Mordreck Maeresera
Founding President of the Harare Lemba Synagogue

A) What qualities make the nominee deserving of the Z3 Bridge Builder Award?

Modreck Maeresera is the founding president of the Harare Lemba Synagogue a congregation of Lemba Jews of Zimbabwe. Through his efforts and working with Jewish donors the Harare Lemba created a community center where they meet for services and holiday celebrations. The Harare Lemba Synagogue congregation started learning about rabbinical Judaism from scratch under Modreck's leadership. Through different programs and projects the congregation's Hebrew and teffillot literacy grew. Notable among these programmes is the Lemba Nusach project where the Lemba composed their own tunes for prayers. Today the Lemba conduct Shabbat services in Hebrew and most of the tunes are their own.

Modreck working with Sandy leader a Jewish friend authored a Lemba haggadah. This haggadah is tailor made for the Lemba Jews. Added to the traditional Jewish Haggadah content are Lemba stories , their history, and songs. This helped the Lemba to understand and enjoy Pesach seders.

He also wrote a pamphlet detailing Lemba traditions and customs, most of which are clearly Jewish in origins.

In 2022 in December Modreck was part of an historic event. African Jews met in Abidjan capitol city of Ivory Coast, the first ever conference by African Jews south of Sahara. The objective of the conference was to encourage interaction between different African Jewish communities, so that they can share experiences, challenges, successes, resources and work together to develop Judaism in Africa.

In Abidjan the African Jews ended up forming an organisation called SAJA: SubSaharan African Jewish Alliance. The organisation has united the Jews of Africa south of Sahara and enabled them to work together ,speak with one voice and map the future of Judaism in Africa

Modreck was elected first president of SAJA and is still the serving president.

Modreck is also the vice president of commonwealth Jewish council representing the black Jewish community of Zimbabwe.

Modreck worked and is still working on different economic development projects in Lemba Jewish communities across Zimbabwe and in other Jewish communities in Africa. Notable of those projects are the Gelfand food security projects where boreholes were drilled in 7 communities and irrigation is being installed. He also led the building of dams and weirs in different communities in rural Zimbabwe with the intention of alleviating hunger.

Through his efforts more and more Lemba are returning to Judaism and he has helped put the Zimbabwean tribe of the world Jewish map

B) In what ways has the nominee demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to their work in bridging divides?

Modreck is a strong believer in coexistence and has worked to Unite Jewish communities in Zimbabwe and in Africa. He also worked to increase and improve coexistence of people of different religions. At the Harare Lemba Synagogue Catholics often attend services together with Jews to show interreligious solidarity. His leadership qualities did not go unnoticed, in 2020 Modreck was elected into the Board of Kulanu Inc. Kulanu is a US based organization that helps isolated , emerging and returning Jewish communities across the world. Modreck still serves on the Kulanu board and has been part of Kulanu's efforts to help develop Judaism across the world.

C) How has the nominee's work impacted the Jewish community and beyond?

https://youtu.be/Rrw_Ar0lKag?si=7-SpEHQZT3XXyFIY

https://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/24/zimbabwes-lemba-build-their-first-synagogue.html

https://www.africanjewishvoices.com/author/modreck_maeresera/