Published on Haaretz.com

Seven years and four conversions: Yosef Kibita, a member of Uganda's Abayudaya community, waged a long legal battle to get recognized as eligible to immigrate as a Jew

The Interior Ministry has granted Israeli citizenship to a Ugandan man who converted to Judaism through the Conservative movement, bringing several years of legal battles to an end.

Yosef Kibita is part of Uganda's Abayudaya community, a 2,000-member-strong group that embraced Judaism about a century ago. Around two decades ago, members started to undergo formal conversions, most of them overseen by Conservative rabbis. Kibita is the first Abayudaya Jew to become an Israeli citizen.

Under Israel's Law of Return, converts are eligible to immigrate and get automatic citizenship as long as they have been converted inside a "recognized Jewish community," irrespective of the presiding rabbi's affiliation.

Along with a large group of Abayudaya, Kibita first converted to Judaism in 2002. At the time, the Jewish Agency had yet to deem the Abayudaya a recognized Jewish community because the group did not have its own rabbi and because it had not yet been approved for membership in the international Conservative movement. In 2008, the community had its own rabbi, Gershom Sizomu, ordained. Along with many other members of the original group of converts, Kibita went through a second conversion shortly there after, hoping to be finally recognized by Israel.

While participating in a study program in Israel, Kibita applied for citizenship in 2018 but was rejected by the Interior Ministry. In response, Kibita, together with the Conservative movement in Israel, petitioned the High Courtof Justice. They were represented by the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country. In its response to the petition, the state said explicitly for the first time that it did not regard the Abayudaya as a recognized Jewish community and that members were, therefore, not eligible for immigration under the Law of Return.

The court ruled in favor of the Interior Ministry, noting that Kibita had been converted in 2008, a year before the Abayudaya were accepted into the international Conservative movement and before the group obtained recognized status from the Jewish Agency. Despite this, his visa was extended. The court recommended that he convert again, but this time through a recognized Jewish community.

He then underwent another conversion, this time through the Conservative movement in Israel. He traveled from his kibbutz in the Arava Desert to the Interior Ministry branch in Eilat and submitted a new request for citizenship. His chances appeared improved after a landmark 2021 High Court ruling that said non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel would be recognized for the purpose of the Law of Return.

In December 2021, Kibita's request was rejected on the grounds that he had not gone through a proper conversion. The Interior Ministry said that the Conservative rabbinical court in Israel had decided to convert Kibita without requiring him to go through another program of study. So, he underwent a fourth conversion, overseen by Rabbi Sara Cohen at the kibbutz of Ketura. It was a quicker process, as he already had prior knowledge of Judaism and had been living an observant Jewish life for years. Despite this, he still had to go through the full formal process for converts in Israel, including the waiting period.

He tried and waited. After seven years, he received a formal notice on Monday informing him that he was now an Israeli citizen. "Since I have arrived in Israel, I knew that this was my home," said Kibita in the Conservative movement's press release. "I cannot describe how I feel at this moment after being approved as an Israeli. I am shaking with joy, and I feel even more connected to the Jewish world than ever."

"This makes us so happy, because this is someone who has tied his fate to the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. He was committed to it, and he succeeded," Rakefet Ginsberg, executive director of the Masorti Movement (the Conservative Judaism movement in Israel), says. "It's supposed to be his right, but he fought for it, and so much harder than so many other immigrants – for the right to be apart of this nation, even during these difficult times."

Kibita's journey toward becoming Israeli spanned seven years and four conversions – two in Uganda and two in Israel. It was supported by the Masorti Movement, the Israel Religious Action Center and Ketura, the kibbutz where Kibita lives.

He was accompanied by Israel Religious Action Center lawyer Nicole Maor and Rabbi Andy Sacks, who played a part in Kibita's process from his time in Uganda and through to his decision to come to Israel until he died last month. The Masorti/Conservative movement started a fund in Sacks'name to help people in situations like Kibita's – people who are going through legal battles related to their conversion and people whose conversions are not immediately recognized by the state.

"Israeli society, for years, has had a hard time seeing the diversity of Judaism," says Ginsberg, describing the importance of Kibita's victory. "It's now accepting an Israeli citizen who underwent a Conservative conversion, who came from a Conservative community. He isn't just a part of the Jewish people, but part of Israeli society and the State of Israel now."

World Judaism is diverse, and this is a major step in building a society that recognizes the different streams of Judaism the world over, Ginsberg says, a society that "isn't just concerned about seeing the relative minority of global Judaism that's Orthodox and can recognize Conservative and Reform Judaism.

"This is also part of who we are, and it's part of our future"in Israel, she added.