The story of how Dahlyt and Moshe Kase-Berezinbahr first met, dated, and ultimately settled in Edison’s Jewish community is likely one of the more unusual Jewish community stories that you’ll read.
To get a sense of how this family began, let’s start with Dahlyt.
Dahlyt grew up in Staten Island in an observant Jewish family, attended Bruriah High School for Girls, graduating in 2002, and then attended Brooklyn College, graduating in 2006. She started out in a Jewish employment agency for the deaf and hard of hearing, but after a year she decided to pursue her passion for helping people have a better birth experience.
Dahlyt became a doula/labor coach and attended her first birth in 2008. After attending a three-year midwifery program at Birthwise Midwifery school in Maine, Dahlyt became a licensed midwife.
During her third year of the midwifery program, Dahlyt volunteered in a birth house in Uganda, Ot Nywal Me Kuc (house of birth and peace). She was there for six weeks in late 2012. When planning her trip, she searched for a Chabad. (They had not yet made it to Uganda, though they are there now.) Her search led her to a website about an Orthodox Jewish community in Uganda. Dahlyt was told to email a man named Moshe, who would help her plan her visit. Being that the birth house was far from the Jewish community, she planned to visit on her last Shabbat in Uganda, on her way to the airport.
Moshe Kamba Kase coordinated Dahlyt’s visit. He is the great-grandson of Samson Mugombe, one of the closest followers of Kakungulu (see sidebar) and the one who took over leadership of the Abayudaya Jewish community after Kakungulu’s passing. Moshe was raised practicing Orthodox Judaism by his uncle, Uri Katula, a teacher and a mohel. After high school Moshe attended N’kumba University and studied tourism operational management, so he served as the Putti Jewish community’s coordinator for visitors.
The last weekend of Dahlyt’s trip arrived and she took a 12-hour trip from the town where the birthing house was located to M’bale, a town near the Jewish community’s village. There she met Moshe, who arranged for them to go to the Putti Village.
Dahlyt had a wonderful Shabbat and found the people to be very friendly, warm and welcoming. It was obvious to both Moshe and Dahlyt that they had some attraction to each other, though neither said anything and they remained professional.
After the weekend, as Dahlyt was on her way to the airport, Moshe texted her and expressed interest in dating her. She wrote back saying, “Let’s keep talking.” And they did; over the next six months they were in frequent contact over email and Facebook Messenger.
Their relationship eventually got serious. After a visitor’s visa was denied, not willing to give up on their budding relationship, they applied for Moshe to get a fiancé visa to the U.S. Many months went by without a word on the visa, so Dahlyt decided to go to Uganda for two weeks in October 2014. It was then that Moshe officially proposed.
Their international courtship continued, with Moshe making multiple trips to the U.S. Embassy in Kenya (a 15-hour bus ride) to finally get his visa, which was granted at the end of March 2015. On April 3, Erev Pesach, Moshe traveled on a plane for the first time in his life. Dahlyt met him at the airport, finally getting the long-awaited opportunity to introduce him to her family in person.
Moshe received a formal Orthodox Jewish conversion in May 2015. In June 2015, Dahlyt and Moshe got married in Closter, New Jersey, and in the years that followed they decided to move to Edison, after hearing what a wonderful community it is.
They have three daughters—Raaya Lee Nalukwago (6), Zeyana Miriam Baluka (3) and Sephira Simcha Wooma (2). The two older daughters attend Yeshivat Netivot Montessori in East Brunswick. Moshe worked previously as an Uber driver and is now studying for a career in IT. In August 2021 he passed his citizenship test and in March 2022 he affirmed his allegiance to America at a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Immigration Court in Newark, New Jersey. They attend Congregation Ahavas Yisrael in Edison.
“Moshe and Dahylt are unique individuals who are traveling a special path in their spiritual growth,” said Rabbi Gedaliah Jaffe, rav of Congregation Ahavas Yisrael. “Moshe frequently asks me questions regarding standard issues that come up in daily life, such as kashrus and Shabbos. Occasionally he has asked me questions that are unique to his background.”
“We hope our story is a sign of how amazing Hashem’s work is and how he is still very much helping and guiding us in this world,” said Dahlyt and Moshe.
