Last month, Ms. Diamond, a professional photographer, and her husband, Matt Diamond, joined a group of 36 other people, led by her brother-in-law, Rabbi Eytan Kenter of Kehillat Beth Israel in Ottawa, in bringing a Torah scroll to the Jewish community of Arusha, Tanzania.

While everyone suspected that the trip would be emotional, none of the travellers — including Rabbi Kenter’s wife, Staci Zemlak-Kenter, Ms. Diamond’s sister — had any idea of how profoundly moving, how absolutely world-shaking — the act of handing over that Torah scroll would be.

The community and its visitors, above. (STEFANIE DIAMOND)

The Jewish community in Arusha is descended from Yemenite and Moroccan Jews who went to eastern Africa in the 1880s.

There was a good number of Yemenite and Omani Jews in Tanganyika. Among them were Jews from Mawza and Sanaa, as well as Jews who immigrated from Ethiopia down south up to Tanzania. In the 1930s, more than 5,000 Polish Jews who came as refugees also added to the number of Jews of Arusha.

Since the 1970s, the community shrank, and it was scattered, but at least some of its members never stopped practicing Judaism, and never stopped hoping for the freedom to be openly Jewish, and to reconnect.

Mr. Kahalani and his wife, Efrat Yosef, are the community’s leaders. Ms. Yosef’s public name is Lilian Looloitai. In that other identity, she is the managing director of a non-profit agency called CORDS, which works with rural Maasai villages in Arusha, helping with sustainable development, land-use planning, and women’s rights, among other pressing issues. Mr. Kahalani and Ms. Efrat Yosef were both born Jewish.

The shul was decorated as it is for the High Holidays.

Efrat Yosef stands between sisters Staci Zemlak-Kenter, left, and Stefanie Diamond.

Mr. Kahalani’s father, who died in about 2010, didn’t let his son forget who he was or where he came from. On his deathbed, he asked for three things: - to gather all the Jews who were dispersed and bring them back; - to get a sefer Torah; - to move to Israel.

On the question of whether the community is halachically Jewish - many of the community members’ grandparents had been forced to convert to Islam or Christianity, but they retained their own true identities, hidden under the assumed ones, and they have the family stories and ancestral Judaica to show it.

Rabbi Eytan Kenter reads from the Torah he brought on Thursday. (STEFANIE DIAMOND)

Children look out of the window of their shul in Arusha. (STEFANIE DIAMOND)

Were given to the Jewish community of Arusha, a sefer Torah along with suitcases full of mezzuzot, tefillin, talessim, siddurim, machzorim, books (many children’s books donated by PJ Library), and other necessary Jewish objects to the community.

The visitors brought children books donated by PJ Library. (STEFANIE DIAMOND)

“Shalom Aleichem” was sung along with songs in Swahili. The kaballat Shabbat was celebrated in an African chant, part of the Jewish community of Arusha.

Each of the men celebrated their Bar Mitzvah, followed by the Shehecheyanu” — the prayer you say for something new — and the Siman Tov song.

The trip was planned in two parts — first the handing over the Torah, the second a safari.

The safari, which included large amounts of jaw-dropping beauty, was the perfect complement. “The Serengeti is by far the most magical place ever seen.”

After they left the Jewish community, the North American visitors went to the Serengeti on safari.

Scenes from the safari, another profound experience for the travelers. (STEFANIE DIAMOND)

The purity and strangeness of what was seen, combined with the emotion of the visit to Arusha, worked to forge the 38 visitors into a tight unit, leading them to work together to help the Jewish community of Arusha, to keep in touch and to return.

The visit was transformational not only for the Tanzanians but for the North Americans as well. This was more than a once-in-a-lifetime experience.