With a population of some 1,000, they reside in nearly about nine villages in eastern Uganda near the provincial city of Mbale. Though neither genetically nor historically related to other ethnic Jewish peoples, they are a deeply devout people. Semei Kakungulu was the founding father of the Abayudaya. Converted to Christianity by British missionaries in the 1880s, he eventually found spiritual tru
th in the Old Testament, and later he accepted the tenets of the Five Books of Moses. When his hopes of becoming king of the Bukedi and Bugisu territories were dashed by the British, he took further comfort in his newly found faith and eventually circumcised himself and his sons, and declared his community Jewish. In 1919, he settled in Gangama where he started a new sect called Kibina Kya Bayudaya Absesiga Katonda (the Community of Jews who trust in the Lord). The arrival of “Yosef”, the first known foreign Jew, in 1920, contributed greatly to the fledgling community’s knowledge of Jewish rituals and festivals such as Pesach (Passover), Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah (New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and Succot (Feast of Tabernacles). Yosef educated the community during his six-month stay, including lessons on kashrut (keeping kosher) and the introduction of a type of Yeshiva (an Orthodox Jewish college). Under the rule and thumb of dictator Idi Amin (1971~1979), the Abayudaya were persecuted and forced into retreat and/or outright conversion to Christianity or Islam. He outlawed Judaism and destroyed synagogues though some 300 Abayudaya maintained their faith in secret. With the end of the Amin era, the Abayudaya openly came back to their Jewish faith. In 2002, some 400 members were officially converted by Conservative rabbis. The following year, Gershom Sizomu (with his family) went to the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California. He was ordained as a Conservative rabbi in 2008. Today, he is the only official Abayudaya rabbi though there are a number of highly proficient lay-readers who lead services and provide community leadership in the nine villages where the Abayudaya live. Today, community life very much centers around Nabugoye Village where Rabbi Sizomu resides. In addition to Moses Synagogue, there is a yeshiva, a mikvah, Hadassah Primary School and Semei Kakungulu High School.
