ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — It is nearly 11 p.m. one night last week in Addis Ababa, and large parts of the Ethiopian capital are bathed in darkness, the result of increasingly frequent power shortages in recent months.
Father and Son enroute to the Promised
Land (Photo: Michael Freund)
Soldiers and policemen stand guard on the road in front of the Israeli Embassy, as Kalashnikov rifles hang precariously across their chests. As they adamantly turn away traffic from both directions, a large bus pulls up and is waved through, before parking on the dusty thoroughfare.
While its noisy engine takes a much-needed respite, Israeli officials review an assortment of paperwork as they prepare the vehicle’s prospective passengers for the short ride to the airport. It is from there that they will board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to complete the millennial-old journey home to the land of their ancestors, the Land of Israel.
Meanwhile, inside a neighboring compound, 42 Falash Mura (descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the 19th century) sit quietly and patiently on wooden benches, waiting to board the bus. Their features betray a silent dignity, but little else. There is no trace of excitement or exhaustion on their faces.
Only Yossi, a charming three-year old with an infectious grin, dares to beam with enthusiasm, as though he can sense the momentous nature of what they are about to undertake.
Ten days ago, Yossi and the others arrived in Addis Ababa after a two-day bus journey from Gondar in Ethiopia’s north. After recuperating from the arduous trip, they were put through an intensive mini-seminar by Israeli officials to familiarize them with the ins and outs of aliya.
This group, which numbers 38 adults, two children and two babies, is among the last batch of Falash Mura that the Israeli government plans to bring to the Jewish state. According to embassy officials, another 300 or so Falash Mura will be brought to Israel by the end of June, and then the operation will be complete.
Embassy staff have already begun seeking employment elsewhere, as rumors of impending cuts in personnel make the rounds. It is the end of an era, one official says, proudly adding that the ancient community of Ethiopian Jewry has at last found its way home.
Activists in Israel and the United States disagree, saying that there are at least 8,700 Falash Mura in the Gondar region whose eligibility for aliya has not even been reviewed by the Israeli government, which they accuse of wanting to shut down the process in haste.
And they vow to press on until every last member of the Falash Mura who wishes to return to Judaism and the Jewish people is allowed to do so.
But such disputes seem far from the minds of everyone present, as the group of would-be Falash Mura immigrants noiselessly makes it way to the bus after getting the go-ahead from the organizers.
Even the most cynical of observers cannot help but be moved by their solemnity and poise, as they leave behind everything they know and head off in Abrahamic fashion into the uncertain future that beckons them.
Upon reaching the airport, they disembark from the bus, calmly helping one another. A mother carries a baby, gently rocking her to and fro as she settles into a peaceful slumber. An elderly woman, barely able to see or walk, is escorted across the parking lot by two young men as she determinedly makes her way to the terminal.
Behind her, a man on crutches struggles along, keeping up with the group, each tedious step bringing him closer to his goal of reaching Jerusalem.
Watching the scene unfold, the verse from Jeremiah (Chapter 31) quickly came to mind: “and I shall gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child; a great assembly shall return here.”
Indeed, it is easy to imagine that this is how the Exodus from Egypt must have appeared, as these remnants of Ethiopian Jewry walk out of the pages of history, and head to the Promised Land.
There are those who see the Falash Mura as economic migrants, or even hitchhikers taking advantage of the Zionist dream. After all, say the critics, their motivation is simply to improve their lives and escape to the West. But all the cynicism in the world can’t take away from the fact that these precious souls, these “lost Jews,” are at last returning to their people and their land.
It is surely a cliche, but what other country would go to such efforts? At a time when America is clamping down on Mexican migration, and France and Spain battle to contain a flood of North Africans, little Israel reaches out across kilometers of desert and centuries of travail to bring thousands of black Africans in as equal citizens.
As they make their way through Ethiopian airport security, with their meager belongings in hand, one cannot help but see in the fulfillment of their dreams that of ours, too.
By Michael Freund, Israel Insider
7 thoughts on “Exodus to Israel – Eyewitness Account from Ethiopia”
there will be another exodus from israel to ethiopia. it is the matter of time
Look at the picture, there is no way these people could be jews. I do not think that they are going to their country. I think they are Ethiopian by blood, they may be inspired to behave like a jew and they will serve as a buffer for the safety of the true jews. I do not have an illusion to think that Ethiopians are jews and jews are Ethiopians. I firmly believe that Ethiopians are Ethiopians and Jews are Jews.
Truth ,
make no mistake. off course for you and me it is difficult to trace their ancestos. I am from Gondar where the majority of bete israels live in Quara, Alefa, Gondar Zuriya
where they are known clearly by the community as different people you know why bc they learn frfo their elders about the orgin of these people. Dont take it negative they are Ethiopians but jew have jewish orgin.
I am just asking; where shall we go the rest of none flashas ?
