Serge Etele of Cameroon Arrives in the U.S. This Week!

  • Serge Etele, a leader of the emerging Beth Yeshourun Jewish community of Cameroon, arrives in the United States this week! The first-ever Kulanu-Cameroon Speaking Tour will kick off in New York City on Thursday, February 23rd at the 92nd Street Y, followed by events in cities up and down the East Coast through the end of March. See the list of scheduled presentations below, and click here to see our online tour calendar which has more info about each event. Be sure to check it again soon – more details are being added all the time. We hope you can make it to one of these events!

    Kulanu-Cameroon Speaking Tour Events

    • Thursday 2/23 – 8:15pm at the 92nd Y* (New York, NY) *see Discount Codes on the Kulanu tour calendar!
    • Sunday 2/26 – 10am at Temple Emanu-El (Staten Island, NY)
    • Tuesday 2/28 – Community-wide Hebrew High School event, may be private (Voorhees, NJ – near Philadelphia)
    • Friday 3/2-Sat 3/3 – Temple Aliyah (Needham, MA)
    • Sunday 3/4 – 4pm at Temple Beth Abraham (Canton, MA)
    • Friday 3/9-Sat 3/10 – Shabbaton at Congregation Shirat Hayam (Swampscott, MA)
    • Sunday 3/11 – 11am at Wellesley College Hillel (Wellesley, MA)
    • Wednesday 3/14 – 5pm at Northeastern University African-American Institute (Boston, MA)
    • Sunday 3/18 – 2pm at Congregation Tifereth Israel (Washington, DC)
    • Monday 3/19 – 3:30pm at University of Virginia, 7:30pm at Congregation Beth Israel (Charlottesville, VA)
    • Tuesday 3/20 – 7:30pm at Beth El Congregation (Harrisonburg, VA)
    • Saturday 3/24 – 9am at Ahavath Achim Synagogue (Atlanta, GA)
    • Thursday 3/29 – 7:30pm at West End Synagogue (New York, NY)

    On this ground-breaking speaking tour, audiences will learn about Beth Yeshourun, a community practicing Judaism in the heart of Africa. A relatively “new” community, Beth Yeshourun was founded in 1998 when its leaders rejected Christianity. Increasingly observant and deeply committed to Jewish rituals and practice, the 50-member community has made amazing progress, educating themselves through the Internet by downloading Jewish liturgies and prayers, and studying Judaism, Hebrew, and Torah on Jewish websites. They have also composed their own African-Jewish music, which Mr. Etele will perform as part of this inspiring presentation.

    An educator, computer specialist, and farmer, Serge Etele is also the spiritual leader of the Beth Yeshourun community. He will share the amazing history of his community, which had no contact with the outside Jewish world until just a few years ago. They had not met a Jew in person until Kulanu volunteers, Rabbis Bonita and Gerald Sussman, visited them in 2010. The community’s embrace of Judaism and their success in learning and practicing Jewish rituals and observances on their own will hearten and inspire Jews everywhere.

    This promises to be an exciting tour full of learning, music and prayer. Check the online calendar to see if Serge will be visiting your community, and forward the Cameroon Tour schedule to your friends or family members if there is an event in a town near them!

    For more about the Beth Yeshourun community, Serge Etele, and the Kulanu-Cameroon Speaking Tour, check out these links…