FailedMessiah.com

Jerusalem Hazzanut Festival To Feature Ethiopian Liturgical Music

"We will have among our performers - and naturally as a result among our audience, too - haredim, religious, secular and traditional. It is basically an opportunity to bring the fringes together."

Letter from Tel Aviv:Blaming It On Racism Is Too Easy

The real problem with private religious schools is not racism.

"We Must All Ask Forgiveness From The Ethiopian Community"

As dozen of Ethiopian students still wait for school placement, discrimination against Ethiopian students took center stage in the Knesset.

Letter From Tel Aviv:Why Ethiopian Kids Are Like Shalit

A word is not a word, a promise is not a promise, an agreement is not an agreement.

Dozens Of Ethiopian Kids Miss Classes As Schools Put Up New Roadblocks For Admission

Petah Tikva schools blame city, Education Ministry for problem as Ethiopians cry foul.

The Man Who Saved Ethiopia's Jews

For Jews to be rescued, they had to get out of Ethiopia to a place where they could be transported to Israel. Baruch Tegegne is the man who made that happen. 

Compromise:As State Cuts Off Funds, Haredi Schools Enroll Ethiopians

But the number taken is small and the agreement to take more Ethiopian students as the school year progresses can be easily broken.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Shas Schools Must Take Ethiopians

"If I was brought into this world only to help the Ethiopians that is enough for me."

Breaking! Govt Cuts Funds To Haredi Schools

Schools that refused to enroll Ethiopian students get funding cut off. Deal negotiated by Petach Tikva mayor rejected by Education Ministry.

Deal Reached To Enroll Ethiopian Students In Haredi Schools

But deal seems to allow schools to reject Ethiopian students by a case by case basis.

As Haredi Schools Refuse To Enroll Ethiopians, Settlers Open Theirs

Settlers of to take Ethiopian students rejected by Israel's private but still state funded religious schools.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Treatment Of Ethiopian Children Reminds Me Of Apartheid

Shimon Peres: Treatment of Ethiopian students by haredi schools a disgrace.

Under Threat Of Financial Ruin, Religious Schools Agree To Accept Ethiopian And Disabled Students

"Private" religious schools are state funded. State threatened to cut off all funding unless schools enrolled disabled and Ethiopian students.

"What Does It Matter That We're Black?

Religious schools again refuse to enroll Ethiopian students.

Haredi, Orthodox Schools Refuse Ethiopian Students

Petach Tikva's private religious schools refuse to enroll Ethiopian students.

Ethiopian Jews Threaten Boycott

Egged bus company may be targeted after driver allegedly refused to allow an Ethiopian to ride, saying: "I don't allow niggers on my bus."

Israeli Bus Driver Refuses To Allow Ethiopian Jew To Board Bus

DRIVER: I don't allow niggers on my bus!

Black Like Me

The Ethiopian intentionally run over by a politically connected haredi yeshiva student tells her story.

Video: Watch Yeshiva Student Deliberately Run Over Ethiopian Jew, Flee

Israel's Supreme Court overturned lower court ruling today. Well-connected yeshiva student guilty.

Yeshiva Student Who Intentionally Ran Over Ethiopian Jew Is Son Of Sefardi Chief Rabbi Of Hadera

Student's father is a major figure in Shas and a rosh yeshiva. Student allegedly escaped punishment after Shas members, including Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, interceded with judge.

Israel Supreme Court To Rule On Case Of Haredi Yeshiva Student Who Ran Over Ethiopian Woman

Lower court acquitted student because a conviction would harm his chances of becoming a religious court judge. Chief Rabbi said to have lobbied lower court for acquittal. 

Rabbinate Revokes Conversion Of Ethiopian Woman After She Was Struck By Rabbi In Hit And Run

Caught on video, the rabbi is convicted – but the Rabbinute revokes the woman's conversion, apparently in revenge.

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.

Footsteps Founder Makes Jewish Week List

Malkie Schwartz, founder of an organization that helps haredim who decide to leave ultra-Orthodoxy, is named to prestigious NY Jewish Week list, as is Beejhy Barhany, the founder of BINA, Beta Israel of North America (Ethiopian Jews of North America).

