Concern is mounting for the safety of Zimbabwe's small Jewish
community following months of political and racial tension in
the country.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has failed to stop a
series of invasions of white-owned farms by landless blacks
and recently described white farmers as "enemies of the
state." Three white farmers have thus far been murdered and a
number of others attacked. Tensions are expected to escalate
in the period leading up to the general election, scheduled
to be held in midyear.
While only a few Jews are occupied in farming, there are
fears that the anti-white violence in the rural districts
will ultimately spread to the urban areas. Mugabe, who has
ruled Zimbabwe since the country gained its independence from
white minority rule in 1980, has in the past made a number of
anti-Zionist and antisemitic statements.
In Zimbabwe, which is situated immediately north of South
Africa, are between 800 and 900 Jews, mainly concentrated in
Harare, the capital, and Bulawayo. At its height in the mid-
1960s )when it was called Rhodesia(, the community numbered
around 7000, including a large Sephardic component made up of
refugees from prewar Europe.
The community keeps in close touch with other sub-Saharan
African Jewish communities, most of which, with the exception
of South Africa, number fewer than a hundred souls, through
the African Jewish Congress, an organization which meets
annually.
