Jewish Soc conference on Ethiopian Jews

The Warwick Jewish Israeli Society held a talk on Wednesday 13 November about the Falash Mura Jews in Ethiopia.

The talk was given by two Ethiopian Jews, one of whom was born in Ethiopia then migrated to Israel. The other was the descendant of immigrants to Israel. Both are now Israelis living in the country.

Jordan Jacobs, a member of the committee of the Jewish Israeli society, commented: “What is interesting about Ethiopian Jewry is how distant they were from the Westernised world in Ethiopia, and the amazing and sometimes perilous journeys they took to reach Israel.”

“They can offer a perspective on Israel that few others offer, but it will also be interesting to see what being Jewish means to them… for centuries, the outside did not even know of the existence of Jews in Ethiopia.”

The Falash Mura are a community of Jews in Ethiopia who were forced to convert to Christianity under pressure in the nineteenth century. Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, there have been repeated attempts by the Falash Mura to be allowed to move there.

The campaign has met with controversy since it began, with some Israelis questioning whether they have the right to move there, and others asking whether the government is doing enough to help them.

Many have been living in transit camps in Gondar city in North Ethiopia, some for up to 15 years. There were mass migrations in the 1980s and 1990s with the last mass move of 14,000 people in 1991.

In all, about 90,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel since it was founded in 1948.

The final transport was on August 28 this year, and with this the government has considered the move completed.

However, there are still some smaller communities remaining in Ethiopia who believed that the government should be doing more to ensure they are also given the chance to migrate.