MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM

JEWISH STATUS OF THE BETA ISRAEL II: 1972-1975

 Teachers should now explain:

 At this point, with the question of Ethiopian Jewry’s religious status on the line, various organizations based mostly in Israel and North America were founded to come to the Beta Israel’s aid and help secure their right of return to Israel. Among the most influential was the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ). The AAEJ was formally founded in 1974106 by Granum Berger, who was succeeded by Howard Lenhoff, and then by Nate Shapiro. They were “determined to help the threatened Beta Israel fulfil the dream of rejoining their brethren in… Israel.”107 An essential element of these endeavors,108 Howard Lenhoff wrote, was ensuring that the Beta Israel officially be declared as Jews.

Teachers should proceed to explain:

 In 1973, thanks to the tireless efforts of Hezi Ovadia, an Ethiopian- born Israeli Jew working with the AAEJ, Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled that Rabbi David Ibn Zimra’s sixteenth century responsa confirming the Jewish status of the Beta Israel was still valid, 400 years later.

 In his ruling, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef wrote:

 “The falashas (i.e., Beta Israel) are the remnants of the tribes of Israel who traveled south to Ethiopia…[and] are Jews that we must save… And may it be the will [of G-d] that we will speedily fulfil the words of the prophets that: ‘And the redeemed of Zion shall return, and they shall come to Zion with song, with joy of days of yore shall be upon their heads’ (Isaiah 35:10)… ‘and it shall come to pass that on that day, the Lord shall continue to apply His hand a second time to acquire the rest of His people, that will remain from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Sumeria and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. And He shall raise a banner to the nations, and He shall gather the scattered of Israel, and the scattered of Judah… He shall gather from the four corners of the earth’ (Isaiah 11:11- 12)… ‘and those lost in the land of Assyria and those exiled in the land of Egypt shall come and they shall prostrate themselves before the Lord on the holy mount in Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 27:13).”109

Teachers should then explain:

 Two years after this ruling, in 1975, “the Israeli Knesset decide[d] that the Law of Return applies to Ethiopian Jewry. The significance of this decision [was] that Ethiopian Jews can make aliyah to Israel as Jews, with no need for immigration permits or visas.”110

 Teachers should conclude:

 There are, without a doubt, so many influential people and organizations that contributed to the immigration of the Beta Israel to Israel in Operations Moses and Solomon, which we’ll next discuss in the next unit. But, as Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom writes, “the role of the American Jewish community in the aliyah of Ethiopian Jewry is especially admirable.”111 Their endless and almost obsessive dedication for the sake of the community and their salvation is awe-inspiring, and it must not be forgotten.”112

 

   

106 AAEJ ceased its operations at the end of 1993 – see Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes, p. 5.

107 Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes, p. 5. Mention should also be made of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), which first began its efforts in 1981. Both these organizations will be discussed further in Unit 8: Operation Moses & Operation Solomon.

108 Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes, 41.

109 Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia, 37-38.

110  Ibid, 70-71.

111 It has been suggested by some that American Jews hoped that their efforts to save African Jews from Ethiopia could prove to the world that Israel and the Jews are not racist (see Shalom, Dialogues of Love and Fear). It should be noted that American Jewry’s support in the aliyah of Ethiopian Jewry is unrelated to diplomacy between Africa and the West or any decisions of the UN. It is rather a story that touches deeply and specifically on Israel’s Law of Return, as well as the concept of Jewish solidarity in general and the Zionist ethos in

112 See Shalom, Dialogues of Love and Fear.