Rabbis from Israel's Ethiopian community are up in arms over changes the Religious Services Ministry is looking to make in the methods for clarifying the Jewishness of Ethiopian Israelis.
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In 2017, a State Comptroller report said rabbis tasked with "clarifying" the Jewishness of members of the community "rely solely on personal knowledge, the questioning of community elders and relatives, and the examination of marriage files of family members who were married in Israel. This conduct has often led to opposing and contradictory decisions being made on relatives of the same family."
Around one year ago, the Religious Services Ministry began a controversial process to see rabbis from the Chief Rabbinate, and not rabbis from within the community, tasked with determining who was Jewish, in lines with the practice for ascertaining the Jewishness of new immigrants to the country. In addition, the ministry sought to establish a computerized system for following-up on the investigations.
Rabbis from the community dismissed the prospect outright, sending an angry letter to Israel's chief rabbis on the subject. They have stopped communicating with ministry officials outside of angry replies to written communication.
One community member told Israel Hayom, "The chief rabbis and the Chief Rabbinate Council understood that the Ethiopian community is special. Unlike immigrants from other countries, the community's immigrants don't have any documents. In some cases, they don't even have a date of birth. The rabbinical court doesn't have the tools to handle the appeals."
Last week, Rabbi Hezekiah Samin, who heads the Religious Service's Ministry's Religious Services department, sent a letter to senior ministry officials, the Chief Rabbinate, and the heads of the rabbinical courts, in which he recommended urgently responsibility for ascertaining the Jewishness of Ethiopian-Israelis be urgently passed "to its natural place in the rabbinical court."
Citing the lack of communication between community rabbis and the ministry, Samin proposed other rabbis, "who will commit to working in an orderly manner," be tasked with clarifying the Jewishness of Ethiopian Israelis.
He concluded his letter by criticizing opponents of the move, claiming that "in their conduct, those ascertaining the Jewishness of members of the Ethiopian community are deepening and sharpening the rifts in Israeli society out of a desire to maintain their power despite the serious harm to members of the Ethiopian community."
The community's rabbis claim ministry officials refused to weigh their proposals for a compromise.
"This is an appeal on, of all people, the Beta Israel community, which has maintained its Judaism for thousands of years and not the Falash Mura whose members converted. Rabbi Samin is looking for puppets to use as he sees fit. This decision takes us back 40 years and could lead to large demonstrations. There is no reason to harm our community and the methods led by the great rabbis, Rabbi Ovadia [Yosef], Rabbi [Shmuel] Eliyahu, and others."
According to prominent Ethiopian Israeli activist Ayanawo Fareda Senbatu, the reason the issue is once on the table is that the Religious Services minister is a member of the Shas party, which is trying to drum up support ahead of the March 23rd election.
"They are trying to send the community out into the streets and thereby remove any criticism of their efforts to strengthen Jewish identity. We are a community that is easy to harm, and that's why it was decided to slander us to earn media praise and garner votes. If the community's rabbis are not the authority to clarify and authorize their Jewishness, who is? There is no one more familiar with the genealogies of the Beta Israel community than they are. I suggest the ministry climb down from the tree immediately and avoid staining a community that has preserved its Judaism for thousands of years at a genuine risk to their lives."
In a statement, Religious Services Ministry officials responded that Samin's letter "speaks for itself and balances the state comptroller's recommendations with the needs of the Ethiopian community.
"Rabbi Samin's recommendation is aimed at protecting members of the community and allowing them a transparent and fair process. Unfortunately, there are individuals besmirching and politicizing a professional recommendation. The Religious Services Ministry engages in respectful dialogue with members of the Ethiopian community on many issues, including this important subject," ministry officials said.
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