Uncategorized
The Quiet Antisemitism: My Experience as a Jewish College Professor
There are plenty of examples of blatant antisemitism and attacks on Jews that have occurred over the past 10 months. It seems that every day, we read about a synagogue being attacked, a Jewish student being spat on or assaulted, or the all too mainstream protester chants calling for Intifada or for Jews to go back to Poland â and the list goes on.
Perhaps less obvious â but more frequent â is the antisemitism thatâs happening under the radar: things that are circumstantial and much harder to prove.
Iâm not talking about Jewish writers having their lectures cancelled out of concern âfor their safetyâ â itâs clear to everyone (except the organizers) where the motivation comes from.
No, this is the kind of discrimination that Black people and others experienced before the Civil Rights movement â and even after: being rejected as a tenant on a lease to an apartment, passed over for a job or promotion based on the color of their skin , or â as in my case â perhaps not having a contract renewed at a college after speaking out against their policies regarding âfree speech.â
Do I have proof that me being Israeli or Jewish had anything to do with my dismissal?
Absolutely not.
But are the circumstances suspicious? Yes.
Two years ago, I accepted a Visiting Assistant Professorship in the English Department of a private Midwestern college in the United States. It was a one-year contract, and following the first year, the Chair of the Department notified me how much he appreciated my work â noting the anonymous student evaluations that gave me high marks, that a large number of students requested to take a second class with me, and that I helped raise the visibility of the college through public performances by my students. He also informed me that there was restructuring going on in the English Department, which would result in some of the classes I was teaching being offered only periodically.
In short, he asked me if I would be interested in remaining affiliated with the school, and return either every other semester, or, for instance, if another English teacher took a sabbatical. That suited me fine, as it allowed me to continue teaching, but also gave me time for my own creative endeavors back in Los Angeles, where I was commuting from every week.
On October 7, I was not teaching on campus. But like so many other colleges, a segment of the student population rose up to protest Israel. And even though I was a thousand miles away, I received an email from a student member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) notifying all faculty that the group was calling for a one-day strike to protest, accompanied with a list of atrocities Israel had allegedly committed, even listing the bombing of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza two weeks earlier, which had already been attributed to a stray missile from Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
How was it possible for one student to access the entire faculty and student body to spew their propaganda?
I contacted the Provost and Dean of the college to inquire. She replied that this was a recent policy change put into place two years earlier to encourage freedom of expression. I asked how this policy might play out if I rebutted the studentâs charges through the college-wide email system, only to have another student rebut my defense, and so on and so on?
She replied that if it got out of hand, the school would shut it down.
I replied that the situation had already gotten out of hand, and trusted I wouldnât be receiving anymore emails from such organizations.
The student newspaper got wind of this, and contacted me for my opinion. Hereâs what they wrote in their article:
Safdie, who is of Israeli and Syrian Jewish descent, found sections of the message antisemitic and questioned why he received the email. âIâm all for freedom of expression, but Iâm not sure this decision was able to foresee such a situation where students might abuse the privilege and create a hostile work/study environment for other members of the community.â
Fast forward several months, when I returned to campus for the Spring semester. Within a week of arrival, I received an email from the new chair of the English Department (who was also the associate Dean of the Race and Ethnic Studies program). She wanted to set up a Zoom meeting with me â even though our offices were 10 feet apart.
In a carefully worded statement that sounded like it was crafted by an attorney, she got to the point. Although the college was extremely pleased with all the work that Iâd done, and that all my students loved my teaching, the college was making budget cuts and were not going to be able to renew my contract.
When I tried to explain to her my prior arrangement with the previous Chair, she simply replied that sheâd be happy to write me a letter of recommendation.
Something about the Zoom call and her demeanor felt suspicious.
On a whim, I did an Internet search on my new Chair.
The first thing that came up on her Twitter Feed was a statement on the masthead of a literary magazine she edited, condemning the alleged mass killing and displacement of Palestinians in the wake of Hamasâs October 7, 2023, attacks.
