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Igbo Jews are members of the Igbo people of Nigeria who practice Judaism. It is a tenet of their beliefs that they have ties to one of the lost tribes of Israel, the tribe of Gad.
Among the Igbo people of Nigeria exists a small group of practicing Jews. Jewish Igbos believe they are descendants of 'lost tribes' of Israel who settled in Nigeria. Some draw many...
Irums. Unlike their parents, most of Nigeria's young Jews have known no other religion. Many Igbos believe they have Jewish heritage as one of the so-called 10 lost tribes of Israel, though...
Igbo people are descended from the Israelites, which may have played a major role in Igbo Jewish identity today. The Igbo can, at least culturally, be considered a hybrid people. They are geographically and culturally West African. They come from Nigeria, with significant amounts of people living in the Americas as a result of the Atlantic Slave
Jews from outside Nigeria founded two synagogues in Nigeria, which are attended and maintained by the Igbo. Because no formal census has been taken in the region, the number of Igbos in Nigeria who identify as Israelites or Jews is not known.
After a bloody civil war in the 1960s left more than 1 million Igbos dead, their identification with the Jews, who faced their own genocide, took on a new depth.
The now widespread Igbo belief in a Jewish ancestry goes back to the 18th century. However, it was during and after the Nigerian civil war (1967–1970), in which at least one million Igbo died in the failed bid for Biafran independence, that Igbo identification with and as Jews concretized.
