The Jews who answered Africa’s unheard cries

You can’t have missed the videos. Even if your feed is full of slimming ads and parent–child dances, at some point your phone will flash raw, unfiltered scenes from a continent in crisis. From Nigeria, where young men cry for help as Boko Haram militants torch their villages. From Sudan, where families film the aftermath of a raid. Or perhaps from eastern Congo, where terrified women record the bodies of their neighbours left in the streets by Islamist militias.

These desperate pleas, largely ignored by the world, moved Dr Charles Jacobs – a veteran Jewish human-rights activist based in Boston – to act. For decades, he has exposed modern-day slavery in Sudan and in 2002 he founded The David Project to strengthen pro-Israel education in schools and universities, followed in 2008 by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, created in response to radical Islamist threats.

Into his orbit came Simon Deng, who was born in war-torn South Sudan, kidnapped aged six, and forced into life as a child soldier. After years
of violence, hunger and loss, he escaped at 14 to a refugee camp in Kenya, later reaching Australia – where he taught himself English using old newspapers.

Together, these two formidable men founded the African Jewish Alliance (AJA) in 2024 – with a clear, urgent goal: to unite Africans, Jews and African Jews in confronting Islamist extremism and giving a voice to those silenced by it.

“We cannot allow Africa’s suffering to remain invisible,” Dr Jacobs said at the launch. “If we believe in ‘never again’, then that promise must apply everywhere.”

The AJA’s mission statement echoes that conviction: “To educate the public, governments and community leaders about Islamist terrorism and jihadist violence in Africa – and to support those who stand against it.”

Through awareness campaigns, university partnerships and public events, the Alliance is working to draw attention to the crises in Sudan, Nigeria and Congo.

Among its most active young organisers is Ellie Raymond, a British-born Jewish social media manager who made aliyah last year. She was recruited by AJA because of her work in the Jewish advocacy space since October 7.

“They’d seen I wasn’t afraid to speak up,” she explains from her flat in Tel Aviv. “After Covid, a lot of young people went looking for a cause – something that gave them community again,” Ellie says, acknowledging she felt the same way.

“BLM [Black Lives Matter] had shown them how powerful collective activism could feel online, and when that faded, many shifted to the next movement that offered the same sense of belonging: the pro-Palestinian cause. It filled that space and has given them identity, language and friends. The tragedy is, it’s built around a story that has fuelled antisemitism and turned Israel – which was the victim of a massacre – into the villain. It’s heartbreaking to watch young people channel compassion into a movement that spreads hate and shuts out others, especially Africans who are suffering right now.”

Ellie finds and mentors new creators who will talk about Africa’s humanitarian disasters in language that resonates online. Among the growing list of digital advocates are some already familiar, such as Tal Oran, a Mizrahi Jew known to his 80,000 followers as The Traveling Clatt, along with Londoner Sammy Yahood, who made aliyah after being attacked in Camden for carrying an Israeli flag.

“What we’re trying to do,” she says, “is use the same tools that built the misinformation bubble but for truth. People need to see what’s really happening.” Also brought into the fold is Kefira Cohen-Rothschild, a softly-spoken politics and philosophy student at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

When we speak, she’s lying on her bed, with books in the background. But what begins as a girlie chat about music and family soon turns darker. Kefira’s father lived in Israel; her mother is of Nigerian and Sephardic descent. Religion has always been part of Kefira’s life.“So when I moved into halls, putting a mezuzah on the door was second nature,” she says. “I wanted my room to feel like home.” It quickly made her a target.

“I came back from shul one evening and someone had written ‘murderer’ across my door in period blood,” she recalls. “A few days later there was a star of David with ‘Juda die’ written underneath and, because I was not at home at the time, my flatmates took a photo but cleaned the door before I returned. Then red paint started appearing in the kitchen – and eventually someone threw paint at me. After that came the death threats. Some by email, some handwritten and left in classrooms.”

The police have opened an investigation but, months later, there’s been no resolution. Cardiff University has offered her security escorts on campus, but the trauma lingers. “I was told by other Jews to take down my mezuzah and stop wearing my Magen David,” she says. “I refused. I wasn’t going to hide who I am.”

Kefira was living in Israel on October 7 and, were it not for poor health, she would have been at the Nova festival. But she lost good friends on the darkest day and was still grieving for them, while being bullied in Wales. But instead of transferring universities, Kefira stayed and found a new purpose through the AJA working with CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in the Middle East, Reporting and Analysis).
She also held a pro-Israel event, for which she controlled entry and kept security tight.

“I want people to understand that what’s happening in Africa isn’t so separate from what’s happening here,” she says. “Hate grows in silence, whether it’s in a village in Sudan or a student corridor in Cardiff.”

Ellie describes Kefira as one of the AJA’s most powerful new voices. “She’s the embodiment of what we’re trying to do,” Ellie says. “[She is] connecting identities – African and Jewish – that the world treats as separate and she refuses to disappear. That courage is what we need.”

Ellie is fixed on the future. “We need ambassadors,” she says. “Artists, athletes, creators – people who can really promote the AJA’s work because it isn’t theoretical. It’s about lives on the line and young people need to be reminded about what solidarity really means. When you see those videos, you have to realise what’s at stake and what every one of us should stand up for.”

Visit : https://africanjewishalliance.org