123 posts categorized "Ethiopian Jews"

July 2, 2008: New Israeli Rabbinate Scandal: Ethiopian Jews Extorted By Rabbis, Shas Party's "Chief Rabbi" Of Ethiopian Jews Part Of Extortion Scheme
Comments: 7 | Categories: Crime, etc. , Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Sefardim
What we reported early yesterday is true. The Rabbinate is actively extorting Ethiopian Jews, forcing them to pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars in bribes to get "married" in a fake ceremony led by a Rabbinate-approved rabbi, and then pay...

July 1, 2008: New Scandal Strikes Rabbinate In Israel
Comments: 8 | Categories: Crime, etc. , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
Extortion, haredi rabbi style, as the…

May 20, 2008: Israel's "Government Fails to Provide for Ethiopians" – Stinging Comptroller's Report Voices Criticisms Raised by Activists for 25 Years
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
This is a landmark day for Ethiopian Jews and those who have tried to help them. Israel's comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss, issued a 1500 page report that blasts the government for ignoring the needs of Ethiopian Jews, botching their absorption and...

May 12, 2008: BREAKING: Israeli Rabbis Refuse To Allow Converts To Marry – Thousands Of Converts In Jewish Law Limbo
Comments: 20 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel , MO & Chardal
Remember the thousands of converts who had their conversions revoked by haredi rabbis sitting on the Rabbinate's High Rabbinic Court? Well, official marriage registrars across Israel – rabbis all – are now refusing to register the marriages of these poor...

May 9, 2008: How History Really Gets Made – The Rescue Of Ethiopian Jews, Part 1
Comments: 16 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Media
Here's something you didn't learn in Hebrew school…

March 31, 2008: Can An Ethiopian Jew Marry A Kohen?
Comments: 26 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
In other words, can a female Ethiopian Jew who converted with a giur l'humra, a pro forma conversion required by some rabbis to eliminate possible status issues, marry a kohen? Here's an answer…

March 18, 2008: MK: Religious Schools Treatment of Ethiopian Jewish Students "Blatant, Ugly Racism"
Comments: 14 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , MO & Chardal
As part of the conversion negotiations taking place between the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee and the chief rabbis, the issue of Ethiopian Jews was raised by Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. Amar wants to convert…

March 6, 2008: Baruch Dayan HaEmet
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
Stephen Feinstein was a man few of you knew. An internationally known academic whose field of study…

February 18, 2008: FailedMessiah on the Radio, part 2
Comments: 11 | Categories: Blogs , Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Media
An mp3 of my interview on the Talkline Network's Mamash Radio show is posted after the jump in the extended post. The interview aired Saturday night-Sunday morning after Zev Brenner's show and Shmuel Butman's Moshiach on the Air. I want...

February 17, 2008: Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Ethiopian Jews, cont.
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , History
"I am constantly praying for the safety of all Jews, especially those in Ethiopia, and we hope that our prayers will be answered. I commend you and your organization for the excellent work you are doing, and for having undertaken...

February 16, 2008: FailedMessiah on the Radio
Comments: 34 | Categories: Blogs , Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Media
I'm interviewed on a radio show, Mamash Radio, running tonight after Shmuel Butman's Moshiach is on the Air program, which itself runs immediately after Zev Brenner on the Talkline Radio Network. A list of sources I cite are posted after...

February 11, 2008: Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Rep. Tom Lantos
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
Rep. Tom Lantos, a long-serving member of the United States Congress and its only Holocaust survivor, passed away this morning at age 80. Lantos was one of the Washington insiders who helped make Operation Moses and Solomon realities. Lantos escaped...

January 23, 2008: Ethiopian Jews Form Urban "Kibbutz"
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Young Ethiopian Jews have formed an urban "kibbutz" in Gedera. The idea is not to share an economy as much as it is to run social and educational programs for their own community: …The members of the urban kibbutz serve...

January 17, 2008: Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar: "I Wish Millions [of Ethiopians] Would Come To Israel"
Comments: 15 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Halakha , Israel
Speaking at a conference of kessim (Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders) organized by the Absorption Ministry, Israel's Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar called for the aliya of all Falash Mura, no matter how many people that might be. Ynet reports:

December 13, 2007: Haredim Most Racist Group In Israel
Comments: 96 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
Ynet reports on a new Israeli public opinion poll commissioned by Ynet and Gesher, and carried out by the Mutagim organization: …When asked "would you let your child marry an Ethiopian?" 63% answered they would gladly welcome the marriage while...

