Finding and visiting sub-Saharan Africa’s many synagogues and other Jewish architecture (cemeteries, cemetery chapels, and social halls) within a vast territory is a doable endeavor, but it will take significant effort, much advance planning, considerable determination, a great deal of confidence, and a more than a decent budget. Travel in the region can be expensive, trying, and in select cases potentially unsafe, but with caution and persistence experiencing these sites first-hand can consistently prove to be rewarding and memorable. In most instances, travel visas are required, so plan accordingly and well ahead. Contact the addresses listing on this page below for assistance. Some contact information has not been included for privacy issues, so reach out to this website directly for further guidance. Please note, information and contacts are forever changing, so this should be taken into consideration when planning a trip.
angola
There is currently no synagogue in western coastal Angola, a former colonial of Portugal. A very small (and not formally organized) community of Jews does however live in the country, most in the capital city of Luanda, yet a handful scattered elsewhere. An enclave of mixed origins and backgrounds, some are Israeli business people living in Angola on a transitory basis.
botswana
Whereas there has never been a synagogue in the landlocked southern African nation of Botswana, a small and informally organized group of Jews has in recent decades resided – often on a transitory basis – in the capital city of Gaborone. A handful of other Jews live elsewhere in the country. The overwhelming majority of Botswana’s Jewish community has been Israelis involved in the fields of agriculture and trade. Should a visitor be in Botswana during the time of a significant holiday, prayer services have been arranged in the past by the African Jewish Congress / South African Board of Deputies, an organization based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact the AJC for possible assistance.
burundi
The Bene Zagwei are black Jews of the Tutsi people of Burundi who lay claim to have ancient Jewish origins. The Tutsi people originated in Ethiopia, and they were known as the Kush, a Jewish kingdom. There are numerous references to Kush in the Bible. This Jewish kingdom fell in the late thirteenth century. As a result, several clans, including the Bene Zagwei, moved south and west to an area Bwejeri calls Havila or the African Great Lakes Region within Burundi, Rwanda, parts of Uganda, Tanzania, and the Congo. There has never been a synagogue in Burundi.
cameroon
There are black African communities of (yet-to-be-converted) Jews in the central western coastal African nation of Cameroon. One, made up of fifty to sixty former Christian men, women, and children who in recent years have come to embrace Judaism, are based in the rural village of Sa’a in the central province. Known as the Beth Yeshourun (House of the Righteous) enclave, they do not currently have a synagogue, so prayer services are conducted in the home of a congregational leader. Visitors are always warmly welcomed. In anticipation of building a proper synagogue one day, the community began acquiring and stockpiling building materials a few years ago. Contact Serge Etele, a leader of the community in his 30s and its only converted Jew, for information and travel advice via www.kulanu.org. A second even more recent black Jewish community can be found in the coastal city of Douala, Cameroon’s economic center. This congregation, likewise made up of former Christians who have adopted Judaism, also do not currently have a synagogue. Refer to Kulanu’s website (www.kulanu.org) for information on Cameroon’s Jews.
central african republic
Whereas minute numbers of Jews have lived on transitory bases in the Central African Republic over the years, never has a Jewish community been sustainable and no synagogue has even been constructed.
democratic republic of the congo
The history of the Jews in the Democratic Republic of the Congo dates back to 1907, when the first Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the large central African nation following colonization by Belgium. After the independence of Congo from Belgium in 1960, the majority of Congolese Jews left the country, with most settling in Israel, South Africa and Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), yet others relocated elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, Belgium, other parts of Europe, and the United States. At the time of independence, Congo was home to an estimated 2,500 Jewish people. About half of the Jewish population lived in Élisabethville (now known as Lubumbashi), while some seventy Jewish families lived in Congo's capital Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). Other Jews lived in much smaller numbers elsewhere in the country. Today the Jewish population is estimated by some sources at up to 300 people, although this number seems high. Most can be found in Lubumbashi. There is an impressive synagogue dating to 1930 in central Lubumbashi on Avenue Lumuba – Du 30 Juin. The building still manages to be relatively well maintained even though it is no longer fully operational. A visit to the synagogue is highly recommended. Since Lubumbashi’s Jewish community is unfortunately not particularly well organized or readily available to aid visitors, it is suggested that travelers contact this site for some assistance. Also in the DRC, there is also a Jewish community living in Kinshasa that is known as the Congregation Israelite. This synagogue and Jewish center at 251 Avenue de la Mission is run by the international Chabad-Lubavitch organization. Its Rabbi Bentolila can be contacted at www.jewishafrica.com/rabbi@jewishafrica.com, but in the past he has not always been responsive to travelers’ needs or diligent in following through on promises to assist. To obtain a travel visa to the DRC, a letter of invitation from a local party is necessary, so a lack of cooperation by the native Jewish community (or others) could be an issue that will need to be overcome.
