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Kenyan Jewish leader denied entry to Israel, deported to Ethiopia

Kenyan Jewish leader denied entry to Israel, deported to Ethiopia
Kenyan Jewish leader denied entry to Israel, deported to Ethiopia

A Kenyan Jewish leader who arrived in Israel on Monday night was denied entry into the country by the Interior Ministry and deported to Ethiopia.

The rejection by Israeli authorities of Yehudah Kimani โ€” who had come to the Jewish state for a three-week study program โ€” was seen by activists as part of the ongoing discrimination by Israel against Jews from emerging communities around the world.

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Kimani, 31, is a leader of the 50-memberย Kehilat Kasuku, a small group of families in Kenyaโ€™s rural highlands who decided to leave Messianic Judaism in the early 2000s.

In the ensuing years, they have undergone Conservative Jewish conversions in Uganda with the Abayudaya community. Theyย celebrate Shabbat and the Jewish holidaysย in a small, plastic-sheeting covered synagogue with worn wooden benches. Over the past few years sinceย The Times of Israel first visitedย in early 2015, Kimani has utilized Facebook to build relationships with Jews around the world. The networking brought him on a multi-month trip to the United States in the summer of 2016 with Kulanu, when he also studied at theย Brandeis Collegiate Institute.

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Justin Philips, a retired judge who sits on the board of the Conservative Movementโ€™sย Fuchsberg Center, invited Kimani as a guest to study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem for a short program. After Kimaniโ€™s first visa application was denied, he was able to obtain a visa on his second attempt, in time for the Conservative Yeshivaโ€™s winter break program.

Members of Kenyaโ€™s Jewish community recite Havdalah, the ceremony between Shabbat and the rest of the week, on October 21, 2017. (courtesy Yehudah Kimani/Facebook)

But when Kimani arrived at Ben Gurion Airport late Monday night, officials at the passport check said his visa was not valid. Kimani was placed in a holding area and deported on the next flight to Ethiopia.

โ€œThey just told me to go back, I feel like Iโ€™m not even a human,โ€ Kimani said from the Addis Ababa airport.

The Population, Immigration, and Border Authority said that Kimani had been deported because he had โ€œfraudulently obtained a visaโ€ by not informing the embassy that his previous application for a visa had been denied.

Members of Kehilat Kasuku in Kenya celebrate Hanukkah on December 12, 2017. (courtesy Yehudah Kimani/Facebook)

โ€œThere was no question on the visa form asking for that, and if they want that information they should ask for it,โ€ said Philips.

โ€œThis is naked racism,โ€ Philips added. โ€œThey donโ€™t like non-Orthodox Jews and they donโ€™t like black Jews. We have a lot of problems to get visas for Conservative Jews.โ€ Philips noted that the Conservative movement struggles to obtain visas for the Abayudaya Jews from Uganda, many of whom come to Israel for study or youth programs.

Kimani is hopeful he will be able to return to Israel at a later date. Heโ€™s currently focused on immediate issues like his missing suitcase and the disappointment of not meeting dozens of people he has befriended over the internet. Many of those people had donated money to help the Kenyan communityย build a synagogue and pay for school feesย through a online fundraising campaign.

Kimani, who studied tourism and hopes to run a kosher safari company in Kenya in the future, is overseeing the final stages of building the library.

Workers constructing the Kehilat Kasuku library in rural Kenya on December 13, 2017, built after an online fundraiser garnered support from Jews around the world. (courtesy Yehudah Kimani/Facebook)

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