History of the Jews in Zambia: Difference between revisions

Many [[Jews]] came to [[Zambia]] (previously called [[Northern Rhodesia]]) in order to achieve economic prosperity, first settling in [[Livingstone, Zambia|Livingstone]] and Broken Hill.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Some of the first Jews in Zambia were prominent in the [[cattle]] production and [[copper mining]] businesses.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/><ref name="worldjewishcongress1">{{cite web|url=http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show/id/81 |title=Zambia |publisher=World Jewish Congress |date= |accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref> Livingstone already had a permanent Jewish congregation of 38 members by 1905, with the first [[Jewish wedding]] in Zambia taking place in 1910.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Later on, many Zambian Jews achieved great success in the ranching industry and in the iron foundries.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/><ref name="worldjewishcongress1"/> 110 Jews lived in Zambia (with a majority of them living in Livingstone and [[Lusaka]]) in 1921, and this population increased over the next couple of decades.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Some Jewish [[refugees]] came to Zambia before<ref name="autogenerated1"/> and after the [[Holocaust]], with the Jewish population of Zambia peaking at 1,000<ref name="autogenerated1"/> to 1,200 in the mid-1950s (by which point "the center of Jewish life had shifted to Lusaka, the [[copperbelt]] center of the country").<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Many Jews left Zambia and [[Immigration|immigrated]] to other countries in the 1960s, with only 600 Jews remaining in Zambia in 1968.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Jews were active and prominent in [[Politics of Zambia|Zambian politics]] before Zambia [became independent in 1964.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> The Council for Zambia Jewry was created in Lusaka in 1978 "to oversee Jewish communal activities."<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> This council also "provides assistance to political refugees and the poverty-stricken with medical and financial aid."<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> Only about thirty-five Jews currently live in Zambia, with almost all of them living in Lusaka.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> The Zambian Jewish community did not have a [[rabbi]] for several years by this point in time.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary1"/> One of the more notable Zambian Jews is Simon Zukas, "who played a key role in Zambia's struggle for independence from Britain in the 1950s, and went on to be a government minister after independence."<ref name="autogenerated1"/>