Kulanu

Volume 28 Number 2 Fall/Winter 2021

Supporting Isolated, Emerging, and Returning Jewish Communities around the Globe

“All of Us”
Contents
Map........................................................2

Kulanu Guesthouses.............................3

Gershowitz Guesthouse, Ghana...........5

India Guest Accomodations...................8

Latin America Update............................9

Becoming Jewish in Nigeria................ 11

Kulanu Notes.......................................14

Volunteer Spotlight: Shep Wahnon......18

Jewish Community in Indonesia..........21

Menorahs Around the World................24

Welcome to Uganda!
You will be greeted with open arms by
the Abayudaya Jewish community. Here
is Rachel Wanyenya, chef and head of
guesthouse housekeeping, January 2019.
Photo by Michael Tucker. Story page 3.
 Where in the World is Kulanu in this Issue
Kulanu is in touch with dozens of communities around the world. If a community contacts us, our first step is always to
listen carefully to their needs. Afterwards, we brainstorm, finance, and carry out projects to help them further their study and
practice of Judaism and build their communities. This map highlights communities featured in this issue.To see a full list of
all our partner communities, visit kulanu.org/communities.

Mexico India
Honduras
Guatemala
El Salvador
Nicaragua Ghana
Costa Rica
Nigeria Uganda
Ecuador
Zimbabwe Indonesia

Zimbabwe, p3 Uganda, pp3, 15 Ghana, p5 India, p8 Nigeria, pp11, 15

MALI

MALAWI Administrative
Boundary
BURKINA FASO
TURKM. UZB.
TAJIKISTAN

SUDAN NIGER
AFGHANISTAN
Kabul

KENYA
Islamabad

CHINA

ZAMBIA PAKISTAN

NEPAL SIKKIM
ARUNACHAL
PRADESH
BENIN
Kathmandu BHUTAN Itanagar
Gangtok
Thimphu

ZAIRE Abuja

COTE TOGO BENIN BANGLADESH

D’IVOIRE

Harare
Lake Agartala
Dhaka
Albert TRIPURA Aizawl

MOZAMBIQUE
MIZORAM

BURMA

ZIMBABWE Rangoon
Gulf of Guinea
CAMEROON
Bay
Arabian of
Awaso
Sea Bengal

BOTSWANA Lake Victoria

KENYA
Kavaratti
Cuddalore

ANDAMAN AND
Port Blair

NICOBAR ISLANDS

Abuja
LAKSHADWEEP
Accra
TANZANIA
SRI
RWANDA LANKA

SOUTH
TANZANIA Colombo

INDONESIA
Indian Ocean

Harare, Apac Nabugoya Hill Sefwi Wiawso, Erode, guest accomodations

© Copyright Bruce Jones Design Inc. 2006

AFRICA
Guesthouse Guest house Guesthouse

Indonesia, p21 North Sulawesi Tondano Manado Mexico, p9

Los Angeles Latin America, p9
UNITED STATES CUBA
El Paso Mexico
JAMAICA HAITI
New Orleans
BELIZE Port-au-
Prince
HONDURAS
Monterrey
Gulf of Mexico GUATEMALA
MEXICO
Miami
Caribbean
Havana
North Guadalajara
EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA
CUBA
Mexico
Pacific JAMAICA
BELIZE COSTA
Belmopan
Jakarta, capital Ocean
GUATEMALA
HONDURAS RICA
PANAMA
San Salvador Tegucigalpa
EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA
Island of Java Surabaya Bali Monterrey Managua
San José
Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa COLOM
Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala
2 Kulanu
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 Kulanu Guesthouses: a Home Away From Home
By Miriam (Mickey) Feinberg
Mickey and her husband Mordy have volunteered as way to enjoy the nearby safari sights; and with
teachers of Jewish life and practices with organizations occasional other visitors who had fascinating
such as the American Jewish World Service, Volunteers for tales to tell.
Israel, Jewish Renewal in Poland, and Kulanu. Since their
retirement from their professional work, the Feinbergs spend In 2015, we stayed in the guesthouse by Kulanu
a great deal of time traveling to Israel and Columbus, Ohio run by the Lemba in Harare, Zimbabwe for
visiting with their children and grandchildren, in addition to what was a bit different but equally interesting
volunteering with Kulanu’s partner communities in Africa. experience. We lived there with a young Lemba
family: the father, Modreck, who is the leader of
Have you ever stayed at a guesthouse in Africa? the Lemba community; his wife Brenda; their
Kulanu has assisted in creating guesthouses in two young children, Aviv and Shlomo; Modreck’s
many partner communities to ensure visitors nephew George; and a few extended family
have a welcoming place to stay. It’s an amazing members.
experience! It’s fascinating, fun, interactive, and
comfortable! We lived in the guest room, which was a very
large and comfortable master bedroom with
My husband and I stayed in the guesthouse a huge bed, a TV, and a well-equipped, large
connected with the Abayudaya village of ensuite bathroom. Because we lived in the house
Nabugoya Hill, Uganda in 2014. The with Modreck and Brenda and their family, we
guesthouse had several bedrooms, and ours got to know and love them very quickly.
was quiet, private, comfortably furnished, and
had an ensuite bathroom. We would have felt The guesthouse in Harare was different from the
comfortable just relaxing by ourselves in our one in Uganda. While the Abayudaya guesthouse
room if we had chosen to do that but there was so is in a remote village surrounded by gorgeous
much of interest to engage us in the large public mountains and the calmness of nature, the one in
room, interacting with local residents and other Harare is in a residential area of the capital city
visitors who had unusual personal stories to and within a short walk to a shopping center with
share. In that large room, we talked with Rachel a variety of stores and eating places.
as she freshly cooked our meals; with Samson, a
high school student from Kenya who was living in
the guesthouse while he attended the Abayudaya
high school; with Jonathan, an American Jewish
university student from Michigan who was on his

