From Kampala to URJ Camp Newman: How Tzion Embodies the Jewish Service Movement
Tzion Kaukira’s path to Jewish service started in Kampala, Uganda, home to the Abayudaya, a Jewish community that is nearly a hundred years old. It’s small enough that everyone knows everyone, and it’s shaped how Tzion thinks about Jewish life altogether. “It’s more about community,” he said. “You don’t see much of the distinction between conservative Jews and Orthodox Jews. We work together.” Being small also means being easy to overlook.
“We are vulnerable, and we’re underrepresented nationwide. The government doesn’t officially know we’re there. It’s been like that for a hundred years.”
That sense of responsibility to community is part of what pulled Tzion toward service in the first place. Years ago, he was part of a shared student house in Kampala called Marom House, a home and informal synagogue for Jewish students regardless of denomination. People studied together, prayed together, and built lives together. That house doesn’t exist anymore, but Tzion remained committed to building Jewish community and connection, both in Kampala and beyond. He was therefore thrilled to learn about Repair the World’s Michael Kay Jewish Service Ambassador program through a friend. Tzion didn’t know much yet about what the role actually involved, but he already knew what his community needed.
Tzion leads volunteers in collecting trash as part environmental service project in Kampala, clearing standing water where malaria-carrying mosquitoes breed.
Once he became a Service Ambassador, Tzion didn’t ease into it. He ran four events in his first month alone, then pushed himself to two events a week, leading more than a dozen service projects in his first year in the role. Tzion’s projects have ranged from an environmental initiative clearing out a community water drainage system, cutting down on the stagnant water where malaria-carrying mosquitoes breed, to Beyond the Bouquet, a Mother’s Day project connecting gratitude for mothers to conversations about gender and access to reproductive care. His enthusiasm for Repair the World shows up in small ways too; for example, he once used part of his own stipend to buy Repair the World t-shirts to hand out to his participants as swag.
Tzion’s “Pesach project” stayed with him the most; he taught his community to make their own matzah and kosher wine by hand. Teaching that skill meant something beyond the holiday itself, tied back to Pesach’s own themes of freedom and food access. “It was not all about just saving,” he said. “It was about acquiring skills which we can use in the future, and also being able to provide for our community and be self-sustainable.” That meant making enough matzah
Tzion (center) and volunteers braid challah together in Kampala.
and wine that people could bring some home to their own communities and families too. “It’s a great thing that I was able to have extra wine for some communities to take as well,” he said.
Tzion’s commitment to service didn’t just stay in Uganda. This summer marked Tzion’s fourth consecutive year bringing his commitment to Jewish service beyond Uganda; he was on staff at URJ Camp Newman in California, a Repair the World partner site that hires international staff from around the world. He is the camp’s only staff member from Africa. Some of what set him apart also gave him something to offer. Gardening, a way of life back home in Uganda, turned out to be a skill he could actually teach at camp.
“It feels like a privilege that I’m able to pass on these skills that I didn’t feel I would ever get to share with other people.”
What keeps Tzion going, especially on the projects that are hardest to pull off, comes down to one line he keeps coming back to. “No one is going to do it if I don’t do it,” he said. “So I will not wait for other people.”
Tzion is headed to Israel in August to begin rabbinical study at Pardes, with hopes of keeping his Uganda projects alive from a distance, pairing online learning with local service partners on the ground. His advice for anyone considering being a Service Ambassador is straightforward. “Serve with passion,” he said, “and do service events that resonate with you the most.” “Not all of us can give in the same way,” he said, “but we can do whatever we can, whatever we’re gifted in.” From Kampala to California and soon to Israel, Tzion has never waited to see if his path looked like anyone else’s. He just kept showing up.
Tzion is one of more than 150 Michael Kay Service Ambassadors leading Jewish service programming around the world. He holds a Bachelor of Public Health and brings that grounding in health equity and community well-being to his work as a Repair the World Service Ambassador, from his summers on staff at Camp Newman to service-learning projects on food justice, environmental equity, and honoring older adults across Uganda and Kenya. In every project, Tzion lives out repairing the world, tikkun olam, justice, tzedek, and loving kindness, chesed, reminding us that when we serve together, we strengthen more than we fix.
