Abayudaya congregants carry Torah scrolls, their prayer shawls bright against the embroidered velvet mantles of the sifrei Torah in procession in Nabagoye, Uganda.
In the hills of eastern Uganda, Judaism is carried quite literally—on shoulders, in song, in stitched velvet and polished wooden rollers. The people in this photograph are the Abayudaya, the “people of Judah,” who adopted Judaism in the early 20th century after their founding leader, Semei Kakungulu, studied the Hebrew Bible and energized a local community to observe Shabbat and the Jewish holidays, and to practise kashrut, circumcision and other rites of the religion.
Their path wasn’t easy. Under Idi Amin in the 1970s, Jewish practice was suppressed and community life was forced underground; many drifted away under pressure, while a smaller core held on in secret, rebuilding when the dictatorship fell.
In recent decades, the Abayudaya have deepened ties with the Conservative, Masorti and other Jewish factions, while formal conversions and ongoing learning has strengthened their standing across Israel and the Jewish world. ♦
