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Nigerian Igbo Jewish Leader Arrested With Israeli Visitors Now Freed (Lost Tribe Of Israel).

ramonmercado

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No, Mossad are not backing a separatist "Jewish" state in Nigeria but the separatists claim otherwise.

Its leader Nnamdi Kanu claims that the Igbo people as a whole are descended from the Biblical Israelites and describes himself as a follower of Judaism, something dismissed as a façade by mainstream Igbo Jews.

A leader of Nigeria's Jewish community, jailed for a month without charge after being arrested with three visitors from Israel, has been freed.

Authorities suspected the visitors had links with a separatist group which had hailed their arrival in Nigeria.Lizben Agha, from the Igbo ethnic group, was released after appeals, including from another African country. Practising Jews form a tiny fraction of the Igbo population, one of the largest groups in multi-ethnic Nigeria.

Mrs Agha had been providing assistance to the trio, who came to her community in Ogidi to film part of a documentary. According to her son Emmanuel, Mrs Agha and her husband Peniel were taken at gunpoint by security forces from their home late at night on 9 July. He says they were driven to the hotel where the visitors, who have dual Israeli-US or Israeli-French citizenship, were staying and where they too were taken into custody. Emmanuel says his mother and father were released but his mother was then arrested after pleading to go with her guests to act as a mediator. Mrs Agha was driven to the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS) in the capital, Abuja, where all four were held.

The men say their interrogators suspected they had ties to a secessionist movement known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), considered a terrorist group by Nigeria. Ipob seeks to recreate a short-lived independent state of Biafra in the south-east of the country.

Its leader Nnamdi Kanu claims that the Igbo people as a whole are descended from the Biblical Israelites and describes himself as a follower of Judaism, something dismissed as a façade by mainstream Igbo Jews.

Mr Kanu is awaiting trial in Nigeria on charges including terrorism and treason. Authorities say Ipob has been responsible for attacks on police stations and other public properties in southern Nigeria. The country's President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush the group.

Prior to the men's arrests, pro-Ipob media had published pictures the trio had posted on social media of themselves meeting Igbo Jews. The pictures also showed them displaying a Sefer Torah (Jewish holy scroll) they had brought as a gift to the community. The pro-Ipob media proclaimed it to be a sign of Israel's support for their separatist cause.

Voice of Biafra newspaper showing pictures of the Israelis in Nigeria

image caption Separatist media said the men's visit signalled Israeli backing for a breakaway state

"We checked our phones and saw that there's this thing going viral," said Rudy Rochman, one of the group, "that we're here 'as a part of the Mossad [Israeli secret service]' sent to 'free Biafra', but we have nothing to do with this movement, we came purely to document the lives of the Igbo Jews." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58097200
 
OK so. There is an indigenous Jewish community in Nigeria. Not surprising, there are small Jewish communities all over the world resulting from several thousand years of trade.
However, there s a guy, not considered a part of that small community, who claims that they are one of the lost tribes. He also supports the unrelated group trying to create a separate state called Biafra ( a really bad karmic choice for a name) and understandably the government considers him a problem.
And at the same time there's a film crew from Israel documenting the community. The unrelated group uses photos of the film crew greeting the community members to show that Israel supports the unrelated group.
Only in the 21st century. I'd love to see the film if those guys ever get out of the Nigerian prison and it gets made.
 
OK so. There is an indigenous Jewish community in Nigeria. Not surprising, there are small Jewish communities all over the world resulting from several thousand years of trade.
However, there s a guy, not considered a part of that small community, who claims that they are one of the lost tribes. He also supports the unrelated group trying to create a separate state called Biafra ( a really bad karmic choice for a name) and understandably the government considers him a problem.
And at the same time there's a film crew from Israel documenting the community. The unrelated group uses photos of the film crew greeting the community members to show that Israel supports the unrelated group.
Only in the 21st century. I'd love to see the film if those guys ever get out of the Nigerian prison and it gets made.
I think it was acknowledged that some people in Ethiopia are a Jewish community, so it's not unlikely to find some in Nigeria.
 
I think it was acknowledged that some people in Ethiopia are a Jewish community, so it's not unlikely to find some in Nigeria.

The practicing Ethiopian Jewish communities are now almost all in Israel.

There are still many people there who are halachically Jewish (have a Jewish mother...in this case a mother's mother's mother, hence are Jewish under Jewish religious law)) but changed their religious practice well over 100 years ago.

There is a fair bit online about the Jewish ancestry of Igbos.

My opinion is that some Igbos have Jewish ancestry.

There are a number of key customs in common:

The Igbo lawyer Remy C. Ilona has written about these in published books, this paragraph is from the below article in "The Forward":

"Comparisons between the ancient Israelites and Igbos are detailed in Ilona’s books. He examines the entire Igbo life cycle, drawing out particular similarities: seclusion of women after childbirth, circumcision on the eighth day, marriage under a canopy, a seven-day mourning period after death. “I spoke to thousands of Igbo,” Ilona said. “It became so engrossing, I had to scale back my legal practice.”

https://forward.com/news/331188/meet-the-igbo-nigerias-lost-jewish-tribe/
 
The practicing Ethiopian Jewish communities are now almost all in Israel.

There are still many people there who are halachically Jewish (have a Jewish mother...in this case a mother's mother's mother, hence are Jewish under Jewish religious law)) but changed their religious practice well over 100 years ago.

There is a fair bit online about the Jewish ancestry of Igbos.

My opinion is that some Igbos have Jewish ancestry.

There are a number of key customs in common:

The Igbo lawyer Remy C. Ilona has written about these in published books, this paragraph is from the below article in "The Forward":

"Comparisons between the ancient Israelites and Igbos are detailed in Ilona’s books. He examines the entire Igbo life cycle, drawing out particular similarities: seclusion of women after childbirth, circumcision on the eighth day, marriage under a canopy, a seven-day mourning period after death. “I spoke to thousands of Igbo,” Ilona said. “It became so engrossing, I had to scale back my legal practice.”

https://forward.com/news/331188/meet-the-igbo-nigerias-lost-jewish-tribe/
The blurry photos show several kids with yarmulkes (in addition to several men who are probably the fillm crew.)
 
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