December 12, 2007: Ethiopian Pictures
Comments: 13 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
These are pictures taken recently of the Beit Avraham community and synagogue in Addis Ababa. These people claim to be the equivalent of marranos but don't want make aliya until they are self supporting.

December 12, 2007: Are the Falsh Mura Jewish?
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
A sometime correspondent wrote last night to make sure I saw this piece written by Danny Adino Ababa, an Ethiopian Jewish journalist living in Israel. Ababa argues the Falsh Mura are not Jews: …It would be a crude lie to...

December 4, 2007: Racism In Israel: NRP School Segregates Ethiopian Students
Comments: 13 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , MO & Chardal
Ynet reports a National Religious day school in Petach Tikva segregated four Ethiopian girls from the rest of the student body because the Ethiopian children were not "religious enough." Yenet reports the school went so far as to give the...

November 26, 2007: Orthodox MK: Israel's Decision to Abandon Falash Mura Like "White Paper of 1939" – "Israeli governments have completely failed"
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ynet quotes MK Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party: According to MK Orlev, the [Knesset] committee recently received complaints from different groups wondering why the government's decisions to bring the remainder of the Ethiopian Jewry to Israel were not...

November 21, 2007: Should Israel Take In The Remaining Jews of Ethiopia?
Comments: 27 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The newly-formed Public Council for Ethiopian Jews includes leading Israeli public figures including former Supreme Court Judge Meir Shamgar, leading human rights activist and Canadian politician Prof. Irwin Kotler, Ethiopian Chief Rabbi Yosef Adaneh, right wing Israeli pol Geulah Cohen,...

September 4, 2007: "We Won't Let The Mossad Mess With Our Heritage"
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , History , Israel
In 1977 newly-elected Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the Mossad to bring Ethiopia's Jews to Israel. In order to do what PM Begin ordered, the Mossad needed Ethiopian Jews from Israel's then-tiny Ethiopian Jewish community and from the Ethiopian Jewish...

September 3, 2007: Ynet Exposes Israeli Racism
Comments: 16 | Categories: Crime, etc. , Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Sefardim
Ynet did something very innovative for Israel – it sent people of differing ethnicities to look for jobs, apartments and other services, and then compared the treatment each received. A haredi, a Russian, an Ashkenazi, a Sefardi, an Israeli-Arab and...

August 13, 2007: The Ethiopian Herzl
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: "My brother is the Herzl of all Africa. He gave his life for the sake of Ethiopian Jewry," said Colonel Metuku Bogale, formerly the police commissioner of Ethiopia's Shewa Province, of Yona Bogale, the legendary leader of Ethiopian...

August 9, 2007: New Film Documents Rape and Extortion By Ethiopian Jewish Mossad Operatives In Sudan
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
The Jerusalem Post has a report on the new documentary film Code Name Silence, made by Ethiopian journalist and filmmaker Danny Adino Abebe. The film documents abuses committed by a minority of Ethiopian Jewish Mossad operatives during Operation Moses: …"[During...

June 25, 2007: The Real Reason Ethiopian Conversions Are Stalled
Comments: 25 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Matthew Wagner of the Jerusalem Post clarifies an earlier, cryptic report from Ha'aretz regarding problems in the Israeli conversion apparatus in dealing with Ethiopians. Wagner reports: About 50 new immigrants from Ethiopia, candidates for conversion to Judaism, hiked in Sunday's...

June 24, 2007: Rabbis Refuse To Convert More Than 100 Ethiopians
Comments: 6 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: Fifty-nine Ethiopian immigrant youths on Sunday began a march from the Yifat immigrant absorption center in Arad to Be'er Sheva to demand that they be allowed to appear before rabbinical conversion courts for final conversion exams. The youths...

June 6, 2007: Israel's 'Schvartze' Problem
Comments: 16 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Sports
Ynet reports: As Yannick Kamanan, Maccabi Herzliya’s black striker, steps out on to the field at Bloomfield Stadium, he appears very tense. The French soccer player had a great season, but now the game is the least of his concerns....

