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Ethiopian Jews in Canada: a Process of Constructing an Identity

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Ethiopian Jews in Canada: a Process of Constructing an Identity Ethiopian Jews in Canada: A Process of Constructing an Identity Esther Grunau Department of Anthropology McGill University, Montreal c November, 1995 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts, Anthropology. © Esther Grunau, 1995 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ll Abstract IV Chapter 1 : Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Historical Background 17 Chapter 3: Emigration out ofEthiopia 32 Chapter 4: The Construction of Group Identity in Israel 46 Chapter 5: The Canadian Experience 70 Conclusion Ill Appendix A: Maps 113 Appendix B: Ethiopian Jewish Informants 115 Appendix C: Glossary 118 Appendix D: Abbreviations 120 References Cited 121 11 Acknowledgments This thesis could not have been completed without the support and assistance of several individuals and organizations. My supervisor, Professor Allan Young, encouraged me throughout the M.A. program and my thesis to push myself intellectually and creatively. I thank him for his gu~dance, constructive comments and support through my progression in the program and the evolution of my thesis. Professor Ell en Corin carefully supervised a readings course on Ethiopian Jews and identity which served as the background for this thesis. Throughout my progression in the course and in the M. A. program she was always available to discuss ideas with me, and her invaluable comments and support helped me to gain focus and direction in my work. Dr. Laurence Kirmayer provided me with a forum to explore the direction of my thesis through my involvement in the Culture and Mental Health Team. His insightful comments on how to link cultural anthropology with mental health challenged me to think more clearly about my graduate work and my career. I also thank Rose Marie Stano for her administrative advice and personal support throughout the M.A. program. There are many people who made the research for this thesis possible. Janis Rosen, of the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives, did a reference search for me, pulled boxes of material in and out of storage, and was generally available to answer my queries and questions. Susan Davis, National Executive Director of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada (llAS), was kind enough to give me the opportunity to speak with her on very short notice, and allowed me to review llAS files and materials in Montreal. I thank Joel Moss, Executive Director, and Judy Gold, Integration Program Coordinator both of llAS Montreal, for their time answering my questions and for introducing me to the local organization. I am very grateful for the hospitality of the Ethiopian people who welcomed me into their homes and spent many hours sharing their experiences with me. I especially thank Baruch Tegegne and Batia Eyob for the generous amount of time and energy they spent helping me with my research. Patricia Foxen and Christina Zarowsky, fellow graduate students and friends, bounced ideas back and forth with me before and during the writing of this thesis, and gave me helpful comments on various drafts of thesis proposals and chapters. Diane 111 0 Swartz shared her experience and critical editing skills at crucial moments, and I greatly appreciate her advice and friendship. I thank Julie Saint-Mleux and Mireille Joussemet for translating the Abstract of this thesis into French, and Professor Ellen Corin for editing the French Abstract. I also appreciate the general support of Professors Margaret Lock and Abby Lippman, who, as my employers during the writing of my thesis, were extremely flexible, supportive and understanding of my situation. Finally, I thank my family and friends for their encouragement through long distance calls and visits. And I thank Peter and Ferdi, my Montreal family and closest friends, who supported and put up with me through the whole process. I take full responsibility for the contents of this thesis. It represents my own interpretation of my data and research, rather than the views of any of the people or organizations referred to in its pages. IV Abstract In this thesis I argue that Ethiopian Jewish identity has evolved over the last century in relation to Western diaspora Jewry, Israeli society and culture, and in response to complex political and historical forces operating in Ethiopia, Israel and North America. In this sense, Ethiopian Jewish identity is a product of these factors, not an essence which precedes them. This thesis examines the evolution of Ethiopian Jewish identity through 1) historical accounts tracing the origins and recent dispersion of Ethiopian Jewry, 2) an analysis of the literature on Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and 3) subjective accounts of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants living in Montreal and Toronto. Dans cette these, je defend l'idee que l'identite des Juifs ethiopiens a evolve au cours de ce siecle en relation a plusieurs facteurs: la diaspora occidentale de la communaute juive, la societe et