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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 429

Abayudaya Jews

Yosef Kibita poses with his new Israeli passport. (Courtesy Masorti Movement in Israel)
August 17, 2024, 7:55 am
After 7-year legal battle, Uganda Jewish man finally gets Israeli citizenship
Interior Ministry approves the bid of Yosef Kibita from the Abayudaya community after four conversions and years of roadblocks
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Florence Wangiju poses for a photo on the street on a trip to Israel. (Courtesy of Winnie Wangu/ via JTA)
April 9, 2022, 6:57 am
How a conversion split — and then strengthened — Kenya’s Jewish community
After Florence Wangiju and her family struggled through a labyrinthine conversion process, Nairobi’s tiny congregation took years to fully accept them, then grew closer than ever
By Cara Tabachnick
Illustrative: A Ugandan Abayudaya Jew leans forward to touch a Torah scroll carried by Enosh Keki Mainah (left) during Shabbat services at the synagogue in Nabugoya, Uganda, on March 3, 2002. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim/File)
December 14, 2021, 6:24 pm
Israel denies citizenship to Jewish Ugandan immigrant, defying High Court ruling
Interior Ministry rejects Kibita Yosef’s application for citizenship again, despite court decision to recognize non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel
By Shira Hanau
Dr. Samson Wamani (right) serving as mohel, performs a traditional Jewish circumcision. (Courtesy of Wamani)
November 13, 2021, 9:14 am
Where there is no doctor, Uganda’s 1st Jewish physician returns home to be one
Dr. Samson Wamani was head of the COVID-19 ward at a hospital in the capital Kampala before moving back to his hometown in the country’s east to help serve the area’s 2,500 Jews
By Bernard Dichek
Jews from the Ugandan Abayudaya community participating in the Shabbat Project. (Courtesy)
January 28, 2021, 7:07 pm
Conservative Jewish leaders slam Israel’s rejection of Ugandan Jewish immigrants
While the Jewish Agency recognizes the non-Orthodox conversions of the Abayudaya community, the Interior Ministry refuses, driving a bigger wedge between Israeli and Diaspora Jewry
By Shira Hanau
An Israeli teen wrapped in an LGBT Pride flag near the settlement of Efrat, June 3, 2018. (Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)
December 28, 2018, 9:10 am
14 Times of Israel stories that mattered most in 2018
ToI journalists in Israel and around the world discuss their articles from the past year that have left the deepest impressions
By ToI Staff
In September 2018, members of the Ugandan Jewish community participated in its first Birthright trip. Asiimwe Rabbin is in the foreground, center. (Birthright Israel via JTA)
October 17, 2018, 8:11 am
Ugandan Jew denied visa to study at yeshiva in Israel
Abayudaya community, many of whose members were converted by American Conservative rabbis, have been repeatedly rejected as Jews by the Interior Ministry
By JTA and ToI Staff
A Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper drives an armored vehicle in the Lebanese town of Adaisseh, near the border with Israel, on January 19, 2015. (AFP/Mahmoud Zayyat)
August 28, 2018, 3:56 pm
Keeping the peace: 8 things to know for August 28
Israel wants the UN to do its job in southern Lebanon, but is getting new missiles just in case; tensions in Gaza may be on the wane; and the PM gets a rare beat-sweetener column
By Joshua Davidovich
Members of the Ugandan-Jewish Abuyudaya community in Israel on a Birthright trip organized by MAROM participate in a ceremony celebrating the dedication of a new Torah scroll at the Western Wall's egalitarian prayer pavilion, August 27, 2018. (Courtesy MAROM)
August 28, 2018, 6:41 am
Abayudaya youth on first Israel trip welcome new Torah scroll at Western Wall
Ugandan Jews on trailblazing Birthright visit fulfill a dream of dancing their way into Jerusalem, after fears that Masorti-converted group would be denied entry prove groundless
By Yaakov Schwartz
Gershom Sizomu, religious leader of the Abayudaya, in 2003. (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/JTA)
August 20, 2018, 4:30 pm
Uganda Jews head to 1st Birthright trip, part-funded by gov’t that rejects them
Many of the nearly 40 Abayudaya set to arrive Tuesday have never been to Israel before; Interior Ministry says the 2,000-strong community isn’t Jewish, but Jewish Agency says it is
By Yaakov Schwartz
Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, second left, prepares to read the Torah during a Shabbat service among the Abayudaya Jewish community, in a village near Mbale, eastern Uganda, July 2, 2016. (AFP/Michael O'Hagan)
June 14, 2018, 11:42 pm
Israel’s Supreme Court temporarily blocks deportation of Ugandan Jew
Visa for Kibita Yosef expires Thursday, but court says state must first explain why it won’t allow members of Abayudaya community to immigrate
By JTA
Rabbi Gershom Sizomu leads Uganda’s Jewish community. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon via JTA)
June 5, 2018, 8:36 am
Ugandan rabbi: ‘We need to be treated like any other Jewish community’
Israel’s Interior Ministry says it won’t recognize Abayudaya Jews as eligible for aliyah, despite their conversion by the US Conservative movement
By JTA
Illustrative: A Ugandan Abayudaya Jew leans forward to touch a Torah scroll carried by Enosh Keki Mainah (left) during Shabbat services at the synagogue in Nabugoya, Uganda, on March 3, 2002. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim/File)
June 3, 2018, 10:29 pm
Conservative movement to petition court after refusal to recognize Ugandan Jews
Rabbi Andrew Sacks accuses interior minister of ‘placing political considerations above the law’ and trying to block their immigration to Israel
By ToI Staff
The Abayudaya Jewish community's members sit as they listen to their spiritual leader, in a village near Mbale, eastern Uganda, July 2, 2016. (AFP/Michael O'Hagan)
June 1, 2018, 5:47 am
Israel says it won’t recognize Ugandan Jewish community — report
Interior Ministry rules man from Abayudaya cannot immigrate, rolling back recognition from Jewish Agency
By JTA
Illustrative: As part of a B'chol Lashon initiative, in anticipation of the construction of a new synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, the women and children there were given the honor of transferring the Torahs from the old synagogue to a temporary home. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon via JTA)
September 16, 2016, 5:13 am
Though eligible to come to Israel, Ugandan Jews say new local synagogue is ‘our Jerusalem’
2,000-strong community set to meet Friday for first prayer services in new house of worship — and to share it with Muslims and Christians
By Josefin Dolsten
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