There have been Jews present in  Colombia since the Spanish period but it took until the end of the 18th century before Jews began to practice their religion openly. This is a primarily secular community but there is little intermarriage.

After Colombia gained its independence in 1810, Judaism was recognized as a legal religion. By 1929 there were less than 200 Jews in Bogotá when a group of Polish and Romanian Jews founded the
Israelite Center of Bogotá. The small size of the community did not deter them, however, and the following year they established a burial society, a school and other communal institutions. By the beginning of the 1940s, German-Jewish immigrants to Colombia founded their own communal organization, the Israelite Montefiore Association, and in 1950 Jews mostly from Aleppo, Syria but also from Egypt, Turkey and Greece founded the Sephardic Hebrew Community of Bogota.

A wave of Ashkenazi immigrants came after the rise of Nazism in 1933 and the imposition of anti-Semitic laws and practices, including more than 7,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was put to a halt.

The Jewish population increased dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s, and institutions such as synagogues, schools and social clubs were established throughout the largest cities in the country.
The changing economy and wave of kidnappings in the country during the final decade of the 20th century led many members of Colombia’s Jewish community to emigrate.

During the early 1990s the Jewish population of Colombia stood at over 6000-6500. Over the course of the next decade a deteriorating economy and personal safety and a wave of kidnappings across the country led to a significant Jewish exodus. Most of those who left settled in Miami, Costa Rica and Israel. However, improvements in domestic security and a good economic situation have helped to stabilize the community and the situation has improved to the extent that many Jews from Venezuela are now seeking refuge in Colombia.

Between 4,500 and 5,500 Jews live in Colombia. The majority live in Bogota. There are also smaller communities in Cali, Barranquilla and Medellin. Bogota, Barranquilla, and Medellin each has its own Jewish day school, and Cali has an after school.

There is a huge movement, where many Colombians are keen to revert to their ancestral roots. Scientifically,  about 14% of Colombian men share the Kohanim genetic marker in their Y chromosome.