A second sweet stay with the Igbo Jews of Abuja

As reported six months ago in the Jewish Voice (“Visit to Rhode Island an eye-opening experience for leaders of Nigeria’s Gihon Synagogue,” Oct. 11, 2013), this past September, two members of the Igbo Jewish community of Abuja, Elder Ovadia Agbai and Elder Pinchas Ogbukaa, embarked on a historic twelve-day visit to Rhode Island.

Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Wayne Franklin, Congregation Beth Sholom’s Rabbi Barry Dolinger, Northeastern University Professor William Miles (author of “Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey,” 2013) and I had hoped that the Elders’ face-to-face encounters with Jews in Rhode Island would help reduce their community’s isolation and help increase awareness of Igbo Jewry.

At Temple Emanu-El, the Elders met with Judy Manelis, Vice President of Kulanu, which is a nonprofit organization that works to support isolated and emerging Jewish communities who wish to learn more about Judaism and connect with the wider Jewish world.

After the Elders returned home, Judy Manelis and I began to discuss the possibility of Kulanu’s including Abuja’s Igbo Jewry in its network of communities, and at December’s Kulanu board meeting, it was unanimously decided to move forward with establishing a strong relationship with the Igbo Jewish synagogues in Abuja. Kulanu’s first initiative will be to send Rabbi Barry Dolinger and his wife Naomi Dolinger to Abuja to teach for two weeks in August. The organization has allocated $5,000 towards that effort and will work to help raise additional funds.

There are currently four Igbo Jewish synagogues in Abuja: Gihon Synagogue, headed by Elder Ovadia; Tikvat Israel Synagogue, headed by Sar Habakkuk Nwafor; Plant for the Growth of Israel Synagogue, headed by Remy Ilona and Igbo Israel Heritage Synagogue, headed by Dr. Michael Caliben.

In Feb., I visited Abuja for a second time and stayed at the home of Sar Habakkuk Nwafor and his family. (For a description of my first visit, one year earlier, see “A sweet stay with the Igbo Jews of Nigeria” in the April 26, 2013 issue.) The morning after my arrival, a community meeting was held in the courtyard adjoining Tikvat Israel Synagogue. The gathering, presided over by Elder Ovadia, began with the traditional Igbo blessing over and sharing of a kola nut. A discussion then ensued about the community’s recent accomplishments, current challenges and future plans. Every adult male member who wished to do so (no women were present at the meeting) voiced his opinion and suggestions on these matters, and decisions were arrived at by consensus.

I spoke about the impact that Elder Ovadia and Elder Pinchas’ visit had on the Jewish community of R.I. and presented gifts I had brought from Rabbi Franklin, Professor Miles and Newton-based author Len Lyons. Remy Ilona formally announced my appointment as Kulanu’s regional coordinator for Abuja, and I shared the news that a rabbi and his wife would be visiting in August. 

“A rabbi coming with his wife – this will be the first time that has ever happened,” Sar Habakkuk Nwafor noted. “I strongly believe that it will yield very good fruits for our women and am very much pleased with their coming.”

According to Rabbi Dolinger, “The Igbo Jews of Abuja are in desperate need of on-the-ground educational guidance. It has been several years since a rabbi visited their growing community, and they are looking for educational and other guidance at this stage. Naomi and I have begun preparing an extensive curriculum designed to meet the needs and goals of the Igbo Jews of Abuja based on their requests and based on detailed conversations held during the Elders’ visit to R.I. last fall. They have requested our presence as educators, and filling that role is the opportunity of a lifetime for us.”

During this trip, I spent time at all four synagogues, including Plant for the Growth of Israel Synagogue, which did not have a house of worship when I was in Abuja one year ago.

While my visit included many meetings and much driving around Abuja, Sar Habakkuk made sure that we had time to climb Byazhin Mountain, which is located near Tikvat Israel Synagogue. The synagogue’s members sometimes climb the mountain in order to hold prayer services at its summit, and on Friday morning, we set out in a group of eight men and ascended to the Jewish prayer location. A church group was also holding services on the mountain in a small building it had constructed there. The Jewish prayer area is demarcated by stones, and the Igbo Jews and their Christian neighbors appear to share the mountaintop in harmony.

During the community meeting held the day after my arrival, Elder Pinchas rose and said, “Let us remember what our focus is: Judaism, Judaism, Judaism. Torah, Torah, Torah. That is what we are working for.” I am confident that the journey of Rabbi Barry Dolinger and Naomi Dolinger to teach in Abuja in August will indeed work to strengthen Judaism and Torah there, and I am proud of the important contribution that R.I.  Jewry has been making in this area.

SHAI AFSAI (ggbi@juno.com) lives in Providence.