eritrea
Obtaining a tourist visa to Eritrea is a currently difficult proposition for Americans, some Europeans, and other nationalities with governments that have strained diplomatic relationships with this small eastern African country that borders the Red Sea. It is indeed possible to apply for a visa, but it is routinely not granted after considerable waiting and promises that it will be approved by the Eritrean government. This is so even though a nonrefundable visa fee has been paid Even if a visa is issued, there is a current warning by the US Department of State that an exit visa, once in the country, can be denied – essentially complicating if not blocking one from leaving the country. Travel in Eritrea is also not always safe, although remaining in the capital of Asmara, where the Classical Revival synagogue and Jewish cemetery are located, is generally okay. The synagogue, completed in 1906, is located off Harnet Avenue, the main thoroughfare, at the corner of Senafe and Seraye Streets near the Impera Cinema in central Asmara. On the edge of Asmara, an Italian cemetery with a Jewish section that dates to the late nineteenth century can be visited. Over the years, some one hundred fifty members of the Jewish community have been buried at the site, and the last was in the late 1990s. There is only one native Jew remaining in Asmara, Sami Cohen. Now in 60s and the caretaker of the synagogue, his email address and telephone number are unfortunately unavailable. Email contact to the US and Israeli Embassies in Asmara from past experience are generally unanswered, making advanced planning a difficult and frustrating proposition.
ethiopia
There are three Jewish groups in Ethiopia: the Middle Eastern Adenite community who immigrated from Yemen, the black Beta Israel (Falasha) Jews, and the black Beta Abraham enclave. Currently there are three functioning synagogues in the capital city of Addis Ababa, one for each of these three distinct Jewish enclaves. The Adenite synagogue, Succat Rahamim, is a small structure located in the Banin Sefer area of town that is marginally operational since the congregation is today very small, although the building is now also used at times by the Beta Israel. Contact Mr. Kanzen locally at 0918777557 for a visit to Succat Rahamin Synagogue. There is a Beta Israel compound with an open-air synagogue also in Addis Ababa, and all are welcome to visit and attended prayer services. The small Beta Abraham enclave does not have a synagogue proper but a temporary prayer space that they use in the capital city. A Beta Abraham contact can be reached at 0912040528. Elsewhere in Ethiopia are synagogues once used by the Beta Israeli before many immigrated en masse to Israel. These buildings can be found in North and North-Western Ethiopia, where the Beta Israel once lived in hundreds of villages among populations that were Muslim and Christian. Most of the community was concentrated in the rugged yet picturesque and unspoiled Lake Tana district and north of it, in the Tigray, Wolqayit, Shire, Tselemt , Amhara Regions, the Semien Province, and at Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa. Whereas the rudimentary yet beautiful Beta Israel synagogues built in the villages of Wolleka and Ambober are now closed since the community is so diminished, the small vernacular structures remain and can be visited. There is still an active Beta Israel center in Gondar. This small compound, with its prayer space, takes the role of an interim center for the Beta Israel awaiting relocation to Israel. For travel advice for the Beta Israel Jews in Addis Ababa, contact locally Mr. Getenet at 0911630411 or 0911749546 or Dr. Shalva Weil, a scholar of Ethiopian Jewry based at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
gabon
There is a very small group of black Jews in the West Africa nation of Gabon, once a French colonial, but they community is not formally organized, and they are without a synagogue. These Jews are based in Oyem and Bitam, small cities near the Cameroon border. The Chabad-Lubavitch Movement of Central Africa (headquartered in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo) has in the past made some contact with Gabon’s Jews in an attempt to organize and educate them.