Ethiopian Jews in NYC

Exodus reversed?

Esti Mamo, Shushan Purim Queen

Ethiopian Jewish model Esti Mamo is our Shushan Purim queen.

Israel: Russians Refuse To Sell Apartments To Ethiopians

Details:

Ethiopians Protest Forced Move From Absorption Center

Details:

Messianic Jews Missionize In Ethiopia, Urge Aliya – Messianic Leader: 70,000 "Messianic Jews" Waiting For Aliya

It boils down to this: The Israeli government, in its rush to keep out as many Ethiopian Jews as possible, has through its lies and inaction perhaps opened the door of aliya to 70,000 practicing Messianic Christians.

Here's how…

New Israeli Rabbinate Scandal: Ethiopian Jews Extorted By Rabbis, Shas Party's "Chief Rabbi" Of Ethiopian Jews Part Of Extortion Scheme

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 again a few weeks later for a quiet ceremony – real, this time – in the office of Rabbi Yosef Hadana, Shas Party member and the officially recognized "Chief Rabbi" of Ethiopian Jews, as…

New Scandal Strikes Rabbinate In Israel

Extortion, haredi rabbi style, as the…

Israel's "Government Fails to Provide for Ethiopians" – Stinging Comptroller's Report Voices Criticisms Raised by Activists for 25 Years

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 wreaking havoc on their families and social structure.

The details…

BREAKING: Israeli Rabbis Refuse To Allow Converts To Marry – Thousands Of Converts In Jewish Law Limbo

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 people.

Worse yet…

How History Really Gets Made – The Rescue Of Ethiopian Jews, Part 1

Here's something you didn't learn in Hebrew school…

Can An Ethiopian Jew Marry A Kohen?

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…

MK: Religious Schools Treatment of Ethiopian Jewish Students "Blatant, Ugly Racism"

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…

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

Stephen Feinstein was a man few of you knew. An internationally known academic whose field of study…

FailedMessiah on the Radio, part 2

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 to correct a misstatement I made.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Ethiopian Jews, cont.

"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 the big mitzvah of pekuach nefashot. Of course, all Jews should join in whatever way they can to aid the Falashas, be this aid material or spiritual.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, in a 1979 letter to the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, as cited in Lenhoff, "Black Jews, Jews and Other Heroes," Gefen Publishing House, 2007, page 145.

Rabbi Feinstein sent a personal donation to the AAEJ not long after.

FailedMessiah on the Radio

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 the jump in the extended post.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Rep. Tom Lantos

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 a forced labor camp and was later saved by Raoul Wallenberg. Much of his family perished in the Holocaust.

Ethiopian Jews Form Urban "Kibbutz"

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 as positive role models for the other residents of Gedera. Most of the Ethiopian members have university degrees, and are assertive and self-confident.
 
"When my parents came to Israel, they lost their independence, their dignity. They were made passive in their absorption process," said Tashome. "We are planning to be active and to serve members of our community, not from the outside, but as part of them."

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar: "I Wish Millions [of Ethiopians] Would Come To 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:

Haredim Most Racist Group In 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 19% said "absolutely not." Another 6% said they would be saddened but would not object.

Religious segmentation points at a different attitude: 61% of ultra-Orthodox respondents said they would vehemently object such a marriage. Only 25% would welcome an Ethiopian in-law.

That 25% of haredim would "welcome" an Ethiopian as a son- or daughter-in-law means that a large section of haredim surveyed view Ethiopian Jews as full Jews. This either means a disproportionate number of haredim interviewed are Sefardim or the question was understood by all to mean that the Ethiopian Jews in question were fully Jewish, either through conversion or through rabbinic affirmation.

Either way, haredim are far more bigoted than average, as the rest of the results clearly show:

The second question examined the degree of familiarity respondents have with community members: 32% admitted they do not have any Ethiopian friends and that they do not know any Ethiopians with whom they could build friendships. 20% do know Ethiopians but have no Ethiopian friends and 34% said they or their children have such a friend.

Once again a religious segmentation points at a different trend in the ultra-Orthodox community: 72% don't have Ethiopian friend.

