Preserving ancient Jewish traditions

Jewish Ethiopians claim a few different origins stories. Some believe they are descendants of the lost tribe of Dan, which the Assyrians exiled before the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonians. Others think they come from Yemenite or Egyptian Jews. Others say they descend from the Israelites who accompanied King Solomon's son and the Queen of Sheba back to Ethiopia. While the origin story of Ethiopian Jews remains unclear, their courage, faith, and love for the Jewish homeland, along with the daring of the Mossad and the activism of North American Jews, resulted in the return of thousands of Jews to Israel.

The Beta Israel, as they call themselves, are proud of their rich heritage, which they have preserved for over a thousand years in the mountains of East Africa. Isolated from other Jewish communities, they believed they were the only Jews in the world, continuing to observe Shabbat, Kosher, and Jewish holidays, even unaware that the First Temple had been destroyed.

Persecution and resistance

When Christianity swept through Ethiopia, Beta Israel's newly Christian neighbors tried everything to destroy the Jewish community, from massacres and forced conversions to enslavement and isolation. They were labeled "Falasha," meaning invader or stranger, despite their ancient roots that predated the advent of Christianity. The Beta Israel fought back, with legends of Jewish power like the story of the mighty Queen Judith, who sacked Christian kingdoms. However, they ultimately lost a major battle, and many chose death over slavery or forced baptism.

The struggle for recognition

Despite Beta Israel's efforts to return to Zion, they faced resistance from some in the Israeli government who doubted their Jewishness. It was only when Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef declared the Ethiopian Jews to be fully Jewish and the descendants of the lost tribe of Dan that the tides began to turn. But even then, the situation in Ethiopia was growing increasingly hostile, with the Beta Israel facing harassment, monitoring, and torture if they tried to leave.

The Mossad's daring rescue mission

Ethiopian Jewish activist Ferede Aklum spoke out against the systematic persecution his community faced. He was forced to flee to Sudan, where he made contact with Israeli Mossad agents. He hatched a plan with them to bring his community to Sudan, where they would stay in refugee camps posing as Christian Ethiopian refugees from the Ethiopian Civil War until the Mossad could secretly bring them to the Holy Land.

Using an abandoned diving resort on the Sudanese coast as a cover for their operation, Mossad agents successfully evacuated 8,000 refugees to an Israeli ship waiting off the coast. The grueling trek through the desert to the resort left many dead from dehydration, starvation, and attacks from hostile forces along the way. Parents buried children and children buried parents.

When the diving resort cover was blown, Ethiopian Jews who were waiting in the Sudanese refugee camps were stranded for months and about 5,000 died of starvation and disease. Mossad managed to smuggle some Beta Israel in boxes labeled "US diplomatic mail" and were airlifted out of Sudan.

Demonstrations and pressure

Once in Israel, they became known as "orphans of circumstance" as many had families still in Ethiopia that could not make the arduous journey through the desert. Beta Israel members in Israel and Jews in North America demonstrated for years, demanding that the Israeli government save all Jews stuck in Ethiopia.

In 1984, following the pressure of the US, the Sudanese government allowed the emigration of 7,200 Beta Israel refugees. These two immigration waves were named Operation Moses and Operation Joshua.

In 1991, for 36 hours, 34 El Al passenger planes, with their seats removed to maximize passenger capacity, brought 14,000 more refugees to Israel to reunite with their families. The heroic evacuation was dubbed Operation Solomon.

The struggle continues

The story of the Ethiopian Aliyah is often presented as a triumph, a testament to the Mossad's cleverness and the Israeli government's determination to bring every Jew home. But this version of the story leaves out the crucial contribution of the Beta Israel themselves, who organized, protested, and sacrificed everything to make it to the Holy Land. Even today, the struggle continues, as thousands of Ethiopian Jews wait in Ethiopia for their chance to come home.

