Ethiopian Jewry

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META-CHLOE:  When you think of a Jewish Israeli, what image comes to mind?

SKEPTIC:  I dunno - maybe this? Or this? Or this?

CHEERLEADER:  OK, OK.  Well, for me, there’s a particular Israeli story that speaks to me….  This:  The story of Ethiopian Jewry.  It’s epic.  They’ve overcome adversity and challenges both in Ethiopia and in Israel, and help make Israel the multifaceted, complex society it is!

SKEPTIC:  Very nice, but who are they? I’ve heard the terms “Falashas,” and “Beta Israel,” but which is which, or are those the same thing?  

EXPERT:  Ethiopian Jews traditionally referred to themselves as “Beta Israel.”  However, some of Beta Israel were pressured to convert to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, and they became known as “Falash Mura,” or “Falashas,” a derogatory designation in Amharic, meaning “strangers” or “migrants.”  They were give this pejorative name because Beta Israel no longer considered them to be authentic Jews.  But it’s important to note that Christian and Muslim Ethiopians referred to all Ethiopian Jews, including Beta Israel, as Falashas, because to the non-Jews, they were all “strangers.”  Similarly today, westerners often use the term Falasha to refer to all Ethiopian Jews, when in fact, it is just a subgroup.   

SKEPTIC: Yeah, that’s not confusing at all.  So who are they? Where do they come from and how did they end up in Ethiopia?  

EXPERT:  Well, there are approximately 144,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel today, 1.6% of the population, and their origins are --

CHEERLEADER :  -- Their tradition trace their roots all the way back to the tribe of Dan, one of the original 12 tribes of Israel.

SKEPTIC:  Is that the one that got lost?

EXPERT:  Well them and 9 others.  But that’s just one tradition--

CHEERLEADER:  Tribe of Dan, yeah!

EXPERT:  -- Other traditions tie them to King Menilek, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, one of his 700 wives.

CHEERLEADER:  Holy S#$% that’s a lot of wives.

SKEPTIC:  Don’t forget his 300 concubines.

EXPERT:  These Ethiopian Jews had been disconnected from the rest of Jewish society for over 2000 years.

CHEERLEADER:  That’s before the creation of the Mishna, Talmud, gefilte fish you know, like some of the basics of Judaism today.

EXPERT:  They practice a form of Biblical Judaism, which has a lot of differences but also many similarities with the Jewish practices we’re familiar with today.

SKEPTIC:  So like, they keep kosher, have shabbat, holidays…?

EXPERT: Yes and no.  Before coming to modern Israel, they kept a form of kosher and the Sabbath, and kept the biblical holidays like Rosh Hashanna, Passover and Sukkot. However, they did not celebrate holidays like Purim and Channuka, which commemorate historical events that occured long after their community became fragmented from the rest of the Jewish world.  Any Jewish laws or traditions that developed after the destruction of the First Temple were unknown to them.

CHEERLEADER:  Not only was it unknown to them, but up until the 19th century, most of them hadn’t heard of Jews outside of Ethiopia at all.  They thought that they were the last remaining Jews in the world.

SKEPTIC: They must have been pretty surprised to find out there were white Jews too.  

CHEERLEADER:  Yeah

SKEPTIC:  So, how did they end up back in Israel?

EXPERT:  Well, the Ethiopian Jews had dreamed of returning to Zion for thousands of years.  But in the 1970s and early 80s Ethiopia found itself embroiled in civil war and famine, which led to the deaths of thousands, and an increase in the persecution the Ethiopian Jews already faced.

CHEERLEADER  So thousands of Ethiopian Jews began the long journey north by foot, through desert and hostile territory, hoping to arrive in Israel.

EXPERT:   Northwest, actually.  Once they reached Sudan, they couldn’t travel any further, and remained languishing in refugee camps.  It is estimated that as many as 4000 died from starvation and disease during the nearly 750 mile trek through the desert and during the years spent in the refugee camps.  But then--

SKEPTIC: Let me guess, Israel came to the rescue.

CHEERLEADER: Good guess!  Israel fulfilled the ancient prophecy and flew them to the Holy Land on the wings of eagles..

EXPERT:  Well, Alaskan Airlines actually.  In any case, it wasn’t that simple.  In the years leading up to this, Israel had sent Mossad agents to smuggle smaller numbers of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, but it took a lot of pressure from Jewish advocacy groups to get the government to begin a large-scale program.

SKEPTIC:  So it took a lot of nudging to get the Israeli bureaucracy to get moving? That sounds about right.

CHEERLEADER:  Well there was the need to keep the rescue on the down-low, and on a small scale, to prevent the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments from cracking down and preventing immigration.  So that slowed things down too.

SKEPTIC:  That sort of sounds like a cop out.

EXPERT: It’s a sticky subject.  Also, you have to remember that Israel was a very small country, and the government felt that it needed to determine how to successfully integrate the Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society before bringing them en masse.

CHEERLEADER:  Makes sense, right?