Does the segregation in some of Petah Tikva schools reflect parents' wishes? 63% claim they have no problem sending their children to schools where 40% of the students are Ethiopians. On the other hand, 14% said they "would never" send their children to such institutions.

50% of ultra-Orthodox respondents said they would not send their children to such a school.

Gesher director-general Shoshi Becker said that the findings are worrying and require immediate action: "It is difficult to understand how people who practice Judaism as a way of life choose to steer clear of Ethiopian immigrants.

Becker added that a Jewish-democratic society should view acceptance of the other as a challenge and a mission and convey a clear message to future generations: "This is our job as a society, a community and as individuals."

Haredim are the most racist and bigoted subset of Jews in Israel. Anecdotal evidence points to the same result for haredim worldwide. In the infamous words of a Chabad shaliach, spoken to me in 1983 Hadar Hatorah's summer program for college students, "Why are you waisting your time helping helping schvartes?"

For every Rabbi Moshe Feinstein or Rabbi Ovadia Yosef there were – and still are – hundreds of rabbis like this one, like his mentor, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and like  the racists and bigots of Borough Park, Williamsburg, Kiryas Joel, Monsey, Manchester, Antwerp and beyond.

Haredism survives by creating ghettos and by demonizing the Other. It is at its core a racist and bigoted. Haredism cannot change because to change would mean to end haredism – you can't suddenly start being friendly and welcoming to the Other you demonize and still maintain ghetto walls.

Historically the ghetto was imposed on Jews from the outside. We were forced to live isolated lives because the dominant, usually Christian, rulering class did not want their "pure" populace mixing with "impure" Jews.

How sad and how ironic it is that "fervently religious" Jews, haredim, have made this non-Jewish racism and bigotry their own.

Ethiopian Pictures

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.

Are the Falsh Mura Jewish?

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 claim that the Ethiopians who currently wait at transit camps are Jewish. Chief Rabbi Amar’s ruling that those are kosher Jews is unconvincing. Suddenly, the chief rabbis have become experts on Ethiopian Jewry? In the eyes of the Ashkenazi rabbinical establishment I am not even a true Jew yet, and I cannot even get married here.

We cannot claim that someone who was completely Christian for 600 years is suddenly a Jew. Many Ethiopian Jews know this is a lie, but bringing them to Israel is perceived as a way of boosting and strengthening the Ethiopian community.…

Of course, the Falash Mura are Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity about 100 years ago. Ababa is, at the very least, guilty of overstatement – or is he?

Anshel Pfeffer has a report in today's Ha'aretz on the government's decision to stop Falash Mura aliya:

The Interior Ministry will close down its operation in Ethiopia in another two weeks, after signing the last aliyah permit for Falash Mura who are eligible to immigrate to Israel.

According to the ministry, some 1,500 eligible Falash Mura are still in Ethiopia, and all are expected to arrive here by next June. But Ethiopian immigrant associations claim that there are at least 8,500 others who are eligible to immigrate under the government's criteria.

The Falash Mura are Ethiopians of Jewish descent whose ancestors converted to Christianity. They are not Jewish according to Jewish law, but in 1999, under pressure from local Ethiopian immigrant groups and American Jewish organizations, the government agreed to bring them to Israel. They are currently arriving at a rate of about 300 per month.

In late 2006, however, the government decided to bring the remaining Falash Mura here and wind up its operation in Ethiopia within a year.

According to the government's immigration criteria, which are based on a halakhic ruling by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, a Falash Mura must be able to prove their maternal ancestral line is Jewish for seven generations back, have a first-degree relative who is already in Israel and promise to undergo a pro forma conversion upon arrival. Over the last year, the Interior Ministry has refused immigration permits to some 3,000 applicants.…

Pfeffer goes on to report allegations of bribery by Falash Mura who pay Falsh Mura currently in Israel to claim them as "first-degree relatives," and other shenanigans. And he repeats the claim that American groups are blind to this deception and insinuates American groups have caused this crisis.

What neither Pfeffer or Ababa do is explain the history of the rescue of Ethiopian Jews. If they did this, those American groups pushing for aliya of Falash Mura would look a whole lot better.