Mordy helping these Lemba children prepare for their b’not mitzvah in
Mickey making challah with Lemba children in Harare, Zimbabwe, 2015
Harare, Zimbabwe, 2015 continued on next page
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Kulanu Guesthouses: continued from previous page
While living in the Abayudaya village we were We’re very grateful for having stayed at these
able to walk through nature to the nearby guesthouses because of the exceptional oppor-
synagogue for services, Talmud classes taught by tunities to become friends with the Abayudaya
Rabbi Gershom three times weekly, and Divrei and Lemba families and communities, and we
Torah delivered by the rabbi every Shabbat. In look forward to enjoying many more years of
Harare, we had only to walk to the community friendship with them. We often talk about visiting
room in the house in which we were staying, guest accommodations in Kulanu communities
where we found religious services, community that we haven’t yet visited in Ghana (see article
meetings, Hebrew classes, and Jewish history and on the next page), Nigeria (photo below), India
culture lessons, or we could walk to the dining (see photos on page 8), and Brazil, and imagine
room where we ate meals together with Modreck, how fascinating it would be to stay in them. As we
Brenda, and their household. approach a time when we feel more comfortable
traveling, we look forward to spending vacation
We found that we very soon became part of the time at some of the guesthouses in other Kulanu
Harare Lemba household in Harare, enjoying our partner communities. If you are interested in
meals, lessons, and religious services together, staying at a Kulanu community in a guesthouse,
baking challah with Brenda, watching tv together contact Kulanu at kulanu.org/contact. c
in the evening, and learning about Modrek’s
family and the Lemba culture.

Living/dining room in the Abayudaya guesthouse in Uganda with long-

time Kulanu volunteer Shep Wahnon (see article page 18) in blue shirt,
January 2019. Photo by Michael Tucker.

Guesthouse in Nigeria

Abayudaya guesthouse, January 2019. Photo by Michael Tucker. Harare Lemba Synagogue with guest room inside, Zimbabwe, 2014
4 Kulanu
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Remembering Dr. Michael Gershowitz:
Welcome to the Gershowitz Guesthouse in Ghana
by Harriet Bograd, President of Kulanu
How has Kulanu accomplished so much over the our bus became mired in the mud so that
years, first as an all-volunteer organization and in everyone was told to get off and push it out.
later years with a relatively small staff? One key We started to get off and help as well, but
to our success is our committed team of volunteer the other passengers wouldn’t let us since we
regional coordinators. They serve as friends were visitors. I was pretty blown away by that.
and liaisons between communities, in Kulanu When we arrived in the village, we prayed
leadership roles, and in many other capacities. with everyone in the one-room synagogue. I
Dr. Michael Gershowitz, z”l, an expert grant played with some of the other children who
writing consultant to public and nonprofit organi- showed me around the area, and we ate
delicious home-cooked meals. While I don’t
zations around the world, was one of the trail-
remember every detail of our trip because I
blazers who created the regional coordinator role.
was young, I will never forget the feeling of
He died in 2014, and we are so grateful that his
being graciously welcomed into everyone’s
family and the Tiffereth Israel Jewish Community homes and how special it felt to spend time
of Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana have decided to honor with people who loved being Jewish with
him by dedicating the community’s guesthouse their own distinct culture and customs. I
in his memory. We hope many visitors will have traveled extensively with my dad throughout
joyous visits to this community in the future as my childhood, and while he would always
Michael Gershowitz and his family did, and as my seek out the local Jewish community
family did after him. (See Kulanu’s new web page, wherever we went, I would venture that Sefwi
kulanu.org/visit-ghana.) was one of his favorite places in the world.
On subsequent trips, he brought along my
Michael first visited in 1999 after reading about a brothers and other family and friends and he
previous visit to Sefwi Wiawso by Daniel Baiden, arranged for gifts of prayer books and prayer
a Ghanaian-American Jew. Michael visited with shawls to be sent to the synagogue. For the
his daughter, Abby, who recalls: rest of his life he lovingly spoke of the warm
I went to Ghana with my dad for two weeks and wonderful community of Sefwi Wiawso.
in the summer of 1999 when I was ten years Karen Primack, Kulanu’s former vice president
old. We spent a lovely Shabbat with the and past editor of our newsletter, remembers:
Jewish community in Sefwi. It was way off the
beaten path and at one point on the journey Michael Gershowitz was a quintessential
Kulanuite: Even before Kulanu existed, it had
been his custom to spend Shabbat with local
Jewish communities all over the world. Just a
few years after Kulanu’s birth, and after some
difficulty, he found and celebrated with the
Jewish community of Ghana in Sefwi Wiawso.
A few weeks after this trip, his shul in Iowa
shipped 200 siddurim to Sefwi Wiawso.
And Michael’s beautiful reporting skills
introduced this vibrant community to Kulanu’s
international audience.
The Gershowitz Family at Abby’s wedding. From left to right: Gabriel,
Michael, z”l, Abigail (Persky), Tova, and Nathaniel (courtesy of the
Gershowitz family) continued on next page
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Gershowitz Ghana Guesthouse: continued from previous page
Michael’s report on a visit was a three-part Jay Sand, global music educator and world
article for Kulanu’s newsletter, reprinted as traveler, shared this recollection:
A Visit to the Jewish Community of Sefwi
I visited the community in Sefwi Wiawso
