Is Chabad Racist? Chabad Schools Ban Ethiopian Jews

"Not a single Ethiopian Jew is enrolled in the [Chabad] educational network."

Chabad schools ban Ethiopian students. Why? According to the following article, they do so because the Rebbe instructed them to. But, Chabad spokesman Rabbi Menachem Brod disingenuously claims,

"The problem with the Ethiopians arose with the arrival of immigrants in Operation Solomon, when they were flown by their leader and refused to undergo conversion according to halacha, as the Operation Moshe immigrants did. Therefore, their Jewishness is in question..."

What Rabbi Brod fails to say is that Chabad refused to take Ethiopians before Operation Solomon as well. Chabad now claims that it will only accept Ethiopian students who have undergone a full conversion (a process that often takes years) even though Rav Moshe Feinstein -- the rabbi the Rebbe referred this issue to -- ruled that only a giur l'chumra (a pro forma conversion) was necessary. But, as the article states, "not a single Ethiopian Jew is enrolled in the [Chabad] educational network."

Should a member of a movement that brazenly lies be a teacher of your children? Should he be your rabbi? Can you trust the kashrut of his food?

Is Chabad racist? . . .

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/showArchiveArticle.asp?id=43819 Sunday, April 04, 1999

Chabad schools are shunning Ethiopians
Education Ministry and local authorities remain silent
By Aliza Arbeli, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The educational institutions of the Chabad Hasidic movement do not accept Ethiopian children, despite the fact that the schools are under the supervision of the Education Ministry and receive state funding.

The late Lubavitcher Rebbe expressed doubts over the Jewish origins of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel and instructed that they be excluded from Chabad institutions.

In Chabad kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, Jews from Ashkenazi and Sephardi backgrounds can be found, including recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. But not a single Ethiopian Jew is enrolled in the educational network.

The situation is especially problematic in outlying areas with large concentrations of Ethiopians. In many areas, Ethiopians find themselves in homogeneous classrooms, hindering their integration into Israeli society.

Menachem Brod, spokesman for Chabad, confirms that Ethiopian children are not accepted in the Hasidic movement's institutions. "This is an instruction from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and also a ruling by our rabbis," he said.

He also reiterated that the Ethiopians are not being singled out, since Chabad policy applies to anyone whose Jewishness is in question.

According to Brod, "The problem with the Ethiopians arose with the arrival of immigrants in Operation Solomon, when they were flown by their leader and refused to undergo conversion according to halacha, as the Operation Moshe immigrants did. Therefore, their Jewishness is in question... It is true that the state registered them as Jews, but the state registered many immigrants as Jews whose Jewishness is questionable and even non-Jews have been registered as Jews."

Local authorities and the Education Ministry have accepted the Chabad ban on Ethiopians without protest.

Even the Israeli Association of Ethiopian Immigrants backtracked on plans to appeal to the High Court of Justice.

In Kiryat Malachi, there are some 5,000 people living in a Chabad neighborhood and 3,000 Ethiopians out of a total population of about 22,000. The Chabad residents include immigrants from Georgia and Bukhara, as well as an Ashkenazi contingent considered especially fanatic. Most of the Ethiopian children attend the government religious schools, while Chabad runs a comprehensive network of schools that are off limits for Ethiopians.

"It is outright racism. Ethiopian children are accepted in all of the educational institutions in town, including those of Shas, but just for the Chabad Hasidim the Ethiopians are not Jewish enough?" complains Abraham Tatazai, an Ethiopian representative in Kiryat Malachi.

Political considerations explain why the local authorities have done nothing to oppose the Chabad policy. The electoral power of the Chabad residents translates into three seats on the town council. The previous mayor, Moshe Shimon, included Chabad representatives on his slate and did not protest Chabad's exclusionary policy despite a severe shortage of classrooms in the government schools.

