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.
People forget that something in the order of 1/4 Israelis is dirt poor — large immigrant populations arrive with nothing more than their clothes.
I like the Ethiopians I’ve met; good workers, smart, and eager to fit in.
There was a lot of controversy in that they are generally not Jewish under Jewish law, but their children join the military and have an Orthodox conversion which resolves any doubts.
Ther is a group of Jews in China that will be next, I think.