History of the Jews in Palau

Palau's Jewish presence is very small; the 2024 U.S. State Department human-rights report said the community reportedly numbered fewer than twenty people.[1] The official reports and reference profile reviewed here do not identify a synagogue, formal communal organization, or regular Jewish religious services.[2][3] The 2023 International Religious Freedom Report lists Jews among Palau's small religious minorities alongside Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jehovah's Witnesses.[2]

A State Department demographic passage using a July 2017 population estimate identified Israeli Jews among the small groups within Palau's foreign community of more than 4,000 people, most of whom were Filipino Catholics.[4]

Available sources do not establish when Jews first settled in Palau. The State Department's 2006 human-rights report stated that there was “no known Jewish community,” wording that described what was known to the report rather than definitively excluding the presence of individual Jews.[5]

By 2012, the State Department reported that the Jewish community reportedly numbered fewer than a dozen members.[6] Its 2013 report repeated the same estimate.[7] Neither report provided information about the community's origins, composition, or institutions.

The 2017 demographic passage identified a small group of Israeli Jews without providing a population figure.[4] The 2023 International Religious Freedom Report continued to list Jews among Palau's small religious minorities, again without a separate estimate.[2] The 2024 human-rights report placed the community at reportedly fewer than twenty people.[1]

The Jewish Virtual Library's undated population estimate says fewer than ten Jews live in Palau, with a few additional residents described as half-Jewish. It also says that Jews, like much of Palau's population, are involved in tourism, a major part of the country's economy.[3]

The profile identifies Israeli residents Navot and Tova Bornovski as the owners and managers of a dive shop, presenting their business as an example of Jewish participation in tourism. It also names Larry Miller, an Associate Justice of the Palauan Supreme Court, as the most recognized Jew in Palau.[3]

A 2021 Jerusalem Post column identified Palau's UN ambassador Ilana Seid as Jewish and reported that she was one of twelve Jews living on the island. The column also said that she had worked as an analyst at Lehman Brothers Asia.[8]

The Jewish Virtual Library's Palau profile says Israel was the first non-Pacific nation to establish diplomatic relations with Palau in 1994, the year of Palauan independence.[3] A separate Jewish Virtual Library table lists Palau's recognition of Israel on October 2, 1994.[9]

The Palau profile further says Israel supported Palau's admission to the United Nations, offered economic aid, and sent fisheries and agricultural exports through the Israeli Foreign Ministry to help train local people. It also states that Israel maintains an embassy in Koror.[3]

The American Jewish Committee has named Palau among the Pacific island countries with close ties to Israel.[10] A 2023 Jerusalem Post opinion article identified Palau among Oceanian states that had voted in Israel's favor on several UN resolutions and argued that the region's small states exercise considerable per-capita influence because each holds a UN seat.[11]

The State Department reports cited here consistently recorded no reported antisemitic incidents. The 2006 report found no reports of societal abuse or discrimination against religious groups, including antisemitic acts.[5] The 2012 and 2013 reports each said there were no reports of antisemitic acts.[6][7] The 2024 report likewise recorded no reports of antisemitic incidents.[1]

More broadly, the 2023 International Religious Freedom Report found no reports of significant societal actions affecting religious freedom during that year.[2] The Jewish Virtual Library characterizes Palau as religiously diverse and welcoming and makes the broader, unquantified claim that antisemitism is nonexistent on the islands.[3]

The available population figures are approximate reports rather than a continuous census series. State Department estimates ranged from fewer than a dozen community members in 2012–2013 to fewer than twenty in 2024.[6][1] The Jewish Virtual Library gives an undated estimate of fewer than ten Jews, while a 2021 Jerusalem Post column reported twelve.[3][8]

An American Jewish Committee article described the Pacific Islands broadly as allies of Israel despite an absence of Jewish population, but it supplied no Palau-specific population evidence and therefore does not establish that Palau had no Jewish residents.[10] Likewise, the change from “no known Jewish community” in 2006 to fewer than a dozen reported members in 2012 does not show whether the population changed, reporting improved, or both.[5][6]

The sources reviewed provide no settled account of the community's origins and do not describe communal organizations or regular religious services.[2][1]