On the other hand, new mayor (and younger brother of Tourism Minister Moshe Katsav) Lior Katsav has vowed to address the issue. "As the one responsible for education in the municipality, I visited the Chabad schools and it was lightheartedly suggested to me that I register my son in the school when he comes of age. I responded that my son would not study in a school that does not accept immigrant children," Katsav said. "I intend to talk with Chabad leaders and the Education Ministry in order to find an arrangement for voluntary acceptance of the immigrants. I don't think that a forced solution would help in this case."

The chairman of the parents committee in Kiryat Malachi, Eli Ezriel, has already tried to talk with the Education Ministry, but has only a pile of frustrating correspondence to show.

"I turned to late Education Minister Zevulun Hammer and also current Education Minister Yitzhak Levy; I turned to the chairman of the [Knesset] Education Committee; and the Minister of Absorption. I tried to contact [MK] Addisu Messele and received no reply. I received evasive answers to the dozens of letters I sent."

Rabbi Yeruslavski, the leader of Chabad in Kiryat Malachi, says that the policy of not accepting Ethiopian children is an internal matter and has nothing to do with racism. "We have principles. We also did not accept children from the [former Soviet Union] if there is any doubt to their Jewishness," the Chabad rabbi said.

Comments

[Ladron]

they sure are racists of the worse category .
suffice to look at some of the horrendous comments that were sent to the previous gilgul of this very site .

[Ladron]

they sure are racists of the worse category .
why , suffice to look at some of the horrendous comments that were sent to the previous gilgul of this very site .

[Ladron]

.....but just for the Chabad Hasidim the Ethiopians are not Jewish enough?" complains Abraham Tatazai, an Ethiopian representative in Kiryat Malachi.....

me think the problem is the other way around . behaving this way, has no relation to the seed of avraham our father . this is the behaviour of the amalekites . the kids are better off not getting polluted in these schools

[Isa]

A little twist

When I went to Israel in 1985 I got to know an Iraqi family with my last name (the rav was a religious book publisher both in Iraq and in Israel).
I was told the Askenazim are "children of converts" and we both had a good laugh.
Most probably the Ethiopians were cut off before the Babalonium exile because during the first temple period Aramiac was unknown and the Hebrew script was totally different (I think it look like Phonecian script) not too many people know this (an Orthodox rav told me this)
Care to comment??

Isa

[Shmarya]

That the scripts were different is clear. Most Judean coinage from the 2nd Temple era uses "Phonecian" script, not the square Aramaic letters we use today.

As for when the Ethiopian Jews were cut off, some seem to have been cut off early in the 1st Temple era and some later than that.

Perhaps I'll post on this topic one day.

[Isa]

Off the subject a bit on scripts:

When I went to a Jerusalem summer yeshiva in 1985, one of the classes that I attended was 'Hebrew Ulpan'. Anyway this instructor was supposed to be regarded as a 'highly regarded student of Talmud'. He proceeded to only talk only about the mystical qualities of the Hebrew letters as how Ha Shem formed each letter etc etc but I knew the original script (Moshe Rabenu time) was far different. So I knew this guy was a dumb dolt. Problem is, I asked some rabbis at that place in a round about way and they thought todays script was the original script.

Like the Orthodox rav that told me this "not too many people know this"
ISA

[Rebecca]

You cannot generalize one group as being racist. If you do then you, yourself, are racist. When a person says, "all Jews . . ."or "all . . ." you are showing an ignorance that will cause you to judge people unfairly. Also,regarding to the question of wether or not Chabad is racist, the people that I personally know, who are labavitz, are warm, sweat people who are not judgemental. ofcourse, there are some people, in the world that are racists, and that is unfortunate, but you can never say that a group, as a whole, is racist.

[Shmarya]

When an ORGANIZATION enacts a racist policy, is the organization racist? For example, if the Elks Club of Spartan, Mississippi refuses to admit blacks, is it racist? Chabad bans ALL Ethiopian Jews from its schools. Is that racist? Sure is.

