{"id":187414,"date":"2022-11-23T10:03:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T15:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?p=187414"},"modified":"2022-11-29T11:55:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T16:55:09","slug":"beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_187424\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-187424\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-187424\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"A group of Nigerian Jews wearing tallitot huddle around the davening stand with a Torah rested on it.\" width=\"740\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-696x391.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-1068x600.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6-600x337.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-2-6.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-187424\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Torah service at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue in Abuja, Nigeria | Courtesy of Moshe Hezekiah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">For Judaism, a religion in its 5783rd year, the more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In a congregation in Abuja, Nigeria, the country\u2019s capital and eighth most populous city, the Jewish practices share significant similarities to thousands of synagogues elsewhere: Torah readers don a tallit and read from the holy scrolls with a yad; Jews light Chanukah candles and celebrate coming of age with b\u2019nai mitzvah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">They are practices that unite Jews across the globe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">But there\u2019s one part of Abuja\u2019s Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue\u2019s ritual practices that separate it from almost every other synagogue in the world: its Torah chanting. Created specifically by its leader Moshe Hezekiah, the Hebrew cantillations are distinct, blending the words of Torah with sounds and intonations from the Igbo language, spoken by 18 million people in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Over the summer, a second synagogue adopted the Igbo-influenced chanting: Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park. In June, Abuja synagogue leader Hezekiah moved to Philadelphia and became the <span class=\"s1\"><i>baal koreh<\/i><\/span>, or Torah reader, at the Conservative synagogue.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cIt feels very moving to me when I listen to him chant,\u201d Beth Sholom Rabbi David Glanzberg-Krainin said. \u201cIt makes me feel a sense of awe and wonder about Jewish people, that we could be in all these different parts of the world, have this common language of Torah and Hebrew that unites us, and yet have these very different backgrounds and cultures that gave birth to this part of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The synagogue began its search for a <span class=\"s1\"><i>baal koreh<\/i><\/span> over the summer. Unlike some other synagogues, Beth Sholom reads Torah in a triennial, three-year cycle. Glanzberg-Krainin and Cantor Jacob Agar believe that, while congregant volunteers can and should chant Torah, a <span class=\"s1\"><i>baal koreh<\/i><\/span>, with a deep fluency of Hebrew, can transport a congregation spiritually.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Hezekiah, who recently married Philadelphian Eliana Maya Nwafor and relocated to the U.S., responded to a Facebook post about the position enthusiastically. He trial-read the Torah in front of the Beth Sholom clergy, who were struck by his leyning style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cFor me as a cantor, one of the most important things is beauty and making the experience beautiful and, through the beauty, transcendental,\u201d Agar said. \u201cHis style brings a sort of sacredness to it, holiness to it, which isn\u2019t often heard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hezekiah\u2019s fluency with Torah reading comes from years of study. At age 9, the now-25-year-old became the leader of his Abuja Jewish community at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue. Though not a rabbi, he conducted b\u2019nai mitzvah training, brit milot and other life cycle events.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_187425\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-187425\" style=\"width: 378px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-187425\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Moshe Hezekiah is a Black man with a short beard and glasses wearing a tallit and helping a young Nigerian Jewish boy wrap tefillin.\" width=\"378\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-696x928.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-1068x1424.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-315x420.jpg 315w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-360x480.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5-scaled.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-187425\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moshe Hezekiah at the bar mitzvah of one of his students at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue in Abuja, Nigeria | Courtesy of Moshe Hezekiah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p3\">In 2014, Hezekiah received the Kulanu Global Teaching Fellowship, and he completed a two-month-long trip to East Africa and studied with Rabbi Gershom Sizomu in the Abayudaya Jewish community there. It was during his fellowship that Hezekiah noticed other Jewish communities incorporating their spoken languages with their Torah cantillations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hezekiah\u2019s goal was ultimately to return to his Abuja community with more knowledge to pass on to the young Jewish generation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cI want to go around and teach people about Judaism in Nigeria. &#8230; We\u2019ve had to spread knowledge to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause not everyone has smartphones, not everyone has access to Jewish texts, not everyone has access to <span class=\"s1\"><i>chumashim<\/i><\/span>, not everyone has access to Talmud, <span class=\"s1\"><i>mishnah<\/i><\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Judaism in Nigeria has faltered in the past half century, largely because of the growth of Christianity in the region, Hezekiah believes. Hezekiah\u2019s father was born Christian and found his way back to Judaism after realizing that many of his rituals and traditions were rooted in the faith; his grandfather, who keeps shomer Shabbos, has never heard of Christianity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Nigeria is home to 3,000 Jews, according