Rabbi Mendy & Mazal Sternbach: Lagos, Nigeria - A Small Jewish Community in an African City of 20 Million

00:00 Speaker 1 Avi Eliyahu came to Lagos, Nigeria in 1977 to start a business.

00:05 Speaker 2 I sell building material, I sell solar energy, I sell food items.

00:10 Speaker 1 Avi is originally from Switzerland. He says he grew up somewhat religious, but he always wanted a connection to Jewish community. He says he and the many Jews who live and work in Lagos did have one, but it was lacking something.

00:24 Speaker 2 There was never any synagogue in, uh, Nigeria until Chabad came and open up.

00:28 Speaker 1 Avi wanted to learn more about his faith and to practice it. In 2020, his wishes began to come true.

00:35 Speaker 2 When the Sternbach came, they, they really brought the Jewish community up.

00:38 Speaker 1 The Sternbachs are Rabbi Mendy and Rebbetzin Mazal, a young couple who have made a lifelong commitment to Jewish outreach in one of the last places you'd think there would be a Chabad house.

00:50 Speaker 2 They make a lot of efforts to bring people close to them, to bring the community together.

00:54 Speaker 1 But Avi says they've brought a lot more than that to Lagos: Jewish learning, including study of Torah, holidays, and Jewish practices for people of all ages. In just a short time, Avi's taken on some important observances.

01:08 Speaker 2 Me, I'm putting tefillin every morning.

01:10 Speaker 1 Avi says his recent growth is a result of what the Sternbachs have brought to Lagos.

01:15 Speaker 2 The Jewish spirit is much more alive now than when they are not there. A very good benefit for the Jewish life, yeah.

01:21 Speaker 1 And there are more success stories. You'd expect that in a city where there's a Chabad house, but what's so special about the story of the Sternbachs is that Mendy and Mazal, who came from places very different from Nigeria, have inspired so many formerly non-observant Jews in so many different ways. I'm Gary Wolk and this is Lamplighters, stories from Chabad emissaries on the Jewish frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances, and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Rabbi Mendy Sternbach grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as close as one can get to the epicenter of Chabad life.

02:29 Speaker 3 There's really no place like Crown Heights. The warmth, the sense of community, the amount of chessed, kindness. I think it's probably the best place to be a Jew in the entire world. There was kosher food. Life was good. Life was easy.

02:49 Speaker 1 When he was a young yeshiva student, Mendy's teachers began talking a lot about the need for emissaries, but he didn't quite understand what that meant. So Mendy asked a friend to help him.

03:02 Speaker 3 So he printed out a talk of the Rebbe, where the Rebbe explains that every single Jew is a shliach, is an emissary to bring light to the world, whether it is to have a big beard and be called the Rabbi, or to be a teacher in a, a school, or to be a, a donor and support the Jewish institutions. Everybody has their shlichus in life.

03:25 Speaker 1 Young Mendy's fifth grade teachers were, of course, ready to explain further.

03:29 Speaker 3 Our school put a huge map of the world along the second floor, and they put lights wherever there was a Chabad house. And we were exploring the globe, and, uh, I remember hearing the word Nigeria.

03:43 Speaker 1 Mendy Sternbach had a hard time picturing just where that was and what Nigeria was like, but Mendy, who graduated from Yeshiva in 2011, would soon learn that and much more. Mazal Sternbach was born and raised in Paris. Her maternal grandparents were Chabad emissaries, but her parents weren't, at least not in the official sense.

04:09 Speaker 4 We always had, you know, a very, like, welcoming home, always guests. We always grew up, you know, having people and classes and things in the house.

04:18 Speaker 1 Did you imagine yourself going out on shlichus when you got older?

04:22 Speaker 4 Yeah, always.

04:25 Speaker 1 Mazal began to hear more and more about that way of life while attending Bais Rivkah Seminary in Crown Heights and at Bais Chaya Mushka in Montreal.

04:34 Speaker 4 Everybody has this goal, this idea of going out on shlichus.

04:38 Speaker 1 That deeply affected Mazal. After receiving certification, she shared her considerable teaching skills in Milwaukee for one year. Then a friend suggested Mazal call Rabbi Israel Uzan in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city.

04:54 Speaker 4 We had a meeting and then, you know, we decided, "Okay, let's do that. Let's go for a year to Nigeria." My, my parents were not so happy about that then.

05:04 Speaker 1 Why? Did they have a negative impression of Nigeria?