Wiawso, Ghana which you can read here:
in late 1999, not so long after Michael
https://kulanu.org/communities/ghana/
Gershowitz. He and his daughter had made
visit-jewish-community-sefwi-wiawso-ghana).
quite an impact! Throughout my time there,
Michael also paved the way for others to the community members . . . told me all about
volunteer and visit the community. In the how Michael had reacted to things I was
summer of 2000, his son Gabriel Gershowitz seeing and doing. Most memorably, when I
and Gabe’s friend Nate Asher spent the summer sat down to eat with the community for the
teaching Jewish subjects and Hebrew in the first time, they served me a generous portion
of fufu and explained to me how to dip it
community. Michael encouraged Dr. David
in groundnut soup and swallow it without
Borenstein to visit for a week in early 2001, and
chewing. When I dipped the first bit of fufu
he encouraged my daughter, now Rabbi Margie
and picked it up to swallow it, everyone
Klein Ronkin, to visit in the summer of 2001. covered their faces and laughed. Apparently,
My husband and I joined Margie for a week and Michael, or maybe Abby, had an experience
fell in love with the community. That was my with fufu that wasn’t, let’s say, smooth! As
joyous initiation to Kulanu! Then he sent his some of you know, I’m a music teacher who
son Nathaniel to a year of high school in nearby teaches international songs to very young
Kumasi. Nathaniel spent every other Shabbat children. When I introduce my lesson from
with the community in Sefwi Wiawso and stayed Ghana I often tell the fufu story and, in my
in touch with the community for many years. mind, thank Michael (whether or not he was
the one) for inspiring my new friends in Ghana
Jack Zeller, Kulanu’s president emeritus, wrote: to greet my first bite of dinner with a laugh.
Michael was a teacher by example. He knew
Alex Armah, the spiritual leader of the
that long-term commitment was not just
community for many years, went to study in
personally rewarding, but a method that
the Abayudaya Jewish community of Uganda in
worked. Kulanu learned by his example. Even
more, Michael lifted us all in his ascent to a 2008, where he saw the success of a guesthouse
fuller Jewish identity, embracing of Jewish for visitors. He encouraged the Sefwi community
values, and joyous Jewish living. to use earnings from their sales of challah covers
(which the community members continue to
make) to help build the guesthouse. See or
purchase challah covers at: kulanuboutique.com/
challah-covers.
Alex wrote:
Thanks so much for letting me put my voice
in this issue of Kulanu Magazine about the
history of Sefwi Wiawso Guest House. I am
happy my dream to make the guesthouse
operable is coming to reality, dedicated
to Dr. Michael Gershowitz. He came to our
community in order to help us grow. Through
Havdalah in Sefwi Wiawso at the close of Shabbat, 2021. Visitors have him we were able to have our prayer books.
the opportunity to participate in this and many other experiences in this His son Gabriel and Gabriel’s friend Nate
community while staying at the guesthouse. Photo by Ezra Waxman continued on next page
6 Kulanu
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Gershowitz Ghana Guesthouse: continued from previous page
Asher did their best for the community and the trailer is at
helped us by teaching us Hebrew and many kulanu.org/ You Can Help!
things about Judaism to both children and film#zilkha. Much work has been done by now:
adults. I remember him with good memories. Other guests adding security gates, finishing
have included floors, painting, improving
The guesthouse was planned by the leaders Loren Berman, a drainage, and adding a western
at that time. I was one of them. When we
received guests, it was a problem to host
rabbinical student flush toilet. But more support is
them if they were more than five. We had
who served needed. To add your donation in
land close to the synagogue, so we discussed
as a Kulanu Michael Gershowitz’s memory,
Global Teaching please visit kulanu.org/donate
building a guesthouse to host visitors and at
the same time to serve as income-generating Fellow in 2017, and write “Ghana Guest House” in
to the community. We started farming, and and Rabbi Eli the comments, or mail a check to
visitors also helped us with donations. I Courante from
Kulanu, 165 West End Ave, 3R, NY,
congratulate Mama Harriet and her husband Canada in 2020.
NY 10023 and write “Ghana Guest
Ken, and Margie. They are the most amazing House” in the memo.
But the building
people. They contributed towards the
was not yet
guesthouse by the sales of our challah covers The Gershowitz Guest House still
completed in
and tallitot [through Kulanu] and put much
2013 when guests needs:
effort to make things happen. I remember $1,700 for furniture
that we also received money from Michael began using
it. Therefore, $578 for room decoration
Gershowitz to support the guesthouse. $684 for electrical appliances
when Gabriel
May the soul of Michael Gershowitz rest in Gershowitz $2,962 Total needed
peace. I will always remember him. came to Kulanu
in 2015 after his father died, we agreed that he
From the first visitors in the late 1990s until
and his family would donate funds to complete
2012, most visitors stayed in the home of Joseph
construction of the guesthouse and dedicate it in
Armah and his family, and some stayed with
his memory.
Kofi Kwarteng and family. Starting in 2013,
visitors have stayed in the guesthouse. Notably, Kulanu Canada, our partner organization, also
filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha and the crew of her supports this community in Sefwi Wiawso,
much-viewed film Doing Jewish: A Story from Ghana. Their generous donor, Alexia Emmanuel,
Ghana stayed there. The film is available on was inspired by Gabrielle Zilkha’s film and has
Amazon Prime. You can tour the digital village donated more than $5,000 for this community.
at www.doingjewishthefilm.com. The link to These funds were used to buy 22 smartphones

