The history of the Jews in the Gambia dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Sephardi Jewish explorers and traders came to the region of Senegambia.
During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Iberian Sephardi Jews settled along the coasts of Senegambia, in what is now the Gambia and Senegal.
Despite the Portuguese government's request for the Jews to be banished from the region, the King of Greater Jolof refused.
[1] In 2011, the Israeli Ambassador to Senegal, Gideon Behar, reported that a small community of around 40 Gambian Evangelical Christians in the capital city of Banjul discovered an interest in Judaism, adopted certain Jewish practices, and built a synagogue complete with a Sefer Torah.
According to Gideon Behar, there is a trend across many communities in Africa of Evangelical Christians who have been drawn to Judaism and Zionism due to their study of the Bible, and that the Israeli government is largely unaware of the broad support for the State of Israel within African Evangelical Christian communities.