In the Southeastern region of Vohipeno, Madagascar, the We Were Never Lost team met a community of Jews who hide their identity and are extremely secretive about the history they hold.
Due to generations of persecution, many Jewish communities in diaspora went underground in order to survive. While some assimilated with time, others kept their identity alive by using evasive strategies to pass down their traditions and remained undetected while living amongst other nations.
After months of attempted communication and planning, we were finally able to make contact and later welcomed to visit this community.
In order to preserve their history and identity this Jewish community assigns katavim/khatibs (writers) in every generation who take on the responsibility to hide their stories in books written in Arabic disguising them as Qurans.
It wasn’t easy getting access to these very old books, but after they understood who we were, one of the three kings who greeted us agreed to share their biggest secrets.
The book’s pages are blurred in these images, but they have agreed to finally reveal their stories in order to reunite with the rest of the Tribes of Israel. Stay tuned for the Madagascar episode of the We Were Never Lost documentary series coming soon.
Culled from Rudy Rochman
