Status of Falash Mura Children Debated

The Conversion Section of the Prime Minister's Office has indicated that it favors changing current procedures whereby single mothers in Falash Mura families must obtain the written consent of the other parent before their children can be declared Jewish, the legal adviser of an Ethiopian advocate organization said Wednesday. . . .

The Falash Mura are an Ethiopian community whose members were originally Jewish but converted to Christianity many decades ago in order to escape persecution. The Chief Rabbinate has declared that as long as a member of the community can prove a consistent matrilineal descent from a Jewish woman, the members of that family are Jewish and do not need to convert to Judaism. Instead, they must undergo a procedure known as "return to Judaism," which involves study and observance of the religious strictures. . . .

Yitzhak Dasa, the director-general of Tebeka, charged that the requirement to obtain the consent of the other parent for single parent families returning to Judaism applies only to the Falash Mura. "In this way, they are discriminated against and their rights are violated," charged Dasa.

Dassa added that it is virtually impossible to track down the husbands of the Falash Mura mothers and that in many cases, their husbands are dead. . . .

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