May 20, 2007: NYU Jewish Academic Issues Anti-Sefardic Slur
Comments: 38 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , MO & Chardal , Sefardim
NYU professor and noted Dead Sea Scroll scholar Lawrence Schiffman repeated an anti-Sefardic slur at a talk in Minneapolis yesterday. With regard to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's decision finding Ethiopian Jews to be Jews, Schiffman said: No rabbi who can read...

April 5, 2007: The Failure Of Ethiopian Absorption
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
How bad is Ethiopian absorption? This bad: …[Avraham] Negussie [head of an Ethiopian advocacy organization in Israel] estimates that over 80 percent of Israeli Ethiopians cannot provide for themselves. Those who do work are usually discriminated against and receive less...

March 16, 2007: Ethiopian Suicide Rate More Than Double Norm
Comments: 9 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: In the years 1990-2000, the suicide rate of youths of Ethiopian extraction was double that of their age group, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry released this data in a position paper that was discussed in the...

March 14, 2007: Memorial For 4,000 Ethiopian Jews Who Died On Way To Israel Inaugurated
Comments: 8 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
Ynet reports: "I have no idea where my mother is buried. Now I will be able to unite with her memory and the memory of my brother," Yaakov Gonchel, 29, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia in 1982, said Wednesday....

February 18, 2007: Ethiopian Jews – A Halakhic Perspective
Comments: 1 | Categories: Documents , Ethiopian Jews , Halakha
What follows is Rabbi J. David Bleich's overview of the halakhot regarding Ethiopian Jews, excerpted from Contemporary Halakhic Problems (Volume 1), published by KTAV and Yeshiva University in 1977. I used OCR software to scan this, so if you note...

February 15, 2007: Falash Mura Aliya To End
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The JTA reports: …At issue is the number of Ethiopians eligible for aliyah. On Feb. 14, the Interior Ministry said 6,899 legitimate petitioners remain in Gondar, the Ethiopian city where the vast majority of petitioners now live. Of those, 1,468...

February 5, 2007: Falash Mura Set Up Christian Missions In Israel?
Comments: 134 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ethiopian Jewish leaders are complaining that some of the Falash Mura, Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity but who themselves have returned to Judaism, have set up missions in Israel to convert Jews and have done so with the backing...

December 21, 2006: Too Black For Respect?
Comments: 15 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
An Ethiopian Jew is jailed with 52 other Jews in Sudan. He is a small boy, five years old, but he is beaten and tortured. Why was he in Sudan? He was escaping with his family to Israel. Israel mounts...

November 23, 2006: For the Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Poetry
This week was Sigd, the Ethiopian Jewish holiday reminiscent of Shavuot. For hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, Ethiopian Jews gathered on this day to remember Jerusalem and the giving of the Torah. What follows are photos of this year's event...

November 3, 2006: The Tzaddik of Addis Ababa
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed , MO & Chardal
Uriel Heilman reports: The door to Mother Teresa's Mission in Addis Ababa cracks open and a nun pokes her head out. When she sees the doctor, her face breaks into a broad smile and she swings the door wide open....

October 30, 2006: The Lies of the Rebbe, cont.
Comments: 25 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad , Chabad & EJs , Chabad History , Ethiopian Jews
In his infamous 1983 letter to me responding to my pleas to help Ethiopian Jews, the late Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote: Equally, your claims regarding scholarships and other projects you mention in your letter are not logical and they do not...

October 27, 2006: Brazil's Crypto-Jews Seek To Return
Comments: 14 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , History , Religion
Ynet has an interesting article on Brazil's Crypto-Jews, descendants of Marranos who in some cases have always married within their extended family. Some of these hidden Jews are now seeking to return to full Jewish practice. And interesting point to...

October 20, 2006: Ethiopian Jews Complain of Missionary Activity by Falash Mura
Comments: 16 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Religion
Ethiopian Jewish leaders have told me for years that many missionaries were coming to Israel with the Falash Mura and were now actively trying to convert Ethiopian Jews in Israel. The story has finally made the papers in Israel: Spiritual...

October 16, 2006: Ethiopian Jews And Orthodox Jewish Racism
Comments: 68 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Jewish Leadership , MO & Chardal
I recently exchanged emails with a friend in Jerusalem. He is adamant. Ethiopian Jews are not Jewish. To bolster his point, he cites DNA evidence, evidence that, at most, can indicate that Ethiopian Jews not descended from the southern tribes...

