The city of Ouidah (Judah) is on the coast of Benin (formerly Dahomey).

In 1926, there was a large Hebrew community of black Jews in Benin, West Africa. They had a central temple and a Pentateuch written in Hebrew. In their temple are found many laws engraved on tablets, which are attached to the temple walls.

They had a high priest, with a large number of priestly families, whose members walked from house to house rendering educational and religious instructions to each family of the community.

On 21 June, 1962, a shipment consisting of 400 tons of rice and sugar was loaded aboard an Israeli freighter at Haifa as a gift from Israel to the famine-stricken people of Dahomey, at that time. The African republic’s Ambassador Jean Baptiste Mockey, attended a ceremony aboard the ship, formally accepting the gift on behalf of his government.