Sefwi Wiawso Guest House, January 2021, photo by Michael Owusu Guesthouse dining room, 2012, photo by Ike Swetlitz
Ansah
continued on next page
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Gershowitz Ghana Guesthouse: continued from previous page
so that community members can learn together
on WhatsApp with teachers from Israel,
Nigeria, Canada, and the USA, and to help with
guesthouse renovations. The community will
honor Alexia by naming a room in the guesthouse
after her.
If you’re planning a trip to Ghana, please add the
community of Sefwi Wiawso to your itinerary and
enjoy a stay at the Gershowitz Guesthouse. c
A guest room in Ghana, 2012, photo by Ike Swetlitz

Guest Accomodations in India

If you have the itch to travel to India,
consider visiting and/or volunteering
with the Zion Torah Jewish community
in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
Photos provided by Anne Samuel, 2021.
Photo descriptions, clockwise starting
to the right: One of the two new guest
rooms, each with its own bathroom;
dining and kitchen area; lobby area
shared by guests; one of the guest
bathrooms (note the beautiful door
detail!)

8 Kulanu
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c
From Food Relief to Jewish Learning:
Kulanu’s Work With Emerging Communities in Latin America
By Genie Milgrom, Anusim Coordinator for Kulanu
Genie (pictured left), born in Cuba to a Latin America that
Catholic family of Spanish ancestry, is found themselves
an author, researcher, and lecturer. In without an ability
an unparalleled work of genealogy, she to work or even
was able to fully document that she was leave their homes.
Jewish through her unbroken maternal
lineage of 22 generations, going back It was an incredible
as far as 1405 to Pre-Inquisition Spain challenge for me as
and Portugal. To learn more about Genie I had just started
and her all-encompassing work, see https://kulanu.org/ to meet the leaders
board-and-staff#milgrom. of the communities
and had not yet
Being a direct descendant of the Crypto-Jews made real personal
(descendents of the Secret Jews, known as connections. I
anusim in Hebrew, who were forced to convert began a phone
to Christianity during the Inquisition) of Spain Congregation Shaar Hashamaim in campaign to work
Guatemala City, Guatemala, Bedikat
and Portugal, I was looking for an organization Chametz (the search for chametz just
out the details. This
where I could easily use my personal experiences before Passover), March 2021 entailed not just
to help out anusim (literally,“forced ones,” those the challenge of
compelled to renounce Judaism) communities, sending the monies to the different locations such
and Kulanu was a slam dunk. as Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
and Guatemala, but also arranging logistics on
Having been involved with emerging commu- the ground to prepare “care packages” for each
nities for over 25 years, Kulanu certainly had the family.
contacts, the far reach, and the desire to have the
Latin American communities looked after. It was As the pandemic worsened, I was able to
a true match made in heaven! arrange a wholesaler to put together huge
packages containing rice, oil, flour, sugar, salt,
The time was corn, some sweets for the children, and much
smack in the more. Volunteers were needed to deliver these
middle of the packages directly to the families. To make the
pandemic when pandemic issues worse, hurricanes and severe
I received a call flooding during this time affected the Honduran
from Harriet community. One of our volunteers got as far as he
(Kulanu’s could in a jeep and then rented canoes to get the
president) and supplies down the river. It was the first of many
Bonita (Kulanu’s experiences I would have with these beautiful and
vice president) sensitive people returning to the whispers of their
asking me what ancestors.
we could do to
help out with Slowly, relationships were forged not only with
food or supplies the leaders of the communities, but with the
for those isolated women and other members. I shared my direct
Food assistance during pandemic, communities in phone number with them and somehow that
Armenia, El Salvador, 2020
continued on next page
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Latin America: continued from previous page
in California and
small gesture made them feel that they were a bringing it to
part of something bigger. For the first time, they Miami and then
felt that someone was looking out for them. We to Honduras. It
chatted often by phone and video, and finally was Chanukah
by Zoom, which became the method of commu- 2020 and we had
nication. They asked me to teach them. Soon a lovely outdoor
we were meeting on Zoom and I was teaching ceremony
them, in Spanish, various subjects including with rabbis,
Jewish history, kashrut, holidays, laws of family representatives
purity, and much more. I coordinated with other from the Israeli
volunteers who taught Hebrew (from Spanish) to Building the Mikvah, Armenia, El Salvador,
Consulate and 2020
the children as well as to the adults. Michael, my the Honduran
husband, taught classes in English and French. Consulate in Miami, community members,
As the days during the pandemic passed, the and many more. It was a truly lovely passage
communities began to learn and yearn for more. of a well-loved Torah leaving to start a new
They grew stronger in the Jewish faith, and life. In Honduras, another large and beautiful
conversions were held in several countries. Along celebration was held with rabbis from several
with those conversions came the need for kosher countries all participating on Zoom along with a
mikvahs (Jewish ritual baths sourced from rain) small delegation from Kulanu.
and we managed to build two. One was built in
A community in Monterrey, Mexico was gifted
Guatemala just in time to be used in the conver-
with a beautiful Purim Megillah, and we are
sions and another in El Salvador in an estab-
proud to have sent tallis, tefillin, Hebrew books
lished community of anusim known as Armenia.
for children, and so much more to these emerging
We were elated to be a part of this amazing
communities.
accomplishment.
We feel we have a true partnership with these
In the middle of the worst part of the pandemic,
anusim communities and are only getting started.
we were fortunate that Congregation Beth
It has been a blessing that I have been able
Shalom of Whittier, California donated a Torah to
to move into a leadership role, helping these
Kulanu, and, just as fortunately, a community in
communities join with each other to meet and
Honduras was eager to receive it. Much planning
discuss their options for living strong Jewish lives
and maneuvering resulted in retrieving the Torah
in their countries. c

For more information

about the anusim
communities that
Kulanu serves,
go to kulanu.org/
communites and
see the web pages
for Brazil, Costa
Rica, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico,
Torah donated by Congregation Beth Shalom of Whittier, California and received by Jewish community in and Nicaragua.
Honduras, December 2020

10 Kulanu
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Becoming Jewish:
A Dream Come True in Nigeria
By Bonita Nathan Sussman, First Vice President of Kulanu
This photo montage tells the story of 94 conver- This community of Igbos, who claim descendance
sions to Judaism and 10 weddings that took from the tribe of Gad, has practiced Judaism
place in Abuja, Nigeria in August 2021; these for over 15 years. They have studied extensively
took place in the Igbo community of Tikvat and are ritually observant. They identify as a
Israel, a community founded by Habbakuk Conservative community because Conservative
Nwafor now assisted by his son Moshe Hezekiah. rabbis from America, particularly Rabbi Howard
Rabbi Gerald and Bonita Sussman of New York Gorin of Maryland and Rabbi Wayne Franklin
traveled there with Rabbi Moshe and Meira Saks, of Rhode Island, spent much time training them
currently from New York, as well as their son and supporting their Jewish development. A 2012
and daughter-in-law Rabbi Ari and Rachel Saks, documentary film called Re-Emerging: the Jews
and others. Rabbi Gerald and Rabbi Moshe were of Nigeria (by Jeff Lieberman) tells their story in
joined by Rabbi Gershom Sizomu of Uganda, detail, and Professor Bill Miles of Northeastern
who served on the beit din, the rabbinical court, University in Boston has written extensively
that interviewed the conversion candidates as about them. These photos, taken by Bonita
part of the conversion process which included Sussman, are of the most recent developments in
immersion in the mikveh and the hatafat dam this community.
brit (drawing of blood for the men).

Women’s class preparing for the conversions, mikvah, and weddings,

led by Rebbitzin Rachel Saks

The bima and the ark in Tikvat Israel, Kubwa, Abuja Gathering in the sanctuary for Rosh Chodesh prayers
continued on next page
Kulanu
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Fall/ Winter 2021 11
Nigeria, continued from previous page

The beit din signing the conversion documents (from left to right: Rabbi The Sephardic custom to wrap a talit around the couple at end of the
Moshe Saks, Rabbi Gerald Sussman, and Rabbi Gershom Sizomu) wedding ceremony

Wedding ceremony: each

couple stands under their
own chuppah

Members of the Tikvat Israel community Men of the community waiting for the beit din

continued on next page

12
12 Kulanu
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Nigeria, continued from previous page

These children were exceptionally learned in the Jewish traditions and loved to ask One of the many children in the Tikvat Israel
Rebbetzin Bonita Sussman questions about various subjects. They can all read and daven community
(pray) in Hebrew. This was taken in the sanctuary.

This young boy loved to daven and shuckle (moving back and Women taking out braided hair extensions before entering the mikvah
forth) during the Amidah

A family of the
community

Another little girl of

the community

c
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 Kulanu Notes
Kulanu’s Photo Archive
Kulanu is proud to have one of the largest photo
archives in the world dedicated to isolated, emerging,
and returning Jewish communities. The online photo
archive is available at kulanu.smugmug.com and
has over 30,000 photos. The photos are categorized
by country and then by the year taken. There are
also general folders that include “Best Pictures” and
“Jewish Holidays around the World.” Take a look
around to see photos from from long ago through
present-day. (Photo by Chaya Weinstein.)