05:07 Speaker 4 I mean, let's say you just Google Nigeria. I'm guessing that the first few things that you will find is not something that parents want to go, you know, their daughter to go there. It doesn't sound so amazing. But then they had a talk with the shluchim, and they realized that, you know, we don't have terrorists walking around, and we're pretty safe, and they were more, like, relaxed.

05:30 Speaker 1 Mazal arrived in Abuja in August 2018.

05:34 Speaker 4 It was like a little shock. This is very different from, uh, Europe. Nothing negative, more like, "Oh, wow, so interesting." You see people walking in the highway, people crossing the roads, people carrying things on themself, like crazy heavy loads. It's normal to see cows and animals in the streets, like, things that you do not see in America or Europe or anywhere else. That is like a developed country

06:03 Speaker 1 Mazal worked with Rabbi Israel and Rebbetzin Chaya Uzan in Abuja for about a year, serving as the director of the preschool, Hebrew school, and C Kids and C Teens programs.

06:15 Speaker 4 It was a great experience, and then afterwards I went on shlichus to Mexico. I went on shlichus also to Panama.

06:22 Speaker 1 Mazal was not thinking about marriage, but in 2019, the Uzans had other thoughts.

06:28 Speaker 4 So right before Purim my sister got married, and then right after she got married, Rabbi Uzan called me. He's like, "Okay, now you can, you know, you're ready, you can get married." So he's like, "D- d- do you want to date Mendy Sternbach?"

06:43 Speaker 1 At first, Mazal wasn't interested. She was too busy, but she knew who he was. Mendy had received rabbinic ordination in 2013, and began working for the Uzans the following year. Even though his shlichus also brought him to California, India, Russia, Ukraine, and France, he'd return from time to time to work for or visit the Uzans. When Mazal began working there in 2018...

07:09 Speaker 3 Every time I used to fly in and out of Abuja, I used to see her there, but we never had any interaction.

07:15 Speaker 1 In 2019, when it was suggested they might be a good match...

07:19 Speaker 4 You want to know the whole story? We both said no to each other.

07:22 Speaker 1 But Rabbi Uzan wasn't giving up so easily

07:25 Speaker 3 Rabbi Uzan suggested that Mazal and I date on a stopover on my way back to Nigeria. She was in Paris, and, uh, I had a stopover in Paris, and, uh, that's when we initially dated.

07:38 Speaker 4 But then once we went out, we realized we both really wanted to go on shlichus, and we both knew Nigeria already. So we had those things in common since the first meeting that we had, and it was kind of like, you know, everything went from there.

07:53 Speaker 1 You know where this is going, right? The Sternbachs were married in June of 2020.

07:59 Speaker 4 It was kind of obvious that we would move back to Nigeria somehow and open up a Chabad house there. My husband was there for so many years. Look, six years is a long time. People knew him. He knew the place. We know already how things work. We were familiar with Nigeria.

08:19 Speaker 1 The newlyweds moved to Lagos that August, living in temporary homes while they looked for something permanent. In very short order, the Sternbachs were preparing a Rosh Hashana meal for over 100 people. They also ran Yom Kippur and Sukkot services. Mazal put her teaching skills to immediate use.

08:38 Speaker 4 My job personally was to make ladies events, uh, programs for the kids. We had, uh, before each holiday we had a little program for them to teach them about the holiday. My husband was taking care of the prayers, making sure we had minyans and things like that.

08:53 Speaker 1 Mazal and Mendy had made a good first impression in Lagos. They went to France immediately after the Chagim, but returned to Lagos right before Hanukkah.

09:02 Speaker 4 My husband was giving Torah classes, Hanukkah, you know, making donuts, bringing it to people, going around, lighting the Hanukkiah with them.

09:09 Speaker 1 After Hanukkah, they again returned to France. Their first baby was born right after Purim 2021, so they had to miss Purim and Pesach in Lagos, but they returned that summer. This time it would be for good, and they knew more about the community they were serving than ever before. Lagos is Africa's second-most populous city, with well over 20 million residents. The Jewish community numbers only a few hundred.

09:39 Speaker 4 There's a little bit of French, American, and other nationalities, but not observant at all.

09:46 Speaker 1 Most of them are Israelis working in construction, cybersecurity, and agriculture.

09:52 Speaker 3 Nigeria attracts a specific kind of Israeli, one that's very non-observant in Jewish matters.

