Although Jews have been present in Vietnam and Judaism has been practiced since the late 19th century, most adherents today are expatriates.

In 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities in French Indochina was approximately 1,000. In 1940 the anti-Semitic Vichy-France “Statute on Jews” was implemented in French Indochina (Vietnam)  and the anti-Jewish laws were only repealed in 1945.

Prior to the French evacuation in 1954, the Jewish population in Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) was reportedly 1,500 but most of those Jews left with the French, leaving behind no organized Jewish communal structure.

The country’s growing economy has helped regenerate a Jewish presence in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The community of “Do Thai,” or Jews, is than 100 in Hanoi and about 200 in Ho Chi Minh City,  formerly known as Saigon.