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Published: September 24th 2007
The gates
This was an outside shot of the gates coming in....La Shana Tovah, Chag sa Maech, and Good Yontiv (?) to all of my Jewish friends and family!!!
Phew...what a busy couple of weeks it's been here...
So two weekends ago, I went to Windhoek to go to the Schul (as they call it here) for Rosh Hashanah. It's in this old building right next to the main shopping area of downtown, and I'll tell ya, I have walked by that area 100 times and never saw it before, but it really is right in the center of town. I also came back for Yom Kippur this past weekend as well (although this was a tough decision for me because as I said in my last blog, one of my Learners father died a few weeks ago, who was also a teacher at the secondary school in my town and his funeral was that weekend. I trully wanted to be in 2 places at the same time!)
Anyway, the congregation is small...about 30 families total, but they are all very nice and very welcoming to any outsider there. I would say, there was a total of about 40 people there. Most of the people there were either South
African or Namibian but there were a few Israeli's, Cubans and Belgiums (?) and some businessmen travelling through. So, because the membership is so small, they never replaced the rabbi that was last there and use the Director for Shabbat services. But on the High Holidays, since it is considered to be an Orthodox synagogue, Chabad sends a rabbi or two every year for the 10 day celebrations. So this year, there were these two Rabbis from Canada, and the one has been working in the Northest of Philly for the past few years...what a small world!
Anyway, back to the Orthodox thing, well I tried to be open minded about the whole thing but it was honestly very hard for me! So, this was the first time that I have ever been to an Orthodox synagogue and it was very strange for me due to the fact that the woman have to sit upstairs and of course, are not a part of the service at all. Well, needless to say, this felt very awkward considering my whole life woman have always been considered equal in every aspect of my life, and here they are saying we are not! The woman joked that they get the better views, get to see the men's bald spots or are closer to G-d that way, but it just felt so out-dated to me. Especially, when the rabbi was talking on Yom Kippur about everyone being equal on this day, and here we are all sitting seperately! I also found it ironic, that with Apartheid ending and the civil rights movement in full swing here, that this is also considered ok.
Anyway, when I talked to the President of the synagogue about this, he told me that a few years ago, he was working to bring the woman down and have them become part of the services, but he said that the WOMEN chose to keep sitting upstairs and that the congregants were worried that they wouldn't continue to get funding from Chabad if they were to change this...but he did invite me to sit downstairs if I wanted...so, I thought about it but i chickened out...I didn't want to be this outsider coming in and stirring the pot but maybe I should have???
So, the other interesting thing for me was to see Black Jews! I'm serious...I don't think I have ever seen one at our synagogues back in the states and there were a handful here. I became friends with one named Freddie, who told me that he had converted a few years back. Another man told me that he was raised by a Jewish family in South Africa...but it was so nice to see a little bit of diversity at a synagogue!!
k, have another busy week ahead with a Prize-Giving Ceremony for our kids on Thursday...I am excited to donate a camera to the school given from my parents...hope you all have a good week!
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Judy Fern
non-member comment
Good Yom Tov!
Fascinating about the synagogue and Chabad and upstairs and all that. Scrub tech with whom I work, Kim Simon [nice Jewish name, right?] is black, converted to Judaism a few years ago, had a Bat Mitvah and went to Israel in the spring. I've never been [but am going in 2 weeks]. So they're out there -- just not among the urban and suburbanites. Keep on keeping on. L, J