Cappuccino and Kulanu

Last Spring, Kulanu created “Cappuccino and Kulanu,” a group for young
people with a connection to Kulanu to come together in order to discuss
relevant issues. The two Zoom sessions thus far included about 30 participants
total and were led by Kulanu board members Benjamin Lefkowitz (left) and
Bonita Nathan Sussman. One result from the sessions is that two individuals
were invited to join the different Kulanu committees of interest; one serves on
the Grants Committee and the other serves on the Website Committee. This
effort ensures that more young people are involved in Kulanu’s mission and
are committed to its future. If you would like to be involved in the next session,
keep an eye on our email communications.

Join Ohavei Olam

Kulanu’s monthly supporters’ program is called Ohavei Olam, which
means “lovers of the world” in Hebrew. It gives Kulanu stability in funding
to carry out projects at short notice wherever and whenever the need
is greatest. Monthly donors give us the flexibility to take advantage of
opportunities such as getting hard-to-source Judaica items to a community
in need quickly. Ohavei Olam will help us to sustain ongoing efforts, for
example providing internet connections in rural Jewish communities.
To become a member of Ohavei Olam, simply visit kulanu.org/donate and select
“monthly” under Gift Information. Any amount makes a big difference.

Keep Up with Kulanu

Kulanutalk is a Google group where members can share interesting stories and events
related to Kulanu’s work and/or partner communities. Shep Wahnon (featured on
page 18) is a very active member of the group and often contributes news articles
that he finds on the internet. To join the Google group, please send a blank email to
kulanutalk+subscribe@googlegroups.com. To send a message to the group after
joining, address it to kulanutalk@googlegroups.com.

continued on next page

14 Kulanu
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Notes: continued from previous page
Mini-Grants Update
Kulanu has given out several mini-grants this year to partner commu-
nities. Mini-grants helped cover expenses for Shabbat and holiday
celebrations in Cameroon, Tanzania, and Pakistan (below), assisted with
the cemetery and museum project in Suriname, the beit din in Nigeria,
the printing shop in Madagascar, and building a latrine in Uganda.
In addition, two community leaders were
awarded mini-grants to assist with funding
their studies in seminary. Rebeca Orantes
(pictured left) of Guatemala received a
mini-grant to attend Hebrew Union College
Rabbinical School and Guershon Nduwa
(pictured right) will attend an online program
of Seminario Rabinico located in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.

Thanks to a Kulanu mini-grant,

this Pakistan Jewish community
celebrated a joyous Purim.

School and Community Center in Apac, Uganda

Kulanu is contributing to the building of a new school
and a community center being built by community
members in the rural Abayudaya Jewish community
in Apac, Uganda. This is a project of the Tikkun
Olam Abayudaya Fund led by Congregation P’nai
Or of Portland, Oregon. It is focused on education,
agriculture, microcredit, and savings. The school,
known as Ben David School, consists of three log
classrooms that will allow the students to learn closer
to home. There is also a thatched roof building being
used as a synagogue and classroom. The community
center is a small brick building that will include a
savings and loan office, a guest room, and living
quarters. continued on next page
Kulanu
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Notes: continued from previous page
Watch Recorded Online Speaker Series
Kulanu has produced 20 Zoom programs during the pandemic to
date. The speakers have included community leaders from different
partner communities around the world, notable scholars, and more.
Dani Rotstein telling the story of the Jews of Majorca is pictured.
Each session runs about an hour and the recordings are available
online at kulanu.org/recorded-sessions. Go to the link to check
out the various programs and view what you missed, and even
watch some for a second time! Please share the link with others, too. You can also watch our 2020
Zoom-a-Thon: “Kulanu in Song” Chanukah Benefit at kulanu.org/watch.

Thank you from the Lemba

In November 2021, Kulanu received a letter Greetings from the Bedza community!
from a group of people from the Bedza
community in Zimbabwe, thanking our It’s 9 o’clock in the morning and, in Zvakavapano village, Mbuya
organization for the life-changing projects Terrence (Terrence’s grandmother) watches as cattle from around the
that their community accomplished with community congregate at the drinking trough by her homestead. The
Kulanu’s assistance between 2017 and water is being pumped from a powered solar borehole half a kilometer
today. Here is that letter, along with a few away. It is first pumped into tanks halfway up the mountain, from where
of the photos which accompanied it. it rushes down hidden pipes into the community.
A kilometer away, there is a place called Sekutamba Bridge. It used to
be a bridge in name only, for to get across, vehicles needed to wade
through waters reaching a quarter of the way up their doors. Now, there
is a real crossing where people going kugarden yemubatanidzwa, to
the community garden, can cross without fear of getting their feet wet.
Up the same stream, there is a place where a concrete wall cuts
right across the stream. Behind this “dam” wall of the Bedza Kulanu
Reservoir, as it is now called, precious water has now been tamed. The
cattle that do not make it to Mbuya Terrence’s drinking trough find their
Tomatoes in the garden yemubatanidzwa (community garden) sustenance here, for the summers can be long and dry here.
In another part of the village, a stone’s throw away from the mountain,
one gets greeted by mounts of fresh earth. Upon further inspection,
one notices evidence of recent drilling. There is hope on the faces of
those living nearby, for the promised water means community gardens
tenderly tended to. These together with the evergreen plot of dripped
irrigation will keep away the pangs of hunger during lean months.
Another season and the elusive rains have finally come. Pass by the
village, and you are likely to see a tractor working the 14 hectares
of land that were recently fenced. It’s a much-needed respite for the
sometimes emaciated cattle. The smell of the freshly churned earth
promises further relief for the time-worn village.
Mbuya Terence (Terence’s Grandmother) in the drip irrigation
installed field with her grandchildren Sophia and Shlomo,
getting pruned down vegetables for goats. continued on next page
16 Kulanu
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Notes, Lemba Letter: continued from previous page
The Bedza community says thank you to Kulanu for extending a
helping hand. All these projects would not have been possible
without your generous donations.
Yes, we started this on our own, with a dollar donated here and
there, but without your help, we wouldn’t have taken it this far.
Today, most parts of the village now have water for domestic use.
In other parts of the community, projects are underway to ensure
that there is enough water for livestock, nutritional gardens, and
a multitude of other activities. Your generous hand has also seen
villagers building healthy relations with one another through
One of the many cows we lost due to water shortages working together on various projects.
Traditionally the Lemba have always been looked up to by
our neighbors as a people who would help them in time of
need. When there was a drought our Lemba elders helped our
neighbors with grain when we had surplus cattle for milking
and for plowing their fields we loaned some to our neighbors.
Lately, our status as people who always chipped in to help our
neighbors had diminished. We now lacked the means to do so
since we needed help ourselves. You have helped bring back
some of that status to us. You came to help when we needed you
the most and our community and our lives are being transformed
before our eyes. Hundreds of cattle from far away villages came
Now cattle and sheep are healthier drinking from the reservoirs to drink water from our village last year in 2020 after the most
and feeding on the grass that grows on the banks. horrible drought in recent years. You empowered us to help our
neighbors once again.
The projects you have helped us to work on have brought a good
vibe between us and our neighbors. They gave us a platform
to work together, to forget our differences, big and small,
and brought us together to confront our common problems.
Friendships, alliances, and strong inter-community ties were
fostered. That you did that from thousands of miles away is a
Cattle eating the grass that grew inside the fence miracle.
Left, below, below right: By the drinking trough, a smile appears on Mbuya Terrence’s face
Kulanu Bedza Reservoir as she watches the last of the cows taking their leave…
overflowing, reservoir at
Sekutamba Bridge, and Thank you and God bless you,
Rosenbloom Reservoir Tapiwa Zvakavapano, Mrs. E Bishi, Mrs. Getrude Chigwedere c

