{"id":31412,"date":"2024-01-11T15:42:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?page_id=31412"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:44:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:44:12","slug":"unit-9-religious-leadership","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/unit-9-religious-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 9: RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Teachers should then add that:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>The debate over the Beta Israel\u2019s Jewish status included even the highest spiritual echelons of the community. The kessim <\/em>(revered spiritual leaders of the Beta Israel) were not formally recognized by the state. Their status was not equal to that of a rabbi. From an \u201cofficial\u201d perspective, this meant that all ceremonies and rituals performed by kessim \u2013 <\/em>including weddings among Beta Israel \u2013 were not legally recognized by the State of Israel. Thus, \u201cin 1993,\u00a0two years after Operation Solomon, Ethiopian activists demanded that the kessim (Kohanim<\/em>), their spiritual leaders, be accorded the status of Rabbi. The Chief Rabbinate refused, saying the kessim <\/em>were not versed in Oral Law\u2026 The protesters declaimed, \u201cDecide: Are we\u2026 fully Jews or not? If we are full Jews, recognize our spiritual leaders.\u201d155<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Students should now be asked to read the following words by Omri Tagamalek, a member of the Beta Israel community whose wedding was performed by a <\/em>kes, and thus, is not legally recognized by the Israeli rabbinate. Tagamalek expresses with bitterness and frustration:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have an identity, a tradition, I have values, there are rules that we observe. Yet here, the state wishes to change what we believe and our identity. If I were to marry according to the demands of the state and the rabbanut, who claim that there is no such thing as a black Jew, then who am I? Am I just a random African? An Ethiopian who has been brought here from Ethiopia? I didn\u2019t come here because I am an Ethiopian. Instead, I came here because I am a member of the Beta Israel, because my ancestors observed the law of Moses and Israel.\u201d156<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Having reflected on these words, students should be asked to write a fictional diary entry from the perspective of a newly arrived Ethiopian immigrant, suddenly faced with these unexpected challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

155 Graenum Berger, Rescue the Ethiopian Jews! A memoir 1955-1995<\/em>, 223<\/p>\n

156 Beta Israel member Omri Tagamalek made these remarks in Episode 2 of the Israeli TV documentary entitled Yerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP \u00a0Teachers should then add that: \u00a0The debate over the Beta Israel\u2019s Jewish status included even the highest spiritual echelons of the community. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":30932,"parent":0,"menu_order":67,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31412","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31412","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=31412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31412\/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=31412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}