Updated Aug. 10
When Shoshana Nambi started rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College in 2018, she thought she would return to her native Uganda after graduation. She looked forward to serving her community, the Abayudaya, as its first woman rabbi.
But as she and her 15-year-old daughter, Emunah, adjusted to life in the United States, they decided together that they should remain here — at least until Emunah finishes high school.
“It was a family decision, and I’m excited for the new journey,” Nambi told J. in a mid-July interview at Congregation Beth Am, where she was hired as the new assistant rabbi after her ordination in May.
The Reform congregation in Los Altos Hills formally welcomed her on July 19 during Shabbat evening services, inviting her to sing the Abayudaya version of “Hinei Mah Tov,” with lyrics in Luganda. Later, she gave a sermon about working at an Israeli agricultural company in Uganda and volunteering with an HIV testing organization.
“Rabbi Nambi is a dynamic teacher, a gifted writer, and a true leader,” Karmi Leiman, who co-led the synagogue’s search committee with Beth Am President Amy Gerstein, wrote in an email to J. “She brings a dazzling array of experience for someone assuming their first rabbinic position.”
Nambi visited Beth Am in person while interviewing for the job and said she was struck by how passionate everyone felt about the congregation of approximately 1,500 members.
“I loved the energy when I came here,” she said. “There’s a simplicity to it, even though it’s in an area of high tech.”
After spending the last four years studying at HUC in New York, she said another draw for her and Emunah was warmer weather. “That’s a bonus,” she said.
Now she just has to learn how to drive.
“In Uganda, not many people have cars, so there was really no need for me to learn,” she said. “When I came here, I knew I was going to learn how to drive. It’s very important, and it’s on my list.”
Nambi, 36, joins Beth Am in the wake of upheaval within the clergy. Rabbi Jeremy Morrison departed as senior rabbi last summer after three years when the board decided not to renew his contract, leaving many congregants frustrated. Two rabbis left this summer: Rabbi Sarah Weissman, who worked at Beth Am for 16 years and is now the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Torah in Fremont, and Rabbi Jonathan Prosnit, who moved to Wisconsin after 12 years at Beth Am.
Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff came aboard in July to serve as interim senior rabbi while the board searches for a permanent one. Rabbi Heath Watenmaker and Cantor Jaime Shpall round out the clergy team.
Nambi is the second Abayudaya member to be ordained as a rabbi in the U.S., after Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, the community’s spiritual leader. She is also a children’s book author. “The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda,” about a girl named Shoshi who builds a sukkah with her brothers, won a 2023 National Jewish Book Award.
She is currently working on another book featuring Shoshi, this one about Shabbat traditions in Uganda.
“In the first book, she’s really competitive and up and down. And in the second book, she learns the value of slowing down,” she said.
One of Nambi’s fondest memories from her own childhood was attending Kabbalat Shabbat services with her grandparents in the village of Nabugoye, in eastern Uganda. Today, the synagogue is a 7,000-square-foot modern building that was built by Be’chol Lashon, the Jewish diversity nonprofit founded in San Francisco. But back then, it was a large mud hut with a roof of iron sheets and no electricity.
Nambi recalled how volunteers would collect oil lamps from the homes of families in the village, then light them and place them around the hut.
“One of my favorite things was looking around the synagogue to see which one is our lamp,” she said. “When I found it, I felt so much pride.”
Nambi was an active participant in discussions of the weekly Torah portion, according to Sizomu.
“She was attentive, she was curious, and whenever we had open discussions, she usually made wise responses,” he said by phone from Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
Sizomu graduated from the Conservative movement’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, where his son-in-law, Samson Nderitu Njogu, is currently studying. Sizomu returned to Uganda in 2008 and started a yeshiva to train the next generation of African Jewish leaders.
Asked what advice he has for Nambi as she begins her rabbinic career, he replied, “She has to understand the people and what they expect of her. We hope she can be an Abayudaya ambassador to the U.S. If she decides she wants to come back to Uganda, she will be embraced.”
The story of the Abayudaya (“People of Judah” in Luganda) is familiar to many Bay Area Jews who have heard Sizomu speak at local synagogues during his numerous U.S. speaking tours.
In 1919, a chieftain named Semei Kakungulu rejected the Christianity spread by British missionaries, circumcised himself and his sons and started practicing a form of pre-rabbinic Judaism with several followers. The community grew to around 8,000 people. Then dictator Idi Amin came to power in a 1971 coup. He outlawed Judaism and ordered all synagogues destroyed. One Jewish man was murdered for singing Hebrew songs, Sizomu said.
Many Abayudaya converted to Christianity out of fear, and the community nearly disappeared. But Sizomu and his peers led a resurgence in the 1980s after Amin was ousted. Today there are around 2,000 members spread across 10 villages. They operate their own schools and a health center in the town of Mbale that serves local Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Many Abayudaya converted under the auspices of the Conservative movement in the early 2000s, including Nambi and her grandparents. The Jewish Agency for Israel has recognized the community as Jewish, but Israel’s Ministry of Interior has not, which means they are unable to make aliyah. Last year, Yosef Kibita became the first member to receive temporary residency status — a precursor to citizenship — following a court battle.
“There are so many people who would love to be in Israel, but our hopes are on hold now,” Sizomu said.
Nambi spent two years studying in Jerusalem, first at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where she worked on improving her Hebrew, and then during her first year at Hebrew Union College. She said she chose to attend a Reform seminary instead of a Conservative one because, quite simply, HUC offered her a full scholarship and living stipend.
Sizomu noted that while most of the Abayudaya follow Conservative customs, they view Reform rabbis and congregations as “partners.” When Nambi returned home to Uganda for a visit in June, Sizomu officially installed her as a community rabbi in a special ceremony.
Nambi’s responsibilities at Beth Am will include co-leading services, teaching in the Hebrew school and working with young families. She said she hopes to make Beth Am more welcoming to Jews of color like her.
“It really helps when you see somebody not only in the community, but in a leadership role,” she said.