Israel’s African Outpost: Inside Nairobi's Jewish Community
NAIROBI, Kenya — The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1912 to serve the Jewish diaspora doing business in Kenya. Today, most of the two dozen congregants gathered for Shabbat on Saturday mornings are Kenyan-born converts to Judaism.
Members of the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation. Photo by Robert Carle.
When Kenyans began showing up for Shabbat in the 1990s, the congregation struggled to embrace them. The Nairobi synagogue did not have the capacity to perform conversion rituals, and the synagogue’s constitution stated that the synagogue would only recognize Orthodox conversions to Judaism.
The Kenyan seekers went to neighboring Uganda for religious instruction, where they studied with a community of Abayudaya Jews who had been trained under Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a founding rabbi of New York’s Lincoln Square Synagogue. It took the seekers 20 years to formally convert to Judaism.
American-born cardiologist David Silverstein, who has been a congregational leader at the Nairobi synagogue since the 1980s, is grateful for the influx of new believers into the synagogue. “The community was disappearing,” he said. “We did not have enough congregants to form a minyan (the quorum required for Jewish communal worship that consists of ten male adults in Orthodox Judaism). Kenyan converts brought new life to our congregation.”
Winnie Wangu’s mother, Florence, was one of Nairobi synagogue’s first Kenyan converts to Judaism. Wangu and her siblings grew up steeped in stories from the Hebrew Scriptures. Wangu especially loved the story of David slaying Goliath, and she wanted to know more about the God that made this possible.
Wangu attended a Catholic school. She never felt comfortable “kneeling before a lifeless corpse,” but in her school, questioning the faith was not tolerated. Wangu had a problem with the idea that Jesus is God.
“I never got to feel a connection or love for him,” she said. “The Bible tells us to not make images. We worship that which we do not see. In Exodus, the Bible teaches that the calf is not meant to be worshipped.”
In contrast to Wangu’s experience with Catholicism, Judaism is all about asking questions. “One question might have many answers,” Wangu said. “You search for yourself. There are continuous debates and discussions.”
Wangu began formally studying Judaism in 2000 and converted in 2017. Once Wangu entered Judaism, she never turned back. “I felt that now I am home,” she said.
Jehu Kitoli also attends the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation. Kitoli grew up Anglican, but as a teenager, he began to read for himself the Christian Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. “I discovered that the Bible was a document given to Jews and addressed to the children of Israel, who were to be in a covenant relationship with God,” Kitoli said. He also found contradictions between the Hebrew Scriptures and the teachings of Paul.
Kitoli yearned to go back to the law on Sinai, which he believes is an eternal covenant. He wanted to pray the same prayers that King David and King Solomon prayed. “What else can I follow if I cannot follow David?” Kitoli asked. He said that Jewish people are a holy people, and he wished to be part of a holy people, but that meant following Judaism’s onerous set of laws. “We are sanctified and made holy by virtue of following the 613 commandments,” Kitoli said. “There is no such religion that brings happiness like Judaism. Judaism brings us in touch with our maker.”
Kitoli learned Hebrew on his own. He became observant and adopted Kosher laws. It took Kitoli two years to get permission to enter the synagogue in Nairobi, but during his first visit, he felt that he had found his spiritual home. He began the long process of converting to Judaism, which took 15 years.
Neither Wangu nor Kitoli anticipate that Judaism will become a mass movement among Kenyans. Judaism is a tough religion to follow. Jews must obey kosher laws and Sabbath restrictions, and this affects their jobs and their social life. Unlike churches and mosques, synagogues make conversion a difficult and arduous process. “You have to know what you are getting into,” Wangu said. “It is a huge commitment, and not one to be entered lightly.”
For most Kenyans, Pentecostal and evangelical Christianity leads to a more direct engagement with Jews and Judaism. Israel’s new ambassador to Kenya, Michael Lotem, sees religious ties as central to the success of Israeli-Kenyan relations. “Religiously, Kenyans are attached to Israel,” he said. “Israel is the holy land, and they feel close to Israelis.” One of Ambassador Lotem’s goals is to increase religious exchanges between Israel and Kenya.
Kenyans’ religious engagement with Judaism often leads to political support for the state of Israel. President Daniel arap Moi established diplomatic relations with the state in 1988, and every Kenyan president since has maintained friendly bilateral relationships with Israel. Kenya’s current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, visited Israel in February 2016, and in July 2016, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Kenya to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe. In 1976, the Israeli Defense Forces, with the support of the Kenyan government, rescued 102 hostages who were being held captive in Entebbe, Uganda. Netanyahu’s brother, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, died in the Entebbe raid.
Dr. David Silverstein was a friend and personal physician to President Moi for 42 years. “Moi was a devout, God-fearing Christian, and our trips to Israel were always poignant for both of us,” Silverstein said. Moi’s tribe, the Kalenjin, have dietary rules and rites of passage that mirror some of the laws in the Hebrew Bible. The Kalenjin, for example, don’t mix meat and milk. At times, Moi speculated that the Kalenjin might be one of the lost tribes of Israel.
Moi died in February 2020 — at the age of 95 according to most sources, though his son Raymond claims he was 105. At Moi’s funeral, Silverstein put on his prayer shawl and kippah — a Jewish skullcap — and recited in Hebrew and English the Jewish memorial prayer for the departed. Silverstein prayed that God would grant Kenya’s departed president “perfect rest beneath the wings of the divine presence in the exalted places among the holy and pure.”
Robert Carle is a professor at The King’s College in Manhattan. Carle has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The American Interest, Religion Unplugged, Newsday, Society, Human Rights Review, The Public Discourse, Academic Questions and Reason. Carle is reporting from Nairobi, Kenya.
Running on Faith
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The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation, established in 1912 to serve Jewish individuals conducting business in Kenya, has experienced an increase in Kenyan-born individuals who have converted to Judaism. Initially, the congregation struggled to accept these seekers and the process of converting to Judaism was not simple. However, the new believers have revitalized the Nairobi synagogue.
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In Kenya, the Eldoret Gospel Ministries Association is hosting a caravan of all-night prayer meetings to promote peace ahead of the election. Similar events are happening in every county as religious leaders remember the 2007 election violence that left 1,300 dead and 600,000 displaced. The church played a key role in restoring peace to the Rift Valley, and this year's election could be similarly contentious due to class and ethnicity issues.