October 4, 2006: Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 22 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad & EJs , Documents , Ethiopian Jews , History , Jewish Leadership
Recently, I found Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's 1984 teshuva-letter on Ethiopian Jews stuck between two file folders. (You can click the thumbnail image for a larger, more readable image or download a PDF.) This letter was written in response to a...

September 15, 2006: The Ethiopian Rollercoaster
Comments: 10 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
The Rabbinute ruled Falash Mura are of Jewish ancestry and should be brought to Israel as any other Jews, with the caveat that a conversion must be done. The Falash Mura keep their part of the bargain. They study lean...

September 8, 2006: Israel's Bait-and-Switch
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
Ha'aretz reports: The United Jewish Communities of North America yesterday issued an unusual statement accusing the Israeli government of reneging on its promises, in view of the Finance Ministry's intention to reduce the monthly quota of Ethiopian immigrants from 300...

August 27, 2006: From Ethiopia to Intel
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
Israel 21c reports: …For these students in their twenties, Tech-Careers, set up by [Asher] Elias* and an American business partner three years ago, is more than a technical school - it is a direct pathway into a middle class Israeli...

August 23, 2006: Why Ethiopian Absorption Largely Failed
Comments: 10 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
…In Ethiopia, a tightly knit, religious community with traditional values and safeguards made wife murder a red line that men rarely crossed. The mejad, or inner part of a kitchen, was off limits to men if a woman was in...

August 18, 2006: How Badly Did Israel Lose?
Comments: 2 | Categories: Current Affairs , Ethiopian Jews , Israel
David Twersky, writing originally in the NY Sun, points out that proportionally, when compared to the US Israel lost twice as many soldiers in one month of fighting than the US lost in three-plus years fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq....

August 9, 2006: Am Echad
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Relatives and friends of Staff Sergeant Moshe Malko Ambao react during his funeral at the military cemetery in the city of Lod, Israel, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Ambao, 22, was one of three soldiers killed on Monday during fighting with...

July 31, 2006: Falash Mura In Tiberias Bomb Shelter; Are We Too Much Concerned About "Ni@g@rs"?
Comments: 24 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
Newly arrived Falash Mura from Ethiopia are assigned to a hostel in Tiberias. They've spent much of the last three weeks in the hostel's bomb shelter, but are not complaining. The CBC reports: Yayesh Aitagl, who arrived with her husband...

June 21, 2006: Former UJC Head: "It's because they're from Africa. That what I believe. I hate to say it. I'm embarrassed to say it. But I don't have any other explanation"
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
The Jerusalem Post reports: Bringing the remaining Falash Mura to Israel is not necessarily a priority and the delay of their immigration is not simply a matter of money, Interior Minister Roni Bar-On told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. He...

June 20, 2006: Racist Israel?
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
If anyone doubted Israel has a problem with race, a small blurb in the Jerusalem Post should, properly viewed, open your eyes. The previous government promised more than one year ago to bring 600 Falash Mura to Israel each month,...

May 17, 2006: Ethiopia Arrests Head Of Gondar Falash Mura Transit Camp, Olmert Asked To Intervine
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: South Wing to Zion, an Israeli organization that promotes the immigration and absorption of Ethiopian Jews, asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday to intervene in Ethiopia's arrest of the director of the transit camp in Gondar, which serves...

March 29, 2006: Shas To Send First Ethiopian Rabbi To Knesset
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Sefardim
Shas won 13 seats in yesterday's election. The 13th spot on the Shas list is an Ethiopian rabbi from Beersheva, Mazor Bayana. This means Shas will send the first Ethiopian rabbi in the history of Israel to Knesset.

March 6, 2006: President Katsav: It Might Have Been Better If Ethiopian Jews Had Stayed In Ethiopia
Comments: 25 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Israel's President, Moshe Katsav, had this to say about Ethiopian Jews: Israel may have been wrong to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel, President Moshe Katsav said Sunday in an unusually candid comment. "At times I feel we did an injustice...

March 3, 2006: JTA Again Lies About Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The JTA's Uriel Heilman has written yet another inaccurate article about Ethiopian Jews. The errors in his reporting are so large, they must be intentional. Here is one out of many howlers: Israel, which had clandestine ties with Mengistu’s regime,...

February 27, 2006: “They Brought The Russians To Clean The Streets And The Ethiopians To Guard The Malls.”
Comments: 13 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The JTA has a new article on the tensions between the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel and the Falash Mura, descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity 100 years ago and who are now returning to Judaism and immigrating...