09:59 Speaker 1 But Mazal says the Jewish community of Lagos welcomed them with open arms.

10:04 Speaker 4 I think they were waiting for a Chabad rabbi to come and, and move there permanently, and over the years they were actually, like, always joking with Mendy, like, "When are you getting married? When are you moving here?" Like, "That's it, we need you to stay." So they were very happy when we came. The community was really, really welcoming, really nice.

10:23 Speaker 1 But what about the 20 million or so non-Jews living in Lagos? Of those, roughly half are Christian and half are Muslim. Is there friction between them and the tiny Jewish minority there?

10:36 Speaker 4 It's so funny because people are always scared, like, "Oh, it's a Muslim country. Do you guys have antisemitism?" We really don't. We have the opposite. Like, I don't see any antisemitism here. I mean, I've never, ever experienced anything. On the contrary, only the opposite. They stop us in the street. They ask my husband to give them a blessing. Yeah.

10:53 Speaker 3 They see me with a yarmulke. They walk over to me and they say, "Oh, you're a Jew. You're from the Bible. You're Moses." You know, they tell us, "You're the chosen people." They ask to join us for Shabbat dinners, to study Torah with us. There's a bit of a disconnect between the government and the people. The government suffers from a lot of corruption, which, uh, hampers the, uh, advancement of the nation, uh, and the economy, but the people, the average Nigerian person, they're really, really nice, good people.

11:26 Speaker 1 Corruption is rampant in Nigeria. It's challenging enough to get kosher food in most countries, but it's really difficult when you have to deal with corruption at all levels of government.

11:37 Speaker 3 Importations is, is, is is a challenge. It's extremely difficult to be a Jew here in Nigeria. Kosher food is super difficult. To encourage people to eat kosher, we need to make kosher accessible and available for the people.

11:54 Speaker 1 But Mendy and Mazal have attacked the issue head-on. They've figured out Nigeria's complicated importation landscape. You might say they've mastered it.

12:03 Speaker 3 So minutes before this interview, we got our shipment of dry kosher food from Israel. We import salmon. We import kosher beef, kosher lamb from South Africa. I do shechita for chicken here in Nigeria. It's a very big operation. We are the only ones in Nigeria who have vacuum-sealed chicken. Why go through all this hassle? Because this is the way people will buy kosher, because their food is clean, it's healthy, and it's neat.

12:38 Speaker 1 The Sternbachs have also opened a kosher mini supermarket. In addition to chicken that Mendy raises and processes, and the beef they import from South Africa, their shop offers fish, Israeli packaged foods, and wine. Mendy says that's helped the members of their community take on more kosher observance.

12:57 Speaker 3 And it's a never-ending logistical challenge, but I don't give up because we want people to be able to be a Jew here, and food is an essential part of being a Jew.

13:08 Speaker 1 With that clearly in mind, the Sternbachs don't just wait for the Jewish professionals of Lagos to knock on their door. They sometimes bring food to them through a lunch-and-learn program that teaches Talmud, Hasidus, and Kabbalah, but there's an innovative dimension to it.

13:24 Speaker 3 We come to the offices with falafel, actually hot falafel, because we have a little fryer. We come to the offices, make sure it's, uh, really nice.

13:33 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, of course, he came and do it in my office. He brought his fryer. We did the falafel. He brought kosher sushi. I mean, really unbelievable.

13:40 Speaker 1 That's Avi Eliyahu. He came to Nigeria from Switzerland more than 45 years ago to sell building materials. Avi says he didn't grow up in what he would call an observant family. For decades, Avi would take part in social events and major holiday celebrations in Lagos, but he adds that something was missing until the Sternbachs came.

14:03 Speaker 2 They brought up a Jewish life. They invite for Shabbat dinners. They do a lot of parties, and they are really attracting a lot of people because they bring a family feeling to the people living here, family feeling to be with them. So they bring a lot, yes.

14:17 Speaker 1 Including the personal support Avi says he's always wanted so that he can learn more about Jewish life and customs, like the Sunday Tefillin Club the Sternbachs run most Sunday mornings, after which everyone enjoys Mazal's homemade shakshuka. Now...

14:33 Speaker 2 Me, I'm putting tefillin every morning

14:35 Speaker 1 ... and he's praying every day. Avi says none of this would be possible if not for the Sternbachs' special qualities.

14:42 Speaker 2 They are really so nice and so kind, and they are very open-minded, both of them. We discuss all subjects. It's really very, very nice to have a rabbi that is so open-minded and you can share your personal feelings.