ghana
The country’s only synagogue is located in the western part of the country near the town of Sefwi Wiwaso. This modest House of Israel Synagogue dates 1998 and can be found at Kesekrom Junction in New Adiembra near the district where most of the local Jews live. Most visitors begin their journey to the synagogue in Accra, the sprawling national capital positioned along the Atlantic Ocean. Deluxe, reasonably-priced bus service with comfortable seats is available at Accra’s bus depot to Kumasi, the country’s second largest city positioned towards the center of the country. The bus journey is quite good, but tourists need to be warned that during the three to four-hour journey Christian Evangelical spiritual leaders loudly and enthusiastically preach on the bus, and at other times a blaring Nigerian film is played. To avoid these disturbances, bringing ear plugs is much advised to drown out these disturbances. In a city with tacky and dreary hotel choices, a pleasant-enough night can be spent in Kumasi at the simple yet charming cottage-like Eden Hotel, which can be reached by taxi from where the bus from Accra drops off passengers. Simple but adequate bus service from Kumasi to Sefwi Wiaso, approximately a three hour journey, is also available nearby. Once in Sefwi Wiaso, visitors will need to take a taxi to the synagogue at Kesekrom Junction in New Adiembra. Once there, locals will know it and can direct you. Also near the bus stop, look for the Jewish-owned store of Kofi Kwateng, who can likely assist you. Next door to the synagogue, a Jewish center with basic accommodations has been under construction for some time. If complete, visitors wishing to remain in the area overnight or longer can arrange a stay at what will be a very modest rate.
ivory coast
A small black African Jewish community exists in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, yet they have no proper synagogue. Refer to kulanu.org for information on this enclave.
kenya
The white Jewish community of Kenya, established during the early years of the twentieth century and at its peak in the 1950s and 60s, came to be made up of mixture of Sephardim and Ashkenazim originating from countries as diverse as Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Germany, the UK, the United States., Canada, Israel, Yemen, Iraq, India, Morocco, and South Africa. In time they built and rebuilt a sizable synagogue and accessory buildings in the national capital of Nairobi, and today it remains operational and open to visitors. Contact Charles Szlapak, a leader of the community and long-standing resident of Nairobi, at book@fairviewkenya.com for travel planning and advice. He and his sons are owners of the colonial-period Fairview Hotel on Bishops Road, which is a recommended comfortable and reasonably-priced play to stay while in town. Charles and his family can direct you to the synagogue towards the city of town or may even take you there themselves for Shabbat prayer services or to visit the property at other times. It is set on a generous park-like site near the central business district. Charles can also arrange a car and driver at his hotel to visit the former synagogue in Nakuru in western Kenya, which is two to two and one-half hour drive from Nairobi. The Nakuru synagogue now functions as offices for the Moi Orphanage. Along with these two sites, there is an active congregation and synagogue made up of a community of black Jews (reported to number a few hundred to five hundred people to even a few thousand people) based in the Laikipia District of in eastern Kenya. In recent years, this community abandoned their Christian beliefs in exchange for Judaism. This group has connections to the Black Hebrews movement, and some may claim to be descendants of the ancient lost tribes of Israel. Although at first Messianic, they concluded that their beliefs were incompatible with Christianity, and they are now waiting to be instructed in traditional Judaism. Some of the younger children of this community have been sent to the black African Abayudaya Jewish schools in Uganda to be instructed in Judaism and other subjects. One synagogue that this community has built is a temporary tent-like structure (that resembles a Jewish holiday sukkah). Those interested in this community should contact www.kulanu.org.
lesotha
There is a minute Jewish community in tiny Lesotho, although they are not formerly organized. The community consists mainly of Israelis and South African Jews based in the landlocked country that is surrounded entirely by South Africa. Lesotho is also home to some black Lemba Jew. Currently there is no synagogues in Lesotho.
malawi
Over the years, there has been a tiny community of Jews of foreign origins living on a mostly transitory basis in the central African country of Malawi. Never have they had a synagogue. In addition to this mixed group of Jews who have never formally organized themselves, the black Lemba Jews have also lived in Malawi as well as in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. The Lembas to date have never built a synagogue in Malawai, but one was recently opened in Zimbabwe.
mauritius
There is one synagogue/community center building on the beautiful island of Mauritius off the east coast of Africa and also east of the large island of Madagascar. The community, albeit small, is active and sustainable, and they are based out of a modest, single-story structure named the Amicale Maurice Israel Center and dedicated to a local leader, Baby S. Curpens. Located on a quiet parcel of land away from the town center of Curepipe, the facility, which contains a gathering space and small sanctuary, was formally dedicated in on May 23, 2005. Contact Owen Griffiths, a helpful local Jewish leader, at owen@bcm.intnet.mu. In addition to this Baby S. Curpens Jewish center and synagogue in Mauritius, there is also the St. Martin's Jewish Cemetery in Saint Martin near Beau-Bassin, where 127 Jewish detainees who died on the island during World War II are buried. This cemetery also serves as the current Jewish cemetery, so later burials can be found there. On the cemetery property is a small early twentieth century stone chapel, and there is a plan to repurpose it as a Jewish museum.