EXPERT:   But, part of the Israeli government’s hesitancy was that many weren’t convinced that the Ethiopian Jews were truly Jewish, due to the uncertainty of their origins.

SKEPTIC:  Ah, and if they’re not Jewish then they’re not eligible to immigrate under the “Law of Return”…

EXPERT: Correct, the Law of Return, enacted in 1950, gives every Jew the right to live in Israel and gain citizenship.  It subscribes to the notion of Israel as a safe haven from the persecution Jews had suffered for 2000 years .  

CHEERLEADER:  That’s not to say that non-Jews can’t gain citizenship through naturalization.  It’s just not an automatic right.  

EXPERT:  But in 1973, when the Chief Rabbi of Israel ruled that according to Jewish law, the Ethiopian Jews are in fact Jews, the government's policies began to slowly shift.  

SKEPTIC:  So it took another 10 years for Israel to take action and rescue them on a larger scale?

CHEERLEADER: Finally in 1984, “Operation Moses” was born.  Over the course of 7 weeks, Israel secretly airlifted 8000 Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan to Israel.  But when the secret became public, Sudan - facing pressure from its Arab allies - cut off the operation.  Thousands of Ethiopian Jews remained in wartorn Ethiopia waiting for the day that they would join their brothers and sisters in Israel.  But!  7 years later, Israel launched a daring mission, which they named Operation Solomon.  In a period of less than 36 hours, Israel covertly airlifted 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel --

EXPERT:  14,325.

CHEERLEADER: -- When all was said and done, Israel’s Ethiopian population went from a few hundred in 1983 to over twenty thousand in 1991.  

EXPERT:   And the process of integration for Black Jews in Israel was quite different from that of African Americans in the American colonies, which bears mentioning.  

CHEERLEADER:  Yea, in Israel, there was no slavery, no Jim Crow, no legalized systemic racism.  The Ethiopian Jews came here to join their Jewish brothers and sisters as equal members of society.  That was the dream.  And as Herzl said, “If you will it, it is no dream.”

SKEPTIC:  I knew we couldn’t get through this without you quoting Herzl.

CHEERLEADER:  In America, our ancestors were brought as slaves, and were later segregated.  In Israel, Ethiopians were brought to freedom, and the goal was to integrate them.  

SKEPTIC:  So what, is Israel free of racism?

EXPERT:  No, there is certainly some racism in Israel.  Racism is a global problem and Israel isn’t spared from it.

CHEERLEADER: But overall the integration of the Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society was a big success.  Israelis welcomed the Ethiopians with open arms, and were really moved by their Aliyah.  Because all the differences they had didn’t matter;  what mattered is that they were Jews, and part of one big family.

EXPERT:  Still, many complain of lack of opportunity, poverty, and police harassment.  

SKEPTIC:  Yeah, I’ve seen newsclips of protests about this...

EXPERT:  Though it’s not always evident when discrimination in Israel is in fact due to racism, and when it is rather due to doubts about some Ethiopians’ Jewishness.  The remaining Ethiopians who have been immigrating to Israel in recent years are of the Falasha group -- whose ancestors had converted to Christianity.  Remember, even some of Beta Israel don’t consider the Falashas to be Jewish, although in recent years most Ethiopian Jews have joined in solidarity with them.    As of now, Israel requires Falashas to officially convert to Judaism in order to be granted citizenship.

CHEERLEADER:  So that has to be worked out...

EXPERT:  Agreed.  And - though this does not by any means justify discrimination - it’s important to consider that it is a challenge that most immigrants face at some point, not only Ethiopians, and not only in Israel.  So it’s important to know what is motivating discrimination in order to address it.

CHEERLEADER:  But its not fair to say that the issues they face are all coming from discrimination...

EXPERT:  True.  It’s important to take into account cultural and social differences.  To prepare for the absorption of tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews, the Israeli government developed an elaborate program, covering issues of housing, education, and employment.  But its approach did not sufficiently take into account social and cultural differences between the existing and incoming Ethiopian population.  Unlike European immigrants, Ethiopians were coming from remote, rural villages, and were not prepared to work and live in a modern industrialized society.  This, despite Israel’s efforts at bridging the socioeconomic gap, resulted in a strong social marginalization.

CHEERLEADER:  But since then, they have come very far.  Ethiopians are in the highest levels of government and industries.  The gap is shrinking.  Among young Ethiopians who were raised here, the gap in education and employment is almost closed.

SKEPTIC:  Yet there are what - 8000 Falashas? - who have been living in squalor in Ethiopia, waiting 20 years for Israel to take them in.

CHEERLEADER:  OK, but the government just approved immigration for another 1000 Falashas.  So hopefully we’re on the right track.

EXPERT: Agreed.  Israel is a complex society and has its challenges.  But there is also a lot of acceptance and respect for various cultures.  

Cheerleader: It’s rough, shifting terrain that Israel will always struggle to navigate, but it’s important for Israel to set its eyes on the final destination: the Jewish values of equality and acceptance of others.

Back to Meta Chloe writing, with VO:

META CHLOE:   And one of the best examples of this challenge is the story of the Ethiopian Jews.