Last Ethiopian Jews Finally Make Exodus to Israel

[rug]

Gondar, Ethiopia — In the half-light of dawn, 16 families huddle on benches in the early morning chill, waiting patiently for their journey to a new and unimaginable life. They sit in a courtyard, hidden from the view of friends and relatives who have come to say farewell behind the modest local offices of the Jewish Agency for Israel, in a walled and guarded lot.

The women, wearing headscarves, are wrapped in flowing gabis ­­— traditional Ethiopian throw blankets. Some men are dressed in Western clothing; others dress more traditionally and grasp their dulas, or walking sticks. Some of these 82 adults and children have crosses tattooed on their foreheads, emblematic of their Christian backgrounds — and of the status that has kept them and their compatriots waiting in Gondar for a decade or more to emigrate to Israel despite their validated claims of Jewish ancestry.

But the previous morning, the heads of these families were handed a small travel allowance by officials from the Jewish Agency for their long awaited journey. Each signed the acknowledgement of receipt with a thumbprint. As village people who used to farm with oxen and are now day laborers, it is clear that they will not fit into Israeli society easily.

Twenty years after the second of two mass airlifts of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the seemingly endless trickle of other Ethiopian immigrants who claim Jewish ancestry is coming to a long-delayed conclusion. Known as Falash Mura, such Ethiopians lived as Christians for generations in order to escape persecution. But in recent decades, they asserted their Jewish ancestry and began to practice Judaism. Their relatives in Israel have petitioned the government to allow them to immigrate and join the estimated 130,000 Ethiopian Israelis already there, including roughly 35,000 other Falash Mura

http://www.forward.com/articles/142154/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp2KbvXzifM&feature=player_embedded

[Karenina]

1. Not that they will receive a very warm welcome

except form their families, of course... :cry:

[aquart]

2. Aliyah.

[CTyankee]

3. This is interesting to me. My daughter, who is not Jewish, is married to a Jewish

man and they have 3 children. The children are being raised as Reform Jews and are considered Jewish, even tho my daughter has not "converted" (I did not raise my children in any religion).

So here in America I have 3 "Jewish" granddaughters who would not be recognized as such in Israel? I don't get it...

[Betsy Ross]

4. Identity as a Jew is determined by the mother.

You always know who the mother was.

[laconicsax]

5. Except for Jesus--then it's the adoptive father. n/t