la culture israeliennes, ainsi qu' en reponse a des forces politiques et histori.ques complexes operant en Ethiopie, en Israel et en Amerique du Nord. En ce sens, l'identite des Juifs ethiopiens est le produit de ces facteurs et non pas une essence qui leur preexisterait. Cette these etudie }'evolution de l'identite des Juifs ethiopiens a travers 1) des recits historiques retrayant les origines de la dispersion recente de la communaute juive ethiopienne, 2) une analyse de la litterature portant sur les Juifs ethiopiens en Israel, et 3) des temoignages subjectifs d'immigrants Juifs-Ethiopiens residant a.Montreal et a Toronto. Chapter 1: Introduction For the past two decades, increasing attention has been given to the community of Ethiopian Jews (historically known as Falashas, and self-identified as Beta Israel)' who, until the mid 1970's, were struggling to become an officially accepted part of world Jewry (Kaplan 1985 in Kaplan 1988:362). (This thesis identifies the group as either Falasha, Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jew, depending on the historical and geographical context referred to.) By the end of 1984, before Operation Moses took place, an estimated 7,000 people had managed to successfully flee Ethiopia and to settle in Israel either independently, with the assistance of the Israeli government and other agencies through secret routes, or in smaller airlift operations of the 1970's and 1980's. Operations Moses ( 1984-85) and Solomon ( 1991) are known to have rescued an additional 22,000 Ethiopian Jews, bringing the vast majority of them together in Israel. There are currently approximately 50,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel, a population commonly known as the most different from the mainstream Jewish immigrant groups in Israeli society. The Ethiopian Jewish population makes up 1% of the total population of Israel, and includes illegal immigration by families, individuals and groups, non-Jewish Ethiopians intermarried with Ethiopian Jews, the Falash Mora/ and births in Israel. During the mid-1980's at the height of Operation Moses' airlift activity out ofthe Sudan to Israel, a small number of Ethiopian Jews emigrated to Montreal with the sponsorship of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada (flAS), local Jewish families and pro-Ethiopian Jewish organizations. At its peak, the community was approximately 150 members strong. Over the last .five years, however, this community has decreased in size: there is now a small group ofEthiopian Jews in Toronto (about 25 people), and others are dispersed among Ottawa, Vancouver, the U.S. and Israel. Currently, the 1 Falasha is a term from Ge 'ez, or ancient Ethiopian, meaning exiles or strangers (Kessler and Parfitt 1985; Semi 1985), and it has a derogatory meaning for the Ethiopian Jews. The term may have been used to refer to many non-Christian or non-Amhara wandering groups without land rights or regular places of residence (Abbink 1987:143). Abbink (1987) refers to the name Falasha as their "caste" name. Their term of self-reference in Ethiopia was Beta Israel or Israelotch, "house of Israel" and "Israelites" respectively (Abbink 1984), although in Israel they prefer to be referred to asyehudim haetiyopim, or Ethiopian Jews. 2 This is a group of Ethiopians who claim to have been forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity and are desirous of a "return to their roots" and the right to emigrate to Israel as Jews. Chapter 1 : Introduction 2 0 Montreal Ethiopian Jewish community numbers approximately 85 people. In 1989, the JIAS program to sponsor Ethiopian Jewish refugees was called off for a number of political reasons; central to the justification of this decision was the fact that Israel was planning Operation Solomon, the mass family reunification airlift of 1991. Although the literature ori Ethiopian Jews in Israel primarily treats this group as a fixed category of people which has been transported from Ethiopia to Israel, concentrating on the tensions between "Ethiopian" and "Israeli" culture due to this contact, the data gathered in my interviews indicate that it is impossible to represent Ethiopian Jews as a coherent group. When I began my fieldwork with the community in Montreal (and Toronto) I expected that such a small group of people who claim that they are all related to each other would be a tight knit community with more commonalties than differences among them. I quickly discovered, however, that the varied personal histories, ages, genders, migration experiences, and birth places of the people subsumed under the label of "Ethiopian Jews" indicate that this is a very mixed group. In addition to the heterogeneity amongst the community of Ethiopian Jews, there are important variations within the groups of which the Ethiopian Jews are a part. The larger (white) Jewish community is divided along doctrinal, cultural and linguistic lines. The Ethiopian community in Montreal is comprised of people who identity themselves ethnically as Eritrean, Amharic, Tigrayan or Oromo, religiously as Coptic Christian, Muslim or Jew, and who speak one or more of approximately 80 Ethiopian dialects.
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