To Getu… HUNGER Right Now!!!! There Are Many Health Problems If Few Days Ago, I Sent an E-Mail Someone Doesn’T Get Food

SPRING 2009 A Few Days Ago Here is what Getu Replied: To Barbara at NACOEJ: I Sent an E-mail In answer – The BIGGEST PROBLEM in the community is to Getu… HUNGER right now!!!! There are many health problems if few days ago, I sent an e-mail someone doesn’t get food. We can see A to Getu Zemene, the wonderful big difference between kids getting Beta Israel man who manages our our school lunches and those not programs in Ethiopia. (I say I sent getting. Kids getting look healthier. it, which really means I wrote it and There are 920 in the school but not someone else e-mailed it for me. I all can come all the time. There are still use a typewriter because I’m some children kept out of school to very inarticulate on a computer.) shine shoes and to work as a daily What I asked Getu was to send me an e-mail (he does laborer. There are some girls working as maids in peoples’ e-mail very well!) about the general conditions in the homes in Gondar City. community of 8700 Jews Israel has still not checked for About malaria: 500 families got the mosquito nets. We eligibility for aliyah. have given the nets for those who have got many kids. I asked a bunch of questions that were worrying me (Note from Barbara: two very special Bar Mitzvah most. Getu, as usual, replied immediately. But there boys donated and raised money for mosquito nets was something unusual about the reply. for Gondar.) Some people still get malaria but not so Getu’s responses to questions are always factual. His exaggerated. Thank you. English isn’t perfect, but way better than my Amharic, Some people who have got close relatives in Israel gets which is non-existent. The tone in which he writes is money from them. Most men and women who can find sometimes very proud (when he has good news to any jobs are working in the construction field as being report), sometimes anxious (when trouble is looming daily laborer. or upon us) – but this was different. CONDITIONS ARE VERY BAD. PLEASE COME This time what came across was despair. HERE AND BE SEEN FOR THE PEOPLE AND TALK Getu is – with no exaggeration – the bravest man I TO THEM IN SUCH BAD CONDITIONS. know. He has faced physical, social, and legal attacks With great respecting, because of his work for the Beta Israel. He has been Getu arrested (always released because the charges were never true), he has had a gun put to his head. His home From Barbara: has been assaulted, his reputation attacked, his life I have never known Getu to use exclamation marks, threatened more times than I can count. or to demand so strongly that we come to Ethiopia and And Getu has always courageously faced down these see for ourselves. I think we must go. We must bring threats. But this is the first time I have heard him sound hope and whatever help we can, in person. desperate. We will schedule a mission to Gondar and Israel in Not for himself. Not even for his family. But for the May. We have enclosed information. The community community he serves. needs us. Please help. Please come with us.

“Let all who are hungry, come and eat!” Enclosed with this newsletter is a wonderful through Passover and the weeks that to exclaim, with a shout of joy, the great description of last year’s matzah-making in follow? In a year when the community’s Passover invitation: “Let all who are Gondar. This year, will we have enough most desperate problem is hunger, will hungry, come and eat!” It’s up to us. funds for grain to carry the community the Jewish families of Gondar be able

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LIFELINE My heart breaks for all the worthy causes that are MARCH 2009 Yes, Now We Have War (and Peace?): A Story from Gedera Lifeline is published suffering this year. I too am making hard choices, three times annually. Some Bananas… and trying to base my decisions on whether some uring the Gaza War, everyone It wasn’t easy -- teachers risked NACOEJ excellent charities have a broader base of support 132 Nassau Street hanks to you wonderful, wonderful, incredible Dheard about Sderot, the Israeli their safety traveling to different New York, NY 10038 than others. town which was (and had been for locations, some homes were naturally Issue No: 64 Tpeople, we now have enough money to give the children in the NACOEJ Beta Israel Community In the case of NACOEJ, you, our NACOEJ years) a prime target of Hamas missiles. more crowded and noisier than elementary school bananas again – at least once family, are our base, and have been ever since But even at the height of the crisis, an ideal classroom, some older or a week. we opened our doors (actually my living room only a few Americans heard about younger children of the households door) back in 1982. We’re starting out slow, keeping a wary eye Gedera, a nearby small town with a were distracting -- but none