JERUSALEM (RNS) — When Yosef Kibita learned that the Israeli government had approved his application to immigrate to Israel — many years after the Uganda citizen underwent the first of four conversions to Judaism — he felt joy. And relief.
“Although I have practiced Judaism all my life, being declared an Israeli citizen makes me feel I am now part of Am Yisrael (the People of Israel),” said Kibita, a member of the Abayudaya, a community in eastern Uganda that embraced Jewish practices a century ago but is not recognized as Jewish by the Israeli rabbinate or Interior Ministry.
Since his approval on Thursday (Aug. 8), Kibita is the first and only Abayudaya member to be recognized as Jewish for aliyah, or immigration to Israel.
The Interior Ministry’s recognition of Kibita’s final conversion is a victory for non-Orthodox Judaism in Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox establishment has until relatively recently held a monopoly over state-recognized conversions. The Masorti (Conservative) movement performed his conversion.
“Even as tension runs high in Israel due to current security threats, we are still able to ask you to join us in celebrating the historic and successful outcome for Masorti and Conservative Judaism after a long and significant struggle,” the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel said in a statement. Kibita’s attorney, Nicole Maor, was informed that her client would receive immigrant status based on the conversion he underwent, the group said.
Maor, who directs the Legal Aid Center for Olim at the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, emphasized that Kibita, who moved to Israel in 2018, is not the first Israel-based non-Orthodox convert approved for aliyah. More than 100 have been approved since a 2021 High Court ruling recognized Israel-based non-Orthodox conversions for immigration to Israel.
Members of the Abayudaya Jewish community sit outside the Stern Synagogue as they listen to their spiritual leader in a village near Mbale, eastern Uganda, on Nov. 17, 2018. (RNS photo/Tonny Onyulo)
But Kibita’s was the “test case” that could pry open the doors for the Abayudaya and potentially other until-now unrecognized Jewish communities.
By all accounts, Kibita has been remarkably resilient in his quest for recognition both as a Jew and an Israeli. He has now completed four conversions: two in Uganda and two in Israel. Conversions to Judaism are lengthy and complex, involving not just ritual but also months and sometimes years of study and lifestyle changes that rabbis must oversee and approve.
The conversion that Kibita and others in his Ugandan community underwent when he was a child did not meet Israeli standards, Maor said. The second conversion, performed in 2008 by a leader of the Abayudaya who was ordained as a rabbi in the U.S. by the Masorti movement as well as other Conservative rabbis, was an authentic Conservative conversion. But it wasn’t until 2009 that the movement added the community to its roster of recognized communities.
In early August, Yosef Kibita became the first member of the Abayudaya community in Uganda to be recognized as Jewish for the purposes of aliyah — immigration to Israel. (Spokesperson’s Office, Masorti Movement)
When Kibita moved to Israel in 2018 with the help of the Jewish Agency, which recognizes the Abayudaya as Jewish, the government rejected his application to immigrate, on the grounds that in 2008, the Abayudaya community was not yet officially recognized as a Jewish community by any branch of Judaism.
Although the government twice tried to deport Kibita, Maor and the Conservative movement — most notably Rabbi Andrew Sacks, who converted Kibita and many other Abayudaya members — fought to keep him in Israel, where he had settled at Ketura, a kibbutz aligned with the movement.
In February 2021, Kibita’s petition to have his second Ugandan conversion recognized was denied, but this time, luck was on his side. The very next month, the court ruled that non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel would be recognized for immigration. It had taken 15 years for that case to wind through the court system.
Kibita then underwent another Conservative conversion in May 2021, but this time, in Israel.
“As far as the Conservative movement was concerned, he was already Jewish and didn’t have to study” Judaism, Maor said. “The conversion was just a formality.” He again applied for aliyah and was again denied.
“The Interior Ministry asked for a letter from his rabbis stating that he had studied formally for nine months,” Maor said. “Yosef didn’t have such a letter. When we went to court again, the judge said, I see your point, but I suggest you compromise. Yosef lives in Israel. Why not study for another nine months and then convert again?”
So he did. When the fourth conversion was complete, Maor notified the court, which instructed the Interior Ministry to process Kibita’s aliyah. His official immigration should be formalized within weeks.
Maor, who has been arguing cases against the Interior Ministry for years, said ministry officials “did go out of their way to make Yosef’s individual case easier.” She said she “understands their fear of many years that congregations or communities will convert en masse” not because they want to be Jewish but because they want to move to Israel and benefit from the country’s strong social safety net.
During the past couple of years, as war has raged, many Russians and Ukrainians with Jewish ancestry have moved to Israel under the Law of Return. While thousands have stayed, others remained only long enough to secure an Israeli passport, to be used just in case.
Still, the vast majority of converts do so out of love for Judaism, and they make aliyah because they want to be part of the Jewish nation, Maor said.
“I have a natural belief in people, and that’s why I represent them. Ministry personnel feel they are the gatekeepers.”
Thrilled though he is by his pending citizenship, Kibita does have one regret: Sacks, his champion and mentor, is not here to celebrate with him. Sacks, an American-born leader in the Conservative movement in Israel, died in June.
“I feel like shedding tears,” Kibita said. “I remember when my first application for aliyah was denied, when I was told I was not Jewish, the first phone call I made for help was to Rabbi Sacks. He said, ‘Yosef, we’ll handle this.’ He did what he could to achieve this dream. He collected money from the movement and from friends to pay for a lawyer. He was like the pillar of a temple. I feel like I’ve lost my father.”
As for his immediate plans, Kibita plans to stay at the kibbutz that has given him shelter and support, at least for another year.
“Ketura is my home and I have a host family. Now it is my turn to give back to my community and my people,” he said.