Today was my first day exploring Jewish communities outside Nabugoye, giving me my first view of Jewish life in Uganda that isn't readily available to the Western tourist.
I first made my way to Nasinye, a small community of Abayudaya that has some lay leadership but looks to Gershom as their spiritual leader. I talked mostly with Jacobo, who is the brother-in-law of Aaron (the Hadassah principal) who told me about the struggles of the community, its history in Nasinye and showed me its current, tiny, synagogue as well as the new, large one that is currently being constructed. The community has almost 200 members, which, if they all showed up to services, would not fit in the current mud enclosure (built in 1994, a few feet away from the site of 1919 synagogue Kakungulu set there). Jacobo told me that with many children dorming away at school (including Hadassah and SK) the numbers are usually much lower, though on holidays things can get pretty crowded. Economically, the community members are struggling as there are not yet enough opportunities in community businesses (like the clinic, guest house, travel company, co-op) for Abayudaya to take advantage of when they graduate from university and join the work force.
From Nasinye, I travelled on to Putti. Putti is an interesting case among the Abayudaya community. They officially broke off from the other Abayudaya communities in 2003 because of their desire to work toward an Orthodox conversion in contrast to their Conservative friends and family. They set up their hub at Putti, where their synagogue does not allow women to participate in the service and does not say any prayers in Luganda (though they can give divrei torah), as per current, mainstream Orthodox practice. Their current synagogue does not contain a mechitza (or separation) between men and women, though they sit separately--the women on a platform--but I was told that their new synagogue would have such a partition. The main goal of the move, as it was described to me, was to join a branch and gain a conversion that would be recognized by all Jews, most particularly the rabbinate of the State of Israel, which only recognizes Orthodox conversions. (They fully recognize the fact that they are still learning and have not converted, and thus are not yet, technically, Jewish.) Due to their break-off, however, they have lost access to many of the funds and resources that are part of the Abayudaya fund and dispensed by their committee, including those that support many students through primary and secondary (often at Hadassah and SK) and even university. Because of this most of their children do not attend the Jewish schools, but are rather educated in Hebrew and Judaic studies by the village youth during their public school breaks, for about three weeks out of every month break. During this time the kids, starting at Primary 4, live on the compound which houses Enosh--the spiritual leader--his family, a synagogue and a library, among other structures. There are other organizations which provide some support to the Putti, and there were several signs of this on their compound, including the "Challah Project," which helps them bake challah for Shabbat, and "Project Hazan," which provides chickens to raise and sell to support community activities.
The most notable current event in Putti was the recent offer of Rabbi Riskin, the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel, to have two young community members learn for a year at his Yeshiva in Israel beginning this September, after which they would (hopefully) convert and go back to teach their community. Rabbi Riskin visited the community a little over a month ago, after the previous visit of two other rabbis, and on his short visit also managed to teach them how to shecht (ritually kill) chickens, which they have now started doing for the first time (before this, some had never tasted meat).
As a sidenote, despite the tension between the communities, Enosh seems to have a strong, familial relationship with Gershom and his brothers--which makes sense, because they are his uncles.
There are many more details to share, but this is getting long already, so I will leave it at that (and maybe continue tomorrow)! I am considering spending a Shabbat at Putti, as I was invited to, and will hopefully decide soon whether this seems like an attractive option.
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