Welcoming Shabbat with Lecha Dodi Sung by Gershom Sizomu, Chief Rabbi of Uganda

Gershom Sizomu (born 1969) is a Ugandan rabbi serving the Abayudaya, a Baganda community in eastern Uganda near the town of Mbale who practice Judaism. Sizomu is the first native-born black rabbi in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also the first Chief Rabbi of Uganda. Sizomu is a member of the Ugandan Parliament. 

As a Rabbinic Fellow at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, he came to the U.S. to 2003 to study in a five-year graduate program at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He graduated in 2008 and was ordained as a rabbi under the auspices of Conservative Judaism. 

In this video Rabbi Sizomu sings Lecha Dodi at a Kabbalat Shabbat service with Cantor Jenni Asher who has sung as a cantorial soloist since 2020. As of September 2024, Asher works as the music director and cantorial soloist for a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles. She was ordained as a cantor in 2025, becoming the first known black woman to hold the role.  

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!