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| Spring 2006 | |
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A few years ago, at Shabbat services at Woodlands Community Temple, Greenburgh, New York, the young spiritual leader of the 750- member African-Jewish community in Uganda—the Abayudaya—addressed the congregation. Thus began a relationship between the two communities—African and American—says Roberta Roos, chairperson of the Woodlands Social Action Committee.
The headmaster and the children are delighted with the books One of Woodlands’ projects on behalf of the Abayudaya helped them develop electricity and water resources so that they could become self-supporting. In this project, Woodlands partnered with Kulanu, an organization devoted to finding and assisting lost and dispersed Jewish communities. Other projects include supporting the efforts of the Abayudaya to earn a living by selling Mirembe Kawomera Fair Trade coffee, grown by a cooperative of Jewish, Muslim and Christian coffee farmers in Uganda. |
 Students of Hadassah School in Uganda, hold Shalom Alef Bet and Hineni 1 As part of an Abayudaya women’s literacy project, Woodlands has also just begun the Books for Girls program, sending the girls and young women books that focus on female protagonists who develop leadership qualities. |
With a contribution from Behrman House and the kindness of Roberta Roos’s friends (some of whom donated money in honor of Roberta’s birthday), Woodlands sent Behrman House Hebrew texts to the Hadassah Nursery School (grades 1–5). "The headmaster, Aaron Kintu Moses, and the children are delighted with the books," reports Roberta. And the young Ugandan spiritual leader? Well, he’s now studying to be a rabbi at the University of Judaism’s Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies!  |
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