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February 9, 2012 4:49 am PDT

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Tribe

February 24, 2010

Teens build bridges, from So Cal to Uganda

By Rachel Heller

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Tefillah, sports, study sessions and even a dance — the four-day youth convention on Nabugoye Hill in late January was almost like a typical United Synagogue Youth (USY) convention, according to the three Southland USYers who traveled to Uganda to help run the event.

But there were a few major differences. Instead of staying in a cushy hotel, the nearly 200 African Jewish teens who attended slept on mats in the local school building. Rather than in a synagogue social hall, study groups took place in outdoor tents. Most importantly, while members of USY (the Conservative movement’s North American teenage youth group) enjoy an established and far-flung social network, many of the Ugandan kids who ventured to this inaugural gathering were meeting one another for the first time.

And oh, yeah, the USYers pointed out — there was goat.

Overall, the first-ever Abayudaya Youth Association (AYA) convention was a success, USYers David Weingarten, Elyse Weissberger and Jason Schreiber told congregants of Shomrei Torah Synagogue at a presentation on Feb. 9. The West Hills synagogue, with aid from congregations across Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, helped foot the bill for the Ugandan gathering, held at the center of the country’s flourishing Abayudaya Jewish community.

“[The Ugandan youths] were very passionate and happy to be able to get together in a big group like that,” said Weingarten, 18, a senior at New Community Jewish High School and vice president on the board of USY’s Far West Region. “They felt that if they could unite, they could create a stronger movement. They don’t have all the same material things we do, but they practice Judaism with so much love and devotion — it was really cool to see.”

The bond between Far West USY (FWUSY) and the Abayudaya youth started last May, when Weingarten, then president of Shomrei Torah’s USY chapter, worked with Ugandan Rabbi Gershom Sizomu to bring three Abayudaya teens to Los Angeles to attend a regional USY convention. Sizomu’s son, Igaal, and two other teens were so impressed with the spirit of USY that they took their newfound leadership skills back to their rural village and began to envision a youth network of their own.

Sizomu, who made headlines in 2008 when he was ordained by American Jewish University (AJU) as the first black rabbi from sub-Saharan Africa, praised the three SoCal USYers for their help supporting the fledgling Abayudaya youth movement.

“The youth are the future of this community, and the future is so bright,” said Sizomu, who interned at Shomrei Torah while completing his studies at AJU’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. The USYers’ involvement has helped “reactivate” the Abayudaya youth, he said, calling their visit “a gift.”

Their presence may have been a gift for local teens, but for the USYers themselves, it was more like an adventure. Over four days, they made friends with Jewish young adults from Uganda and Kenya, took part in study sessions, went on hikes and held a soccer tournament (in which the USYers, Schreiber admitted, were sorely out-performed by their Ugandan peers).

On Saturday morning, the USYers and the AYAers read Torah together, and at night AYA members led Havdalah services before hosting a typical, USY-style dance, complete with a local DJ. On Sunday, the teens met for candid discussions of practical issues such as community leadership, drug use, HIV/AIDS awareness and intermarriage, as well as the role of religion in motivating young people.

In ordre to hold group sessions out of the heat, participants brought tents up to Nabugoye Hill from the town below. The USYers ate with the Abayudaya kids, sharing the native fare of rice, beans, vegetables and plantains. Part of the budget the USYers donated covered the cost of a luxury for the local population, Weingarten said — meat from two goats and two cows.

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