European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes sunday september 15, 1985 ethiopian Juwah immigrant pm tit term Rotty Hima Tomt Ohide let Rati part Ament. The ethiopians Ore finding life difficult in their new Horn. And now when we get to Israel we re told we re not really jews ethiopian jews still isolated in Israel by Gerald Nadler and Carolyn Horowitz United press International eight months after 7.500 Black ethiopian jews were flown to Israel in operation Moses half of them languish in hotels an the others fret in immigrant absorption enters isolated from israeli society. Israel s powerful rabbinic establishment has demanded the Fala shas convert in Masse because of their doubtful Judaism. Impoverished development towns Don t want them. Neither do the relatively prosperous kibbutzim. Only West Bank settlements realty desire them. But the United states which financed the $15 million Airlift that brought them out of starvation to Israel has vetoed their transplant into the sensitive Arab areas. But despite their general Lack of Welcome or possibly because of it the Fala shas have organized faster politically than any new Community in the jewish state s history in a fight for their identity. Their goal to preserve their roots and not be Swallow esd by israeli culture. All of a sudden these people that supposedly did not know How to take care of themselves because they did not know How to use a in Jet bulb Are manipulating the mass Media in a very sophisticated Way said Jeff Halper a professor end expert on the Fala shas who studied in Ethiopia these people Don t take any recently 500 ethiopian jews with press photographers in Tow trekked across Israel to Ben Guiton Airport carrying placards demanding that they be sent Back to Ethiopia unless the insistence on ritual conversion is dropped. Others threatened suicide. Still others staged hunger strikes. Young ethiopian jews fluent in English and hebrew Stream to meetings with prime minister Shimon Peres and israeli parliament members afterwards briefing reporters in both languages. More than 15,000 ethiopian jews live in Israel 7,395 from the three month Airlift and 8,000 who arrived in the Earty 1970s As a result of Israel s dose links with Halle Selassie who was then the emperor. Although world attention focused on the jumbo transport planes bringing jews bom famine ravished Ethiopia and on the overstated image of lilting them from the Stone age to the 20th Century it paid scant attention to the 8,000 ethiopian jews in Israel for a decade. They Are a generation ahead of All other communities brought to Israel said Halper. It took the moroccans jews 20 to 25 years to one of Judaism s most exotic branches with origins still veiled in legend ethiopian jewry according to various theories traces itself to an offspring of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba or to captives from an ancient jewish kingdom in Yemen. In Christian Ethiopia they were derisively called Fatasha stranger or exile. They Call themselves House of Israel Beta Israel. Once numbering 1 million they have shrunk to about 28,000, of whom some 12,000 remain in Africa. Although they have a 2,700-year history. Israel s chief Rabbinate accepted them As jews Only in 1972. Ruling they were the lost tribe of Dan. The Rabbinate sanctioned their right to return to Israel under the omnibus Law of return that Grants any jew instant israeli citizen shop. But it ordered a symbolic conversion because of years of intermarriage and because the Beta Israel lacked knowledge of halacha. The traditional Oral religious Law. Younger ethiopian jewish leaders bristle at ultimatums by the rabbis and reject Compromise on the conversion which would Sanction marriages and legitimize the children of ethiopians As jews. Compromise Compromise about what said Rachamim Elazar. Ethiopian head of the Public Council for ethiopian jews. Are we a kind of properly doing like the rabbis want Here like the others want Here we Are jewish like the others. No other jewish Community has been forced to undergo this procedure. People died for their Judaism. And now when we get to Israel we re told we re not really the Uhtof rabbi. Avraham Shapira of the Ashkenazim Western jewry Branch and Mordechai Ellahu of the sephardic Oriental have indicated they will drop demands for mass conversions and treat each Case separately. Of the 15,000 ethiopians brought in since 1978, Only 700 have jobs. Only 500 of these families Are in apartments in some 20 localities. About 3,000 ethiopians from the Airlift Are still in 15 hotels learning hebrew from teachers in the mornings. In the afternoon they Don t do anything Elazar said. They Are just wasting their the hotel costs $15 per Day for each Fatasha or about $12 million for eight months. The hotels Are after All not the proper places As absorption centers. The rooms Are too Small. It s very crowded. It s not comfortable. The people can t Cook. They can t prepare the food they move them asked Zvi Ayal spokesman of the jewish Agency for Israel which cares for the ethiopians in their first year. To where to the Street we have More than 21.000 new immigrants. The absorption centers Are Ayal said in any Case the ethiopians would be out of the hotels in four More months. But where will they go Ella mayor Rafi Hochman was quoted in published reports As saying he would Cut off water and electricity to any absorption Center in his resort town. Seilal will not be another Ashdod which they filled up with russian georgian jews he said. But after Adverse publicity 200 were sent to Eilat. One ethiopian activist said acidly one group says we need them another we Welcome them but there is no decision and they Are still in the rest of the 4.000 operation Moses Fala shas Are studying in some 40 absorption centers. In addition 29 special boarding schools House 1,700 orphans who had to leave their parents behind. Everything is Nice Here but i Don t have my Tather said one 19-year-old girl. He still in Ethiopia i can t even Contact the absorption centers reflect the changing of the generations the old yielding place to the Young in a new land with a new language. In Arad frail old men wearing Skull Caps and old clothing Shade themselves from the desert Sun depending on their children to translate for them. The children race and play in a Large parking lot already speaking hebrew comfortably Yelling shalom to passers by. Many elders feel their children Are growing away from them and fear they will not be observant enough of their Judaism though All the children must study in religious schools for a year. The elderly worry that their Hudren have been tainted by comm until teaching in some townspeople seem impatient As an ethiopian Man Hoke up the one in the Post office because he does t know How to address a letter or where to put the stamp. Others help the ethiopians in the supermarket. A Leader of 140 ethiopians in his mid 40s and mustachioed Peers Over Gold rimmed glasses and explains that the ethiopians came to Israel because of their Devotion to the jewish Homeland. They believe their place is in Israel he said. They Are ready to take the problems that come with such a