Specially my Kushitic Oromos? The people of the southern nation?
It is not easy to go to Israel and live a promised dream life. I read an article by a famous falasha journalist who abandoned his journalistic profession and left for Israel.
As an educated and journalist he would have survived the difficulties facing a new comer to the nation. He could not make it and decided to go back to Addis Ababa and restart a new life in Ethiopia.
I always asked why Falashas are abandoning the Northern regions and go to Israel? I think the repression in the country for them is unbearable. Therefore they decide to go
to their new homeland. I also asked myself always where shall my 40000000 Oromos go? They are under the unbearable repression of the current government. Let me make it broader where shall the 82,000, 000 people of Ethiopia go for we do not have a country to run to!
sabataa Dubbii
The process of alia (exodus) has no beginning and has no end.
The operation will never be completed until all Ethiopian Christian Jews has left Ethiopia for their ancestral land – Jerusalem – and the exodus of 300 Felasha Mura from Gondar to the land of Israel will not be, as some predict, as and end of an era; rather it is as the beginning of a historical era.
There are more than 30 million Ethiopian Christian Jews in various parts of Ethiopia even though some say that there are only 8,700 Felasha Mura in Gondar region alone. The logic here is that Christianity came to Ethiopia after the Jews came and settled in Ethiopia, and later most of the Jews voluntarily or involuntarily became Christians. Therefore, most of the Ethiopian Christians are Ethiopian Christian Jews. So, they have the right to go to Israel and claim the land of Israel as their own.
As the ancient Ethiopian Jews were forced to become Christians, so also when most of the Ethiopian Christian Jews go to Israel and settle there, they would force the remaining Jews to become Christians, including the Palestinians. This is the main purpose of God when he first brought Judaism to Ethiopia and then Christianity by converting millions of Ethiopian Jews to Christianity. Then bringing the Ethiopian Christian Jews back to Jerusalem to convert the remnants of the Jewish people and the Palestinians to Christianity has been God’s divine plan.
After some time when Israel becomes densely populated and when there is no enough land for every Ethiopian Christian Jews, then the Ethiopian Christian Jews in Israel will long to come home, and they will come home, rejoicing and praising the God of Israel (Amlake Israel) and speaking in Hebraic Amharic language and will be able to convert the continent of Africa to Christianity and later the entire world.
What we see here is that God in his mysterious ways is using the Jewish nation as his instrument to declare his holy name to the whole world. God is revealing himself through the Ethiopian Christian Jews to the gentile world.
As the Ethiopian black Jews leave Ethiopia with their little belongings they have, they will come back with a large amount of wealth as their father Jacob (Yaakov) who went to Paddan Aram empty handed but came back with a large number of sheep, cattle, camels, servants, children and two wives to his father land, Canaan.
In this way, the process of alia will continue until Jesus comes and brings it to an end by gathering all the children of Israel to himself “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Therefore, if exodus to Israel ends today, another exodus begins tomorrow; in this case, exodus has no beginning and has no end.
In reality, alia has been with us ever since we have been on this earth; we may not know when alia started, and we will never know when it ends. When every person leaves his country for another country, he/she is making an alia. For example, when I left Ethiopia for America, I was making an alia. Thus, every person has his/her own alia, and of course, the history of one person’s alia is different from the other person’s history of alia.
By the way, when did alia start? We know when the exodus from Egypt took place, and we know when the Ethiopian Jews’ exodus happens from Ethiopia to the land of Israel, and every Ethiopian in diaspora knows when his/her exodus took place. Therefore, alia might have been started with the first man, Adam, and with the first woman, Eve when they were forced to leave Paradise (genet) after they broke the law of God, but still we do not know the exact time when the exodus from Paradise took place.
Do you mean the invasion of Ethiopia by the future army of
Israel? Do you mean the creation of a new Empire out of the nation of Israel in the Middle East? I am very much wondered; it could be possible? What shall the rest of African do meanwhile when such preparation takes place on extended time in the future? Is it like another Concostador from Spain to Latin America? It may be possible who knows history and prophesies have surprises for humanity.
I wish all the Falashes who left their villages a good living conditions in their new home.
After all humans are animals; they keep roaming the Earth ever since whatever their reasons might have been.
Sabataa Dubbii
Dear Sabataa Dubbii,
As we come closer and closer to the end of human history and misery on this earth, I can visualize a powerful empire is being formed in the land of Israel by the Ethiopian Christian Jews, and this formidable power subjugating the entire Middle East and building its second head quarter in Ethiopia to conquer the continent of Africa and evangelize it and from there the entire world. To accomplish such a remarkable event, Judaism and Christianity will work hand in hand, respecting their differing views.
In the mean time, the people of Africa should live in peace, helping each other, avoiding conflict, and preparing themselves for that powerful Ethiopian Christian Jews’ kingdom.