Eye on Africa

Teaching Judaism near the shores of Lake Victoria

By Jonathan D. Epstein

FJMC International has been partnering with the Abayudaya Jews of southeastern Uganda for more than 10 years, working to support this unique Jewish community that chose Judaism more than a century, and that has embraced our faith with passion and enthusiasm. Today, the community has more than 2,500 members, with 29 synagogues and two schools in more than 15 villages.

But the community lives in a largely agrarian and impoverished area in a developing nation, and needs help to grow and be successful. FJMC is proud to help, in conjunction with partners at Masorti Olami and Kulanu, and we hope you will join us in this effort. We have already visited once, and are planning a second trip this coming December.

To give our readers a flavor of the Abayudaya, HaD’var will be featuring various aspects of the community in each issue over the coming months.

If Jewish education is the cornerstone of a community, then Kokasi Keki and Simcha Katalima are laying that foundation over and over again for the Abayudaya.

Simcha Katalima and Naume Sabano

Keki and Katalima, along with their mother, Naume Sabano, run the Hadassah Primary School, a 25-year-old Jewish day and boarding school for Jewish, Christian and Muslim children from pre-Kindergarten through 7^th grade.

Located outside the city of Mbale in southeastern Uganda, Hadassah provides a complete education to Jewish, Christian and Muslim students, who study together side-by-side in the same classrooms in a model of community bridge-building. More than 250 students are enrolled, studying Uganda’s national curriculum in math, English, science, health studies and social studies, as well as Hebrew and Judaic studies. There are also efforts to teach computer literacy as well as basic living skills.

Jewish students are required to learn to read, write and pray in Hebrew, so that every student can eventually lead tefillah or leyn Torah. They also study Torah, ethics, holidays and ritual, celebrate Shabbat every week, and keep kosher, while additional programs offer enrichment in customs, culture and religion.

The school was founded in 2001 by the late Aaron Kintu Moses, and graduated its first class in 2007. Since then, hundreds of students have advanced to high school, and many are the first in their families to do so. The school also offers two meals a day, has a resident nurse and boards 90 to 120 students each year from more distant villages.

But while it strives to make its program affordable, it cannot do so without our help, because many families cannot afford to send their children. Hadassah relies on outside help to support scholarships for students, to purchase food for them, to provide educational resources and to sustain its campus buildings. Yet while these are challenges for them, our donations can help significantly because our money from the United States and Canada goes significantly further in Uganda.

FJMC has already provided scholarship funds, sewing machines and a Torah scroll, among other donations. But we want to do more, with your help.

You can fund a day student for an entire year for $450, or a boarding student for $600. Each of the three 14-week terms is just $150.

You can donate to pay for food, like beans, rice, greens or an African corn meal called posho.

You can support scholastic materials or stationary. You can help pay for a water pump, or firewood.

Or you can help with technology, like laptop computers, tablets, cell phones or a digital camera to record the activities and events of the school.

You can do all of this through a tax-deductible contribution to FJMC, which will ensure that your money gets to Hadassah, and is used to benefit the students.

Want to learn more? Email us at .

And keep reading next month to learn more about this wonderful community.

Jonathan Epstein is co-chair of FJMC International’s Abayudaya Initiative, with Bob Watts.