February 22, 2006: Are The Falash Mura Really Jews? (And Does It Matter If They Are Not?)
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
A new Falash Mura immigrant with a cross tattoo on her forehead arrives in Israel this month with 150 other Ethiopians. (JTA) [Note the caption would lead one to think all Falash Mura are non-Jews.] Uriel Heilman of the JTA...

February 14, 2006: New Gov't Ad Campaign To Focus On Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 10 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Israel's Ministry of immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency are launching a 1.3 million shekel advertising campaign to bolster the image of Ethiopian Jews. The creative work for the campaign was donated by the BBDO agency, and media outlets are...

February 7, 2006: Shas Poised To Have First Ethiopian Knesset Member
Comments: 22 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Sefardim
Shas is poised to have its first Ethiopian Knesset member, a rabbi from Beer Sheva. The Jerusalem Post's Matthew Wagner reports: Shas's spiritual mentor, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, enthusiastically embraced Ethiopians when they first began immigrating to Israel four decades ago....

February 7, 2006: Falash Mura
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The Los Angeles Times has good overview of the Falash Mura situation: We can't estimate how many are waiting for nothing," said Ori Konforti, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel in Addis Ababa, which has been appointed by the...

January 22, 2006: The Angel Of Addis Ababa
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed
Barbara Sofer of the Jerusalem Post reports on her Friday night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Friday night at the home of Rick Hodes in Addis Ababa. There's no Chabad House in the capital of Ethiopia, so visitors from near and...

January 15, 2006: The Duplicity Of Agudath Israel Of America
Comments: 8 | Categories: Creative PR , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , History , Jewish Leadership
In the 1940's Agudath Israel of America and the Spero Foundation published a series of chapbooks known as Jewish Pocket Books. These were by and large nothing more than apologetics designed to keep Orthodox youth "in the fold." As a...

December 28, 2005: Israel Admits White Orthodox Rabbis Descriminate Against Ordained Ethiopian Orthodox Rabbis – Prime Minister Mandates Change
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel , Jewish Leadership , MO & Chardal
In a shocking article, Matthew Wagner of the Jerusalem Post documents official discrimination against Ethiopian Rabbis by Israel's religious councils and city rabbis: PMO orders equality for Ethiopian rabbis Matthew Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 27, 2005 The Prime Minister's...

December 9, 2005: Ethiopian Jews Sue Jewish Agency, Joint
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
The Jerusalem Post reports: One hundred and thirty-nine former immigrants from Ethiopia sued the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee this week for more than NIS 5 million for allegedly refusing to pay them for their work...

November 8, 2005: More On Ethiopian Grave Robbing
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
In a followup to this post, Ha'aretz reports on Ethiopia's reaction to Ethiopian Jews' protests over the desecration of Jewish graves in Ethiopia.

November 4, 2005: Next Supermodel May Be Ethiopian Jew
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Good News , Israel
According to the London Telegraph, the world's next supermodel may be an Ethiopian Jew: Esti Mamo has moved on from the mud hut where she was born in eastern Ethiopia to Paris modelling studios and her face adorns the pages...

October 30, 2005: Thousands Of Ethiopians Protest In Jerusalem
Comments: 12 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
Even as Israel continues to promise the Falash Mura and the American Jewish community that immigration will be stepped up, the actual numbers of those brought to Israel continues to fall. Ha'aretz and Reuters report: Thousands of Israelis of Ethiopian...

October 27, 2005: Ethiopian Who Saved Jews To Be Deported – From Israel
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
An Ethiopian righteous gentile is up for deportation from Israel. No amount of first-hand testimony from those he has helped save seems to be sufficient for Israel's Interior Ministry, which also claims the Ethiopian did not serve in the IDF...

October 24, 2005: Grave Robbing Destroys Ethiopian Jewish Cemeteries
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
Ha'aretz has a disturbing report about the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Ethiopia. Locals dig up Jewish bones and trade them, believing that they have the power to cure illness. They also use the land to grow crops. Locals have...

October 20, 2005: Israel's Failed Absorption Of Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 9 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Israel
The Forward reports on Israel's failed absorption of Ethiopian Jews: The media also seized on an incident last month in which Ethiopian students in a Haifa high school were attacked by their fellow students — all veteran Russian immigrants —...

