FROM THE PRESIDENT
Come with Us to Ethiopia AND Uganda!
My husband Ken and I are avid travelers, and we were so tempted by two trips scheduled for next January, we plan to do both, all on a single plane fare!! Here's why:
Uganda
Laura Wetzler's "Jewish Life in Uganda Mitzvah Tour" to visit the Abayudaya in eastern Uganda is almost legendary. Where else can you combine a fabulous safari adventure on the Nile, complete with crocs, hippos, lions and giraffes, with touring coffee lands with Oprah-famous Delicious Peace interfaith coffee farmers, visit two Kulanu-supported Jewish schools educating and feeding 700 Muslim, Jewish and Christian kids a day, meet inspiring women's and youth groups, and learn about model Kulanu tikkun olam programs fighting poverty in Africa through small business and micro-credit? And where else can you meet new and beloved Abayudaya friends, join in a mitzvah day, enjoy exotic Ugandan cuisine, celebrate an Abayudaya Shabbat, and shepp nachas at an Abayudaya African Jewish Musical Festival organized especially in your honor? See for yourself. Come, and bring your friends and family on this extraordinary Jewish heritage trip. The Uganda trip is planned for January 10-24, 2010. Click here for more details about the Uganda trip.
Ethiopia
A new Kulanu trip to Ethiopia will begin on January 3, 2010. The main attraction will be a visit with the Beit Avraham, the "Kechene" Jews you might have read about in the Spring 2009 Kulanu newsletter, who are also known as Moretes. These Jews migrated at different times, some as early as the 12th century, from Axum and Gondar to Shewa and the Addis Ababa area. Over the decades, some intermarried with Christians and were buried with them. Others rejected Christianity (and the land ownership that it promised) and observed Jewish rites secretly. There is now a new movement to return to the ancestral religion openly, so it is time for us to go to meet them and encourage them!
The short version of this trip, for those of us going on to Uganda on January 10, will include visiting the Beit Avraham and other sights in and near Addis Ababa, as well as Adadi Mariam, a Jewish construction of the 11th centure that is now a church, and the Melka Kontur prehistoric site, home of homo erectus. (Fortunately, a direct, short flight goes from Addis to Entebbe, Uganda.) Those remaining in Ethiopia will continue on to the Ambover Jewish community and synagogue, Bahardar, and Gondar's medieval castles (built with Jewish free manpower). We will visit Gondar's Jewish compound, where thousands of "Falash Mura" are awaiting permission to emigrate to Israel. We will then visit Lalibela, whose famous rock-hewn structures were built by the Zague Jews who ruled Ethiopia for 200 years. We will conclude the tour in Axum, the cradle of the Jewish Empire in Ethiopia and the place believed by some to house the Arc of the Covenant.
Kulanu's Ethiopia Coordinators, Sam Tadesse and Yohannes Zeleke, will be planning the trip and guiding us. Tadesse, who lives in Addis, is in frequent contact with the "Kechene" Jews. The long tour will conclude on January 22, but participants may travel more on their own. Various tour ideas are presented at http://mogilee-lodge-and-tours-ethiopia.com.
Several Kulanu leaders hope to be joining Ken and me on the Ethiopia trip, including Jack and Diane Zeller and Karen and Aron Primack. Please join us on one or both trips! Please email us at tours[@]kulanu[.]org to let us know of your interest as soon as possible.
To read more about the various trip options, check out the 2010 Ethiopia packet from Mogilee Tours by clicking here.