HaAva veHaHava (“Love and Friendship”) is the synagogue of Papeete and the central Jewish place of worship in French Polynesia. Founded in 1993 in the Fariipiti area, it serves a small, geographically isolated community in the South Pacific, sustaining Shabbat and holiday life for locals and visitors. Its warm interior is known for stained-glass windows by Deanna de Marigny, blending Jewish liturgical themes with Tahiti’s cultural setting.

HaAva veHaHava, whose name is commonly translated as “Love and Friendship,” is the central Jewish place of worship in French Polynesia. It stands in the Fariipiti area of Papeete and is widely described as the only synagogue in Tahiti, serving a small, geographically isolated Jewish community in the South Pacific. After decades of an itinerant community life, the congregation consolidated its presence in the early 1990s, establishing a community center and building the synagogue in 1993 on Rue Moerenhout.

Contemporary reports portray the community as small, often counted in the low hundreds or fewer, yet able to sustain communal prayer, Shabbat and holiday life, and visiting rabbinic leadership for major occasions. Architecturally, the synagogue is noted for its warm interior and stained-glass windows created by the artist Deanna de Marigny, whose designs evoke Jewish liturgical themes while situating the building within Tahiti’s distinct cultural landscape. As a landmark of modern Jewish continuity in Polynesia, HaAva veHaHava represents both diaspora resilience and the re-rooting of communal institutions in one of the world’s most remote Jewish settings.