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History of the Jews in Kenya

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Neolithic Lothagam North Monumental Cemetery Kalokol Pillar Site Elmenteitan Culture Cushitic expansion Eburran industry Hyrax Hill
African Iron Age Sirikwa culture Bantu expansion Nilotic expansion Urewe culture Thimlich Ohinga stone-built ruins Shungwaya Mijikenda Kayas (Fortified settlements) Indian Ocean trade route
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Portuguese and Omani period Vasco da Gama Portuguese Empire Fort Jesus East African slave trade Omani Empire Said bin Sultan
British colonial period Johann Ludwig Krapf Imperial British East Africa Company Wanga Kingdom Nabongo Mumia Kenya-Uganda Railway Nandi Resistance German East Africa British East Africa Kenya-Uganda Railway Mekatilili Wa Menza East African campaign (World War I) Kenya Colony Mumboism Luo Union (Welfare Organisation) Harry Thuku Kenya in World War II Kenya African Union Jomo Kenyatta Mau Mau Rebellion Dedan Kimathi Tom Mboya Oginga Odinga Nairobi People's Convention Party The Kennedy Airlift Kenya African National Union Lancaster House Conferences (Kenya)
Early post-independence Shifta War Pio Gama Pinto Bildad Kaggia Kenya People's Union 'Little general election' Kisumu Massacre Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru Association Josiah Mwangi Kariuki Presidency of Jomo Kenyatta
Moi era Daniel Arap Moi 1982 coup d'état attempt Wagalla massacre 1992 Kenyan general election HIV/AIDS in Kenya 1997 Kenyan general election 1998 United States embassy bombings Terrorism in Kenya Presidency of Daniel Moi
Recent history 2002 Kenyan general election Mwai Kibaki 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum 2007-2008 Kenyan crisis Raila Odinga 2010 Kenyan constitutional referendum Operation Linda Nchi Westgate shopping mall attack 2014 Mpeketoni attacks Presidency of Mwai Kibaki Uhuru Kenyatta William Ruto Garissa University College attack October 2017 Kenyan presidential election 2018 Kenya handshake COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya Presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta
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History of the Jews in Kenya refers to the history of Jewish settlement in Kenya, which began in 1899. There is still a Jewish community living in Kenya today.

J. Marcus, a Jewish businessman, moved to Nairobi from India in 1899 and established an export business for local produce.^[1]

In 1903, the British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain offered the Zionists a part of the territory in Kenya and Uganda known as the Uganda Program for their own autonomous country at the Sixth Zionist Congress.^[2][3] The suggestion created much controversy among the international Jewish community, and was rejected at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905.

Although the plan was shelved, 20 Jewish families had settled in Kenya by 1913, most of them in Nairobi. A Jewish cemetery was consecrated in 1907, and the first synagogue in 1913.^[4]

During the period of World War II and following the Holocaust, Jewish immigration increased and as many as 1,200 Jews were living in the country.^[4]

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, members of the Kenyan Jewish community helped Irgun and Lehi fighters imprisoned by the British in Gilgil. Once the State of Israel was established in 1948, many Jews in Kenya left for Israel.

In 1963, when Kenya became independent, the Jewish population declined further and shifted from largely permanent residents to people on international contracts or long-term business assignments.^[4]

Notable Kenyan Jews include former Nairobi mayor Israel Somen and hotelier Abraham Block. In 2011, it was estimated that 80% of the Jewish ex-pats in Kenya are Israeli.^[4] In 2013, the Jewish community had about 600 members.^[5]

AKikuyu-speaking Kasuku community of 60 members, calling itself the Kasuku Gathundia Jewish community, has developed among subsistence farmers in the Kenyan highlands, near Nyahururu. According to their patriarch, Yosef Ben Avraham Njogu, it grew from a split with Kenya's sizeable Messianic Jewish congregation, when a purported visit from Nairobi Jews led to their understanding that what they practiced was Messianic and not Judaism. On learning of the distinction, he and Avraham Ndungu Mbugua broke away, and began to study Judaism in depth. Circumcision, traditionally a puberty rite disallowed by law at birth, means that the community's children must travel to Uganda to have the rite performed by the Abayudaya. Nairobi's Hebrew Congregation synagogue has spiritual connection with this community.^[6]

• African Jews
• Israel–Kenya relations