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Abayudaya may not come on aliyah

NEW YORK — American Jews with ties to a small community of Jews in Uganda are condemning the Israeli Interior Ministry’s decision to reject the right of those Jews to immigrate to Israel.

The ministry was responding to a Supreme Court petition by Kibita Yosef, a Ugandan Jew who had requested to make aliyah.

Women and children carry Torah scrolls from an old synagogue building to a new building in Nabagoye, Uganda. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)

Yosef, who converted to Judaism in 2008 under the auspices of the Conservative movement, first applied to immigrate to Israel while studying in a yeshiva there.

The Law of Return allows Jews, including those who have converted, to become citizens.

The Interior Ministry, which handles citizenship, rejected Yosef’s application, according to Haaretz. Yosef has appealed to the Supreme Court, which was expected to make its decision this week.

“We’re profoundly disappointed by the Interior Ministry’s decision,” said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, which has a longstanding relationship with the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda. “We see it as a profound insult to the Conservative movement.”

The Abayudaya began practicing Judaism in 1919 after a Ugandan leader, Semei Kakungulu, declared himself a Jew and began adopting Jewish practices. In 2002, the Conservative movement began overseeing conversions in the community.

The Ugandan community is affiliated with the Masorti Olami, the international organization representing Conservative communities worldwide, and is home to a chapter of Marom, a Conservative movement youth group.

Gershom Sizomu later became the first Ugandan rabbi after his ordination at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, the Conservative movement’s seminary in Los Angeles.

A woman from the community, Shoshanna Nambi, is now a rabbinical student at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion.

The Jewish Agency, the para-governmental organization in Israel that facilitates and encourages immigration to Israel, has recognized the Jewishness of Ugandan Jews.

The Interior Ministry, which has the final say over matters of citizenship and is run by Aryeh Deri, head of the Orthodox Shas party, has taken a different approach.

In a court document this summer, the ministry established a policy on “emerging” Jewish communities like the Abayudaya, Haaretz reported.

According to the policy, these communities would not be eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return, which says that those who convert to Judaism in a “recognized” Jewish community are eligible to immigrate.

Yosef, whose immigration status is in question, is being represented by the Israeli Religious Action Center.

“Part of this is a battle for who gets to define Judaism,” said Rabbi Bradley Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.

Converts to Judaism who move to Israel whose conversions are not recognized by the Chief Rabbinate cannot marry in Israel, as the Chief Rabbinate presides over marriage and divorce. Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel have not been recognized for years.

Blumenthal said the decision to reject Yosef’s claim would further divide American Jews from Israel.




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