Mozambique
Maputo's Portuguese Honen Dalim Congregation (founded in 1899 and formally organized in 1921) Synagogue, a Neo-Baroque building dating to 1926, is easy to find in the center of town at Avenida Tomas Nduda (formerly Rua General Botha and also once known as Telegraph Avenue). The attractive painted white building was lovingly restored in 2011-13 by the small yet active white Jewish community made up of a people coming from a variety of national origins. To reach out to the congregation, contact info@honendalim.org. Along with the synagogue, there is a dedicated Jewish cemetery with a small chapel just away from the center of Maputo in an area of town zoned decades ago for burials for various faiths. As with the synagogues, the cemetery property is watched over by guards who are available at all times to let visitors in. Whereas European Jews may have lived in small numbers in other cities in Mozambique, including Beira, no other synagogues were ever realized. In addition to Mozambique's European Jewish communities, the country (along with Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa) is home to a sizable number of black Lemba Jews. To date they have built not a synagogue in Mozambique.
Namibia
The Jews of Namibia have a history spanning more than one-and-a -half centuries, even predating when the country became a German colony. Namibia later became a possession of South Africa before becoming an independent nation in 1994. A tan brick synagogue with pinkish-red corrugated metal roof was built in Windhoek, the national capital, in 1924, and it survives today and is fully operational. The building is located in the heart of the central business district at the corner of Mandume Ndemufayo Street (named after a local king who died fighting the British-South African colonial troops; also referred to as Tal or Valley Road) and Post Road. Prayer services and other activities are regularly held there (except during the summer months). Visitors are welcome, so to arrange a visit contact community leader Laurie Pieters (who is also Namibia’s croquet CEO) at pietersep@tut.ac.za. There is also a beautiful Jewish cemetery in Windhoek, which forms a part of the large Gammans Cemetery, established for the white European community during colonial times. It is located at the corner of Hochland Road and Hosea Kutaka Drive. A chapel stands at the cemetery, which is shared between the Jewish and Christian communities. Outside of Windhoek, there is a surviving building in the town of Keetmanshoop. Located in the town center at 6th Avenue and Schmiede Street, this building and its property was sold by the local Jews a few decades ago when the much-declined congregation could no longer sustain it. It now operates as a dairy, yet the sympathetic owners will likely be happy to allow curious visitors access. On the outskirts of town, near the national highway, is a small walled Jewish cemetery. The town of Luderitz positioned along the Atlantic Ocean in southern Namibia was once home to a community of Jews. There is no synagogue, but on the national highway leading to town is a Jewish cemetery (on the right side of the road just before arriving into town). There was once a small chapel on the property, yet it was demolished in 2005. In Swakopmund, another coastal city in central Namibia, Jews also once lived. There is no functioning synagogue but rather a cemetery where Jews are buried in a segregated area near the property wall. At the entrance to the cemetery, located at Rhode Allee Street near the intersections of Moses Garoeb and Ludertiz Roads, is a chapel, dating to around 1970. This stone building has been shared by both white Christians and Jews over the years.
nigeria
The black African Igbo Jews of Nigeria, also known as Benei Yisrael, are part of the larger Igbo ethnic group. Most of the Igbo Jews, a sizable community that has been carefully studied by academic scholars around the world and the focus of fasciation for writers, journalists, and documentary makers, live in an area referenced to as Igboland that straddles the River Niger, near the Anambra states in Nigeria. Although most Igbo Jews live in this large region, more can also be found in other areas, especially in the capital city of Abuja. Due to threats of Islamic terrorism and instability in the Igboland, a visit to the region is currently very dangerous and not recommended. There are, however, three modest Igbo synagogues safe enough (but not altogether secure) to visit in the greater Abuja metropolitan area. None are in the center city but scattered about the sprawling city that is connected by an efficient yet daunting multi-line highway system. A visit can be arranged through a dynamic and friendly leader of the community, Remy Ilona. It is best that Remy and his Jewish colleagues escort foreign tourists personally to these sites since not only are they difficult to find (an impossible challenge to taxi drivers), but they are located in areas of the greater city that are not together safe and comfortable, especially for visitors from afar. Remy Ilona can be contacted at remy.ilona@gmail.com. There is a tentative plan to construct a Jewish community and learning center in central Abuja, yet this has not materialized to date. To learn more about Nigeria’s Jews, refer to kulanu.org.
republic of congo
There has never been a sustained Jewish community or synagogue in the Republic of the Congo.