of that on inflation, which has affected everything on Thank heavens, our NACOEJ family still does largely middle-class population – and mattered. the school lunch menu so dreadfully for the last include some federations, some foundations, some a growing Ethiopian community. The little groups of Limudiah children year. I recently saw a report on Ethiopia that said organizations for whose generosity we are always At NACOEJ, we knew about Gedera eagerly went to work on reading and a good crop was now coming in. Could it possibly, tremendously grateful, but without the loyalty of because we had 95 Ethiopian-Israeli discussing stories (especially those eventually, bring food prices down? That would individuals, families, synagogues and schools, we children in our Limudiah classes there. that related to their situation), getting be a blessing indeed. could never have started, and certainly could not That is, we had them until the missiles homework done, drawing pictures and continue, to help the most ancient, least known, started falling too heavily and the Meanwhile, how can I express how moved all of acting out skits that not only improved and usually most vulnerable Jews in the world. schools closed. Our Limudiah after- us at NACOEJ are when we open envelopes and their school skills, but helped them school education classes, which took take out checks that come with a note saying, “My I have no way to say thank you except to say it. deal with their feelings of fear and place in the schools, had to close, too. wife and I have both lost our jobs, but the Ethiopian Thank you with all my heart. Come to Ethiopia confusion. Jews are much worse off…” – or “I have had to give up with us in May, and hear it from a thousand Jewish If you read a recent letter from We had a wonderful break when a other charities, but I will continue to support NACOEJ children. You will feel as blessed as they do. NACOEJ, you know that we were very group of American rabbis who were as long as I can.” concerned not only about the safety, going to Israel agreed to take an but also about the education, of our emergency delivery of school supplies Ethiopian children in Gedera. for Gedera. They not only took what Tribute to a Hero several years locating Jews tirelessly. As the anthropological Daily lessons were being sent over we had in the NACOEJ office in New who had reached Sudan advisor to one of his projects, I the internet to school children in York, they collected more in their own by Shoshana Ben-Dor, and organizing them for again met Ferede, still intense and Gedera, but very few of the Ethiopian congregations. The cease-fire started Director NACOEJ-Israel aliyah. Immediately after dedicated, still thin and aged beyond children had access to the internet. just before the supplies got to Gedera, ne of the privileges of the response from the his years. We exchanged memories of They were falling further and further but the children were thrilled to get Oworking with the Ethiopian Mossad, Ferede wrote to “the old days”. behind every day. them in their re-opened classrooms. Jewish community over the last his family, who thought According to his brother Amram, So we decided that if the children As we write, the cease-fire seems 30 years has been the possibility him dead, and asked Ferede always carried with him couldn’t come to Limudiah, we would to be in danger of breaking down, of meeting real heroes. One such hero, two of his brothers to join him in this not only satisfaction for what he find a way to make the Limudiah come as more Hamas missiles have been Ferede Aklum, died last January at dangerous, life-saving work with the accomplished, but also memories of to them. Our small Jerusalem staff fired at Israeli towns, and Israel is the age of 62. Mossad. the horrors of the refugee camps in worked it all out. In a few days, Limudiah responding. Whatever happens next, Without Ferede, the aliyah of Ferede’s actions opened the way for Sudan and the painful knowledge that teachers began arriving at buildings we will continue to do our best for the n Ethiopian Jews by way of Sudan might thousands of Ethiopian Jews to leave the path to Israel by way of Sudan led where Ethiopian families were willing children who are in our care. never have taken place or would Ethiopia in secret, make their way to through much suffering and many to let their small apartments serve as Photos top to bottom: certainly have been long delayed. Sudan and then reach Israel. Despite deaths. classrooms. For security reasons, the U.S. children collecting school supplies; Rabbis delivering supplies in Israel; During a period when Ethiopia had extreme personal danger, Ferede In his last six years, Ferede municipality allowed only five children and a teacher to come together at a time a class in an apartment; a cruel Communist government and remained in Sudan until the mid- returned to Ethiopia, which now has in classes in a