{"id":31336,"date":"2024-01-09T16:38:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T16:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?page_id=31336"},"modified":"2024-01-09T16:44:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T16:44:14","slug":"unit-7-jewish-status-of-the-beta-israel-ii-1972-1975","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/unit-7-jewish-status-of-the-beta-israel-ii-1972-1975\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 7: JEWISH STATUS OF THE BETA ISRAEL II: 1972-1975"},"content":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY<\/span><\/a>
\nTHE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a>JEWISH STATUS OF THE BETA ISRAEL II: 1972-<\/u>1975<\/u><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Teachers should now explain:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>At this point, with the question of Ethiopian Jewry\u2019s religious status on the line, various organizations based mostly in Israel and North America were founded to come to the Beta Israel\u2019s 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<\/sup> by Granum Berger, who was succeeded by Howard Lenhoff, and then by Nate Shapiro. They were \u201cdetermined to help the threatened Beta Israel fulfil the dream of rejoining their brethren in\u2026 Israel.\u201d107<\/sup> An essential element of these endeavors,108<\/sup> Howard Lenhoff wrote, was ensuring that the Beta Israel officially be declared as Jews.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teachers should proceed to explain:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>In 1973, thanks to the tireless efforts of Hezi Ovadia, an Ethiopian- born Israeli Jew working with the AAEJ, Israel\u2019s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled that Rabbi David Ibn Zimra\u2019s sixteenth century responsa confirming the Jewish status of the Beta Israel was still valid, 400 years later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0In his ruling, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe falashas (i.e., Beta Israel) are the remnants of the tribes of Israel who traveled south to Ethiopia\u2026[and] are Jews that we must save\u2026 And may it be the will [of G-d] that we will speedily fulfil the words of the prophets that: \u2018And 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\u2019 (Isaiah 35:10)\u2026 \u2018and 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\u2026 He shall gather from the four corners of the earth\u2019 (Isaiah 11:11- 12)\u2026 \u2018and 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\u2019 (Isaiah 27:13).\u201d109<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teachers should then explain:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Two years after this ruling, in 1975, \u201cthe 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 <\/em>to Israel as Jews, with no need for immigration permits or visas.\u201d110<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Teachers should conclude:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>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\u2019ll next discuss in the next unit. But, as Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom writes, \u201cthe role of the American Jewish community in the aliyah <\/em>of Ethiopian Jewry is especially admirable.\u201d111<\/sup> Their endless and almost obsessive dedication for the sake of the community and their salvation is awe-inspiring, and it must not be forgotten.\u201d112<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

106 AAEJ ceased its operations at the end of 1993 \u2013 see Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes<\/em>, p. 5.<\/p>\n

107 Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes<\/em>, 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

108 Lenhoff, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes<\/em>, 41.<\/p>\n

109\u00a0Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia<\/em>, 37-38.<\/p>\n

110\u00a0 Ibid, 70-71.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>). It should be noted that American Jewry\u2019s support in the aliyah <\/em>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\u2019s Law of Return, as well as the concept of Jewish solidarity in general and the Zionist ethos in<\/p>\n

112 See Shalom, Dialogues of Love and Fear<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM JEWISH STATUS OF THE BETA ISRAEL II: 1972-1975 \u00a0Teachers should now explain: \u00a0At this point, with the question of Ethiopian Jewry\u2019s religious status on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":30932,"parent":0,"menu_order":83,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31336","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}