rwanda
In Rwanda are the Tutsi people, who originated in Ethiopia when they were known as the Kush, a Jewish kingdom. There are various references to Kush in the Bible. The Jewish kingdom fell in the late thirteenth century. As a result, several clans, including the Bene Zagwei, moved south and west to an area Bwejeri calls Havila or the African Great Lakes Region within Burundi, Rwanda, parts of Uganda, Tanzania, and the Congo. This small clan, like others in Rwanda, was affected by the civil war and genocide that raged in the country during the early 1990s. Other transitory Jews may live or have lived in Rwanda, yet never have they formed a formal community. There is no proper synagogue in Rwanda.
south africa
South Africa was once home to literally hundreds of synagogues large and small, grand and understated, and early-twentieth century to mid-Modern in period spread throughout the entire country’s largest urban areas, medium-sized cities, small town, and settlements. These served the country’s Jewish community of mostly European émigrés who began arriving in South Africa in the late nineteenth century, although the largest numbers settled there in the early years of the twentieth century. The Jewish population was at its height in the 1950s and 60s, only to begin a period of decline in the 1970s and continuing into the 1980s and 90s. Even so, South Africa is still home to some 70,000 of the country’s peak number of 120,000 Jews – one’s of the world’s largest concentrations. Whereas many of the country’s synagogues survive, several have over the years been converted to other functions (often black African churches) while others were long ago demolished. South Africa is also home to dozens of Jewish cemeteries that are still intact. Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, the spiritual leader of the (white) sub-Saharan African Jewish community and a representative of the Africa Jewish Congress, can be contacted about the current and former Jewish congregations and synagogue sites at moshe@beyachad.co.za or rabbajc@gmail.com. In addition to South Africa’s European Jewish communities, the country is home to a sizable number of black Lemba Jews. To date they have built not a synagogue in South Africa, although there is a plan for doing so.
swaziland
There is a small Jewish community of no more than fifty to sixty members in Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland. The community consists mainly of Israelis and South African Jews based in the landlocked country that is surrounded by South Africa and bordered by Mozambique. Currently there is no synagogue in Swaziland.
tanzania
The central eastern sub-Saharan African nation of Tanzania, which borders the Indian Ocean, has never had more than a minute Jewish community. Most have always lived in the capital city of Dar es Salaam. There has never been a synagogue in the country, yet over the decades holiday prayer services have been arranged by the African Jewish Congress (based in Johannesburg, South Africa) in temporary facilities. Included in Tanzania are the Tutsi people, who originated in Ethiopia when they were known as the Kush, a Jewish kingdom. There are numerous references to Kush in the Bible. The Jewish kingdom fell in the late thirteenth century. As a result, several clans, including the Bene Zagwei, moved south and west to an area Bwejeri calls Havila or the African Great Lakes Region within Burundi, Rwanda, parts of Uganda, Tanzania, and the Congo.
uganda
The Abayudaya Jews, a community of black Africans, are spread across five villages (Namutumba, Nasenyi, Putti, Namanyonyi, and Nabugoye) among the rolling green hills of Eastern Uganda not far from the border with Kenya. Mbale, a medium-sized with a very adequate hotel (Mt. Elgon), can easily serve as a base for visiting the Abayudayan Jewish sites. Mbala can be reached by bus from Kampala’s hectic bus depot or rented car, a manageable ride that passes through the mostly-unspoiled heartland of Uganda. The Abayudaya Jews, who began to embrace Judaism in the early decades of the twentieth century, live among their Christian and Muslim neighbors. They modestly support themselves through subsistence farming and small businesses. Some decades back, they constructed a handful of small and simple rectangular synagogues out of mud brick or block with thatched or corrugated metal roofs. Some of these buildings were destroyed during the time of Idi Amin in the 1970s, who did not tolerate the practice of Judaism. Since then, synagogues have been rebuilt or slowly being rebuilt due to the community’s restricted resources. Some sources claim that the Abayudayan Jewish community numbers some eight hundred Jews. Although this number cannot be verified, the Abayudaya Jews are a sustainable community who conduct regular prayer services and Jewish education instruction. Abayudaya Jewish schools have been established in recent years with outside help from individuals and international organizations such as Kulanu. Abayudaya Jewish representatives contacted in Uganda include Israel Siriri at 011.256.782.800.686 and Aaron Kintu Moses at 011.256.772.538.565.
