October 31, 1999
21 Cheshvan, 5760
Jerusalem

Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor meets with leaders of the Zimbabwe Jewish community.

The Jewish community in Zimbabwe is one of the most active small Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Executive, Sallai Meridor met last week during the Jewish Agency Board of Governors meetings with the leadership of the Zimbabwe Jewish community, who are visiting Israel on a fact-finding mission organized jointly by the Jewish Agency Immigration Department's Tnuat Aliyah and the South African Zionist Federation in Israel, Telfed.

The purpose of this visit is to consolidate the connection between the Jewish community in Zimbabwe and the State of Israel and to explore ways of strengthening the Jewish identity of the Zimbabwe Jewish community and options for immigration to Israel.

The five member delegation from Harare and Bulawayo who were in Israel for one week, met with public figures and new immigrants from Zimbabwe and other countries. They also met with Jewish Agency experts in the fields of immigration and Jewish Zionist identity and participated in a leadership development seminar for Diaspora leaders.

The Jewish community of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) today numbers approximately 900 people out of a European population of 150,000 and a total population of 11.5 million people. Six hundred Jews live in the capital Harare, and three hundred in Bulawayo. In the 1970's the Jewish population numbered seven thousand people, however during the Zimbabwe struggle for independence, most of the European population emigrated among them the majority of the Jewish community.

In spite of being a tiny community the Zimbabwe Jewish community carries on a viable, Jewish life and there are active Synagogues, Jewish day schools and benevolent societies. Similarly the Central African Zionist Organization, CAZO, plays an active role in the Jewish community and publishes a monthly bulletin 'The Central African Zionist Digest'. CAZO also has representation in the institutions of the World Zionist Organization.

For further information contact:

Michael Jankelowitz
Liaison to Foreign Press and Media, JAFI
Tel: 972-2-6202780
Fax: 972-2-6202708
Mobile: 972-51-601706