Exodus of the ‘Black Jews’ of Ethiopia

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 13

Exodus of the ‘Black Jews’ of Ethiopia

By

RICHARD HALL

“Observer,” London

An underground network is channelling the Falashas, the “black Jews” of Ethiopia, out of their homeland to become settlers in Israel. The network is largely financed by Jewish pressure groups in the United States and Canada. The operation is being conducted in the greatest secrecy because the Falashas’ only “escape route” is through the Sudan, an Islamic country. Some of the emigrants are taken out by air from Khartoum; others are thought to have left by boat from the small Sudanese port of Suakin, sailing up the Red Sea to Eilat.

Several thousand Falashas have reached Israel, although the figure given out in Jerusalem is only 1500. Earlier this year 20 Falashas were captured while trying to leave Ethiopia illegally through Tigre province, and sent to jail. The black Jews are ethnically identical with other Ethiopians living around them, but have clung to their faith — in almost total isolation from the rest of world Jewry — for at least 1500 years. Romantic tradition has always linked them, probably erroneously, to the Biblical story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Most of the Falashas live at high altitude in the Simien mountains, subsisting by simple farming. Their colour apart, the cultural shock of adjusting to life in Israel has been considerable.

One group, put in an hotel, panicked through not understanding how to operate door handles. More profoundly, the strict Old Testament morality of the Falashas has conflicted sharply with the permissive life of modern Israel

The American pressure groups have been determined, however, to “bring home” the remaining 30,000 Falashas, ever since the Sephardi Chief Rabbi ruled in 1973 that they truly counted as Jews. United States and Canadian diplomats in countries around Ethiopia have been bombarded with demands that they should help in xthe exodus. 1

A key role in this campaign has been played by the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, founded by Graenum Berger. The association equates the Falashas with the Soviet Jews. It claims that the Marxist regime of Colonel Mengistu has tortured those it has caught trying to escape. An American aid worker — a non-Jew, and so less likely to arouse suspicion — was recently offered the job of running the secret network. He refused, because of his doubts that the operation was in the Falashas’ best interests.

The Ethiopian Government has reacted strongly against allegations that is it persecuting the Falashas. Six months ago a group of Israelis visited the community, with official approval, and reported that they were not being illtreated.

Dror Zeigerman, a Knesset member, attacked the report as “papering over” the truth. He had previously gone to Ethiopia with Jewish student leaders from North America, and said he found “definite signs” of anti-Semitism.

The Falashas are lured to cross into the eastern Sudan with promises that they will at last be able to leave for the “land of milk and honey.” The fate of the Falashas was discussed last year at a conference in Uppsala, Sweden. A scholarly book on them was published in Britain in May 1982 by David Kessler, chairman of the “Jewish Chronicle.”

Kessler outlined in his closing chapter the division of opinion about the best way of helping the Falashas - by trying to channel them to Israel or by improving their living standards in their traditional home.

If the Falashas are all taken to Israel, it will be a spiritual loss for Ethiopia’s Christians. To them, their Torah-loyal compatriots have always been an essential part of the religious universe. One of Ethiopia’s rivers is symbolically called the Jordan.