Kulanu
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Volunteer Spotlight: Shep Wahnon
Pioneering, Plurality, and a Prime Minister
In Shep’s words, based on an interview with and written by Ben Lefkowitz, Kulanu Board Member
Ben’s note: This past October, I had the pleasure of inter- I immediately became a Zionist and had to go to
viewing veteran Kulanu volunteer Shep Wahnon. Shep is Israel, and I did go the following year. I attended
a longtime activist for the Jewish people and for humanity. Tel Aviv University. I connected with being a Jew
He has an incredible wealth of stories which I feel like I’ve in every way. Part of it was this interest in other
only scratched the surface of. Shep: I recommend writing a Jews . . . Maybe it was because I’m Mizrahi (Jews
memoir. of Middle Eastern ancestry, including what is now
Iran, Iraq, and Yemen). I started to get involved
Origin Story in the American Association for Ethiopian Jews.
First Connection
My earliest kind of connection to isolated, Ben’s Note: Shep would begin to raise money for the
emerging, and returning communities was Association of Ethiopian Jews around this time. Between
way back in 1964. We went to a Conservative 1972 and 1976, he corresponded with Abayudayan and
synagogue where I grew up in Long Island, Nigerian Jews through mail, especially with his close
New York. In those days, they had this monthly Abayudayan friend, Samuel Mugambe, z”l, who was lost
magazine called World Over, which would to AIDS. He became friends with the Kaifeng Jew and
highlight different things — mostly things that historian Shi Lei (who did two speaking tours for Kulanu),
I wasn’t particularly interested in. But when I and connected with Amishav, Kulanu’s predecessor, led by
was only around 12 years old, I saw this article Rabbi Avichal. With help from Dr. Shmuel Watnick, Shep
that blew me away. It was an article about the visited the Lemba community in South Africa and Zimbabwe,
Abayudaya in Uganda. I had never heard of a and stayed with the Lemba’s leader, Dr. Mathiva. He would
tribe of African Jews living out in the bush. It was continue to seek out and volunteer in isolated, emerging,
surprising. and returning Jewish communities. In recent years, he has
done much of his work alongside Kulanu.
A Jewish Awakening
I was kind of an assimilated Jew, and then The Wahnon Family
I got unassimilated. I went to college, and it What’s in a Name?
happened in the first two to three weeks. It was I’ve always been interested in my family name.
a sudden thing, like an epiphany. It changed me It’s a known Jewish-Arabic-Berber name from
completely, turned me all around. North Africa — my family’s from Morocco.
The “wa” in the Berber language means ben,
I became observant — a practicing Jew. I got into in Hebrew, or “son of.” The Berbers were the
studying Hebrew, which I could never do as a kid. original inhabitants of North Africa until the
I even studied Ladino in a Portuguese synagogue. Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century C.E.
Chanun comes from Hebrew and Arabic, and it
means compassionate, as in what is recited in the
Yom Kippur liturgy rachum v’chanun.
I was always interested in genealogy and, because
I had such an unusual name in the United States,
I never knew anyone other than my immediate
family that had the name. My father told me that
everyone with that name is related. So, before the
internet years, I was trying to piece together and
meet different members of my family.
Shep with one of of the women from the Abayudaya in Uganda continued on next page
18 Kulanu
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Shep Wahnon: continued from previous page

Family in Cape Verde history. His name is Carlos Alberto Wahnon de

My ancestors emigrated from Morocco in the Carvalho Veiga.
1700s to the British colony of Gibraltar, where a
lot of my family still lives. Yitzchak and Rachel I wanted to visit him. So I went to the United
Wahnon — distant family — moved in the 1850s Nations and asked, “Do you know where the
to the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, which is prime minister of Cape Verde is staying?” I was
now a country (an island country that is off the told, “Oh yes, he’s staying at the Hilton.” (They
coast of Senegal, Africa), with many other Jews would never share that information today!) I
from Morocco and Gibraltar. Many members of went to the Hilton Hotel down the block, and
my extended family are in Cape Verde. went to the front desk and said, “I’d like to speak
to Prime Minister Carlos.” The clerk responded,
In 2013, I went to Cape Verde on a special “Who shall I say is here?” I answered, “His
mission with the Cape Verde Jewish History cousin.” We went into the room, and there were
Project; my friend Carol Castiel is its president. these big secret service tough guys. I walked
They try to restore sites such as cemeteries and in and there he was. I didn’t act like he was
other sites important to Jews there. At the end of the prime minister — I greeted him with, “Hi,
the trip we went to a home where they had put a Cousin,” and we just started talking. All he knew
party together. An incredible number of Wahnons was that all Wahnons are related, we come from
were there. It was an absolutely amazing Morocco, and we’re Jews or descended from
experience. Jews. It was a great relationship.
One of my cousins became the prime minister
of Cape Verde. He may have been the first “My dream is for emerging, returning, and
democratically elected leader in all of African isolated Jewish communities... to create
their own natural communities with their
own culture and their own identity.”

