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One of the Center’s Signature Projects for the 2023-2024 Academic Year was “The Returning Home to Israel Project According to the Tradition of Beta Israel” whose aim is to identify and reduce tensions within the Ethiopian-Israeli community. In the framework of this program, sponsored by the New York Federation and Ono. Eight Ethiopian-Israeli Ono students, who come from diverse backgrounds (Center and Periphery; Amharim and Tigrim; Religious Zionist, Traditional Beta Israel, and ultra-Orthodox; Rabbis and Keisim; Men and Women, etc.) receive leadership training and will go out into their communities to identify the conflicts that are dividing the Ethiopian Israeli community.
Under the supervision of Ono’s leadership team (comprised of Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, Founder and Director of Ono’s International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry; Adv. Zeev Kaso, Founder and Director of Ono’s Program for the Advancement of Ethiopian-Israeli Students; Dr. Samuel Schwartz, Director of Ono’s International Progarams; and Dereve Fikadie, Program Coordinator, Dean’s List MA student, and Ono graduate) the participants will choose a problem affecting their community, propose a solution and then implement it. At the end of the program’s first year, a summary conference will be held in which the participants will present their work in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Immigration Authority, Jewish Agency for Israel representatives, members of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, etc.
In this first meeting, the program managers and participants got to know each other. Then, the program managers presented the project’s outline to the participants and discussion ensued. Already, in the first meeting, the outlines of the conflicts between the groups represented by the participants came to the fore. The participants related to these disagreements with the utmost mutual respect, something that augurs well with for the rest of the program.
