Last month, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta won reelection to a second term against opposition leader Raila Odinga. However, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that due to election irregularities, the results are nullified and a new election must be held within the next 60 days. There has been a Jewish presence in Kenya since J. Marcus, a Jewish businessman from India, moved to Nairobi in 1889. Which of the following is true regarding Jews and Kenya?
Kenya-Map1 by greenravine is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A. The Kasuku Gathundia Jewish community consists of approximately 60 members, mostly subsistence farmers, who live in and around Naharuru, Kenya, about four hours north of Nairobi. They had been members of a larger Messianic Jewish congregation until they learned from members of the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation that their Messianic practices were “not Judaism.” Said one of their leaders, “if this is not Judaism, then what is Judaism?” They then broke from the Messianic group and studied and adopted traditional Jewish beliefs and practices. Because it is illegal to circumcise young children in Kenya, their community members travel to Uganda for this ceremony when baby boys are born.
B. The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1904, and their first synagogue was built in 1913. The congregation was established by Yemenite Jews who fled south to Africa from Yemen after the government issued a decree (based on an ancient Islamic law) which required Jewish orphans under age 12 to be converted to Islam. The fleeing Jewish families had children who were adopted, and they feared that the new law would apply to their children.
C. In 1963, Golda Meir, then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited Kenya and met with Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta. One of the major accomplishments of the visit was the establishment of a program of agricultural cooperation between the two countries. Specifically, Israel sent representatives from the kibbutz movement to help establish communal farms in Kenya which were run according to the model of Israeli cooperative kibbutzim. Combining the Swahili word for farm with the Hebrew word “kibbutz,” these Kenyan agricultural villages were known as Mashamba Kibbutzah.
D. In 1947, the British government set up a detention camp in Gilgil, a small town about two hours north of Nairobi, to house members of the Irgun and Lehi underground Jewish military organizations, who had been captured in Palestine. Conditions at the camp were difficult, though local Kenyan Jews provided much needed support for the detainees.
E. The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation currently has about 250 members, and holds services on Shabbat and holidays following Orthodox practice, though many members are not observant. In the early 1970’s, Barack Obama, whose family lived next door to the synagogue, served as the Shabbos Goy who would turn on lights and heat in the building on the Sabbath.