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UGANDA



    There is a very stable community of about 500 Abayudaya Jews in Uganda, the legacy of a local king who about 100 years ago decided to embrace Judaism instead of Christianity during the British colonialization efforts. Something to look into, these folks are more "forgotten" than the Jews of Ethiopia (though they really aren't as persecuted). Source: Christian Bock, London, UK cwdb@hotmail.com [February 2004]
Also see:

http://www.haruth.com/JewsUganda.html ;

http://www.ugandamission.org/news/Abayudaya.htm ;

http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/archive/2002/september/features/abayudaya_jews.shtml ;

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/uganda.html:

and History of a Jewish settlement in Uganda around 1900 http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=38786. . [February 2007]

"Nestled within the rolling hills and valleys of Eastern Uganda lives a community of 500 black Ugandans who practice Judaism, .... Guided almost exclusively by the Torah, the Abayudaya daven in their synagogues, usually made from mud huts, in four different villages outside a town called Mbale. This page stands as a testament to their ability to withstand total isolation — and anti-Semitism — in a Ugandan village to celebrate the tenets of Jewish faith." [February 2004]

"When the Israelis invaded Entebbe in 1976 to rescue Israeli hostages, many of us Ugandans sympathised with the hostages. The rescue mission was a success except that one old woman Dorah Bloch was left in a Ugandan Hospital - Mulago Hospital as she had been taken there for treatment. After the raid, this woman was killed by Idi Amin and her body dumped in Namanve forest, about 10km from Kampala city. Her body may still be in this forest. God bless the Jewish people." Source: makko at mmakkom@infocom.co.ug [June 2003]


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