LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Jerusalem REPORT

I read your May 10 article on the Kohen gene with great interest, especially with regard to how the discovery supports the claims of the Lemba tribe to a Jewish heritage. As you explain, the Lemba live along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe and are very proud of being part of the Jewish people. As a member of Kulanu, a group of Americans and others who reach out to Jewish groups in places where you'd ordinarily not expect to find them, I am in touch with the Lemba and can affirm their Jewish pride.

We in Kulanu think readers may have been misled by the view expressed by your source, John Haji, that the Lemba are "mostly Christians who see no contradiction in believing in Jesus while insisting on being Jewish." We have been in correspondence with, Rabson Wuriga, a Lemba leader in Noordbrug, South Africa, and we asked for his reactions on this topic.

He said:

"It is true that many Lemba people became Christians as a result of colonialism and rejection from some of their Jewish brothers and sisters who saw them as a bunch of mysterious Africans who are seeking special treatment. Especially they doubted our Jewishness in that we did not have the Torah.

"Several times my late father who could not write and read, told me that we had a book of the law but it was lost. This orally transmitted fact is repeated in many places where Lemba people are found. Lack of a Torah and many other factors led to the loss of Lemba heritage in many things. Hence you find some Lemba in Islam (because they gave in to the deceptive misrepresentation that they are Muslims) and in Christianity (not of the kind of Messianic Jews who seek to destroy Judaism); some others do not have any religious affiliation. My own maternal grandmother, who passed away last week, never became a Christian but she always held that she believes God exists. Though some of the Lemba people are Christians, not all of us have forgotten who they are.

"I am not so learned in Covenant Theology, but my father told me that that it is what makes us the people who we are. Most of Lemba people are non-religious, but they practice many things one would call Jewish. To bring them to restoration, they need education-- both formal and informal.

"Once I complete my Ph.D. program, I would want to try and build something for the Lemba people to come and learn about their origin, culture, religion, customs, language (especially, Hebrew), and promote the kind of development, in science, engineering, medicine, which Jews are said to excel in.

"As Ezra and Nehemiah once brought cultural, social and religious restoration and reformation to the returnees among exiled children of Israel, it is my prayer that the Heavens may bring people of your organization Kulanu to help us to come to the full realization of what it means to be Jewish."

In sum, we readers of the REPORT need to suspend our Eurocentric views in order to understand the true miracle that the Lemba have maintained their Jewish heritage and are eager to rejoin the Jewish mainstream.

Max Amichai Heppner
Baltimore, MD