Global Seder for Uganda
LIKE MANY Jewish schools, Alma Primary in Whetstone held a mock Seder last week — but one with a difference.
Pupils joined schools from North America in an online event to support another school in one of the more remote parts of the Jewish world, Hadassah in Mbale, Uganda.
Opened 20 years ago, Hadassah has increased its roll from 20 to over 400, with Muslim and Christian pupils as well as from Uganda’s Abayudaya Jewish community.
Jeanie Horowitz, Alma’s Jewish learning leader, said the Seder was “set up to raise awareness and funds for Hadassah school.
“The person who set it up had been a volunteer there until Covid hit and then he had to leave the country.”
He had been close to
Vthe headteacher, who later died from the disease. “The school is facing closure,” Ms Horowitz said. “It is in desperate need of funds and he thought that this would be a good way to introduce the global Jewish community to this school.
“We participated because I felt it was an important cause. “Understanding our place in the world and our responsibility to other communities is an important part of our ethos.”
Alma pupil Laurel Sumberg had a solo part, singing a verse of Dayenu in a multi-national rendition.
It is not all they have discovering about African Jewry. In autumn, Alma pupils learned about the Ethiopian community and the unique festival of Sigd and “this felt like a good follow-on”, Ms Horowitz said.