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A Humbling Experience

By Menachem Kuchar We just returned from Uganda. This is was one of the most amazing trips to anywhere we have every had! Following are my feelings and thoughts. ------- A Humbling Experience I am seated between two colleagues in Mukono, Uganda, a family of five, mother and father, fifteen year old daughter and two adult sons are seated, facing us across a table. There is not a dry eye in the room. Words escape us and are superfluous. We sit opposite a family comprising a man, his two wives, five children, another two at school. Elements of angst are in the air, emanating from more than a single direction. The tone is serious, even dour. Then a revelation — two of the children are not his and not his wives’. Suddenly the mood flips. They are his brother’s, a brother who is confined to an asylum — the man before us is bringing them up as his own, a sincere promise to his brother that he will not abandon them, that he will treat them identically to his children. And that’s
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Yes, there are Jews in Uganda. They need our help!

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by Laura Ben-David 11 Iyar 5780. The Abayudaya community observes Sabbath and other Jewish laws, and lives in a appalling conditions of poverty. Clockwise from top left: Sarah Nabaggala, Yonatan Loukato, Samuel Matiya Kigondere, Yoash Mayende and Shoshana Nambi were among 13 Ugandan Jews who worked as staff members at Reform Jewish summer camps in the United States. (Jill Peltzman for the URJ/via JTA) Scattered throughout the world are communities who have embarked on their own search for Judaism — some despite having no actual history of Jewish descent or heritage. As you may know, I work with a number of these lost and hidden Jewish groups. I’m hardly the first even in my own neighborhood to be involved in these efforts. A neighbor of mine has been intrigued for years by some of these fascinating communities and has traveled to remote regions to understand and offer support. Most recently, he has taken upon himself to help a particularly needy and deserving community: the
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Not Jewish Enough

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by Ruti Eastman 15 Shvat 5780. Tu B'Shvat. My friend Elisha wants to come to Israel to study Torah in yeshiva. The trouble is, he can’t get a visa. Is it because he’s black, he asks me? No, I don’t think so. Though his mother and father were brought up to be good Jews by their fathers and mothers, Elisha isn’t quite Jewish enough. Elisha Higenyi’s slogan on his Facebook page is "I love helping needy people." He is Projects Manager and Chief Executive Officer at Youth First Farmer's Development Association. He is also the spiritual leader and cantor at Kahal Kadosh She'erit Yisrael (or KKSY, “Holy Congregation Remnant of Israel”) in the Putti Jewish community in Uganda. Every Zionist child knows the story, even though it is somewhat in error. The British government offered a chunk of Uganda to Theodore Herzl for a Jewish homeland 114 years ago. (The 5,000 square mile area was actually in Kenya, which is the error in the historical account; but that it was
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