Thoughts and Dreams for these Communities

I remember when I first met Rabbi Gershom of
the Abayudaya, back in the early 2000s. I recall
saying to him, “I love your music. There’s no one
way to be Jewish. Don’t be sucked into singing
our melodies instead of your melodies, saying the
white people’s melodies are so much better.”
My dream is for emerging, returning, and isolated
Jewish communities to grow stronger. I hope that
they will create their own natural communities
with their own culture and their own identity. I
don’t want them to just be turned into African
or Asian Ashkenazi Jews, which sometimes
happens.
I like the fact that many of the communities
Kulanu works with have a strong cultural and
Shep learning to play the marimba while some in this Abayudayan
ethnic identity of their own, as part of the great
community in Uganda sing and dance along, January 2019 continued on next page
Kulanu
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Shep Wahnon: continued from previous page
mosaic of the Jewish people. It would be nice if to Israel. But we must still maintain these small
some of them decide to immigrate to Israel. If communities.
they are happy where they are, we should support
them where they are, as they are. Moments and Memories
I’ve been corresponding with the Abayudaya
Often, these communities find it hard to maintain since the 1970s. When I first went to Uganda,
their separate customs. For example, because I did not tell them I was coming. And when I
of the larger Jewish community, the Jews of showed up, young people like Shoshana Nambi
Belmonte, Portugal became normative Jews. and Sarah Nabagala, as well as Rabbi Gershom,
They lost their 500-year old female-dominated were so excited. It was very affirming. It was one
culture. In Ethiopia, the Jews survived with their of the most touching moments for me; it was like
Ethiopian-Jewish religion and culture. And then coming home.
they settled in Israel, and many Israeli Jews
said, “Oh, that version is not the right one. We I’ll tell you a non-Kulanu thing that happened
have the right one.” But the Ethiopian Jews have when I was in Ethiopia with Barbara Ribacove
a wonderful religion. It isn’t like mainstream of the North American Conference on Ethiopian
Judaism — it’s different. Jewry. I went to Addis Ababa, and we delivered
assorted medicines and other items to people
I don’t understand Jews who aren’t really who were in need of them. We brought them a
thrilled by this idea that we have Jewish people Torah from Israel. It was as if we were bringing
in these remote parts of the world. I think my them gold. It was like a postcard out of National
commitment to Jewish diversity in the Diaspora Geographic. They were dancing all the way. They
(Jews living outside of Israel) stems from my were joyful. They were so happy to see a Torah.
desire to maintain my Sephardic identity apart
from the Ashkenazi world. I enjoy traveling and When I went with my Chinese Jewish friend,
meeting all kinds of people in these different Shi Lei (pictured on this page), to the Jewish
countries. It’s thrilling in a way. Theological Seminary, located in New York, we
saw one of the few Chinese Torah scrolls from
My dream is that the Diaspora and the state Kaifeng. These scrolls are written on parchment,
of Israel get along, and that elements of the but they’re not attached by sinew. They’re
Diaspora can attached by silk. Shi Lei was the first Chinese Jew
survive and to touch or lay hands on a Chinese Torah scroll in
thrive outside over 100 years. That was very emotional, it really
of Israel. Of was! Here’s an Ashkenazi Yiddish term: I get
course, with our verklempt (emotional) a lot, I do!
connection to
Israel, we have to Ben’s Note: Shep Wahnon has been making an impact
be able to send in isolated, returning, and emerging Jewish communities
our kids there longer than Kulanu has been around. He’s been to an
on Birthright incredible number of places and reached out to Jews the
trips. We have to world over, motivated by both a sense of adventure and
be able to go to curiosity, and ahavat yisroel — love of his people. There are
school there, as about ten more incredible stories he told me that I couldn’t fit
I did. A certain in here. And, knowing Shep, there’s more to come.
percentage of us Shep’s work stretches beyond Kulanu, and epitomizes it.
Shep with Shi Lei who is an active member
will immigrate We at Kulanu want to thank Shep for the incredible amount
of the Kaifeng Jewish Community in China, of time and energy spent volunteering for Kulanu’s partner
New York City, 2010 communities. c
20 Kulanu
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Fall/ Winter 2021
From the Trading Routes of the Past:
The Jewish Community in Indonesia
Written by and photos provided by Yaakov Baruch
Yaakov Baruch is founder of Shaar HaShamayim also became a center of Jewish life during
Synagogue and President of the Jewish Community of Dutch rule because it was the center of coffee
Indonesia. He is of Dutch Jewish heritage, and grew up in plantations.
Jakarta, Indonesia, as did his wife Leah. Yaakov and Leah
live with their two children in Manado. Yaakov was given his Jewish life in Indonesia was at one time
Hebrew name by his mother after her grandfather, Jacob considered very stable and secure. In the 1930s,
van Beugen, z”l. Currently, Yaakov is a lecturer in law at a synagogue was established in Surabaya.
Samratulangi University in Indonesia. The synagogue was founded by the Surabaya
Jewish community, better known as Soerabaia
The existence of the Jewish community in Israelitische Gemeente. The situation changed
Indonesia has a very long history. Starting in during World War 2 when in 1942 Japan invaded
the 17th century, when Indonesia (also known and began occupying Indonesia, ending Dutch
as Dutch East Indies) was still under the rule. During the Japanese occupation, Jews
umbrella of Dutch colonialism, Jews entered experienced pogroms (organized destruction
Indonesia through the trade routes. The majority and massacres) and many were sent to Japanese
of Jews came from Western Europe such as internment camps; this happened at the
the Netherlands, Germany, and surrounding insistence of Nazi Germany which was allied with
countries. At the same time, from another Japan to exterminate the Jews in Asia, especially
direction, Jews from Iraq who had transited in Indonesia.
through India began to enter the Dutch East
Indies with the aim of trading because the Dutch After three years in the shadow of Japan,
East Indies was one of the centers of world trade Indonesia finally became an independent
at that time. nation. This also affected the lives of the Jews in
Indonesia. With the high spirit of nationalism
On the island of Java, the cities of Batavia (now at that time among the indigenous Indonesians,
Jakarta) and Surabaya became the center of the hostility and expulsion of foreigners such as
the largest Jewish community in Indonesia at the Dutch, including the Dutch Jews, resulted in
that time because they emerged as centers of many Indonesian Jews deciding to move to Israel,
government and trade. Geographically, Jakarta Australia, and Los Angeles, California, USA.
and Surabaya are the two largest cities in Many Iraqi Jews who grew up in Surabaya and
Indonesia today. The island of North Sulawesi Jakarta moved to Los Angeles and built the Kahal

