A new Jewish leader

Over the last few decades, the Kulanu organization of the Conservative Movement has greatly impacted the Abayudaya.

By ATARA BECK
Fellow students (photo credit: Courtesy)
Fellow students
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Like many outstanding young adults, Moshe Madoi is ambitious, intelligent and idealistic. A student at Yeshivat Torat Yosef-Hamivtar in Efrat, a prestigious post-college center for Torah study within a religious Zionist framework, he will be participating in the ROI Global Summit next month as one of 150 young Jewish innovators and social entrepreneurs from around the world.
But Madoi, who turns 25 in June, stands out for another reason as well: He is a member of the Abayudaya, a sect in eastern Uganda that practices Judaism. Here in Israel since January, he plans on staying until December before returning to his community with the proper skills to practice kosher slaughter and to provide them with a deeper understanding of authentic Judaism.
The Abayudaya population is estimated at approximately 1,100, having dwindled from the original 3,000 prior to persecution they suffered in the 1970s under dictator Idi Amin.
Unlike the so-called lost tribes of Israel with ancient Jewish roots, the Abayudaya way of life stems from the early 20th century.
In the late 1800s, under the influence of British missionaries, Ugandan leader Semei Kakungulu converted to Christianity. In 1913, he joined a sect that combined elements of Christianity and Judaism; upon further study of the texts, he concluded that it was the Old Testament that represented divine truth.
After circumcising himself and his sons and declaring that they were Jews, he and his followers continued to observe the biblical laws to the best of their ability in that remote part of the world, where they were totally separated from Jewish communal life.
According to historical sources, a Jew by the name of Yosef visited the Abayudaya (literally “People of Judah”) in 1920; he stayed for six months, familiarizing them with the Hebrew calendar and teaching them the Jewish dietary laws.
The next Jew the community met was Israeli diplomat and scholar Arye Oded, who in the early 1960s was a research fellow at Makerere University in Kampala. At the time, Israel was fostering positive relationships with Uganda and other African countries. (Oded has written extensively on his experiences in Uganda.) Until the Amin coup, close Israeli-Ugandan cooperation extended to several areas, including economy, trade and defense. The countries renewed ties in 1994.
Over the last few decades, the Kulanu organization of the Conservative Movement has greatly impacted the Abayudaya. In 2002, five rabbis converted approximately 400 community members to Judaism according to Conservative standards, and the number of converts has been increasing each year. Besides the spiritual influence, Kulanu has also provided opportunities for education and financial assistance.
However, roughly 130 Abayudaya community members, including Madoi and his brother, Enosh Keki Mainah, have refused the Conservative conversion. Known as She’erit Yisrael (Remnant of Israel), alluding to their survival of the Idi Amin terror, this small group in the village of Putti is striving, under Mainah’s leadership, to lead an Orthodox Jewish life.
Madoi’s father was not Jewish, but his mother was passionate about Judaism, he says. She died when he was a little boy, and his maternal uncle, Gershom Sizomu, raised him.
Sizomu later studied at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles for five years and was ordained as a Conservative rabbi in 2008 before returning to his native country.
“It’s complicated,” Madoi says of his community’s situation in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. There was a “misunderstanding” between those among the Abayudaya who joined the Conservative Movement and a minority that preferred to aim for acceptance in the Orthodox world, although they didn’t want to offend the Conservative Jews who were helping the community.
“This is how I and a friend, [Kamya] Tarphon, ended up here,” he recounts. “I came here because I want to be Orthodox. I’m going back to teach, so that people there can live an Orthodox Jewish life.”
He describes living conditions there as poor.
“We grow our own food. When there’s a drought, many people starve to death. They live in grass houses, even our synagogue.
We’re trying to change things through education and starting businesses.”
Before his arrival in Israel, he was tutoring eight-to-15-year-olds in Judaic subjects. A musician, he taught them songs he had composed in Hebrew and Luganda.
Music is an important part of the Abayudaya culture. In recent years, they have made a couple of distinctly African, Jewish-themed CDs.
Madoi was involved in the production of the first, When I Wake Up, as a guitarist and singer, before coming to Israel.
“I try my best to help the children I teach,” he says. “I love Judaism, and I work hard for them. They love me. They miss me right now, but when I go back, they will learn more, because I’m learning. My community has more children than adults – about 90 children – so we will have a strong future.”
He explains that he wants to return and help his community “so it will be easier to get an Orthodox conversion and make aliya. We want to be accepted as Jews in Israel and to live a full Torah life.”
RABBI SHLOMO Riskin, founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs – the network of institutions that includes Yeshivat Hamivtar – visited Putti last summer.
A world-renowned educator, speaker and author, Riskin was invited to Nairobi as a scholar-in-residence. He had heard about the Abayudaya community, so while in that neck of the woods he made his way to Putti and was fascinated.
“I came upon this village of farmers who seemed very happy,” he says. “The men wore kippot; the men and women were very religiously Jewish. They kept Shabbat, holidays, taharat hamishpaha [family purity laws], kashrut, held minyanim three times a day....
“I spent a number of days with them. I was absolutely amazed. They were extremely committed.
They had also heard about me because they were getting translations of my articles in The Jerusalem Post [where he writes a weekly Torah commentary]. They’re not Jewish yet, but very much interested, and they are practicing Judaism.”
Riskin’s delegation included Dr. Ari Greenspan, a dentist from Efrat who is a qualified mohel and shohet.
“They [the Abayudaya] were vegetarians, because they didn’t know how to do kosher slaughter, so Ari slaughtered some birds and quail for them. My grandson was with us; he had studied ritual slaughter for his bar mitzva, so he helped. I’m not qualified, so I didn’t get involved,” the rabbi laughs. “But I did cover the blood with earth, as per Halacha. He was impressed with Madoi and Tarphon, he continues, and brought them to Israel. “They’re doing marvelously, marvelously well. They’re extremely serious students.”
Madoi says he finds inspiration in the biblical story of Ruth. This weekend marks the festival of Shavuot, when the Scroll of Ruth is read in synagogues. A convert to Judaism and great-grandmother of King David, Ruth is known for her loyalty to her Jewish motherin- law Naomi and for her unwavering determination to follow Naomi to the Land of Israel and become a Jew; according to tradition, the Messiah will be her direct descendant.
The ROI referral came from a friend of Madoi’s from South Africa who was visiting Putti.
“He recommended me,” says Madoi. “I’m very eager to attend the conference, to meet other Jews and to come up with ideas. I’m going to tell my story and play music. I hope they enjoy my performance and that I make friends. People in my village love visitors.
It raises their hopes of reconnection. I hope they will come to Uganda and meet my people.”
“We are always excited to welcome representatives from new countries and communities,” says Justin Korda, the executive director of ROI Community, a global network of over 800 Jewish innovators in more than 40 countries.
“As a young Jewish leader from Uganda, Moshe will surely bring a fresh and unique perspective to our network and serve as a bridge to a Jewish community that most know little about,” he says. “Moshe’s intention to return to Uganda as a more effective educator and leader gives us a lot of hope for involving more members of his community in the global Jewish discourse.”