Posted on 09/01/2013 3:07:20 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
Last Wednesday, two jetliners flew 450 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
They were the last to arrive under an official program designed to bring to Israel all remaining Ethiopian Jews who are eligible for citizenship.
At the Tel Aviv airport just before the planes landed, everyone seemed excited. Relatives of people arriving from Ethiopia cheered when the plane doors opened.
Achenef Chekole arrived with his wife, two sons and two daughters. Family and friends who had already immigrated to Israel greeted them with hugs.
Israel has a whole government department in charge of absorbing immigrants. Its minister, Sofa Landver, welcomed the newcomers. "After thousands of years of prayers and hopes, you are here at home," Landver told the immigrants.
The Jewish origins of these Ethiopians are murky.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
This is something I only learned about in the last year or two. It’s an interesting situation. These people feel at one with Israel, and I’m glad they were welcomed.
As far as I can tell, these are not people coming into Israel trying to turn it into little enclaves like the land they just left. They want to be Israelis in the complete sense. I think that’s cool.
I hope they prosper and Israel is the better for them having come.
There are some interesting Jewish and Christian sects in Ethiopia that are virtually indistinguishable from each other due to intermediate beliefs.
To me it suggests that their faith came from Israel right around the time of Christ and remained pure.
From what I’ve read, it seems that Ethiopian migrants to Israel face very significant cultural and economic adjustment struggles. It’s not that they want to turn Israel into Ethiopia, but rather that they have no concept of and no preparation for what they face in Israel. The Israeli government devotes substantial resources to their assimilation.
Thanks for the mention. I got the impression they were actually rather nomadic in Ethiopia. Is that true? If so, ouch. It would be rather tough.
In the last 100 years or so, most of what were once nomads in Ethiopia have become settled agriculturalists. This exposes them to famine and oppression more than they would have faced in less-organized times as nomads. They were nomads, after all, because subsistence farming and herding is dependent on rainfall, and rainfall varies over a large area.
What they’ve got is very poor, low-tech, rural, isolated people moving into an urbanized, advanced, highly-technical 21st century country. It’s terribly difficult. The societal gap is greater than that for Russians moving to Israel in the 60s and 70s: they were often highly educated. It’s greater than for Mexicans moving to the United States: they’ve got cars, televisions, running water in Mexico.
The leap for Jewish Ethiopians moving to Israel is incredibly traumatic, and I think Israel is doing everything possible. I’m sure they’re learning things about adjustment and resettlement that will be of use in migration and refugee situations all over the world.
Thanks Tax-Chick. It does sound difficult. That nomadic situation does sound like what would be the cause for it, rains not always developing where needed.
I’m interested in economics and cultures ... Thomas Sowell fan from my junior high years ;-). Nomadism is a feature of geographical regions where rainfall or running water is unreliable. It also correlates with endemic small-scale warfare, which discourages permanent agricultural settlement. One could compare Ethiopia, pre-WW2, with the pre-Columbian American Southwest.
I have a friend who is a Catholic priest in Ethiopia. He’s from a farming family, but now he works in a big city. They have issues, such as youth secularization and immigration, that overlap in interesting ways with what our Church faces in North Carolina.
The situation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, though, is almost like dropping space aliens on earth. Yes, they are Jews, but their observance is different from that of every other known Jewish group. They have this in common with Ethiopian and Eritrean Roman Catholics! “Whoa, never seen THIS!” They tend to huddle, but it’s important for their survival that they be encouraged - even forced - to move outside their ethnic group and into the 21st century. Yes, they could be supported simply by handouts, but that kills souls and cultures.
Thanks Tax-chick. It interests me too. I’m certainly not up to speed on it, but I do appreciate you explaining some of the problems as you have.
I’m happy to share ... compelled to share! It’s a big old interesting world out there!
Yes it is. And I’m glad to be on the receiving end of your compelled... er a whatever. :^)
Thanks again. It was interesting.
You’re welcome. Have a restful Labor Day. We’re looking at sitting around watching it rain, here.
Sounds like fun. I wish it would rain here.
You have a great day too Tax-chick. All the best...
It’s a fascinating story on many levels. I wonder if the leftists that call Israel an apartheid state are paying attention.
Oh, California. It’s been a very wet summer in the Southeast, but we got more than a week without rain. Unfortunately, my son’s lawn-mowing customers did not all want their lawns done this week ...
Good question. It’s all the more relevant because I’m sure they see the immigration issue there as identical to our own situation, WHICH IT IS NOT.
Sorry to hear that. Did the areas most affected by the drought get plenty of rain this year?
Last year’s drought is long forgotten in these parts. Farmers are looking back decades to talk about this much rain.
That’s great. I hope yields are up, and not too much soil was washed away by the first heavy rains.
Too much rain, according to locals. But each year is its own thing.
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