Equatorial Torah; Uganda's Jews.(The Jews of Uganda)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, January, 2004

The people who chose to be chosen

The self-taught Jews of east Africa want recognition

STROLL through the foothills of Mount Wanale in central Uganda, and you may be surprised to meet children greeting you with a cheery "Shalom." The village of Nabugoya is home to one of the world's least-known Jewish communities, replete with its own brick synagogue, marked in chalk with the Star of David.

Unlike the 18,000-odd remaining Ethiopian Jews, whom Israel recently promised to airlift to Tel Aviv, the Abayudaya of Uganda do not claim a lineage dating back to King David. They converted to Judaism less than a century ago. "It began in 1919," explains Rabbi Gershom Sizomu. A local chief, Semei Kakungule, had--so he says--been promised a kingdom by...

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