Israel's Ethiopian Jews Face Challenges

Research carried out by the Israeli Ministry of Welfare recently revealed that 61 percent of the 130,000 strong Ethiopian population in Israel is on welfare. Social problems such as drug abuse and rising alcoholism among youth underlie this troubling statistic.

Yet, examples of success abound. The community boasts doctors, lawyers, teachers and businessmen, as well as increasing numbers of university graduates. An Ethiopian Jew is currently a member of parliament for the Kedima party; Ethiopian Jews are also entering local government and have representatives in all government ministries. Further, members of the community have succeeded in attaining high-ranking jobs in the media, sport, education and entertainment and culture. In addition, a steering committee for Ethiopian Jewish education run by an Israeli Ethiopian is funded by an arm of the Ministry of Education.

But can these achievements continue with the recent government decision to bring another 8,000 people from Ethiopia to join their families in Israel, or will problems once again gain the upper hand? More fundamentally, who are these people that wish to "return" to Judaism, re-unite with their relatives in Israel and integrate into Israeli society?

Roots and identities

About a quarter of the 130,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel were born there. They are a young ethnic group relative to the general Israeli Jewish population with an average age of 20.1 compared to 30.5. Since a landmark government decision in the 1980s, backed by the Israeli chief rabbinate's acceptance of the Ethiopian Jews as members of the 'lost tribe of Dan', Ethiopian Jews are eligible for aliya (immigration) and have migrated in significant numbers to Israel.

As immigrants, they are afforded equal rights and responsibilities in all spheres of life and are often positively treated compared to other new immigrants and ethnic groups. They are entitled to subsidized public housing, free Hebrew tuition, an initial cash payment for 'absorption' and special educational advantages. However, in the realm of religion, some restrictions pertaining to marriage in particular still remain. Furthermore, Ethiopian Jews serve in the Israel Defense Forces or in the National Service in the same capacity as other Israelis.

Ethiopian Jews hail primarily from villages scattered throughout modern-day Ethiopia. Unlike other communities of Jews, Ethiopian Jews in Ethiopia - also known as "external pageBeta Israelcall_made" ("House of Israel") - did not observe the Oral Law, or Talmud. In addition, the group labeled "Ethiopian Jews" in Israel includes non-Jewish Ethiopians who managed to emigrate to Israel and receive Israeli government benefits as new immigrants, as well as a much larger group designated "Felesmura", descendants of Ethiopian Jews who had converted to Christianity mainly as a result of 19th century missionary activity. Most Beta Israel Ethiopian Jews (not Felesmura) came to Israel up to the end of Operation Solomon in May 1991, when more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in little more than a day.

Destination Israel

Today, both Felesmura and those non-Jews who have succeeded in entering Israel as Jews, are converted to Judaism according to the laws of halacha (Jewish legal law) and thereafter accepted as Jews. All these different groups have adopted a new ethnic identity and are part of an ethnic group ("eda") called "Ethiopian Jews" in Israel.

At the time of writing, approximately 150 immigrant Felesmura are brought to Israel each month, although the quota changes according to Israeli government policy, national interests and relations with Ethiopia. In 2005, a compound for potential immigrants was still active in Addis Ababa. The compound was run by the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ) and provided religious and educational services, while the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was responsible for health. At the end of 2005, however, NACOEJ was expelled from Ethiopia, and the compound in Addis Ababa disbanded.

Today, another compound in Gondar, which is still active, receives financial aid from NACOEJ and helps run a school and synagogue, while the JDC runs a clinic nearby. Officials from the Israeli Ministry of Interior process requests for immigration in consultation with the Jewish Agency.

Challenges and opportunities

Last month, a survey commissioned by the Public Committee on Ethiopian Jewry headed by former Supreme Court Judge Meir Shamgar, reported that 93 percent of the 600 Likud members interviewed for a telephone survey agreed with the statement that those waiting in Ethiopia to make aliya should be brought to Israel. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they believed that delays to the aliya of the Felesmura stemmed from racism and discrimination by decision-makers in the current government. In the wake of the survey, the Israeli government reached the historic decision to bring in the "last" of the Felesmura, some 8,000 people, who have been waiting to come for months or years. According to this accord, the involved organizations signed a written memorandum by which they agreed not to work to bring any more Felesmura to Israel in the future beyond the number stipulated.

It is naïve, however, to expect that no more Felesmura will seek to emigrate since thousands more will demand to be reunited with their brethren on humanitarian grounds. The Felesmura, now part of Israeli civil society, are capable of organizing demonstrations accusing Israel of being racist and not allowing family reunions. In addition, the aforementioned organizations advocated for the latest accord to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel are not necessarily indispensable, thereby, leaving open the possibility of further campaigns to bring Felesmura migrants to Israel by other groups or activists.

Israeli society and leaders should remember that the migration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel has benefited Israeli society greatly. It has changed and expanded its idea of multi-culturalism and enriched society with new skills and world views. The The question is whether the new waves of immigration from Ethiopia will increase the ongoing cycle of poverty and social anomie of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and whether many of the problems that have been overcome by the 'veteran' Ethiopian Jewish immigrants will again appear in the same or different guises among the new immigrants. A case in point is wife-murder, which is more frequent among the Felesmura and non-Jewish immigrants than among Israeli Ethiopians born in Israel or brought up in the country.

The hope is that new immigrants will integrate quickly into Israeli society and that stigmatization will be less of a problem.The successes and experiences of 'veteran' immigrants should be harnessed to aid the new migrants, despite old religious dividing lines between 'veteran' migrants and their newer counterparts. Organizations and political parties who pressed for the aliya of Ethiopian Jews could, moreover, invest some of their funds into the successful integration of the immigrants they fought to bring to Israel - benefiting both the new migrants and Israeli society more generally.