Ethiopians: Lost Brother&Sisters

This was without a doubt the most surprisingly and intriging chapter I have read for this course all semester long. Ethiopian jews? I didn't even know they existed! Where did they come from? How many are there? How did they get to Israel? These are all the questions I asked myself when I first opened up the book to read the last chapter of the reading.

The government of Ethiopia was restricted who was allowed to leave the country. as the hold loosened, it was finally time for Ethiopian jews to return to their homeland. As one of the core principles of Zionism, collecting and returning all jews in diaspora was crucial to the fulfillment of its core principles. The story of how the jews ended up in Ethiopia and how they maintained their religion is a story of great will, persistence, and faith. At the time of their rescue, Ethiopian jews were caught in the middle of an incredibly bloody civil war as well as famine. Needlesstosay, the country was not in the best shape. The question of the matter is not how Jews got to Ethiopia, but how they adopted Judaism. Rosenthal describes a number of theories, but keep in mind they are just theories (Rosenthal 162). There is no accurate depiction of exactly how the religion was absorbed by the Ethiopians.

I was unable to find any current articles about the topic I chose to write on. There were definitely sources I researched, but none were current. By current, I mean in the last month or two. However, I didn find a number of really great, informative, and reliable websites that give a fascinating history of the Ethiopian jews.

Operation Solomon was the biggest rescue airlift in the shortest amount of time in history. That is QUITE impressive and amazing 1)for such a small country 2)for such an oppressed people. Operation Solomon is referred to as so because of the rfurst Ethiopian Israeli officer, Solomon Ezra who bribed Ethiopian officials to smuggle Jews out of Ethiopian villages (Rosenthal 157). Apprehensive passengers boarded nearly three dozen jets on their way to Israel after the Israel government have it the go. This air rescue IS ACTUALLY in the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest number of people on one plane. How absolutely astonishing!! As you can imagine, one may have mixed feelings on leaving their homeland. Not that it was a great place to be with all of its civil strife, but the immigrants had to leave behind all their belongings to ensure the maximum capacity of PEOPLE on the planes. In addition, many left behind other relatives, some of which will never make it to Israel.

There have been few jews that have sacrificed so much to be able to migrate to Israel. "Absorbing the Russians is a huge national challenge, but absorbing the Ethiopians is our national test of honor (Rosenthal 167)." All is not perfect however. The image of a misplaced person should still be fresh in the mind. Some of the Ethiopians who had the opportunity to go to Israel, as a mentioned above, left behind close knit families. There is a story Rosenthal describes also on page 167 about how some reunification was not always so joyful. Even with war, death, famine, and all unimaginable things possible, life goes on. People grow and have new experiences and a lot of the time change their beliefs. It is no wonder that if did not see someone from your family for 8 years that they would have become a completely different person than you remember. This could give such mixed emotions to anyone. How can this person you either married or watched grow and mature be someone else. They would still be part of your family right? And you still love them? These are the questions Ethiopian Jews ask themselves when they are reunited with family members they had been seperated from for so long.

The Ethiopian Jews have a special place in Israeli society. Maybe special isn't the correct word. What I mean is, there has never been another group like them, much like the African Americans of the United States. These "new Jews" were blacks in an all white society and were obviously not urbanized or been introduced to the wonders of industrialization. This is a topic that I can go on and on about for pages and pages!!! There's so much to discuss on this very different part of Israeli society.