Former US Senator and Ambassador Rudy Boschwitz, a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, and a fellow at a Washington, D.C. think-tank remember Baruch Tegegne.
This will be published in the American Jewish World. Please click to enlarge:
Here are three more remembrances. I'll add more as they come in:
"Baruch was crucial in bringing the forgotten Jews of Ethiopia to the consciousness of Israel and the Jewish world. As such, he was instrumental in helping save his own people. History will remember Baruch Tegegne as someone who was key in the ingathering of an exiled people."
–– David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director, Project on the Middle East Peace Process, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; former president, World Union of Jewish Students.
""Baruch was a gentle, giant man, who more than anything lived the Hillel principle 'if i am not for me, who will be'. He influenced scores of leaders, young and old, and he led by example. Baruch changed my life like many others, and is truly a hero of the Jewish people. It is said that he who saves one person, it is a if he saves an entire world–Baruch saved a universe."
–– Moshe Ronen, Vice President of the World Jewish Congress; former president of the North American Jewish Students Network.
"After Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed, Baruch was arrested by the Marxist Military junta as an Israeli agent. He escaped Ethiopia without a passport and literally walked across deserts and stowed on ships to make it back to Israel. In Israel, he became one of the most important figures in the advocacy campaign for bringing the Ethiopian Jewish community on aliyah. He lobbied, he smuggled people and he put his life on the line to make sure this most ancient of Jewish communities would be rescued from violence and starvation. When I met Baruch in Montreal in 1979, there were only 400 Ethiopian Jews in Israel. It is no exaggeration to state that he was the one individual most responsible for the fact that there are over 100,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel today. Everyone who met him knows that Baruch was a sweet human being and a true Jewish hero.
"On a very personal note, meeting him changed the course of my life. He involved me in the Ethiopian Jewry movement and encouraged me to make my first film, “Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews”. Like so many people that he touched, he literally changed my life.
"May his memory be for blessing."–– Simcha Jacobovici, noted filmmaker and television host; former president, North American Jewish Students Network.