{"id":31372,"date":"2024-01-09T17:46:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?page_id=31372"},"modified":"2024-01-09T17:46:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:46:15","slug":"unit-8-protests-of-the-beta-israel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/unit-8-protests-of-the-beta-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 8: PROTESTS OF THE BETA ISRAEL"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

PROTESTS OF THE BETA ISRAEL<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Students should now read the following:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>As we learned in Unit 7, Israel\u2019s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef affirmed the Beta Israel\u2019s Jewish status in 1973. However, this ruling was made when most Beta Israel were still in Ethiopia. By 1985, a significant number of Ethiopian Jews had arrived in Israel, and questions arose again. At this point, writes Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, \u201cthe immigration and absorption of the Jews brought to\u00a0Israel before and in Operation Moses led to a renewed examination\u00a0of the halakhic <\/em>(Jewish legal) status of the Beta Israel, [and while] the Chief Rabbinic Council of Israel decide[d] that \u201cthe Ethiopian Jews are Jews from the [biblical] Tribe of Dan \u2026[and] due to doubts in the wake of their disconnection from the rest of the Jewish people for hundreds of years, the chief rabbinate rule[d] that the Ethiopians must undergo giyyur le- humrah <\/em>[meaning] precautionary conversions, requiring circumcision, immersion in a mikveh <\/em>(i.e. ritual bath), and acceptance of the mitzvot <\/em>(commandments), in order to remove all doubts about the status of the Ethiopian Jews.\u201d143<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Israeli rabbinate\u2019s demand for \u201cprecautionary\u201d conversions enraged members of the Beta Israel, who had already suffered so much to reach Israel; now they were being forced to prove their Jewish status yet again. On September 5, 1985, the Beta Israel initiated what was to become a month-long demonstration in front of Hechal Shlomo<\/em>, the seat of the Chief Rabbinate, to protest this policy.144<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Students should be asked how they might feel if told that they were not actually fully-fledged members of the faith and tradition which they and their ancestors preserved for centuries even under great duress. How would they feel if they were told that they were not actually Jewish, despite growing up as a Jew?<\/em><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/em>Between 1985-1991, the Mossad \u201ccarried out additional secret operations, bringing the total number of Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel to 17,000.\u201d145<\/sup> Still, many thousands of Beta Israel remained in Ethiopia. In 1989, diplomatic relations were renewed between Ethiopia and Israel, opening doors for immigration. This made it\u00a0possible for Israel to begin bringing the Beta Israel from Ethiopia, legally, in small but steady numbers. Monthly stipends and education allowances were centered at the embassy compound, and both the AAEJ and NACOEJ established compounds to help both children and adults.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
143<\/td>\nShalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia, p. 71.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
144<\/td>\nFeldman, On Wings of Eagles: The Secret Operation of the Ethiopian Exodus, p. 120.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
145<\/td>\nShalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia, p. 71.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM PROTESTS OF THE BETA ISRAEL Students should now read the following: \u00a0As we learned in Unit 7, Israel\u2019s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef affirmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":30932,"parent":0,"menu_order":75,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31372","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31372","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=31372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31372\/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=31372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}