September 25, 2005: Falash Mura End Hunger Strike
Comments: 13 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
1500 Falash Mura were forced by police to end their 3-day hunger strike protesting the extremely slow rate of aliya to Israel. The Falash Mura were saddened because no Jewish communities contacted them during the strike.

September 20, 2005: Hundreds Of Falash Mura Go On Hunger Strike In Addis
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
Falash Mura pray in Addis Ababa. (BBC) Hundreds of Falash Mura in Ethiopia have gone on a hunger strike to protest the slow pace of aliya, the BBC reports.

September 18, 2005: 30 Years Of Ethiopian Aliya
Comments: 10 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
An event marking 30 years of Ethiopian Jewish aliya is being held tomorrow in Israel. Meanwhile, Falash Mura are on a hunger strike protesting Israeli broken promises and foot-dragging.

September 4, 2005: Mayor Bars Ethiopian Jewish Children From Schools
Comments: 3 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: Six-year-old Adiso Dasa, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia three years ago, did not start school on Thursday. Rather than beginning first grade, he stayed home because of an order given by Or Yehuda Mayor Yitzhak Bokovza barring...

August 18, 2005: Tears
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ethiopian Jewish policewoman cries in Gaza.

August 2, 2005: Saudi Arabia's Jewish Doctor
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
From Albawaba.com: … With the help of Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi, Israel’s Professor Moshe Mani would wrap himself up in a traditional Arab Jalabiya, and leap from one Arab leader to the other. According to the report, he went horse-back...

July 28, 2005: The Forward On Baruch Tegegne
Comments: 0 | Categories: Bio-Ethics , Ethiopian Jews
Sheldon Gordon writes in today's Forward: When Baruch Tegegne, a Montreal resident who played a heroic role in Israel's rescue of his fellow Ethiopian Jews, found a kidney donor, he was hoping to have a transplant at the nearby Royal...

July 20, 2005: Israel Fails To Meet Goal For Falash Mura Aliya
Comments: 11 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership
Rabbi Dr. Yosef Burg. His wife was an 8th generation descendant of Shneur Zalman of Liadi. The JTA reports: The fingers may be pointing in different directions, but they signal the same thing — a delay in hastening Ethiopian Jewish...

July 12, 2005: Large Ethiopian Heritage Museum To Be Built In Rehovot, Israel – Among Its Founders, Baruch Tegegne
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
From Ha'aretz: … "All 21 members of the Rehovot City Council, both coalition and opposition, voted for the establishment of the center," says Abai Zaudeh, a council member and a member of Tomer's board of directors. "It's the first time...

June 16, 2005: Jewish Agency Seeks To Double Rate Of Falash Mura Aliya
Comments: 6 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
According to Ynet: The Ministerial Committee for Falash Mura Affairs is set to meet Wednesday to discuss Agency recommendations to double the rate of Ethiopian immigration to Israel from the current 300 per month to about 600. If accepted, the...

June 6, 2005: A Schvartze Is A Schvartze Is A Schvartze – Affirmative Action For Ethiopian Jews?
Comments: 14 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ha'aretz reports: President Moshe Katsav on Monday called upon the government to implement a policy of affirmative action to support the integration of Jewish Ethiopian immigrants into Israeli society. Speaking at the official memorial ceremony for Jewish Ethiopian immigrants who...

June 3, 2005: Ethiopian Jews, Higher Education And Employment
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Good News , Israel
Good news: Some 120 Ethiopian-Israeli students are enrolled in law schools throughout the country… More than 3,000 of the 95,000 Ethiopian-Israelis have academic degrees, while some 2,000 attend post-high school institutions. Bad news: However, job market figures remain gloomy. A...

May 26, 2005: First Ethiopian Jews Arrive In Israel – Attend Mizrachi Religious Zionist School
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
1955: The first Ethiopian Jews to arrive in Israel find homes at AMIT Kfar Batya. Most eventually return to Ethiopia as educators and community leaders. [Photo: AMIT.]

May 24, 2005: Operation Solomon 14th Anniversary Is Today
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
In 1991, Israel with the help of the United States began a mass evacuation of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. Operation Solomon took only 36 hours to complete. I hope to have an interview today or tomorrow with...