As I explored further, I discovered other parts of the statement:
The Israeli militaryâwith the support of the U.S. governmentâhas bombarded Palestinian civilians relentlessly, in violation of international law, and deprived Palestinians of food, water, fuel, and electricity.
And:
Because we work to âbring our readers into the living moment, not as tourists, but as engaged participants,â we believe that Palestinians need space to speak directly, whether from siege in Palestine or in diaspora. So too do others who bear witness to the ongoing settler-colonial violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Two days after the Zoom meeting, I figured I might as well take the Chair up on her offer to write me a letter-of-recommendation; it was March, and I could still apply to other universities for employment the following year. (Universities can be suspicious if you leave a position after just two years, so a letter would be crucial to securing a position.)
After a week of email silence, the Chair wrote me back, saying that she wasnât familiar with my teaching and requested to attend one of my classes to observe my skills. I invited her the following week to attend a class, which fit her schedule, but she did not show, and didnât even write to give an explanation.
I followed up with an email to offer her another opportunity, followed by a second and third, but there was nothing but email silence.
I should also mention that, at the one faculty meeting we had, she stayed as far away from me as possible, and if I approached, she would quickly engage in discussion with another professor. The topic that day was adding a requirement for English Majors to take an anti-Racism class. One of the new offerings for the following year was focused on racism against Palestinians.
By the end of April, I decided to contact the Associate Dean of Humanities who oversaw the English Department, and sure enough, within an hour of my email, I finally received an email back from the Chair of the English Department, offering to attend my class, but letting me know that she was too busy to write me a letter of recommendation until the end of May â well past the end of the semester, and too late to help with a teaching application for the following year.
If there was ever a thought of going to the administration to complain about my treatment, that was quickly extinguished following an SJP demonstration that demanded that the college divest from Oracle. Apparently, Oracleâs website had stated support for Israel, and the Head of Financial Aid for the college felt the need to apologize for the schoolâs actions.
A response from the schoolâs administration read thus:âThe business strategy or public statements from Oracle do not represent the viewpoints of the College. Due to the Collegeâs contract with the business and the cost it took to make such major system changes, the College does not have any feasible or affordable alternative.
It also went on to assure protesters:
Less than 0.5 percent of the Collegeâs investments are tied to Israeli companies and that none of these investments are directly held by the college.
As the semester ended, on another whim, I searched the Human Resources page of the college, and sure enough, there was a listing for a new English professor. The skills they were looking for were for someone who taught poetry as well as Race and Ethnic studies courses â none of which I was qualified to teach.
Was the college looking to shift away from courses like Screenwriting, Playwriting, and Non-Fiction â three popular courses I had taught that were always in high demand and had long waiting lists?
I guess Iâll never know.
Oren Safdie is a playwright and screenwriter.
The post The Quiet Antisemitism: My Experience as a Jewish College Professor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
Uncategorized
I was there when the lights went out and New York was plunged into darkness
Iâm the lifelong resident of a vast and complicated metropolis that smugly prides itself on never stopping. Subways, buses and cabs running day and night, bodegas and diners open 24/7, hundreds of thousands of people at work or out partying somewhere, bike couriers and truck drivers making deliveries â all in a town with a million moving parts, where the show always goes on â until, suddenly, it doesnât.
I was reminded of that one evening not long ago in a drab Chinese restaurant uptown on Broadway, clutching a pair of wooden chopsticks poised to shovel another mound of chicken and walnuts into my mouth.
Music was playing softly over the house PA system. The melody suddenly sounded strangely familiar, but oddly out of place in those surroundings. I froze mid-bite, trying to place what I was hearing. Then it hit me. I glanced at my dinner companion Ann Aptaker, author of the Cantor Gold noir crime novels.
âWow,â I said. âDo you hear that?â
She paused, tilted her head slightly, then raised an eyebrow.
âYes,â she said. âItâs Threepenny Opera!â
Sure enough, the song drifting through the room was Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brechtâs wickedly jaunty tango, âBallad of Immoral Earnings.â Even stranger, it was a track from my favorite production of the show: the Lincoln Center revival from decades ago, starring the late, great Raul Julia as Mack the Knife and Ellen Greene as his favorite prostitute, Jenny Diver.
