Monday 29 March 2010

A Jewish Night in Nairobi....

Sometimes you just have to blog...

Tonight is Seder night. Jewish Easter...so I found the synagogue and headed off in the rain.

Imagine two diminutive red haired beared Rabbis from Brooklyn - tweedle dum and tweedle dee.

In the middle of Nairobi. I felt like I was Alice in the Looking Glass.

Old Jewish men with Kenyan glamorous wives looking decidely uncomfortable over the matzo balls.

Glitzy Jewish mamams, a bunch of rowdy Israelis and too much Kiddush wine.

Plenty of Hebrew songs, the small dwarfish Rabbis on the tables swaying and chanting -the Africans humming along and wondering when they could eat.

Me - in a stupor and laughing as all the food came out. Kfelte fish, chopped liver, chicken soup, salads, five hot dishes - enough to feed a small Jewish African army.

So I joined in, read the English, ate like a hog, marvelled at the old photos post 2nd world war on the synagogue door -the pioneers of old and thought, "tradition"..sometimes you can't beat it.

xxx

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