NPR

Yom Kippur In Uganda: An Easier Fast This Year

A remote community of Jews, who know what it's like to go hungry, are reflecting on what their spiritual leader says was "a good year, really not too bad."
Shadrach Mugoya Levi and his wife, Naomi.

Before Yom Kippur begins at sundown Tuesday, members of Uganda's Namutumba Synagogue will sit down to a festive meal to prepare themselves physically and spiritually for the Day of Atonement.

This Jewish custom of the seuda hamafseket is new for this community, whose members have often entered the 25-hour-long fast on empty stomachs due to drought and food shortages.

"But this year, we will really be able to prepare for the fast and enter it with happiness, with gratefulness," says Namutumba's spiritual leader Shadrach Mugoya Levi by telephone from the Ugandan village of

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Mystik Dan Wins The Kentucky Derby By A Nose
In a close finish, Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby by a horse's nostril over Sierra Leone. Contenders waited with bated breath in the seconds before the official decision was made. The thoroughbred had entered the race with 18-1 odds — a longshot c
NPR4 min read
'Zillow Gone Wild' Brings Wacky Real Estate Listings To HGTV
Zillow Gone Wild started in 2020 as an Instagram account devoted to eccentric property listings. The show focuses on homes that defy everyday expectations in some way.
NPR4 min read
Cicadas Are Back On The Menu. One Chef Shares His Dish Ideas — And An Easy Recipe
The cicadas are coming! And so are some new flavor profiles. This spring, the bugs of two broods, the 13-year Brood XIX and the 17-year Brood XIII, will crawl from the ground simultaneously across the eastern and southern parts of the United States.

Related Books & Audiobooks