[9][10] The Merina royal line has often claimed to descend from an ancient wave of Israelite migration that arrived via Asia in Madagascar, after being exiled by the Neo-Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar.

Some Malagasy theories of Jewish provenance suggest ancestral origin in one or more of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, most commonly Gad, Issachar, Dan, and Asher.

[12][13][10] One Antemoro legend recounts that the Islamic prophet Mahomet had five sons who all became kings in Arabia: Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus, the last four of them having fathered Tsimeto, Kazimambo, Anakara, and Raminia.

[5] Edith Bruder describes an oral testimony from the archives of Katherine Quanbeck, in which, "after several meetings," a young Sevohitse man "cautiously mentioned the existence of a place from where he came, Foibe Jiosy, which means 'the headquarters of the Jews,' near Ambovombe, Madagascar.

[10] A site called Ivolamena in Alakamisy Ambohimaha contains cliffs that were studied in the 1950s by a team of French researchers following "rumors in the region of Fianarantsoa about the existence of letters carved in stone", discovered by local stonemason Edouard Randrianasolo.

The researchers had received tips from a Malagasy informant, who suggested that the Vohisoratra inscriptions might be dated "to the time of king Solomon, who sent the Israelites across the world to seek precious stones for the building of Jerusalem".

[9][10] A January 1989 speech by then-president of Madagascar Didier Ratsiraka made reference to the local beliefs surrounding the Ambohimaha cliff, which he claimed bore "proto-Hebraïc" writings.

Ratsiraka also reportedly requested that teams of Malagasy archaeologists investigate the question of Madagascar's Jewish roots and conduct digs in the Betsileo region to search for the biblical Queen of Sheba's treasure.

[8] In 2009, residents of Alakamisy Ambohimaha threatened adherents of "Hebraic Judaism" who had come to the cliffs and sacrificed two lambs, one black and one white, despite the local fady (taboo) against slaughtering sheep.

[26] Also in 1946, Joseph Briant published L'hebreu à Madagascar, an influential comparative study of the Malagasy and Hebrew languages that purported to find substantial commonalities between the two.

[27] Lars Dahle wrote critically on the comparative arguments for the thesis in 1833: "The truth is, I think, that similarity of customs is nearly worthless as a sign of relationship, if not supported and borne out by other proofs of more importance".

Genetic and linguistic studies that inquire broadly about Malagasy origins generally point to Austronesian settlement as the earliest human presence on the island, followed by waves of migration from other regions including East Africa.

"[35] 17th century French colonial governor Étienne de Flacourt reported of a group called the Zafy Ibrahim, whom he'd encountered between 1644 and 1648 in the vicinity of the island of Nosy Boraha and judged to be of Jewish identity and descent.

[36] John Ogilby wrote in 1670 that the 600 "Zaffe-Hibrahim" inhabiting Nosy Boraha (which he called Nossi Hibrahim, 'Abraham's Isle') "will enter into no League with the Christians, yet trade with them, because it seems they have retain'd somewhat of the Ancient Judaism."

[37] The Zafy Ibrahim have been theorized variously to be Yemenite Jews, Khajirites, Qarmatian Ismaili Gnostics, Coptic or Nestorian Christians, and descendants of pre-Islamic Arabs coming from Ethiopia.

[44] Despite this small population, Olivier Leroy, Madagascar's Pétainist Director of Education, conducted a public conference in 1942 in Antananarivo titled "Antisémitisme et Révolution nationale"—"Antisemitism and national revolution".

The implementation of Vichy France's antisemitic laws in Madagascar led to the exclusion of the island's few Jews from various sectors, including the military, media, commerce, industry, and civil service.

[50] In 1955, the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Lubavitch-Chabad Hasidic Jewish movement, asked Rabbi Yosef Wineberg to go to Madagascar "in order to find any stray sheep of the House of Israel".

[56][57] In 2011, according to a Malagasy news report, a group of Jiosy Gasy were evicted from a settlement under a bridge crossing the Ikopa River in Analamanga, under order of the Ministry of Land Management.

[58] The community of "a couple hundred" Malagasy Jews in Ampanotokana arrived at rabbinic Judaism in 2010 as the result of three regional Messianic Jewish groups splintering off and studying the Torah.

[61][56] The group refers to its ethnic division within Judaism as Madagascar Sepharad, praying in Sephardic-accented Hebrew and practicing a Sephardic-style liturgy, which they say was suggested to them by a Dutch Messianic Jew who thought Ashkenazi tradition would be inappropriate for such a decidedly non-European population.

[62][61] The community's president is Ashrey Dayves (born Andrianarisao Asarery), who leads alongside Petoela (Andre Jacque Rabisisoa), who serves as the Hebrew teacher, and Rabbi Moshe Yehouda.

[33] The narrative account of their origin was related to Devir as follows: Before the Babylonian invasion that destroyed the Temple of Solomon, our priestly and Levite ancestors had received prophetic messages that foresaw this devastation.

The Merina Loharanom-Pitahiana traditionalists reject the Talmud, Kabbalah, and other post-biblical texts, and have "politely declined" invitations to integrate into the Communauté Juive de Madagascar.

[79][3][78] The Église du Judaïsme Hébraïque is a charismatic cult in Madagascar led by the Judaic mystic Rivo Lala (also called "Kohen Rivolala"), whose teachings circulate via the internet.

[3] Nathan Devir describes Lala's religion as "a mélange of spiritualism, Catholicism, and theosophy with a healthy dose of Aaronite-descent propaganda and a cultlike emphasis on his own supernatural abilities."

[8]: 174  In 1937, Bealanana and Ankaizinana, two very remote areas with high elevations and low population densities, were identified by a French "expert" delegation of three men, two of whom were Jews, as a possible site for Jewish relocation.

[87][39] In 1992, after visiting Israel at the invitations of Mashav and Histadrut, Malagasy politician Raherimasoandro "Hery" Andriamamonjy founded Club Shalom Madagascar, an organization liaising diplomatic, cultural, and commercial relations between the two countries.

[39] In 2005, a diplomat from the African department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reached out to Andriamamonjy in order to inquire about Madagascar's Jews and build a database on the then-150-strong community of Jiosy Gasy.

[88] In 2017, The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the South African branch of Israel's national emergency service, Magen David Adom, sent aid to Madagascar amidst a serious outbreak of the plague.