Israel's History Textbooks Do Not Include Ethiopian Jews' Rescue

Ethiopian Jews want government to include rescues, deaths of thousands on way to Israel, in school curriculum.

'Ethiopian aliyah must be made part of school curriculum'
Community representatives demand Education Ministry include story of their journey to Israel and their heritage in history textbooks
Yaheli Moran Zelikovich, Ynet

Israelis of Ethiopian descent approached the Education Ministry and demanded that the story of the community's immigration to Israel be included in history textbooks used in schools.
 
"Ethiopian Jews paid a heavy price for their Zionism: They were murdered, mugged, were held in detention camps on their way to Israel, and even after 30 years in the country their story is not part of the curriculum," said Tabeka, an Advocacy Center for Equality and Justice for Ethiopian Israelis in a letter to Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar.
 
A state ceremony commemorating the 4,000 Ethiopian olim who perished during the journey to Israel will be held on May 21.
 
"The organization demands to make the story of the Ethiopian aliyah and its heritage part of the school curriculum on this day, and part of the general curriculum as well, and to include the topic in the Knesset website's 'history' section," the letter stated.
 
According to Tabeka Chairman Itzik Desa, nearly every Ethiopian family had lost a relative on its way to Israel. "This day is a day of mourning and remembrance for the entire community.
 
"I laud the Israeli government for holding the ceremony… but regret the fact that the State of Israel has failed to make the minimal effort of including the heritage of Ethiopian Jews, and the story of the aliyah in particular, in the curriculum," he said. 

Comments

[maven]

Compared to what was done to the Cochini Jewish community, this was a relatively smooth aliya... That was perhaps one of the ugliest stories of all the aliyot.

[Shmarya]

Not at all.

Leaks directly from the Israeli government killed 3000 of those Ethiopian Jews.

And all the Jews who were saved walked hundreds of mile from Ethiopia to Sudan, and many of them died on the way.

Hardly "smooth."

[maven]

Do you know the story of the Cochini aliyah?

[Shmarya]

Enlighten me.

[Chicago Samson]

The Israeli gov't needs to correct the record; I love telling my students how brave these Ethiopian Jews are and the dangerous risks they took to be in Israel.

May they prosper!

[Shmarya]

Sure. There's an excellent account in the book by Azriel Carlebach, former editor in chief of Maariv. They were a middle class community, many worked in real estate, many educated, who, upon hearing the news in 1948, decided to move to Israel. A few made it, and did well, integrated, with solid jobs, etc. The community sold all their real estate, etc, and proceeded towards Bombay to get to Israel. Suddenly, there was a backlash in Israel, they were concerned about all these dark Indian appearing people moving there, so they blocked their immigration, also, spread a false rumor that they carried disease (there is elephantiasis among them, but that is due to mosquitos local to Cochin and not transmissible). So over a period of many years (the last batch arrived only in the late 1960s), these people were reduced to poverty, illness,many dying in Bombay, etc. Not only that, but they had precious artwork from their synagogues which they were forced to turn over to "aliyah agents" who then sold them to collectors (I remember going to the Jewish Museum with a friend from Nevatim who pointed out whose menorah that was on exhibit there). Then, when they arrived in Israel, because they were dark, they were forced to live on moshavs in remote areas of the country south of Beersheva and become farmers. None had agricultural backgrounds, so you can imagine how devastating the experience was, people were literally broken, but they still managed to make the moshavs profitable (Nevatim, Taoz, and others). Ultimately, many of the younger generations re-emerged and went to universities, etc. Even now, ugly racist propoganda emerged during an election in Rechasim. Its important to note that this was not a controversial group like the Ethiopians or the Bene Israel of Bombay, there was never a question of their requiring conversion, having been in contact with the wider Jewish world throughout their history (their siddurim were printed in Amsterdam, for example). They have very ancient minhagim that seem to correlate with minhagim in the gemara, etc. In short, a tragic story of a beautiful people.

And one could proceed to the Moroccan aliyah, with those terrible stories, but at least those are somewhat known. My use of the term "smooth" was of course, sarcastic. Many of these aliyot were horribly botched. In the case of the Ethiopians there was at least an attempt made to not make some of the mistakes of the past, so synagogues were built (inappropriate ones, but the intentions were reasonable), schools and social workers were provided, etc. Not enough, but there was at least some effort (on the secular side; we know how the Charedim reacted).

[Maven asked me to post this for him. He's having trouble leaving comments. TypePad is working on it.]

[Wondering]

"Many of these aliyot were horribly botched."

BOTCHED? Try, sabotaged. Attacked. "Cleansed." A disgrace in Jewish history and may those who committed the crimes be given their punishments, since no one was ever held accountable in this world.