the Niari region.[10]
No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Zionist or Israeli activity in the Republic of the Congo was found, so this page has no Epstein section.
Ehud Barak's leaked emails
The following items come from Barak's two leaked mailboxes (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[15] In March 2013 Barak received, via Doron Cohen, an MF Group briefing on the Republic of the Congo. It says that MF Group, through its subsidiary HSS Cyprus, had "started two sale process[es]" with the interior minister, Raymond Zéphyrin Mboulou:
- a NICE communications monitoring centre, a "turnkey system of surveillance and interception of communications", with Gen. Philippe Obara, who was "in charge of building intelligence capabilities". According to the document, the minister and the general had come "several times in Israel to see demonstrations";
- training for 70 police officers at the IMI Academy in "Israel" for four months, followed by four Israeli trainers in Congo. A Ministry of the Interior delegation had visited in February 2013 to prepare the project.
In both cases the minister had invited MF Group to sign and then asked it to wait for the budget. The company's Ivory Coast document adds that MF Group had "recently sold and successfully installed" an ELTA/Israel Aerospace Industries "Flight Guard" anti-missile system on a Congolese presidential helicopter.[16]
See also
- Chabad Lubavitch of the Republic of the Congo
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cameroon
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lubavitch World Headquarters, Chabad To Open in Angola Lubavitch.com, 3 December 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Brazaville-congo Breaks Diplomatic Ties with Israel; Reason Unknown JTA, 2 January 1973.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Le Monde, Congo : reprise des relations diplomatiques avec Israël Le Monde, 16 July 1991.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 UPI, Congo pays $50 million for Israeli military trainers United Press International, 9 February 1994.
- ↑ Dovid Margolin, Raised in the Congo, She Will Now Start Up Chabad in Ivory Coast Chabad.org, 12 July 2018.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Philippe Leymarie, « Gentlemen » ou « Rambos » ? Le Monde diplomatique, June 1994.
- ↑ Serge Dumont, Des mercenaires israéliens auraient guidé l'attaque sur le camp français de Bouaké Le Temps, 18 November 2004.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, Milices politiques et bandes armées à Brazzaville Les Études du CERI, no. 13, April 1996.
- ↑ Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, African countries should not entertain taking forcibly displaced Palestinians ISS Today, 11 January 2024.
- ↑ Anadolu Agency, Le Congo nie toute négociation avec Israël sur un éventuel accueil de réfugiés palestiniens Anadolu Agency, 5 January 2024.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Doron Cohen to Ehud Barak, "FW: files to be transferred to your friend for preparing Friday meeting", 19 March 2013, with MF Group attachments "Congo Brazzaville.pdf" and "Ivory Coast.pdf", file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!48/1 (195).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.