Why? Because the Israeli government and Jewish Agency have a long, dirty track record of lies. They scuttled rescue operations and killed Jews – and I do not write these words lightly.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, commonly known as the Joint, raised money in 1982 for ambulances to help Ethiopian Jews. When I saw that claim, made as part of a national Federation fundraising brochure, I challenged my local Federation to prove it, pointing out that Ethiopian Jews lived primarily in villages and that Ethiopia did not have a modern road system. The ambulances pictured could never have made it to or from those villages.

To its credit, the local Federation checked, and found that I was correct. The Joint admitted the ambulances were based in Addis Ababa and served Christians who lived in the capitol as part of the Joint's nonsectarian program in Ethiopia. The local Federation pulled that national brochure and issued an apology. The Council of Jewish Federations and the Joint itself continued to raise money under false pretenses. And neither group funded relief or rescue in any serious way.

But the Federations eventually learned. After years of swallowing Israeli lies whole, and after their Israeli ordered fundraising during Operation Moses was leaked to the media by the Israeli government and by Federation leaders, resulting in the end of the rescue and the deaths of thousands of Ethiopian Jews, a new generation of leaders took power. These younger leaders, more experienced, with greater confidence and not in the thrall of Israeli politicians, called Israel on its lies and forced change.

The only American Jewish organization today that completely supports the Israeli government's restrictive position on Falash Mura aliya is the Joint. The Joint to this day has never admitted the wrongs it did in the early 1980s.

That said, it seems there are very real abuses of the aliya process. My correspondent was in Addis Ababa a few months ago and saw many Falash Mura Ethiopians whose leaders claim to be Jews but many community members were wearing crosses, allegedly because of persecution from non-Jews. These people claim to be, in effect, marranos. This new group's link to Ethiopian Jews is in fact much more distant than the Falash Mura that Israel's Sefardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar considers Jews. This new group has the following philosophy: Jewish Identity. Parnassah. Aliya. In other words, first be Jewish. Then earn money and support one's self. Only then make aliya.

Rabbi Amar has not yet ruled on this new group and NACOEJ, the American organization that runs programs and sometimes transit camps for Falash Mura in Addis and Gondar has not publicly dealt with this issue.

The bottom line is that Israeli lies and malfeasance stretching back at least thirty years makes it very difficult for American Jewish groups to trust Israeli assertions about the Falash Mura. So too racisit and bigoted statements from Israeli leaders, like the current Interior minister, and the ongoing problems of discrimination faced by Ethiopian Jews in Israel at the hands of politicians, employers, educators and rabbis alike.

Israel's racism and lies created this problem. The Falash Mura and their pretenders are simply exploiting what these others have sown.

Racism In Israel: NRP School Segregates Ethiopian Students

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 Ethiopian girls cab fare home so they would not mix with white students and put the four in a separate classroom at the end of a hall. One teacher was assigned to teach the Ethiopian girls all subjects, while the rest of the student body had specialized teachers for every subject. Israel's Education Ministry condemned the school. So far, the rabbi in charge of the school has not apologized.

[Hat Tip: Ben Max.]

Orthodox MK: Israel's Decision to Abandon Falash Mura Like "White Paper of 1939" – "Israeli governments have completely failed"

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 being implemented, and demanding that the state comptroller look into the issue.

Orlev argued that "the government's decisions to impose quotas for the immigration of Ethiopian Jews remind me of the White Paper. There were no quotas in any immigration, apart from that of the Ethiopian Jewry.

"I have been involved in this issue for many years, and I stand ashamed before those engaged in this activity, as I have no answers regarding the State's conduct in terms of this issue, which is the heart of the State of Israel as a Jewish state."

Orlev added, "Rabbi Amar ruled in the past that Ethiopia's Jews are complete Jews and that there is no doubt that it is a commandment and a duty to save them and bring them to our country, according to the acceptable examinations. My impression is that the Israeli governments have completely failed here."

Ynet also reports that State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will look into the government's refusal to complete the aliya of the remaining Falash Mura in Ethiopia.

Should Israel Take In The Remaining Jews of Ethiopia?

