Abayudaya - Today

Today

As of 2009, most of the community lives around the Moses synagogue on Nabugoye Hill outside Mbale or the nearby synagogue in the village of Namanyoyi. Others live several miles away from Mbale in Nasenyi and Putti (both in Pallisa District). A fifth synagogue is in Magada village (Namutumba District), approximately 70 km distant.

Currently the She'erit Yisrael community is looking for help in its desire to undergo an orthodox giur (conversion to Judaism) and make aliyah (move to Israel). This community is centered around the Putti synagogue and consists of roughly 130 members.

Gershom Sizomu, the spiritual leader of the Abayudaya and the Rosh Yeshiva, was enrolled in the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies a five-year graduate program at the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) in Los Angeles, California where he studied Hebrew, rabbinic literature, the Bible, Jewish philosophy, and other subjects. The program entailed studies in both the USA and Israel. Upon completion of this program, Sizomu received his ordination as a rabbi under the auspices of the Conservative Movement on May 19, 2008, and returned to Uganda to lead its Jewish community.

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