14:55 Speaker 1 While Mendy is teaching men about tefillin and other men's mitzvahs, Mazal runs a class for women and uses her educational expertise to run CKids and CTeens programs, as well as a Montessori preschool and children's camps, which she runs mostly during school vacations. Mazal recently brought a group of her campers on a boat ride in the nearby ocean. She learned something very important about the impact religious observance can have on kids who, although raised in non-observant homes, want Jewish knowledge and observance.

15:30 Speaker 4 And so we get inside the boat, and I tell the kids, "Just remove whatever you have because the boat is going fast, and, you know, we might lose our personal items." So this kid had a yarmulke, a kippah on.

15:44 Speaker 1 His name is Yonatan. He's six years old.

15:48 Speaker 4 And I was telling him, like, "You have to remove the kippah." And he looks at me like, "What? No, I'm not removing my kippah," like... So I tell him, "Okay, but now we're going on a boat trip, and you might lose it." So he looks at me and he tells me, "Do you think Mendy will remove his kippah if he goes on the boat? I'm not removing my kippah." It was so cute. So I told him, "Okay, okay, you're right. Just hold it, and you'll, you'll be fine." You know, you don't see the fruits when you plant a tree. You, you have to wait a few years before you see them, but once in a while you get a little message like this, and it's, it's really nice. You're not doing it for no reason. You actually see the fruits of your work.

16:28 Speaker 1 And the Sternbachs are seeing their labor bear fruit in many other ways. They've established a Friday night minyan. They also work with the Uzan's in Abuja, serving local populations through Chabad Aid, which runs humanitarian programs that provide food, clean water, employment opportunities, and new schools. Much of the work focuses on the Muslim refugee population, displaced because of political instability in the north. The word is getting out about their good work, especially at one local school.

17:01 Speaker 3 Recently, one Israeli company called me up, and they said they just finished a project, and they had extra computers. They don't know what to do with it, and they said, "Just take this. Take this and you do something good with it." And, uh, we're right now about to deliver about 80 computers to make a computer room to help these kids and teach them what they can do and how much they can enhance their lives by being connected to the internet.

17:25 Speaker 1 Of course, the Sternbachs are continuing their important work with the local Jewish community.

17:30 Speaker 3 Our vision is to make a home for every Jew to feel comfortable here.

17:36 Speaker 1 To that end, Mendy and Mazal would like to build a new Chabad house, which would include an event hall and a mikvah. They'd like to expand the preschool and the kosher market. They know that will require a lot of funding and a lot of work, but they're not complaining.

17:51 Speaker 4 There is a letter from the Rebbe. A Chabad rabbi was complaining, "You know, it's too hard. I want to get this building, and I'm not getting it, and we're working for such a long time." Basically, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was writing, "Your eyes are too far in this big project that you don't see right in front of you who is waiting for your help, and you have so many Jewish people waiting for you to help them." So I think that's also very important for people to remember. Be aware of who is around you, and I'm sure that everyone can find, you know, someone that needs a little bit of help around them.

18:26 Speaker 1 Like Avi Eliyahu, who says he's ready to take on more Yiddishkeit, more learning, and hopefully a wife.

18:33 Speaker 2 So I'm, I'm 67 years old, and I'm just thinking that sooner or later I have to get married and get children because I'm getting late already, so-

18:41 Speaker 1 Avi is sure that the emissaries who left behind more comfortable lives in France and in Brooklyn and relocated thousands of miles away in Lagos can help with that, too.

18:52 Speaker 2 The Jewish spirit is much more alive now with the sandbox than when they are not there. A very good benefit for the Jewish life, yeah.

19:01 Speaker 3 When you give with your heart, people respond. When you're there for somebody and you listen to them, you really care about the person, they will understand that and appreciate that, and then see your vision and your mission as well. My wife and I, we're always learning and, and trying to think about each individual person in our community, how to reach them, how to understand them and respect them in their unique way.

19:28 Speaker 1 And Lagos's Jewish community, made up as it is mostly of soon-to-be observant Israeli, French, Swiss, and American Jews, takes a unique approach.

19:38 Speaker 3 What's interesting to see is how they come to embrace their own heritage here in Nigeria.

19:48 Speaker 4 I feel very lucky that I am able to live here and I'm able to do this shliach's work, but anyone anywhere can be a Lamplighter.

20:00 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wolak. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast at L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.