zambia
It was World War II, and the influx of Jewish refugees which preceded its outbreak, which provided the greatest stimulus for the creation of a more sizeable and sustainable Jewish population from the early twentieth century enclave that already existed in Zambia. With this came the realization of various tangible religious institutions throughout the country, including synagogues as well as social hall, schools, and cemeteries. Along with Jewish communities in the capital city of Lusaka (with its one surviving and operational synagogue) and at Livingstone (an extent synagogue now used as a black African church), Jews settled in Copperbelt Region in central Zambia. To visit the former synagogue in central Livingstone (near the famous Victoria Falls), contact Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft at moshe@beyachad.co.za or rabbajc@gmail.com. Since there are no Jews living in the area, he can likely put visitors in touch with a helpful white Christian woman who has lived in Livingstone for years. She watches over the Jewish cemetery, and she can serve as your guide. In the capital city of Lusaka, Michael Galaun, a leader of the Jewish community, can assist visitors with a visit to the functioning and recently-restored synagogue in the center of town. He can be contacted via galaun@msn.com, via this website, or through Rabbi Silberhaft. Galaun’s business offices are now located on the synagogue’s grounds in what was once the rabbi’s residence. A visit to the Jewish cemetery in town can also be arranged through Mr. Galaun. Four former synagogues, now all serving as churches, can be found in the Copperbelt Region of central Zambia: Ndola, Mufulira, Kitwe, and Luanshya. These four buildings along with Jewish cemeteries can all be visited in one rushed day (if an early morning flight from Lusaka is taken), yet they are spread out across the region and not always the easiest to locate. Since some of these places skirt the patrolled border with Democratic Republic of the Congo, caution should be taken. It is not recommended that tourists attempt to find and visit these four former synagogues on their own. Gus Liebowitz, one of the very few Jews still living in the region and a very hospitable man, can most likely assist. He can hopefully be contact via this website.
zimbabwe
The Zimbabwe Jewish community came into being in the very late nineteenth century, made up of ethnic Europeans who came to settle in what was then British Rhodesia. Many of them were of British citizenship, but the community was also made up of Jews originating from other parts of Europe who began arriving as the first white colonists in the 1890s. This trend of Jews arriving, settling in the country, and coming to thrive in what became a prosperous nation continued well into the first half of the twentieth century. At its peak in the early 1970s, the Jewish population in Zimbabwe numbered some 7,500 people (80% were of Ashkenazi descent), and they lived primarily in the national city of Harare (formerly Salisbury) and Bulawayo, the country’s second city to the south. Smaller rural communities were also established in Zimbabwe’s Midlands towns of Kwekwe (Que Que), Gweru, and Gadooma (Gatooma). By the 1980s, Zimbabwe’s Jewish community declined in part due to age, but most ethnic European-Zimbabwe Jews left due to violence and social disruption beginning during the post-colonial period and continuing into recent decades as a result of the country’s severe economic decline and instability during the rule of President Robert Mugabe. Today less than two hundred Jews remain, and they have managed with difficulty to maintain two synagogues in Harare away from yet not far from the central business district. More recently there has been talk of selling one of the two synagogues. The Sephardic synagogue, Shaare Shalom, is located at 54 Josiah Chinamano Avenue, and the Ashkenzai synagogue can be found in Milton Park within walking distance of Shaare Shalom (in the direction away from the central business district). Harare’s first synagogue building survives today at the edge of the central business district on Harare (Formerly Salisbury) Road, but today it and its adjacent former Guild Hall serve other purposes. In Harare there are two Jewish cemeteries on the edge of town, and one features a large chapel. A synagogue is operational at the Sinai Center and Louis Treger Hall in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s suburbs on Bailey Road near Landau Drive. Visitors are particularly welcome. The city’s first synagogue in the center of town dating to the very early years of the twentieth century survives in some form today (after a fire in 2004) on the corner of Third Avenue and J. Moyo Street. Today it is used by a black African church. Also in Bulawayo, at Warren Hills Cemetery on Fort Street and 4th Avenue, are early twentieth century and early 1960s Jewish chapels and a dedicated Jewish burial area. In the Midlands’ town of Gweru, the former synagogue building (now a black African church) is located on 7th Street between Robert Mugabe and L. Takawine Avenue. The synagogue that once existed in Gadooma on the main national road connecting Harare to Bulawayo was demolished some years back by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a new building rebuilt there. In Kwekwe, the former synagogue building on Burma Road now operates as another black African church. Also in Zimbabwe, the black Lemba Jews recently opened a synagogue, the first Lemba Jews house of prayer in all of sub-Saharan Africa. It is located in Mapakomhere, withn the Masvingo District of the country.