About Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa with coastline on the Indian Ocean. It encompasses savannah, lakelands, the dramatic Great Rift Valley and mountain highlands. It's also home to wildlife like lions, elephants and rhinos. From Nairobi, the capital, safaris visit the Maasai Mara Reserve, known for its annual wildebeest migrations, and Amboseli National Park, offering views of Tanzania's 5,895m Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the savannah grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya, which has snow permanently on its peaks. The African Great Lakes region, which Kenya is a part of, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period. By the first millennium AD, the Bantu expansion had reached the area from West-Central Africa. The capital, Nairobi, is a regional commercial hub. The economy of Kenya is the largest by GDP in East and Central Africa. Kenya's services sector, which contributes 61% of GDP, is dominated by tourism. The tourism sector has exhibited steady growth in most years since independence and by the late 1980s had become the country's principal source of foreign exchange. Tourists, the largest number being from Germany and the United Kingdom, are attracted mainly to the coastal beaches and the game reserves, notably, the expansive East and Tsavo West National Park 20,808 square kilometres (8,034 sq mi) in the southeast.
Jewish History, POI & Kosher Establishments in Kenya
Jewish settlement in Kenya began in the early 1900s. In August 1903, the British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain offered the Zionists a part of the territory in Kenya (the “Uganda Scheme”) for their own autonomous country at the Sixth Zionist Congress. The suggestion created much controversy among the international Jewish community, and was rejected at the Seventh Zionist Congress, in 1905. Although, this proposal was reverted, several Jewish families immigrated to Kenya. In 1904, the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation was established; by 1913, 20 Jewish families lived in Nairobi and the first synagogue was built. Today, approximately 400 Jews live in Kenya; most reside in Nairobi. There are regular Shabbat and holiday services held in the only synagogue in the country. While the majority of the congregation is not Orthodox, the services follow Orthodox traditions, including separate seating for men and women. The community is led by Rabbi Chananya Rogalsky, an American who is an African envoy for Chabad-Lubavitch. All kosher food is imported. The community center, in the Vermont Memorial Hall, is located adjacent to the synagogue, and holds many weekly educational and social events.