May 18, 2005: Ethiopian Jews And Intermarriage
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel
Ben Krull writes in the New York Jewish Week: … We ate in Sderot with a group of people helping terror victims. I sat next to Mulualem, a social worker who emigrated from Ethiopia in 1982. He spoke excellent English,...

May 17, 2005: FAQ's: Ethiopian Jewry, Pekuakh Nefesh And A Kidney Transplant
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Hessed , MO & Chardal
Q: Are Ethiopian Jews really Jews? A: This is a complicated question. Halakhic authorities dating back almost 500 years have ruled that Ethiopian Jews are indeed Jewish. Perhaps the most famous of them is Rabbi David ibn Zimra, the Radbaz....

May 13, 2005: JPost Exclusive: NACOEJ Expelled From Ethiopia – JDC Acting Badly?
Comments: 6 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Jewish Leadership
The Jerusalem Post is exclusively reporting that the North American Conference On Ethiopian Jewry has been expelled from Ethiopia. Amir Shaviv, the Israeli hack now serving as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's assistant executive vice president, had this to...

May 5, 2005: Racism: Israeli City Removes 5 Ethiopian Jewish Children From City Kindergarten – "Too Many Ethiopians" In School, City Claims
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

May 4, 2005: Ethiopian Jewry's 'Yom HaShoah' And The Prime Minister Who Killed Thousands Of Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

April 14, 2005: Israeli Racism?
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

April 14, 2005: Passover In Ethiopia
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

April 9, 2005: Update On Falash Mura Aliya – Are They Really Jewish?
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

April 4, 2005: BREAKING! Canada Lies About Transplant – First Altruistic Kidney Transplant Done At Toronto General In 2004 – Donor Found On Internet – Precedent Set – Is Racism Driving Montreal Refusal? Where Is Justice Minister Irwin "Mr. Human Rights" Cotler?
Comments: 21 | Categories: Bio-Ethics , Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 31, 2005: Israel's Chief Rabbinate Officially Recognizes Benei Menashe of India, Burma & Thailand As Descendants Of The Lost Tribe Of Menashe – 6,000 To Be Brought To Israel Over Coming Years
Comments: 15 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership

March 31, 2005: Hatchet Job? Forward Has Controversial New Book Smearing Activists For Ethiopian Jews Reviewed By JDC Official – JDC Long Opposed To Activists
Comments: 1 | Categories: Creative PR , Ethiopian Jews , Israel , Jewish Leadership

March 30, 2005: Israel's Ambassador To Ethiopia Found Shot – Wound To Head Apparently "Self-Inflicted"
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

March 30, 2005: Montreal Jew Battles For Life
Comments: 0 | Categories: Bio-Ethics , Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 29, 2005: The Dirty Secret Behind Canada's Refusal
Comments: 4 | Categories: Bio-Ethics , Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 28, 2005: "I Saved A Lot Of People And Now I Don't Have Anyone To Save Me."
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 27, 2005: More On Agudah Racism – Lessons From The Holocaust Not Learned
Comments: 13 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Jewish Leadership

March 27, 2005: The Dirty Racist Underbelly Of The Haredi World – R. Moshe Sherer, Rav Moshe Feinstein, And The Rescue Of Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 10 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Jewish Leadership

March 24, 2005: The Montreal Gazette On The Baruch Tegegne Kidney Transplant Scandal
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 22, 2005: Potential Kidney Donor's Grandfather Died Of Kidney Failure – Moved By Jewish Hero's Story Of Escape & Rescue, Wants To Help – "God Will Be On My Side"
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 21, 2005: Baruch Tegegne, Hero Who Pioneered Escape Routes From Ethiopia, On Dialysis – Canadian Citizen, Canadian Govt Refuses Transplant Due to Fear Donor May Have Been Paid For Kidney, Denies Charge – Govt Decision A "Death Sentence"
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews , Hessed

March 15, 2005: Falash Mura Compound In Addis To Reopen After Purge – Opponents Of Falash Mura Aliya May Have Acted As 'Agent Provocateurs'
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews

March 8, 2005: Orthodox Discriminate Against Jews Of Color
Comments: 1 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim , Sefardim

January 31, 2005: The Long – And Expensive – Road Home
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
The Israeli Government has finally agreed to resettle the remaining 20,000 Falash Mura in Israel. 600 per month – double the current rate of immigration – will be brought to Israel until they are all resettled at the end of...

