The Igbos and Israel

The majority of the world Igbo population lives in Igboland, a forested region in Nigeria stretching to the West African coast. Igbos, like Jews in other parts of the world, have steadfastly kept and practiced their cultural traditions, orally transmitted over generations, for thousands of years. Many Igbos continue to believe to this day that the Igbo society developed from traveling clans of ancient Israelites who left their land to escape the civil wars between the biblical states of Israel and Judah. Today, the Igbo community in Nigeria mostly consists of nearly six hundred autonomous, democratic, and egalitarian towns and villages in Igboland, but there also millions of Igbos who live in Nigeria's cities and urban centers. As Igbos rediscover their cultural heritage after centuries of colonization and oppression and open a dialogue with Jewish communities across the globe, a grassroots movement is starting to restore vitality and autonomy to Igbo communal life in Africa.

Right: Igbos attend a local synagogue they built in Gihon, Nigeria.