{"id":5404,"date":"2018-06-22T08:04:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T12:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kulanuarchive.kulanu.org\/?page_id=5404"},"modified":"2021-07-02T18:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T22:36:46","slug":"jews-cote-divoire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/communities\/cote-divoire\/jews-cote-divoire\/","title":{"rendered":"Jews In C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire"},"content":{"rendered":"
An Untold Story<\/h4>\n
By Bonita Nathan Sussman, 2018<\/em><\/p>\nCornet Alexandre Zouko, developer and leader of the Jewish community in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
For about 20 years, a new Jewish community has been developing in Abidjan, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire (Ivory Coast), a tropical country in western sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
History of the Community<\/h4>\n
The community began fifty years ago as one of a number of International Kabbalah Centers and study groups that were seeded throughout Africa. The center was open to the public; every one of every faith and belief was welcome to learn Kabbalah and meditative techniques that would improve the quality of life for the practitioners. The study of Kabbalistic texts promised to make people more aware, calmer, and better able to cope with the daily stressors of their lives.<\/p>\n
In Abidjan, a group of practitioners, led by Alexandre Zouko, came to believe that to practice Kabbalah in the right way, one had to practice Judaism. Under Alexandre\u2019s guidance, they studied Hebrew, learned how to pray, and celebrated Jewish holidays. Some traveled to Israel to study with renowned Kabbalists and, despite some conflicts within the group, founded a community of practicing Jews in Abidjan.<\/p>\n
It was Alexandre who originally got in touch with Kulanu. While some are poor and struggling, for the most part, unlike other groups of African Jews, members of the community are middle-class. Many have college degrees and are professionals and academics.<\/p>\n
My husband, Rabbi Gerald Sussman, and I visited this community in 2014 as volunteers. We were privileged to bring them a Sefer Torah that was donated to Kulanu. We also added books of Jewish learning to their library of siddurim, machzorim, and other books of higher learning.<\/p>\n
Beit Din 2017<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
In December 2017, we again traveled to C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, this time with an Orthodox Beit Din (rabbinic court, necessary for conversion) which included three rabbis from The Rabbinical Court for the Diaspora of Israel, a group of independent rabbis which supports Kulanu\u2019s mission. In addition to Alexandre\u2019s congregation, among the 48 conversion candidates was a group called Etz Chaim who follow Sephardic practices, led by Abraham Yago. All of the candidates had been studying Judaism for years, and last summer benefitted from the visit of a rabbinical student, Eliyahu Friedman, who taught in Abidjan for a month through the Kulanu Global Teaching Fellows program.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nRabbi and Bonita Sussman with Professor Marla Brettschneider and the emerging Jewish community in Abidjan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Kulanu Spring 2018<\/h4>\n
The conversion process began with the candidates filling in questionnaires documenting their journeys to Judaism, including the impact on their families, and answering questions about holidays, life cycle events, and beliefs. A YouTube video shows Professor Marla Brettschneider, who accompanied us to C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, and myself reading some of the evocative answers:\u00a0bit.ly\/cdi-answers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
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After several women had undergone the ritual immersion under the eye of a Kulanu representative, they were trained to oversee immersions of other women as \u201cmikveh ladies.\u201d To see a video of the women singing Adon Olam after the mikveh ritual in a natural body of water, go to bit.ly\/cdi-adon-olam<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/cote-divoire\/CDI-IMG_9039-1024x768.jpg\")