Yaakov and Leah and their children, Levi Yitzhak and Rachel Chana, Mussry family bar mitzvah in Surabaya Synagogue in Surabaya,
with the new menorah fashioned after one at the Western Wall in Israel, Indonesia, probably 1930s
located outside the synagogue in Tondano, Hanukkah 2021 continued on next page
Kulanu
Kulanu Fall 2021
Fall/ Winter 2021 21
Indonesia, continued from previous page Hanukkah with the Jews in Jakarta, Surabaya,
Joseph Synagogue together with Iraqi Jewish and Bali. They celebrate together with the
immigrants from Singapore. The Iraqi Jews from remaining Indonesian Jews and expatriate Jews.
Manado went to Egypt.
In 2003 the Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue was
As fewer and fewer Jews settled in Indonesia, established in Tondano, Indonesia under my
the Surabaya Synagogue gradually fell out of leadership. Apart from being active in Jakarta, I
operation. In 1965, the synagogue officially also began to serve the descendants of the Dutch
ceased operations. Thereafter, there had been and Iraqi Jews who were in North Sulawesi.
almost no Jewish religious activity in the country
because Judaism was considered unregistered According to Professor Rotem Kowner of the
in Indonesia. However, in the early 2000s, I University of Haifa in Israel, prior to the second
took the initiative to rebuild the community world war, it was estimated that there were 3,000
and reunite the remaining Jews in Indonesia, Jews living in Indonesia. In 2018, World Jewish
including the elderly Jews of Soerabaia Congress Diplomatic Corps member Philip
Israelitische Gemeente: David Mussry, David Rosenberg visited Indonesia and estimated that
Abraham, and Maureen Elias. Since then, we Indonesia’s Jewish community numbers about
and our families have been active in making 200; this includes the descendants of those
Jewish celebrations such as Pesach, Sukkot, and traders from Europe and Iraq, others who have
chosen to convert to Judaism, and expatriate
Jews who now live here.
Around the beginning of 2010 there was a new
phenomenon, namely the Israeli euphoria. There
were people who claimed they were of Jewish
descent and practiced Judaism. Because the
community that the Jewish elders and I built
together is basically a community of Jewish
descent (not a religious community), its members
felt that these people claiming Jewish descent
could not be part of the community due to lack
of evidence that they were of Jewish descent.
Leah, wife of Yaakov Baruch, lighting Yom Tov candle. From left: However, the Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue
Yaakov’s grand-aunt Fredrica van Beugen, Leah, Maureen Hanna continues to facilitate programs for those who
(president of the Jewish Community of Indonesia), and Mr. David Mussry want to learn Judaism and to supervise those who
(former president of the Jewish Community of Indonesia), Pesach 2011
are serious until finally they are ready to carry out
conversions according to halakha (Jewish law).
On the other hand, because the process of
Orthodox conversion was very difficult at
that time (potential converts had to travel to
Australia), many people ended up taking other
paths to conversion such as contacting rabbis
who were banned by their own rabbinical associa-
tions. Therefore, neither the Shaar HaShamayim
Synagogue, which adheres to Orthodox
standards, nor non-Orthodox denominations
would accept them.
Yaakov and Leah’s children lighting the Shabbat candles and reciting the
blessings, 2018
22 Kulanu
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Indonesia: continued from previous page

Kulanu
Board Of Directors
And Officers
President Harriet Bograd
First Vice President Bonita Nathan Sussman
Second Vice President Rabbi Barbara Aiello
Secretary Barbara Vinick
Treasurer Sandy Leeder
Other Board Members Dr. David Breakstone,
Rabbi Capers Funnye, Lili Kaufmann,
Judi Kloper, Benjamin Lefkowitz,
Modreck Maeresera
Front door of the Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue in Tondano, Indonesia,
built in 2003 Honorary Board Members Aron and Karen Primack

After struggling for approximately sixteen years, President Emeritus Jack Zeller
the Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue was finally
inaugurated by the local government in 2019. Kulanu (“All of Us”) is a tax-exempt organization of Jews
Shaar HaShamayim is now the only official of varied backgrounds and practices which works with
synagogue in Indonesia. We now hope for recog- isolated, emerging, and returning Jewish communities
nition not only by the local city government, around the globe, supporting them through networking,
but by the Indonesian government in Jakarta. education, economic development projects, volunteer
We wish to develop our Jewish community assignments, research, and publicity.
throughout Indonesia.
This magazine is published by:
Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue is one of the Kulanu, 165 West End Avenue, 3R
most unique places in Indonesia and it is so New York, NY 10023
special to us. This is not just because of the
spirit of the Jews themselves, but also because Change of address kulanu.org/contact
of the enthusiasm of the local people who are Further information kulanu.org
moved to learn and embrace Judaism despite the
challenges to Jews here. c Magazine Editor Judi Kloper
Editor’s Note: To learn more about Kulanu’s partner commu- Editorial Team Barbara Vinick, Molly Levine,
nities in another part of Indonesia, please go to Keshi Taryan-Kigel
kulanu.org/communities/indonesia. Also, see our Fall 2017
issue kulanu.org/wp-content/uploads/magazines/2017-fall. Layout and Photography Editor Lisa Yagoda
pdf, page 14-15, to read more and see photos.

Kulanu
Kulanu Fall 2021
Fall/ Winter 2021 23
 Nonprofit Org.
US Postage Paid
Boston, MA
Supporting Isolated, Permit No. 52955
Emerging, and Returning
Jewish Communities
around the Globe

165 West End Avenue, 3R

New York, NY 10023
(212) 877-8082
Address Service
Requested

Many Menorahs Around the World

Kulanu’s
partner
communities
dispel the
darkness by
lighting their
many varied
menorahs.

Top row: El Salvador, 2012; India, 2020; Indonesia, 2019; Ecuador, 2020. Middle row: Uganda, 2011; Latin America; Nicaragua, 2019;
Madagascar, 2018. Bottom row: Indonesia, 2021; Madagascar, 2019; Ecuador, 2019