to a Harvard University Divinity School study, about 85% of whom are Igbo, and the Jewish practices of the Igbo ethnic group can be traced thousands of years, Hezekiah said. But because of the generational divide and Christian proselytism in the area, Hezekiah feels an urgency to keep Judaism alive among the Igbo people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hezekiah\u2019s role as<span class=\"s1\"><i> baal koreh<\/i><\/span>, as well as his day job at Makom Community, means that he plans on staying in the U.S. with his wife in the long run. However, he hopes his time in Philadelphia can help aid his community back home. He still conducts lectures and b\u2019nai mitzvah trainings over Zoom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cBeing in the U.S. doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not connected to my community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hezekiah created a GoFundMe to raise money to help support families and bring rabbis from the U.S. for the next conversion in Nigeria, which he hopes will take place in August 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">A Conservative Jew \u2014 a minority among the 75% Orthodox population in Nigeria \u2014 Hekeziah believes he holds a \u201cprogressive\u201d view of Judaism that guides his work in both building Jewish community in Abuja and finding new roots in Philadelphia: \u201cWe need to be able to fit Judaism in our everyday, day-to-day life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><i>srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Judaism, a religion in its 5783rd year, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In a congregation in Abuja, Nigeria, the country\u2019s capital and eighth most populous city, the Jewish practices share significant similarities to thousands of synagogues elsewhere: Torah readers don a tallit and read from the holy scrolls with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13397,"featured_media":187425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,29,7,34,18,8,9001],"tags":[14869,14870,13210,14868,14871,14867],"section":[],"coauthors":[13222],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For Judaism, a religion in its 5783rd year, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In a congregation in Abuja, Nigeria, the country\u2019s capital and eighth most populous city, the Jewish practices share significant similarities to thousands of synagogues elsewhere: Torah readers don a tallit and read from the holy scrolls with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sasha Rogelberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sasha Rogelberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sasha Rogelberg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f18f6db981918c433f51084defbe99\"},\"headline\":\"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\"},\"wordCount\":884,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Abuja\",\"baal koreh\",\"Congregation Beth Sholom\",\"Igbo\",\"Moshe Hezekiah\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"20s and 30s\",\"Culture\",\"Headlines\",\"Judaism\",\"Lifestyle\",\"Local\",\"Ritual Life\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":1067,\"caption\":\"Moshe Hezekiah at the bar mitzvah of one of his students at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue in Abuja, Nigeria | Courtesy of Moshe Hezekiah\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Exponent\",\"description\":\"What It Means To Be Jewish In Philadelphia\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jewish Exponent\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Jewish Exponent\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/jewishexponent\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jewishexponent\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f18f6db981918c433f51084defbe99\",\"name\":\"Sasha Rogelberg\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent","og_description":"For Judaism, a religion in its 5783rd year, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In a congregation in Abuja, Nigeria, the country\u2019s capital and eighth most populous city, the Jewish practices share significant similarities to thousands of synagogues elsewhere: Torah readers don a tallit and read from the holy scrolls with [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Exponent","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent","article_published_time":"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sasha Rogelberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jewishexponent","twitter_site":"@jewishexponent","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sasha Rogelberg","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/"},"author":{"name":"Sasha Rogelberg","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f18f6db981918c433f51084defbe99"},"headline":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria","datePublished":"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/"},"wordCount":884,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg","keywords":["Abuja","baal koreh","Congregation Beth Sholom","Igbo","Moshe Hezekiah","Nigeria"],"articleSection":["20s and 30s","Culture","Headlines","Judaism","Lifestyle","Local","Ritual Life"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/","name":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria - Jewish Exponent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-23T15:03:12+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-29T16:55:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/LOCAL1-1-5.jpg","width":800,"height":1067,"caption":"Moshe Hezekiah at the bar mitzvah of one of his students at Tikvat Yisrael Synagogue in Abuja, Nigeria | Courtesy of Moshe Hezekiah"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/beth-sholom-torah-reader-connects-philadelphia-nigeria\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beth Sholom Torah Reader Connects Philadelphia, Nigeria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/","name":"Jewish Exponent","description":"What It Means To Be Jewish In Philadelphia","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization","name":"Jewish Exponent","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png","width":700,"height":86,"caption":"Jewish Exponent"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent","https:\/\/x.com\/jewishexponent","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jewishexponent\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f18f6db981918c433f51084defbe99","name":"Sasha Rogelberg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187414"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=187414"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=187414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}