reopened school, children no one was allowed to leave, Ferede eighties, helping his brethren reach a democratic government, not to live, of danger, but we always have small open a duffel bag of new supplies was the principal of two Jewish Israel. but as a partner in an agricultural classes in Limudiah. and read a letter from the donors. schools established by ORT. Most of I met Ferede for the first time in project there. Life came full circle in the Jewish teachers in the ORT schools about 1981, on his first vacation in that he left Ethiopia a wanted Jew, A Twelve-Year-Old Champion Needs a Pair of Shoes were arrested and tortured. Ferede Israel, taking a break from his efforts and returned as an Ethiopian-Israeli businessman, able to invest in the You won’t believe this little girl. Tigist recently entered a 2500 meter race. and more confident”, and getting famous escaped to Sudan, suffering hunger in Sudan. He was staying with his Somebody goofed, and put her into the 16- makes “everybody want to be my friend”. and privation, but he established the family in an absorption center. He country of his birth. May his memory Her name is Tigist Bitau, and she’s in fifth grade in Ness Ziona. She’s also in the year-old contest. Tigist is 12. She was too Tigist is on a regular training schedule now, path to Israel. was a gentle but intense man, totally be both a blessing and a source of shy to complain, so she just ran, and came inspiration. NACOEJ Limudiah after-school education and she’s very happy with it, but she’s got a It was Ferede who, upon reaching dedicated to what he was doing for program there, where we knew her as a in first. problem. Her feet hurt. She’s outgrown her Sudan in 1979, was able to contact the his community. Editor’s Note: Among Ferede’s 11 siblings very nice child, polite, friendly, a bit shy, The story made headlines in the local papers. shoes, and her family can’t afford to buy her and eight children, two brothers, Amram Israeli Mossad, was asked by Israel to Upon settling for good in Israel, an average student who likes to exercise by Suddenly Tigist was a hero. Her grades went a new pair of proper running shoes. and Naftali, have received NACOEJ/Vidal remain in Sudan, and at great personal along with his growing family, Ferede running. up, and her social life blossomed. She thinks Would someone like to make a special gift Sassoon Adopt-A-Student scholarships, it’s because winning makes her feel “stronger risk and sacrifice, spent the next continued to serve his community and so far one son, Meir, has also. Running pretty fast, it turns out. so we can buy Tigist new running shoes?

most difficult and intensive academically and my in a kiosk, and I don’t remember what Moshe L’Dor V’Dor – From Generation to Generation schedule is very busy. does. he Hebrew phrase – l’dor v’dor – means from The mother of the family has a job as a cleaning I hope that you will be able to assist me so I My family came to Israel in 1992. They used to Tgeneration to generation, but it’s often used lady, but her income can hardly cover rent and can focus all my efforts on my studies instead of live in Ethiopia with all their uncles and cousins to mean “forever”. At NACOEJ, we are now food for the family, much less the special fees high worrying about financial difficulties. around them. They all decided to leave Ethiopia seeing second generations in our own programs school students have to pay for books, carfare, Thank you in advance for your consideration. and to come to Jerusalem, which was their – with education, good jobs, self-sufficiency, made educational school trips, and much more. dream. possible in our programs, being passed along Editor’s Note: Once the chief Jewish village in Gondar This was very hard – because so many families Evelyn immediately decided to sponsor Nimrod Province, Ambober has always produced leaders, from parents to children. We expect this legacy of wanted to come to Jerusalem, there was not and Hadas as well, enabling them to continue both in Ethiopia and Israel. Darbabauw wants to be success to go on “forever”. their high school education in good local schools. a lawyer – a profession in which young Ethiopian- enough room in the airplane, and when there was We see even more rapid transfers of high Now a caring older sibling and promising Israelis can make a real difference, ably representing finally room, they had to walk 12 days in difficult expectations when older students in our programs younger ones can all hope to progress toward their community in the courts and in dealing with conditions: heat, lack of food, mountain climbing, are mindful of their younger siblings. good educations, good jobs, good lives – L’Dor authorities. Will someone give Darbabauw from having to care of many children, and the fact that Ambober a chance to help his people? Here are two terrific examples: V’Dor… I was born on the way! In the photo below, NACOEJ Israel Director We have literally hundreds of other terrific My hobbies are playing soccer with my friends High School Shoshana Ben-Dor is delightedly bending over young students – in high school and college – on and watching television. My favorite school first-grader Lidor Getahun (at right), in our our waiting lists for the help that will enable Avraham Rada subjects are – Bible, language, physics and mathematics. Limudiah class in the Horev School in Ramla. them to break the cycle of poverty affecting the 11th Grade, Lidor’s mother, Esther, and some of her siblings Ethiopian-Israeli immigrant community, and pass Ben-Gurion High School, When I grow up I wish to be an important and were in our Limudiah in the same school, in the along to the next generation a legacy of pride, Ness Ziona respected person. I hope to be able to give my 1990’s. success and self-sufficiency. parents and my family the best that I can, so that Shalom! My name is Avraham, and As you can guess from looking at Lidor, nicely they will have a better life. To achieve these goals Here are two students who urgently I have lived most of my life in Ness Ziona with dressed, glowing with health, the family is I have to work hard in school. need sponsors: my loving family. I want to devote myself to my thriving. Esther not only holds a job at the city studies and to graduate with honors, so that I can Editor’s Note: Wow! Would someone like to social service department, but is continuing her College help my parents and my family that love me so write to this great kid and help him become education in night school. Her husband is also Darbabauw Gete much and sacrificed themselves so that I could the “important and respected person” he wants gainfully employed and the family has its own to become? Law, University of Haifa have a better education and a better life. home and car. L’Dor V’Dor… We are seven in our family (including me) – my Then there is the Wendam family. Daughter I was born in a village called father is unemployed, my mother works as a For more information on adopting a high Israela, who studies in a prestigious nursing Ambober in the province of cleaner in a company that organizes conferences, school or college student, please contact academy in Sfat, is sponsored by Evelyn Axelrod Gondar, Ethiopia. I first came to my siblings all work – Keren in a fruit factory, Judy Dick at 212-233-5200, ext. 230 or at through the NACOEJ/Vidal Sassoon Adopt-A- Israel together with my parents Simcha in the “Hot” TV Cable Company, Mengistu [email protected]. Student program. and my seven siblings in 1991. In one of her letters to Evelyn, Israela talked When we first arrived here we were given a about her younger brother Nimrod and sister place to stay in a Jewish Agency absorption center Hadas, and how their high school studies were in Mevaseret Zion, near Jerusalem. Thanks for the Tefillin affected by the fact that their father, who had Getting used to life in Israel was relatively easy any NACOEJ supporters have Condolences to… worked for the Polgat plant in Kiryat Gat for 15 for me, since I was only five years old when we Mresponded to our recent plea for • british Friends of NACOEJ founder years, had just been laid off, uncompensated, came. I remember being very excited with all used tefillin to be made kosher again and trustee Myer Daniels on the when the plant closed. the new things I saw here that I had never seen in Israel and passed along to Ethiopian loss of his beloved mother, Rebecca before. Jews there and in Gondar. Daniels of Dublin. Our deepest My parents had a much harder time learning a Some people have collected sympathies also go to Myer’s wife new language and assimilating the modern Israeli numerous pairs from synagogues and Mavis, and sons, Mark and Michael, culture. Indeed things here are very different from neighbors. Others have sent a family and daughters-in-law, Sonia and what my parents knew in Ethiopia and because heirloom, with touching notes about Tamar. my father is 82 years old and my mother 72, they the father or grandfather who once • nacoeJ Treasurer Tzvi Bar-Shai Shoshana never really learnt the language properly and have treasured this important religious on the loss of his beloved mother, Ben-Dor with always had an easier time speaking Amharic. first-grader article. Henia Schieber. Our deepest Lidor Getahun After completing my high school studies with Please keep the tefillin coming. It is sympathies also go to Tzvi’s wife, (at right), in good grades, I joined the military where I served a great mitzvah to enable those who Etty, and to their children, daughter our Limudiah in armaments for three years. Inbal and sons Assaf and Elahd. class in the cannot afford to buy tefillin to receive Horev School This year I have begun my first year of academic a pair they can use, and treasure in in Ramla. studies at the University of Haifa. This year is their turn.