âOf all things! What a weird song to play while people are eating,â I mused.
âI donât think Iâve ever heard it in a restaurant before,â she agreed. âAnd certainly not a Chinese place.â
âThey must have good taste in musicals.â
Shrugging, we resumed picking away at our dinner. A minute later another song from the same show began to play. We gaped at each other.
âTheyâre playing the whole album!â I sputtered. âWhat are the odds?â
Ann frowned and paused. then suddenly whirled to reach into the pocket of her denim jacket hanging behind her chair. She pulled out her phone, and the music instantly grew louder. We both laughed. She must have leaned back against her jacket and set off her music app. Whew â mystery solved!
But hearing those distinctive strains of Weillâs score transported me back to one of the hottest summers New York City had ever endured.

It was 1977, the year I attended an outdoor performance of Threepenny Opera at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. My mother and a roommate from Pratt had joined me that night.
The Delacorte sits beneath the stone towers of Belvedere Castle, lit by floodlamps like a fairytale illustration, open to the sky and the sounds of the city beyond the trees. On a good night it can feel magical. On this particularly sweltering night, the air hung over us in the audience like a damp blanket as Philip Bosco, who had replaced Raul Julia for this summer staging, swaggered across the stage as Mack the Knife, and Ellen Greene reprised her role as Jenny.
And then â just as she was belting out her furious solo number, Pirate Jenny â all the lights shut off. Greeneâs mic abruptly went dead, and the band lurched sourly out of tune before grinding to a halt.
We were plunged into pitch darkness. For a moment, there was silence.
Then the crowd began to buzz nervously. Was this part of the show? Iâd seen the play several times before, and knew that it most definitely was not.
A few awkward minutes later, some of the cast reappeared wielding flashlights. While the tech crew worked on the electricity, the band filled the darkness with some lively jazz. Rubber-limbed dancer Tony Azito pranced around jovially in the flickering beams, easing the mood for a spell. But that age-old theater adage, the show must go on, was about to bite the dust.
The house manager finally stepped up on stage to make an announcement: âLadies and gentlemen, we just learned that thereâs been a massive power failure at Con Edison. Itâs not just us; the whole city is dark!â
We didnât know it yet, but this was the Big Blackout of July 13, 1977, and there we were, thousands of us stranded smack in the middle of Central Park. There wasnât even much of a moon out that night, so it was really, really dark.
âWell, this is some pickle,â Mom said.
We wondered how the hell we were going to get out of there.

I vividly recalled the last big blackout in New York City, the one in 1965. I was just a young kid back then and safely at home, so it had actually been fun. While my mother lit a few Sabbath candles, my little sister and I roamed from room to room pretending we were in a haunted house. Meanwhile, our poor Dad had to trudge back to Brooklyn from midtown Manhattan â a five-hour hike in hot leather shoes.
But this time felt very different. I was far from the safety of home, trapped in the middle of what might as well have been a forest at night. Central Park is beautiful when you can see it. In pitch darkness itâs downright hazardous.
âGuess weâll all just have to sleep in the park tonight,â I cracked. Neither Mom nor my Pratt roomie were laughing.
Thankfully, a phalanx of city cops eventually arrived to help guide us out. Audience members, cast and crew all joined hands as we carefully made our way along the parkâs winding paths, stepping over roots and curbs, catching one another when someone stumbled. Our only illumination came from a few scattered police car headlights.
A walk that normally takes ten minutes took forever, but eventually we emerged onto Central Park West.
The scene was eerie. Streetlamps were dark. Traffic lights were out. Cars sat frozen in the intersections. Not a single apartment window was lit. For a city that never sleeps, it felt as if someone had suddenly flipped off the master switch.
Then I spotted something: âLook, the buses are still running!â
A city bus was rumbling slowly toward us, brightly lit inside. With the subways dead, getting back to my dorm in Brooklyn would have been impossible, so Momâs place on the Upper East Side looked like the safest destination. She had temporarily split with my Dad and was living there with a roommate at the time.
