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Beth Sholom Torah Reader
Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Courtesy of Moshe Hezekiah
F or Judaism, a religion in its 5783rd
year, the more things change, the
more they stay the same.

In a congregation in Abuja, Nigeria,
the country’s capital and eighth most
populous city, the Jewish practices
share signifi cant similarities to thou-
sands of synagogues elsewhere: Torah
readers don a tallit and read from
the holy scrolls with a yad; Jews light
Chanukah candles and celebrate com-
ing of age with b’nai mitzvah.

Th ey are practices that unite Jews
across the globe.

But there’s one part of Abuja’s Tikvat
Yisrael Synagogue’s ritual practices
that separate it from almost every
other synagogue in the world: its Torah
chanting. Created specifi cally by its
leader Moshe Hezekiah, the Hebrew
cantillations are distinct, blending the
words of Torah with sounds and into-
nations from the Igbo language, spo-
ken by 18 million people in Nigeria.

Over the summer, a second syn-
agogue adopted the Igbo-infl uenced
chanting: Beth Sholom Congregation in
Elkins Park. In June, Abuja synagogue
leader Hezekiah moved to Philadelphia
and became the baal koreh, or Torah
reader, at the Conservative synagogue.

“It feels very moving to me when
I listen to him chant,” Beth Sholom
Rabbi David Glanzberg-Krainin said.

“It makes me feel a sense of awe and
wonder about Jewish people, that we
could be in all these diff erent parts of
the world, have this common language
of Torah and Hebrew that unites us,
and yet have these very diff erent back-
grounds and cultures that gave birth to
this part of the Jewish people.”
Th e synagogue began its search for
a baal koreh over the summer. Unlike
some other synagogues, Beth Sholom
reads Torah in a triennial, three-year
cycle. Glanzberg-Krainin and Cantor
Jacob Agar believe that, while congre-
gant volunteers can and should chant
Torah, a baal koreh, with a deep fl uency
of Hebrew, can transport a congrega-
tion spiritually.

Moshe Hezekiah at the bar mitzvah of one of his students at Tikvat Yisrael
Synagogue in Abuja, Nigeria
Hezekiah, who recently married
Philadelphian Eliana Maya Nwafor and
relocated to the U.S., responded to a
Facebook post about the position enthu-
siastically. He trial-read the Torah in
front of the Beth Sholom clergy, who
were struck by his leyning style.

“For me as a cantor, one of the most
important things is beauty and making
the experience beautiful and, through
the beauty, transcendental,” Agar said.

“His style brings a sort of sacredness
to it, holiness to it, which isn’t oft en
heard.” Hezekiah’s fl uency with Torah read-
ing comes from years of study. At
age 9, the now-25-year-old became the
leader of his Abuja Jewish community
at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue. Th ough
not a rabbi, he conducted b’nai mitzvah
training, brit milot and other life cycle
events. In 2014, Hezekiah received the
Kulanu Global Teaching Fellowship,
and he completed a two-month-long
trip to other West African Jewish
communities and studied Talmud
and Torah intensely. It was during
his fellowship that Hezekiah noticed
other Jewish communities incorporat-
ing their spoken languages with their
Torah cantillations.

Hezekiah’s goal was ultimately to
return to his Abuja community with
more knowledge to pass on to the
young Jewish generation.

“I want to go around and teach peo-
ple about Judaism in Nigeria. ... We’ve
had to spread knowledge to each other,”
he said. “Because not everyone has
smartphones, not everyone has access
to Jewish texts, not everyone has access
to chumashim, not everyone has access
to Talmud, mishnah.”
Judaism in Nigeria has faltered in the
past half century, largely because of the
growth of Christianity in the region,
Hezekiah believes. Hezekiah’s father
is Christian, but his grandfather, who
keeps shomer Shabbos, has never heard
of Christianity.

Nigeria is home to 3,000 Jews,
according to a Harvard University
Divinity School study, about 85% of
whom are Igbo, and the Jewish prac-
tices of the Igbo ethnic group can be
traced thousands of years, Hezekiah
said. But because of the generational
divide and Christian proselytism in the
area, Hezekiah feels an urgency to keep
Judaism alive among the Igbo people.

Hezekiah’s role as baal koreh, as well
as his day job at Makom Community,
means that he plans on staying in
the U.S. with his wife in the long
run. However, he hopes his time in
Philadelphia can help aid his com-
munity back home. He still conducts
lectures and b’nai mitzvah trainings
over Zoom.

“Being in the U.S. doesn’t mean I’m
not connected to my community,” he
said. Hezekiah created a GoFundMe page
to help pay for his travels back to Tikvat
Yisrael Synagogue in August, where he
will lead a conversion for members of
the community.

A Conservative Jew — a minority
among the 75% Orthodox population
in Nigeria — Hekeziah believes he
holds a “progressive” view of Judaism
that guides his work in both building
Jewish community in Abuja and fi nd-
ing new roots in Philadelphia: “We
need to be able to fi t Judaism in our
everyday, day-to-day life.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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