A visit with the Jewish community known as the Abayudaya proves to be a spiritually enriching experience.

When there was no more space in the synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, congregants would go outside, gathering under trees. But the branches weren’t enough to shield them from the rain during the East African country’s wet seasons, which last about half the year. A new 7,000-square-foot synagogue center set to open Friday will solve that problem — yet there is also something larger at stake.

They are unlike any other group of Jews in the world, and they are growing in what may seem the most unlikely of places: a remote collection of villages in eastern Uganda.