The three of us squeezed aboard along with what felt like half the audience, and somehow made it across town to First Avenue. As we approached my motherâs high-rise, a dreadful thought suddenly hit me.
âMom, what floor are you on again?â
âTwenty-five,â she replied grimly.
Of course both elevators were dead. We trudged up 25 flights of stairs in complete darkness, arriving exhausted and panting. My mother fumbled with her key, finally opening the door to reveal Sylvia, her gravel-voiced, seen-it-all Long Island roommate, standing there with her ever-present cigarette tip glowing in the dark.
âCome on in, darlings,â she rasped dryly. âJoin the party.â
Sylvia had lit a few candles around the apartment, the only light weâd see that night.
Outside, the city was far from peaceful. While we tried to sleep on sofa cushions on the floor, one of the worst nights of unrest in New York history was unfolding in the streets below. Store windows were smashed. Shops were looted. Garbage cans were set on fire.
Lying there in the dim glow of flickering candlelight, hearing distant sirens punctuated by the sudden crash of breaking glass somewhere in the darkness below, I felt a growing sense of dread. An evening that had begun with music and theater had improbably ended with Manhattan plunged into darkness, its fragile machinery suddenly exposed.
By morning the city looked as though it had survived a world war.
This resilient burg has been battered and bruised over the years, enduring terrorist attacks, blackouts, blizzards, hurricanes, floods, garbage strikes, transit strikes, and the occasional collapse of its aging infrastructure. Yet somehow it manages to reset and lurch forward each time, improvising solutions the way Tony Azito danced in the dark that night at the Delacorte.
The post I was there when the lights went out and New York was plunged into darkness appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Lindsey Graham, pro-Israel Trump confidant in the Senate, dies suddenly at 71
(JTA) â Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who has been one of Israelâs staunchest supporters in Congress, has died at 71.
Grahamâs office announced his death in a statement early Sunday morning, saying that he had died late Saturday after âa brief and sudden illness.â Graham had returned from Ukraine, where he met with Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, the day before.
Grahamâs death means the Senate and Republican Party have lost one of its most durable pro-Israel voices at a time when anti-Israel sentiment is on the rise in both places. In his more than three decades in Congress, first in the House and then in the Senate since 2003, Graham aggressively backed U.S. aid to Israel, advanced a hawkish line on Iran and met repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in both Israel and the United States.
Netanyahu repeatedly said Israel had âno greater friendâ than Graham in the United States. Grahamâs most recent visit to Israel was in February, ahead of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which he later took credit for urging. âTheyâll tell me things our own government wonât tell me,â he said of Israeli officials at the time.
Graham was also a vocal backer of Israelâs military responses to attacks by Hamas, including during the 2014 and after Hamasâ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza and augured a period of declining support for Israel. On Oct. 8, he issued a statement calling for Israel to defeat Hamas âby any and all means necessaryâ and in the subsequent weeks drew attention for calling on Israel to âflatten the place.â
Graham continued to promote a two-state solution as it receded as a U.S. priority, but he also adjusted to reflect the mounting isolationist streak in his party. Last year, he made news for embracing Netanyahuâs announcement of a plan to âtaperâ U.S. aid to Israel, saying it should be done sooner than Netanyahuâs 10-year timeline.
Grahamâs outlook on Israel fit into a broad portfolio that included helming the Senate Budget Committee and pushing for a stronger U.S. response to Russia. Graham, who never married and had no children, was up for reelection in November.
This obituary will be updated.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Lindsey Graham, pro-Israel Trump confidant in the Senate, dies suddenly at 71 appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Mozambiqueâs only synagogue has been keeping Judaism alive in the country for a century
Inside the Honen Dalim synagogue in Maputo, Mozambique, a security team of men in suits wearing colorful kippot swept the inside of the small chapel, while members and visitors milled about on the lawn outside. Security had to be thorough; the president was coming.
For the rest of the city, it was a normal day. The sidewalks near the synagogue were crowded with vendors selling clothes, fruit and candy. Across the street, students hung out in the courtyard of the technical college the Instituto Comercial de Maputo. But for the cityâs small Jewish community, it was a momentous occasion.
