The Eritrean Jewish community is believed to be started by Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...

 attracted by new commercial opportunities driven by Italian colonial expansion

Italian Eritrea

Italian Eritrea was the first colony of the Kingdom of Italy. It was created in 1890 and lasted officially until 1947.-Acquisition of Assab and creation of the colony:...

 in the late 19th Century.

During British administration, Eritrea was often used as a location of internment for Irgun and Lehi

Irgun and Lehi internment in Africa

From 1944 to 1948, Irgun and Lehi men being held without trial at the Latroun concentration camp were deported by the British Mandate of Palestine authorities to internment camps in Africa, located in Sembel , Carthago, Sudan, and Gilgil...

 guerrillas. Among those imprisoned was future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir

Yitzhak Shamir

' is a former Israeli politician, the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, in 1983–84 and 1986–92.-Biography:Icchak Jeziernicky was born in Ruzhany , Russian Empire . He studied at a Hebrew High School in Białystok, Poland. As a youth he joined Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement...

 and Haim Corfu

Haim Corfu

-Biography:Corfu was born in Jerusalem in 1921. He studied in religious schools and yeshivas and attended a religious teachers seminary. In 1937 he joined the Irgun and was a member of the Irgun command in Jerusalem. During that time he also played as a striker for Beitar Jerusalem...

, a founder of Beitar Jerusalem.

In 1961 the Eritrean War for Independence began after Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 was annexed by Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. It was then that Jews began to leave Eritrea. In the early 1970s, Jewish emigration increased because of ensuing violence between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Eritrea formally gained its independence in 1993 and today, there is only one last native Jew left in Eritrea, Sami Cohen, who attends to the Asmara Synagogue

Asmara Synagogue

The Asmara Synagogue is the only surviving remnant of the Jewish community in the country of Eritrea. It includes a Jewish cemetery, classrooms and a main sanctuary. All aspects of the synagogue today are taken care of by Samuel Cohen, an Asmara native who remained in the country to look after...

and cemetery.

Judaism is not one of the four religions recognized by the Eritrean government.