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, left wing Israeli pol Naomi Hazan and the National Religious party's Rabbi Hanan Porat.

Why is this council forming? Because the Israeli government is reneging on its original promise to bring in all remaining Falash Mura (descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity, largely from the late 1800s through the 1930s) from Ethiopia to Israel. Israel conducted a census of Falash Mura several years ago. The results were broken down into three groups:

1. Falash Mura in Addis Ababa

2. Falsh Mura in Gondar

3. Falash Mura in outlying villages.

According to Avraham Neguise, director of Israeli Ethiopian advocacy group South Wing to Zion:

"The Interior [M]inistry has decided to ignore those people from the villages," he said. "How can the government make the decision to split up families like this?"

But are they Jews? The decision of leading Religious Zionist and Sefardic rabbis is that, yes, they are:

"These people are recognized as Jews according to Halacha and the State of Israel," said Rabbi Menachem Waldman, who helped to compile the Efrati census. "It is our responsibility as a Zionist state to bring these people here and welcome them with an open heart."

While acceptance of this ruling is far from universal in Israeli or Diaspora Orthodoxy, and even though Falash Mura are required to undergo an Orthodox conversion (for halakhic reasons too complex to deal with here), they are still Jews.

Should they be brought to Israel?

Even though there is a very real problem of Christian missionaries hiding among them, once you have a significant halakhic opinion that these people are Jews or safek Jews, there is no other real choice.

Interestingly, Israel was in effect following Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's request. Rav Moshe preferred Ethiopian Jews to be brought to a third country and offered a choice – convert quickly to remove all halakhic doubt (we're talking about a simple yes or no answer, a drop of blood taken form the penis and a dip in a mikva, all done within a few hours) or remain in the third country as a refugee.

That was not feasible during Operation Moses and it anyway was incorrect halakhicly because of the rulings of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and dozens of other Sefardic rabbis who ruled Ethiopian Jews were 100% Jewish and that no conversion was necessary. When faced with a situation where some rabbis rule Jewish without any doubt and others rule that a doubt exists, according to halakha one would need to operate on the halakhic assumption that there is no doubt regarding status and these people are 100% Jewish. (This would apply to everything except marriage.)

It would have been incorrect to take an Ethiopian Jew, bring him to Italy, say, and leave him there to live as a non-Jew because refused to convert, not because he does not want to be Jewish but because he is insulted that you question his Jewishness at all, especially after so much sacrifice from his community to live their understanding of Judaism.

In this case, Israel was vetting Falash Mura in compounds in Gondar and Addis Ababa. These people studied Orthodox Judaism, Hebrew and Jewish history. They learned how to pray like Orthodox Jews now pray. It was only after this vetting that Falash Mura were brought to Israel.

Whatever your belief about the Jewishness of these people who are descended from Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity as far back as 120 years ago, halakha requires us to approach them as if they are Jews.

"We Won't Let The Mossad Mess With Our Heritage"

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 community in Ethiopia and Sudan to serve as operatives on the ground in Ethiopia and Sudan. It recruited a group of Ethiopian Jewish operatives and set them to work.

Over the next eight years, these men would risk their lives. Some would be arrested and tortured. Some killed. Most gave up years of their lives for the cause. At least one defied orders from his white Mossad superiors and rescued Ethiopian Jews when the Mossad, without Begin's knowledge, had decided to forgo rescue. (This would lead to the ostracism of this operative and a lifetime of suffering, yet his work opened the escape routes that later were used by Ethiopia's Jews and led directly to Operation Moses. To be clearer, he found and developed the escape routes later used in what became Operation Moses.)

None of these men were paid.

In 2000, a government committee found all these men – some who had already been named Prisoners of Zion – deserved compensation. But only a few got paid and most of those who did seemed to have received their compensation because of who they know – not what they did.

So the group is now demanding that the government's decision be implemented and that all Ethiopian operatives be equally compensated. They also want the state to recognize their work.

I know several of these men (although not the ones pictured above). They deserve compensation and they deserve recognition and honor.

I know what Menachem Begin would have done, and it would not have taken a lawsuit to get him to do it. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Ehud Olmert.

[Hat Tip: KK.]