On June 11, Honen Dalim celebrated the centenary of the synagogue, which was officially inaugurated on Aug. 29, 1926. Congregation leaders and government officials gave speeches. Camera crews from three different TV stations â including the Mozambican state news channel â crowded in the small chapel to capture every moment.

Lay leader Marcos Vaena told me that celebrating the synagogue is not just about the building, but what it represents for Mozambiqueâs Jewish community, which consists of only a couple dozen families.
âItâs a sense of pride and historical heritage,â he said, adding that the synagogue has endured âprofound changes in society â the liberation struggle that the country went through, the independence movement â and it still remains.â
It hasnât been easy to keep the synagogue alive for a century, but Honen Dalimâs small congregation has persisted without a permanent rabbi or any local Jewish institutions to rely on.
Maputo is a multicultural city with a history of religious partnership, and the celebrationâs 100 attendees were a diverse mix of government officials and community members. Among them were the countryâs Christian president, Daniel Chapo, whose election in 2024 was marred by accusations of corruption and fatal clashes between security forces and protesters. Across the aisle, sat the German ambassador to Mozambique Ronald MĂŒnch and Sheik Aminudin, the President of the Islamic Council of Mozambique. Manuela Soeiro, Honen Dalimâs longest member and âthe mother of Mozambican theater,â spoke about being involved with the synagogue since in the 1940s.

Longtime lay leader Samuel Levy gave an opening speech in Portuguese on the spirit of religious tolerance in Mozambique. Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, chief rabbi of the African Jewish Congress, which supports Jewish communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, and AJC president Nahum Gorelick recited from Psalm 92 â which describes the fruitful life granted to those who are devoted to God â in Hebrew and English. The crowd sang âHosi Katekisa Afrika,â a Tsonga version of a hymn meaning âGod Bless Africa.â Around 50 more people watched on Zoom.

âThis date is much more than a chronological milestone,â Chapo said in his speech. âWe recognize, with appreciation and admiration, the enduring presence of the Jewish community in the religious, historical, and cultural fabric of our country, Mozambique.â
A long Jewish history
Although the synagogue is 100 years old, the presence of Jews in Mozambique dates back even further. Levy, a New York-born lawyer who has been part of the congregation since the â90s, told me the oldest grave in Maputoâs Jewish cemetery, located a few blocks from the synagogue, dates back to 1899.
Global events have always shaped Honen Dalimâs story. Levy said some of the earliest Jews migrated to Maputo due to the Witwatersrand Gold Rush that began in 1886 and helped develop Johannesburg, South Africa. Maputo â known then as Lourenço Marques, after the Portuguese explorer â was critical in the export process due to its coastal location, making it an ideal location for Jewish merchants.
Early Jewish arrivals came from around the world â including Morocco, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and Portugal, which ruled Mozambique from 1505 to 1975 â often by way of South Africa. In 1906, they established themselves as a community under the name Honen Dalim â meaning âHe who is charitable to the poorâ â and prayed in each otherâs homes.
During the Second Boer War in South Africa, which lasted from 1899 to 1902, the chief rabbi of Johannesburg, Joseph Herman Hertz, was expelled for his pro-British leanings and opposition to the governmentâs restrictions on Jews and Roman Catholics. During his years-long expulsion â the next time he came to South Africa, it was as the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom in 1920 â he spent a few days in Lourenço Marques and encouraged the Jews there to finally build a synagogue.
Levy said the âcommunity waxes and wanesâ but that many hundreds were there during the Second World War. Because Portugal was a neutral country, Mozambique was a place where European Jews could find refuge, although they didnât have full economic freedom and suffered from religious segregation.
Manuela Soeiro, who founded the first Mozambican theater troupe Mutumbela Gogo in 1986, told me at the centenary celebration about her experiences being a Jew at a Salesian Catholic boarding school in the â40s and â50s. When the nuns saw her hug her Jewish grandfather, they made her and her two sisters sleep in a cold bathtub as punishment for engaging with âthe devil.â
After World War II, many Jews immigrated from Mozambique to South Africa, which was experiencing an economic boom.
