Ethiopians in Israel: Hard Going in the Homeland
Jerusalem has tried to assimilate Ethiopian Jews for two decades now, but it can’t quite fit them in.
Jerusalem has tried to assimilate Ethiopian Jews for two decades now, but it can’t quite fit them in.
Late last year Israel accepted what’s set to be the final wave of Ethiopian immigrants. But the country is still struggling to integrate the 120,000 who’ve arrived over the past three decades.
He wanders Amazon jungles, travels to Chinese villages, searches Spain for Marranos, and sees India’s Bnei Menashe as his life’s mission. Michael Freund has an obsession: Discovering remote Jews.
Most members of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community of more than 120,000 people now reside in Israel. Their absorption into Israel has presented many unique challenges.
After months of fits and starts, advocates for Ethiopian aliyah are hoping that a visit to the African country this week by Israel’s minister of immigrant absorption will help set in motion a process that will bring some 7,500 additional Ethiopians to Israel.