January 16, 2005: Israel Burns, Haredim Fiddle?
Comments: 1 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim
Haaretz has another sad article on the alienation of Ethiopian youth:

January 14, 2005: African Israelis: Ethiopians Reject Israeli Society, As It Has Rejected Them
Comments: 9 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Haredim
Haaretz has a truly sad article about the alienation of Ethiopian Jews from Israeli society and about the racism that fueled it: "I thought that after doing army service I wouldn't have a problem getting into clubs, but that's where...

January 12, 2005: Falash Mura / NACOEJ / Israel / JDC Dispute Escalates – Skullduggery To Blame?
Comments: 2 | Categories: Dirty Tricks , Ethiopian Jews
The dispute between the Falash Mura community in Addis and NACOEJ has escalated once again. "The [Ethiopian] government has made up its mind to kick out NACOEJ," Enyew told JTA. He also called NACOEJ a "mafia-like" organization and said the...

January 3, 2005: No, Of Course It's Not Racism
Comments: 8 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
Ha'aretz has a sad report on Israel's attempt to deport an elderly Christian Ethiopian who helped save Jews from the persecutions of Ethiopia's former communist government. The Jewish Agency recognizes his heroism. His children and grandchildren converted to Judaism and...

January 3, 2005: NY Times Reports On Falash Mura
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
The New York Times has a report on the stalled immigration of the Falash Mura to Israel.

December 28, 2004: US Congressmen Question Prime Minister Sharon On Slow Pace Of Ethiopian Aliya
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
Two American congressmen, one Jewish, one African-American, have sent a strong letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon questioning the slow pace of Ethiopian aliya (immigration to Israel) and noting the crushing poverty gripping Ethiopia's Jewish community:

November 16, 2004: Building History One Spin At A Time
Comments: 5 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Chabad History , Creative PR , Ethiopian Jews , Turf Disputes
What Chabad Claims: Chabad of District of Columbia Chabad-Lubavitch's sophisticated operations in D.C. have a rather unique focus. Over the past 45 years, this office has administered support for causes of national and world Jewish concern. Yet beyond these vital...

October 21, 2004: The Documents
Comments: 111 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad & EJs , Chabad History , Documents , Ethiopian Jews
An English-language translation of the Rebbe's letter on the rescue of Ethiopian Jews can be read here. Information on Chabad, Holocaust Rescue and Ethiopian Rescue can be viewed here. A teshuva from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein can be viewed here. Rabbi...

October 14, 2004: Discrimination, Chabad-Style
Comments: 2 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews , Sefardim
"Habad, one of Israel's stronger orthodox religious groups, doesn't recognize Ethiopians as Jews or allow their children into its kindergartens."

October 13, 2004: Status of Falash Mura Children Debated
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
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...

October 4, 2004: Is Chabad Racist? Chabad Schools Ban Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 13 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , 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,...

October 3, 2004: Progress
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ethiopian Jews
According to Ha'aretz, Israel now has 13 Ethiopian attorneys, 15 Ethiopian law school graduates waiting to take their Bar Exams, and 75 Ethiopian law school students. Not bad for a population that just 20 years ago lived in rural mountain...

September 29, 2004: A Stark Comparison
Comments: 0 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews
On the Responsibility to Save Lives ". . . [W]hen children suffer, and we know about them, we are always responsible for what is happening to them. To feed one child and to give hope to one parent is already...

September 27, 2004: 1943 & 1983: A Comparison
Comments: 19 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad , Chabad & EJs , Chabad & Holocaust , Chabad History , Ethiopian Jews , History
In 1943, the Union of Grand Rabbis and Agudas HaRabbonim issued the following plea calling on all rabbis to attend the Rabbis March on Washington. In part, it reads: The Union of Grand Rabbis, as well as the Union of...

September 23, 2004: The Rebbe's Letter on the Rescue of Ethiopian Jews
Comments: 144 | Categories: Abdication , Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews
Do Not Waste Energy On Any Work Which Is Not Connected With Fulfilling The Mission Of Lubavitch By the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson – as published in Kfar Chabad Magazine, Volume 1079, 5 Shevat 5764 (January 28, 2004) Page...

September 22, 2004: The Letters That Started It All
Comments: 31 | Categories: Chabad & EJs , Ethiopian Jews
You can read the Lubavitcher Rebbe's shameful letter on the rescue of Ethiopian Jews, along with the letters he was responding to, here.

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