Nabugoye Rabbi Gershom Sizomu
Photo: O. Stav Hillel , JRep
The gently sloping campus of Semei Kakungulu High School, named for the founder of Uganda’s Jewish community, lies in the shadow of the imposing Mt. Wanale, a volcanic massif which rises dramatically from the surrounding plain of Africa’s Rift Valley and offers breathtaking views of the valley below.
Last July, in the city of Nabugoye, in Eastern Uganda, the group of Jews known as the Abayudaya ("People of Judah" in the native Luganda language) convened for the installation of Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, Uganda’s first chief rabbi and the first black sub-Saharan rabbi to be ordained by an American rabbinical school.
For the past five years, Sizomu has studied to be a Conservative rabbi at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism (AJU) in Los Angeles, sponsored by B’chol Lashon, a non-profit group dedicated to encouraging Judaism among non-traditionally Jewish groups; he was formally ordained there in May.
Preparations for this event have continued for some months in Nabugoye, roughly 20 minutes outside of Mbale, the largest town of eastern Uganda, itself located some 4.5 hours by car or bus from the capital of Kampala. The border with Kenya lies just beyond Wanale and, to its north, the more distant and more famous Mt. Elgon, perpetually swathed in mist.
Many of the visitors to today’s celebration have passed through Mbale and have ascended to Nabugoye via rickety minibuses or noisy motorcycle-taxis, along the dusty roads of rural Uganda, passing the little shops and markets, flocks of goats and herds of cattle, and fields of cassava, sesame and millet from which the local population makes a subsistence livelihood.