The Jewish community took another hit when, in 1975, Mozambique gained independence from Portugal due to the Front for the Liberation of Mozambiqueâs (FRELIMO) successful guerilla campaign. A communist government led by President Samora Machel took over and restricted religious practice.
âAll of the religious buildings, not only the synagogue â mosques, churches, everything â was expropriated by the government,â Levy told me.

The majority of the Portuguese in Mozambique left, some by force and some by choice, and many Jews were among those who emigrated. The country was hit hard by economic destabilization. Concrete shells of building projects abandoned by Portuguese builders after independence dot the city skyline.
Only two years after independence, the countryâs socialist and anti-communist factions waged a civil war that ravaged the country for 15 years. Honen Dalimâs synagogue fell into disrepair and became a warehouse for the Red Cross.
The synagogueâs address ties the building both to the countryâs colonial and post-independence eras. Avenida 24 de Julho â July 24th Street â was named after the date in 1875 when Portugal took full possession of Maputo. Exactly 100 years later, on July 24, Machel nationalized almost every sector of Mozambican society.
Revitalizing the community
Nuno Soeiro remembers his mom Manula continuing to look after the synagogue, along with his uncles, even though they werenât allowed to practice religion there in the communist era.
âSome people from the American embassy, they used to do some lessons,â Nuno Soeiro told me, saying they went to embassy officialsâ houses to observe Jewish holidays.

In 1989, the synagogue had an unexpected savior: Alkis Macropolous, a Greek, and not Jewish, businessman. His Jewish colleagues in Johannesburg encouraged him to help preserve the building. He ensured that the dilapidated structure was not torn down and arranged for an ad to be placed in the paper asking for any remaining Jews to claim the synagogue â and they did. The defeat of the communist government in 1990 â which was replaced by a presidential republic â allowed religious communities to be active again.
When Samuel Levy arrived in 1993, the synagogue didnât have enough people for a minyan and wasnât having official services, but on Saturday afternoons, Jewish and non-Jewish members gathered together to sing folk songs. Although it wasnât a traditional service, Levy found it spiritually fulfilling.
âThose songs were maybe the most simplest prayers Iâve ever heard,â Levy told me. âBut also the deepest.â
For Larry and Diane Herman, Conservative Jews from Detroit who arrived in Maputo in 1999, practicing Judaism without a large community was nothing new. Larryâs work as an economist took them around the globe, including to Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Uganda.
âWe were the center of the Jewish community in Ouagadougou from 1975 to 1977, which simply means the three or four or five other Jewish Peace Corps volunteers,â Larry told me.
The Hermans took on leadership roles and Diane put together a spiral-bound siddur for services that includes prayers in Hebrew, English and Portuguese. They wrote a prayer for Mozambique based on the prayer for the country found in many U.S. prayer books. Levy also led services, even while away.
Natalie Tenzer-Silva, who moved from South Africa to Mozambique with her family in 1993, told me Levy would send cassette recordings of Kol Nidre when he couldnât be there to lead High Holiday services himself.
âHe would blow the shofar over a cell phone or send a recording of it,â Tenzer-Silva said. âHe really is the pillar, making sure that we have all the writings and the readings and all of that ready for the holidays and for the Friday nights.â

The Hermans were the only Shabbat-observant and kosher members of the synagogue at the time. To buy kosher food, they went to Johannesburg, often bringing things back for the congregation. These imports were critical around Passover, when the Hermans hosted seders at their home, sometimes for as many as 50 people.
Not big enough to have a full executive board or leadership team, the synagogue members had to set their own guidelines.
âWe sat for like four hours trying to hash out the rules,â Diane Herman said.
