A unique African community who have practiced Judaism for a century despite persecution say they deserve the right to be recognised as Jews by Israel Joshua Zitser A Ugandan Jew, Yosef Kibita, has had his request to immigrate to Israel rejected. Israel s Supreme Court has said that his conversion did not occur in a recognised community. Uganda s chief rabbi wants the Abuyudaya community to be recognised and treated fairly.
At the heart of the dispute is a case involving Yosef Kibita.
Kibita, who has lived in Israel for two years, is seeking Israeli citizenship to avoid deportation. Israel s Interior Ministry has denied him the right to make aliyah †the process of Jews immigrating to Israel.
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The Abayudaya are Ugandan Jews. They have practiced Judaism for 100 years. They began to practice normative Judaism in the 1930s, influenced by a European Jew who taught them about Jewish practices as they were observed by Jews around the world. As the Abayudaya became more aware of the world Jewish community, they wanted to fully legitimize their membership in it. They realized that they had never formally converted to Judaism, and so they decided to do so under the auspices of recognized denominations. From 2002 until 2016, 1,600 Abayudaya converted under the aegis of the Conservative movement and 400 converted with an Orthodox bet din (religious court) supervised by Rabbi Shlomo R