treat, but he wouldn’t hear A Very Special Visitor from Minnesota of it. He wanted me to meet his girlfriend. And so he hoshana Ben-Dor, NACOEJ Director in Israel, took Chas Anderson, took me to an Ethiopian SDeputy Commissioner of Education of the State of Minnesota, to visit restaurant near my hotel some of our NACOEJ Limudiah after-school programs of intensive education. in Tel Aviv, where I made Chas had come to Israel accompanying the governor of Minnesota. the acquaintance of Bosse, Thanks to NACOEJ Board member Harlan Jacobs of Minneapolis, who a charming young woman made the arrangements, Shoshana was able to take Chas to see the Limudiah who is a law student, also at in the Ben Zvi School in Rehovot, where NACOEJ works with students in Bar-Ilan University. grades 1-6. So in 2008 it came as Chas’ main interest is preventing children from dropping out of school. no surprise to receive an As Shoshana explained to Chas, the Limudiah program provides very invitation to Bosse and successful early prevention, enabling Ethiopian-Israeli students to do well Alemenew’s wedding. There in school from the beginning. was just one problem for me. The wedding was to take The children are able to compete as equals with their peers, and learn both place on Sigd, the special the study skills and self-confidence needed to move on to good academic Ethiopian Jewish holiday, high schools and higher education. Although the Ethiopian drop-out rate and by chance then Sigd fell is twice the national average in Israel, very few of our Limudiah students on Thanksgiving. drop out. Our Limudiah programs attract many visitors who want to meet Ethiopian Since I couldn’t desert my own family for In the sixth-grade group that Shoshana and Chas visited, most of the boys children who are going to “make it” Alemenew’s Alemenew’s, I appealed to the NACOEJ said they want to be professional soccer players when they grow up, but all in Israel. Above are visitors from the Israel office for help. I asked them to aid mein of them also want to go to university. Birthright Israel program (top photo) Engagement Party and from Yeshiva University Stern assembling an engagement party in Netivot, The visit was stimulating, educational and beneficial for both Shoshana College with children in a NACOEJ By NACOEJ Board member and Alemenew’s home town, during the week I was and Chas, who shared educational theories and experiences and inspired Limudiah. past President Ken Kaiserman in Israel. Yehudit Abramson, who is the Israel each other. hanks to NACOEJ and the NACOEJ/Vidal administrator of the AAS program, eagerly sprang One amusing side note: Chas, who is exceptionally tall, had to get down TSassoon Adopt-A-Student (AAS) Program, I’ve into action, putting together a delightful catered on her knees to be on level with the kids in the third grade so photos could been able to sponsor and nurture a connection dinner party complete with a disc jockey. be taken. She was most gracious about it and everyone got a good with Alemenew Tesema, an Ethiopian-Israeli. With Alemenew’s parents and twelve siblings, chuckle watching the photo session. n Alemenew is an extraordinary young man who and Bosse’s parents and nine siblings, plus a has seized the opportunities that Israel has to few friends, their Rabbi, and a couple of Kesotch offer and made the most of them. As a computer (traditional Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders), science student at Bar-Ilan University, as an officer we soon numbered 45 guests, which made for a in an elite IDF division, as a warm and caring very jolly gathering. In addition to a delicious mix individual, he always excels. of Israeli and Ethiopian fare, there were dancing Last year when I visited Israel, he called me and speeches. With a Rabbi and two Kesotch, how to take me out to dinner. Naturally I wanted to could you not have speeches? But of course the most impressive speeches came from the family. Although I had previously met Alemenew’s father Congratulations to… and his