âWhen you already donât have a minyan of Jews, let alone males, and youâve got all these intermarried couples, what do you do about the spouse? And what do you do about these people who arenât Jewish at all, but want to participate?â said Diane. âWe hashed out how to create a community there. It was fascinating.â
âWhen Jews come there from other places, they realize if theyâre going to give any expression to their Jewish identity, they need to work on it,â Levy said. âIf you want your kids to know something, well, youâre going to have to start a Sunday school or really participate in it. If you want the holidays to happen, youâre going to have to organize to import matzo and kosher wine for Passover because we canât make it.â
Rebuilding the synagogue
Considered one of the poorest countries in the world, Mozambique attracts many people from abroad who work in diplomacy, aid, or international development. As more Jews arrived to work in these sectors, it became clear the synagogue needed physical improvements.
âWhen I arrived, there were poles supporting the roof,â Tenzer-Silva told me. âAnd every time we would go to services, if the wind blew, my children would think the roof was going to fall in.â
Larry Herman remembered one Shabbat where a corner did fall in â and another where a rat fell from the rafters.
In 2009, congregant Juliana Becker decided she wanted a bat mitzvah â the first to happen in the country â and turned to Larry for tutoring. A Torah was brought in from South Africa, since the synagogue lacked its own, and 125 people attended from Maputo and from abroad. The event prompted Honen Dalimâs leaders to successfully file for official recognition from the government in 2010, making them the legal owners of the synagogue.
Five years later, in preparation for the bar mitzvah of Tenzer-Silvaâs older son, Jordan, the congregation decided to replace the roof. But this could not be done safely without updating the walls and flooring. Tenzer-Silve said what was originally supposed to be a $25,000 bill became more than $120,000.
With help from the local community, and friends and family abroad, Honen Dalim managed to raise the money â just in the nick of time for Jordan.
âThe Friday of his bar mitzvah, they had finished painting the walls,â Tenzer-Silva said.

In 2013, Honen Dalim held a rededication ceremony celebrating the rebuild. Ann Harris, then-President of the African Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft gave the congregation a kosher Sefer Torah â something they had lacked before. Other faith leaders and government representatives attended, including then-Minister of Justice Maria Benvinda Levi, who now serves as the countryâs Prime Minister and has Jewish ancestry.
Multiple members of Honen Dalim described the environment of Maputo as extremely tolerant and supportive of the Jewish community.
âThe entire time I lived in Mozambique, I wore a kippah on the streets and never had any problems,â Larry Herman told me.

Many attribute this respect for religion to the role faith leaders played in dissuading violence during the civil war. A wing of the cityâs central church is dedicated to Pope John Paull II, who made a famed visit in 1988 advocating for peace. Ultimately, the Catholic lay movement, the Community of SantâEgisio, brokered peace. Tenzer-Silva and others remarked that the civil war made people tired of conflict.
Honen Dalim is part of the COREM â the Council of Religions in Mozambique. Its President, MoisĂ©s Chiziane, spoke at the centenary event, urging continued coexistence.
âPeace is not built only by the absence of conflicts,â he said. âPeace is built by respect, listening, acceptance of diversity and recognition of the dignity of every human being.â
Levy told me Honen Dalim has hosted a Muslim adult study group at the synagogue to learn about Jewish practices, such as putting on tefillin.

âThe people who run the different faith organizations,â Levy said, âthey make it an article of faith that they need to actively get along â not tolerate, but learn about the faith of other people.â
In recent years, a branch of ISIS has established itself in the northern part of Mozambique, displacing local residents and leaving other religious groups â and non-affiliated Muslims â fearful of being attacked. But Natalie Tenzer-Silva said that type of extremism has not been seen in Maputo.
âIt wonât come down south,â she told me confidently. âPeople wouldnât tolerate it.â
A tenuous position
Although the community is still active, members described Honen Dalim as âfragile.â Tenzer-Silva said there could be anywhere âbetween three and 12 peopleâ at a Friday service â the turnout isnât big or consistent. They also lack the type of programming that bigger synagogues offer.
âI would like to take my kids to synagogue to learn Hebrew,â Nuno Soeiro said. âWe donât have that.â
Individuals like Levy can help organize lessons for kids like Soeiroâs daughter to be on track to become bar or bat mitzvahs. But the number of people with that type of knowledge is limited.
