The Bar Mitzvah Gift that Keeps on Giving

By Eric Steitz April 9, 2014

A mother wakes up and prepares for the day. The routine sounds normal: get the children ready for the day, cook, clean and provide for the family. But, what if it took six hours just to get water? This problem is real for Sub-Saharan African communities. It takes the majority of the day just to…

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(Almost) the First Jewish Ugandan Parliamentarian [Global Jewish Voice]

By Gabriel T. Erbs February 9, 2012

A local Jewish politician campaigns for the goyishe vote – in Uganda: At one time, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, who spent five years at the seminary of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and a year in Israel, was planning to run for Parliament in Uganda – perhaps one day to run for President. […] With…

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Playing the White Man: A Day with the Abayudaya of Uganda

By Noah Hertz-Bunzl December 14, 2005

Last summer, on the eve of Shavuot, during one of my visits to the Abayudaya, a Ugandan community that converted to Judaism in the 1920s, I met a young man named Israel. Later that night, Israel’s older brother, Saul, his wife Samalie, and their newborn child, were hit on their bike by a motorcycle, on…

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