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…
…Falash Mura in situ so they won't need to spend two years studying for conversion once brought to Israel. The more pressing (if unstated) reason seems to be that, once converted, it will be a lot harder for the government to refuse to take them in.
“[T]he State of Israel, the Chief Rabbinate included, has done Ethiopia’s Jews a grievous wrong.
"We are all culpable, and we are all to blame for not bringing Ethiopia’s Jewry home with the rest of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Amar, following a heated debate concerning governmental policy towards Ethiopian immigrants. “No amount of heartfelt words can change that fact.”
But what is Amar bringing the Falsh Mura home to?
Committee members also discussed the near segregation faced by many Ethiopian students in Israel’s religious school system. “Many religious schools do not accept Ethiopian students, “said [Ethiopian activist Avraham] Nagosa. “One Petach Tikva school, for instance, is 90% Ethiopian because other schools refuse to accept Ethiopian pupils, which is a real travesty."
Internal Affairs and Environment Committee Chairman, MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor), stated that such schools’ policies are blatant, ugly racism. Rabbi Amar responded by noting that “Ethiopians love the Torah and are observant at heart. There are certain difficulties in integrating them into the Israeli education system, but I met with Petach Tikva educational officials and together we formulated a plan to fully integrate Ethiopian students with their fellow classmates.”
What is that plan? Will it be implemented in good faith? Will it be implemented at all?
This kind of segregation has gone on for years. I hope it stops, but I don't think it will.
Rabbi Amar just signed a deal on conversion with the Rabbinical Council of America. Part of that deal requires 12 years of yeshiva day school for converts' children and for adopted children converted by an RCA beit din.
In effect, the same deal exists in Israel with Falash Mura forced to send their children to religious schools – schools that discriminate against those children.
I see no direct parallel other than the enforced religious school attendance.
Still, the idea that this discrimination could go on for years without rabbinic authorities stopping it or speaking out against it says something for how the chief rabbis view converts. And it may explain why onerous burdens heaped on prospective converts don't seem to onerous to the rabbis who did the heaping.