The story of the Beta Israel is complex and multifaceted, full of broken promises, secret agreements, and the unwavering determination of an ancient community. It is a story of courage, endurance, and deep faith, as well as the struggle for Jewish unity and the ongoing efforts to build a society that embraces all Jews without discrimination. As the Jewish state continues to grapple with these challenges, the story of the Ethiopian Aliyah remains a powerful reminder of the resilience and perseverance of the Jewish people.

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Approximately two-thirds of the Jewish public in Israel feel that active aliyah by people who are not designated Jews at the time of their arrival in Israel poses a danger to Israel's character as a Jewish state, a new survey by the Smith Institute indicates.

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The survey was commissioned by the Israeli Immigration Policy Center after the government's decision last week to allow thousands of Ethiopians of Jewish background from Addis Ababa and Gondor to make aliyah. The survey included 500 respondents from the Jewish population in Israel.

The survey also examined Jewish Israelis' feelings about bringing non-Jewish citizens of foreign countries to Israel. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents said they supported allowing non-Jews to make aliyah only insofar as they qualified to do so under the Law of Return and only 24% said they supported allowing non-Jews to make aliyah in the context of family reunification.

Among respondents who identified as Yesh Atid voters, 51% said that non-Jews should be allowed to make aliyah only if qualified under the Law of Return, and 37% supported the idea of allowing non-Jews to make aliyah to reunited families.

The survey also examined the public's views on the unique situation in Ethiopia, following a determination in the early 2000s that there were no Ethiopian Jews left in that country. Meanwhile, from 2013-2019, only 2% of immigrants from Ethiopia were registered as Jews in the Interior Ministry.

Given these statistics, 52-58% of respondents opposed allowing aliyah on the basis on family reunification only, while 27-28% said they supported allowing non-Jews to make aliyah for the purpose of family reunification, and 20% did not have an opinion.

The Israeli Immigration Policy Center issued a statement in response to the results of the survey: "The security fence that stopped the illegal migration from Africa has been broken wide open. The Jewish Agency and the government ministries have simply opened a detour and continue to bring tens of thousands of non-Jews to Israel, even though time and again it is proven that they have only the most tenuous links to Judaism.

"The public understands that there is a need for a constitutional fence in the form of the Law of Return against this new infiltration, which is taking place under the auspices of the authorities' helplessness and on the basis of family reunification," the center said.

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Kes Raphael Hadane, known as the Liqa Kahenat (High Priest) of the Beta Israel community, passed away Sunday at age 97, only a day after his wife, Alemitu. The couple, who were married 77 years, were laid to rest in Beit Shemesh.

Hadane was born in a village in the Bagmadar District of Ethiopia and was orphaned while still a child. In 1954, he began studying Hebrew and rabbinical Judaism, and was then hired by the Jewish Agency to teach Hebrew and Jewish studies. In 1976, he was ordained the "liqa kahenat" (high priest for a given region) and served as a rabbinical judge. In 1985, he made aliyah.

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When he moved to Israel, he began working on behalf of the country's Ethiopian immigrant community. Among other things, he oversaw negotiations about the rabbinate's demand that Ethiopian Jews undergo conversion, which outraged the Ethiopian immigrants, who said they were Jewish and had no need to convert. Eventually, Sephardi rabbi and spiritual leader of the Shas movement Rabbi Ovadia Yosef adopted that position.

Because of Hadane's position in the controversy, he was declared a persona non grata by members of the Ethiopian community. Later, he made another controversial decision when he recognized members of Ethiopia's Falash Mura group as part of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) community and worked to bring them to Israel.

For years, Hadane presided over the memorial ceremonies honoring the Ethiopian Jews who died en route to Israel.

Hadane's children continued on the path of public service. One of his sons, Rabbi Yosef Hadane, served as chief rabbi for Ethiopian Jews in the Chief Rabbinate until 2017.

Beit Shemesh was shocked to hear of the deaths of Kes Hadane and his wife.

"For years, the couple worked on behalf of the Ethiopian community, lending their hand to any person who needed help and kindness, expecting nothing in return, and founded the wonder Ethiopian Jewish synagogue on Bar-Ilan [street]," Beit Shemesh News reported.

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