eldest sister, this was my first opportunity • ethiopian-Israeli leader Avraham Neguise on receiving to meet the rest of his family. his PhD in Philosophy in Education at Sussex College in On my ride back to Tel Aviv, I had the opportunity England. Avraham is the head of the South Wing to Zion to share a taxi with Gadi Yavarkang, Alemenew’s organization in Israel, and a recent candidate for the Knesset. best man. Gadi, also an Ethiopian, besides being a Congratulations also to Avraham’s wife, Leah, and daughters law student and a published poet, is a candidate Ruti and Chani. for the Knesset. (By the time you read this, we • nacoeJ Staff member Caroline Barg and husband Hershel will know if he was elected.) In every way, the on the birth of a grandson, Yitzchak Doniel, to Caroline’s evening proved to be a most exciting and moving daughter Rebecca and husband Rabbi Nahum Spirn and experience that I will long remember. family (including Yitzchak’s four big brothers); and to To have the very special experience I have Caroline’s son David Sheffey and wife Debby and family had sponsoring deserving Ethiopian-Israeli on David, an attorney, receiving smicha (rabbinic ordination) college students, please contact Judy Dick at in Israel. the NACOEJ office, 212-233-5200, ext. 230, or at [email protected]. n

NACOEJ • NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON ETHIOPIAN JEWRY • 132 NASSAU STREET • NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10038 PHONE: 212-233-5200 • FAX: 212-233-5243 • E-MAIL: [email protected] • WEBSITE: WWW.NACOEJ.ORG A Sefer Torah Goes to Israel! By Sanford Goldhaber, NACOEJ Board member id you ever hear of synagogues that hold daily When I went to Israel to visit Congregation Be’er Dservices except on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday Avraham in Beit Shemesh, I was very happily surprised. mornings – the days when the Torah is traditionally I met Ethiopian-Israelis who would not only be at read? home in any synagogue, but also could capably lead Well, that is the schedule for many Ethiopian the services. synagogues in Israel. Whenever the Torah is read, the My synagogue decided not only to donate a Sefer congregants must go to another synagogue because Torah but to also organize our first congregational trip their own doesn’t have Torah scrolls. They also have to Israel in 20 years. little hope of acquiring them anytime soon because The joint celebration in Beit Shemesh, with Ethiopian the $10,000 cost of even second-hand Torahs is beyond singing, dancing and food, was the highlight of the trip their means. for everyone. When Barbara Ribakove Gordon, NACOEJ’s After my return to America, I spoke by phone to Rabbi Executive Director, told me about this situation, I saw Amir Avraham, the spiritual leader of Be’er Avraham the possibility of my own synagogue in Brooklyn, New in Beit Shemesh. Normally the rabbi is a very reserved York donating a Torah. However, I could not in good man but I could hear the joy in his voice as he told conscience propose this until I was sure that we would me that he no longer leads a second-class synagogue be giving our Torah to people who would value it as because now they have their own Sefer Torah. much as we did. Perhaps your synagogue is like mine, a product of Seven years ago, when I participated in a NACOEJ mergers, and possessing a surfeit of Sefer Torahs. mission to Ethiopia, I saw a community in Gondar Please contact Lauren Yoked at the NACOEJ office – that diligently observed a Torah-based Judaism, but 212-233-5200, ext. 227, or [email protected] – and in the 2,000 years during which Ethiopian Jews were you’ll be put in touch with a deserving Ethiopian- cut off from the rest of the Jewish people, Judaism had Israeli congregation in need of a Sefer Torah. evolved. Were Ethiopian Jews in Israel coping well n with the changes? And what joy you will experience!

NACOEJ • 132 NASSAU ST. • NY, NY 10038 • 212-233-5200 • FAX: 212-233-5243 • E-MAIL: [email protected] • WEBSITE: WWW.NACOEJ.ORG