### Isreals Ethiopian Connection.** Answer to question on front page

Thanks for that, Abesha

what isreal?

He means occupied Palistine.

Not.

Information about Ethiopian Jews can be found at:

http://www.iaej.co.il/

- The Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ)

and

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html

Additionally information about Israeli T&F can be found at:

http://eiger.tripod.com

Just to clarify since it didn't seem clear - Hambatu Berkele is not an Israeli of Ethiopian descent, although the runnner-up Asaf Bimro, is originally from Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel in 1984. He currently is second on the Israeli All-time list in the marathon.

The 3 leading Israeli distance runners of Ethiopian descent:

Assaf Bimro - pr 2:14:52, 2nd in Tiberias (1st Israeli)

Haile Satayin - pr 2:14:21 (Israeli record at age 48), 4th overall in Tiberias (3rd Israeli)

Zvadia Wodage - pr 2:16:04, 3rd overall, 2nd Israeli

The list goes deeper than that. If Wodage will manage a sub 2:15 in Roterdam, all three will be in Athens.

Great guys as well, modest and hard-working.

Abesha wrote:

Many people may not know this but Isreal has a population of >100,000 Ethiopian Jews.

I heard that at one point the Ethiopian gov't was airlifting these indigenous Jews (they're called Falashas, right?) out to Isreal. Are there many left?

I keep on telling people that the whole Bikila-Rome Olympics-Axum obelisk deal was intended as a statement of nationalism. You obviously know more about that than I, so am I on the right track?

Basically with the Palestinian and Israeli Arab population growing far faster than that of israel they are seeking any possible way of brining in more Jews or in this case Christians who were formerly Jews.

Last time i was there only a handful still remained in a small ton outside addis (cant remember the name). I believe most of them left in the late 80's but i'm sure there are ethiopians reading this better qualified to answer the question than me.

The Bible is hardly a reliable history text. The real fact of "judaism" is that many people converted to Judaism around the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia before and during the Babylonian captivity since Judaism wasn't has different from surrounding religions as one might think until after said captivity (not even being strictly montheistic until that time). Christians and jews seems to have this idea that religions can just spring into the world fully formed and are unrelated to and unaffected by the world around them, not taking from other traditions or evolving under the pressure of historical and social circumstance. A cursory examiniation of history retfutes most of the notion that the OT is a history text anymore than the Iliad is, not only of the past of Judaism, but also its relationship to other Canannite and middle easter religious tradiaitons. One need not read the OT too closely to realize this.

The government originally agreed to let 200 Ethiopian Jews leave the country in 1977. In the early 1980's, Ethiopia outlawed the practice of Judaism and the teaching of Hebrew. About the same time, horrible drought and famine hit the country and under pressure and inticement with relief aid, the Ethiopian let an additional 8000 Ethiopian Jews leave. The Israeli govenment continued to coverty fly Jews out in 1985.

The most famous of the missions was Operation Solomon, in 1991, as the government of ethiopia disolved. Over 14,000 Jews were airlifted out over a period of 36 hours of now stop flights between Ethiopia and Israel.

I think about 2000 Jews remain in Ethiopia at this time, although my source may be a little outdated.

In response to another post - the Ethiopian Jews are 'authentic' Jews, following, strictly observing pre-Talmudic Jewish traditions. This is questionable with some of the Jewish immigrants from the former USSR to Israel (however the USSR fiercly restricted the practice of Judaism).

So you mean to tell us that Moses didn't part the Red Sea and carry stone tablets down the mountain? But the bible tells me so...

no brainer wrote:

So you mean to tell us that Moses didn't part the Red Sea and carry stone tablets down the mountain? But the bible tells me so...

Moses and his crew 'pool ran' across the Red Sea using those special belts then spent the next 40 years following the 10:1 method of wandering the desert. Gallomath says they would have been out there 50 years if they didn't incorporate walking breaks.

These would not be the "Flashmoras". The overwhelming majority of Israelis from Ethiopian origin are jews who maintained their identity through the years. There was never a question about their Judaism. Some had to make quite an exodus to reach Israel, walking for months through African desert through Sudan, hiding from military patrols etc. Families were broken up in the process. The Israeli Government made a commitment to bring over Jews remaining in Ethiopia and interested in making "Aliyah".

The Flashmoras are a group of EThiopians who consequently claimed to be Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity. There were different opinions regarding whether their claim should be recognized. Rabbinical authorities decided in the affirmative. The Israeli government made a commitment (in the early 90's) to bring over all leftover Flashmoras (If I remember correctly, the figure is around 30,000). Just recently, government officials stated that the budget won't allow that anywhere in the near future. The main issue here is that of families striving to be reunited.

As a side note, over the last few years, there have been several incidents of Professional Ethiopian runners who came to run the Tiberias marathon by invitation, and following the marathon "disappeared", later filing claims to the UN authorities asking to be recognized as refugees (5 runners did so last year). This has also become an issue. The ministery of internal affairs approved the arrival of the runners from EThiopia this year only 2 days before the race, having refused to do so until then.

I must conclude this post by saying that I train with a lot of these guys. There isn't a negative thing to say about them. Just all around good people. Some of them have also helped my running considerably. Assaf Bimro especialy, has been a great source of inspiration. No doubt, he will improve the NR yet again.