[A Shud di Tzait]

Intellectual Honesty, please. As far as I understand from what you yourself posted on this site, they do not ban - they require full conversion.

[andrew]

Avraham was converted by a goyim, a non-jew. Who cares what dead rabbi worshipers think anyway? They don't recognize me, I don't recognize them... what one particularly nutty branch of Judaism thinks is really of little consequence. Christians started as a radical sect of judaism and there really can't be an ecumenical dialogue between the two, even though early christians had to first convert. The person who will identify as a jew and take his and his families lives in his hands for it, he is a jew.

[Mendy]

A. Which school do you provide for them, instead of just blaming chabad - DO SOMETHING!!

B. If you are so hoho about them, why don't you marry an ethiopian.....?!

C. How do you know that they are ALL Jewish, many of them are mazirim the children of mamzeirim and te best thing for them would be to go through a proper sincere conversion, al pi halakah Otherwise there wouldn't be such reluctance form the general orthodox community (I knw that that you kvell throwig the blame on chabad. But fact is that in maintream orthodoxy they are NOT acceppted!)

[d]

i personally think that chabad gives jews a bad name. first of all, it is disgusting the way they try to make themselves look like good jews who are just trying to be "more in touch" with their judaism. but what they don't tell you is what they think of non-jews or even "lesser" (the term they use) jews. in their teachings, there are things like " non-jews are unfit to walk this earth and are no better than pigs" and that they are "demons". also, the men mostly don't work and mooch off others to earn a living. they often "fundraise" to raise money. two of them entered my friends insurance office the other day asking for "a donation". when my freind refused, they told him they needed money for airline tickets. now what would a person who wasn;t jewish think of these two men? are they any differnt from a bum asking for money on the street? i think not. chabad is a cult. they are racist and teach even against people of their own religion. they recruit young people and are very agressive. it just isn;t right.

[Ted Kravitz]

Chabads and the Rabbis of this Eastern Euro-Russian stock just maintain a status quo that is racist and they spread this mess every place they settle. I am Jewish, of mixed race backgrounds-and I starting attending services at a Chabad in California,U.S. but due to my olive skin tone, afro-hispanic facial featuers, hair texture-I was under constant nasty looks from Jews at this Chabad. I was isolated by the Rabbi from community events, not added to the Chabad's email list and what pissed me off was that I knew more about the Jewish faith then most Jews at this Chabad. There were some "euro" looking people who the Rabbi ushered in with open arms and quickly attempting to assimilate into the Jewish community in the area and at the end of the day-these people had no Jewish roots and were not even converted Jews-I left the Chabad and other Jews had warned me about the racism at Chabads. I figured that I was part Russian-Jewish so I could be a good Jew and worship within my heritage-but it was a nasty, nasty experience. If I went through that in a Chabad in the United States-I could imagine what Ethiopians are dealing with from Jews elsewheres. If people think that Jews dont live in a world of judgement, hate, racism and class then my name is Marty Matza Head becuase some Rabbis wrote the book! It took a long time to understand why certain relatives in my family-some of whom are very well known in the entertainment word-developed a bad taste towards Jews and the religion. If I hadnt been of a strong Cuban/Black/Irish stock-then I would likely have gone thorugh that experience and ran to the first Christian church that I could find or join Jews for Jesus becuase their was no love in that Chabad and thats very, very sad. Now there it is!! Can you handle the truth!!!

[Pauli Pupupantz]

Alot of this is true and a lot of this is emotional garble. Chabad believes materinally born Jews are spiritually superior to others. Thats a fact eludicated in the "Alter Rebbe's" Tanya. Otherwise, they're just a bunch of dorky Haredi Jews.

[abulafia]

ethiopians are no jews !!
there are genetic studies that showed that they are 100% goym. if they want to be accepted as jews they have to convert prior.
if your sole reason for defending black goym who pretend to be jewish even if they are not is just because you love them physicaly then just remain they goy you are and leave yiddishkeit alone.