Nearly a hundred people, including a 14-person delegation
from the African Jewish Congress (AJC), participated in a
rousing rededication ceremony of the Lusaka synagogue on 29
January. A number of American Jews connected with the local
US Embassy were also in attendance. The resounding success of
the occasion underlined how the Jewish community of Zambia,
after decades of steadily shrinking to the point where
organized Jewish life came close to ceasing altogether, is
today experiencing an unexpected revival, both in terms of
increasing numbers and renewed communal activities.
The current renewal of Jewish settlement in Zambia is in part
attributable to the fact that the country's railways have
been taken over on a 99-year lease by an Israeli firm.
Zambia, a landlocked Southern African country formerly known
as Northern Rhodesia, has had a Jewish presence since the
beginnings of European settlement in the late 1890s. Jewish
immigration to the country included a substantial influx of
Sephardic Jews from the Greek island of Rhodes. The community
peaked at around 1,200 souls in the 1950s before commencing a
precipitous decline.
Mervyn Smith, a former president of the South African Jewish
Board of Deputies (SAJBD) who has headed the AJC since its
founding in 1993, described the ceremony as having been "an
extremely moving recommitment to fostering anew the once
flourishing Jewish life in Zambia." The part the AJC
delegation had played in its success, he said, had shown once
again how important AJC contacts were in maintaining Jewish
solidarity in Southern Africa.
The welcome and introductory message was given by Michael
Galaun, President of the Council for Zambian Jewry. Other
speakers included Rabbi Silberhaft, Mervyn Smith, Rebbetzin
Harris and Simon Zukas, the latter a veteran political leader
who played an important role in Zambia's struggle for
independence from Great Britain during the 1950s.
Rabbi Silberhaft exhorted Zambian Jewry to continue the work
of the community's pioneers.
"Your forebears founded and organized a congregation, not for
themselves alone, but for those who would follow. On this
special day, we rededicate your community, not simply in the
faith that there will be a future, but also in the conviction
that the future will be congenial to the ideals and values
cherished by your predecessors and by you," he said.
Local residents Gus Liebowitz (Kitwe) and Leslie Szeftel
(Lusaka) recited prayers for Israel and Zambia respectively.
There was also a ceremonial lighting of a memorial lamp in
memory of all deceased members of the congregation.
Prior to the ceremony, the AJC delegation visited the Mother
of Mercy Hospice-Chilanga, one of a number of hospices that
the Lusaka Hebrew Congregation supports. Dr. Michael Bush, a
member of the congregation and the recipient in 2004 of the
OBE for his services to HIV/AIDS victims and their families
in Zambia, is honorary medical supervisor of the
institution.
The day after the ceremony, the delegation visited the two
Jewish cemeteries, located in the general cemetery. This was
followed by a tour of the house of Kenneth Kaunda, who lived
there before becoming the first President of the Republic of
Zambia.