According to Levy, COVID was âa big blow to the Jewish community.â
âAt that point we had Sunday school with eight kids,â he said. âAfter that, things kind of became a little more tenuous and theyâre a little more tenuous today, but we try to keep going.â
The congregationâs reliance on expats also puts it in a delicate position. Synagogue leaders say only around a third of congregants are permanent residents. While some expats find a permanent home in Maputo, others leave due to work or family. After 16 years in Maputo, the Hermans left and now live in Los Angeles. Levy divides his time between Maputo and Dubai, although all three help manage things from a distance.
The recent cuts to USAID programs to Mozambique will likely diminish the number of American Jews who have jobs that require them to move there. And a hidden debt scandal in the mid-2010s that cost the country nearly $2.2 billion broke the trust of investors from around the world who may have sent Jewish employees to Mozambique.
âA lot of the international community withdrew support for many years,â Marcos Vaena said. âIt was 10 years of economic crisis.â
Vaena, who grew up in Brazil in a Sephardic family with Turkish roots, first moved to Maputo in 2006 as a UN volunteer for a development program. He left in 2010 to work in other developing countries, but returned in 2024. He told me he saw âa diminished communityâ compared to the Honen Dalim heâd left behind. He decided to start leading Shabbat services a couple times a month.

âI wanted to make sure that my kids have continued exposure to a Jewish tradition and education,â he said.
Itâs not just expats, however, who want a more formal way to be involved in Judaism.
âThereâs a regular interest from Mozambicans that are seeking spiritual connection through Judaism,â Vaena said. âBut then you need, I think, a more structured process and support for those who are there.â
âThere were a lot of people who had been happy to convert, and that just wasnât possible,â Diane Herman added. âThere was no rabbi around.â
âWe have a lot of people who were, I call, âlovers of Zionâ as opposed to Jews,â Larry Herman told me. âThey were some of the biggest supporters.â He recounted what happened when he and Diane lost their fathers. âBoth of us went to the funerals in the United States and came back, and we were in our period of mourning â it was the non-Jews who supported us by coming to every service.â
There is also no mikveh, the ritual bath needed for conversions. Diane said some people go to South Africa for the rite, but they tend to be those with money. In a country where half of all workers earn less than 60,000 Metical a year â less than $1,000 â itâs not a viable option for the vast majority of Mozambicans.
Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, chief rabbi for the AJC, occasionally helps the congregation with critical events, but Silberhaft serves nine different countries and cannot be everywhere at once. Tenzer-Silva told me that bringing in a permanent rabbi for such a small congregation would be difficult, especially with the lack of kosher food options. Vaena said he himself has considered seminary training.
âThat experience leading the services and being more engaged on a daily basis has really brought me a lot of joy,â he said.
Perseverance
Despite the struggles the community faces, the 100th anniversary ceremony did not feel like a pity party for a dying congregation. Kids ran around the lawn during the reception, which was stocked with bagels and cakes from a kosher caterer in South Africa. Tenzer-Silvaâs son Jordan, whoâs in his late twenties now, helped usher people at the event and recited âTzadik Katamarâ alongside other synagogue leaders. The younger generation of the synagogue is small, but present.

And those who have moved away donât really leave Honen Dalim behind. From Los Angeles, Larry Herman serves as the president of the Friends of the Jewish Community of Mozambique, helping garner international support for Honen Dalim. Although he and his wife havenât lived in Maputo in 10 years, they spoke of it with great reverence.
âItâs a wonderful community,â Larry said. âIâm very proud of it.â
Honen Dalim continues to welcome new members and serve as a place where Jewish visitors can have a home. Members told me that travelers have come from America, Paris, Israel and other parts of the world. For Jews who end up in Maputo â whether for a few days, a few years, or the rest of their lives â Honen Dalim serves as a vital source of community. Several people said they had never been more Jewish than they had been in Mozambique.
âMay the next hundred years be of peace, prosperity, and abundant blessings for all,â Chapo said toward the end of his speech. Although his words were practically all in Portuguese, he closed with a message Jews around the world could understand: âShalom. Shalom. Shalom.â
The post Mozambiqueâs only synagogue has been keeping Judaism alive in the country for a century appeared first on The Forward.



