From: davidba@carmel.technion.ac.il (David Ben_Ami)
Subject: Re: JUSTICE/EQUALITY IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE (AFTER ETHIOPIA)
Organization: Technion, Israel Inst. of Technology
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 17:21:51 GMT
Keywords: a

I deleted Elgahni's drivel about classes of citizens in Israel.
I will answer the matter that the UPI report deals with, and not
Elgahni's cynical and idiotic interpration of it.

In article <1992Sep12.081411.2405344@locus.com> jle@locus.com (John Elghani/10000000) writes:
>	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants demanding
>religious equality battled Thursday with police who tried to end their
>demonstration in front of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office.
>	Police arrested at least 28 protesters. Three Ethiopians and six
>police officers were injured in the clashes and taken to the hospital.
>	The demonstrators, estimated to number 800, called on Rabin to
>overrule Israel's chief rabbis and grant their elders religious
>authority.
>	The Ethiopians are furious that Israel's ultra-orthodox religious
>establishment is refusing to recognize Ethiopian religious leaders, or
>``Kessim,'' and won't allow them to perform religious rituals.
>	``We want the prime minister to give us equal religious rights,''
>said Kes Reuven Menashe, 27, one of the young religious leaders who
>arrived in Israel eight years ago. ``In the land of Israel, a democratic
>state, we have no rights.''
>	The protesters arrived in the morning from around the country and
>blocked the street in front of Rabin's office, calling for him to come
>out and meet their leaders.
>	Although the organizers had received a police permit to hold the
>protest, dozens of police and paramilitary border guards stood by
>quietly until the permit expired.
>	The Ethiopian Jews are believed to have migrated from Egypt or the
>Arabian peninsula in the first and second centuries. They were cut off
>from the mainstream Sephardi and Ashkenazi branches of Judaism, but held
>to the laws of the Old Testament and developed their own rituals and
>customs.
>	Israel has two chief rabbis, one Sephardi and one Ashkenazi. They
>have both ruled that the Kessim cannot perform marriages or divorces and
>must study the laws that mainstream Judaism uses before they will grant
>recognition.
>	``We have Kessim who are 90 years old and the rabbis say they have to
>go study for two or four years,'' said Daniel Rata, 32, who arrived in
>Israel eight years ago. ``It's embarassing.''
>	Ethiopian Jews have been making their way to Israel over the past 20
>years. In 1984 more than 7,500 Jews were secretly airlifted through
>neighboring Sudan in the U.S.-financed ``Operation Moses.''
>	In the dramatic 36-hour ``Operation Solomon'' airlift in May 1991,
>14,000 Jews were airlifted to Israel as the government in Addis Abbaba
>fell after a prolonged civil war.


The Problem of Ethiopiam Kessim's right to be recognized as Rabbis is
a very difficult and tender problem. I think that the Rabbis simply 
cannot "Recognition" to the Kessim of Ethiopian Jewery simply because 
they are not trained in the minimal books of the "Tora She'Beal Pe"
(Oral tecahings of Tora) - and they are only trained in a very specialized 
version of the "Tora She'biktav" (written teachings of Torah). The
Rabbis were very reluctant to declare the Ethipoian Falasha community
Jewish in the first place - However they gave them a very long rope
and decided VERY HUMANELY to ACCEPT their Judaism, still this cannot
bridge the enormous ACTUAL gap between the 2 versions. Since the Ethiopian
Jewery chose to integrate itself in Israeli and Modern Jewish community
they must choose between preserving their old traditions and lose credits
in the Israeli dynamic society or to conform and get on the upper path
of Jewish life in Israel (preserving heritage in less harmful ways).

I think that this demonstration is a very grave mistake on the part of
the Ethipians - they are trying to get with force things that they don't
deserve and are showing a degree of ungratefulness for the Religious 
community which could have easily abandon them in Ethiopia since their
Judaism is quite dubious.

I may further note that many compromises were offered to them by the
Rabbis, many ignorant politicians pushed the Ethiopians to a very
dangerous path - the politicians will move to the next issue - the 
Ethiopians will suffer badly from this mistake.

It is only in Israel that such demonstrations are allowed and although
this demo was concluded in violence - I think that both the Ethiopians
and teh police are very sorry for the violence and misunderstandings.

I personally think that the Ethiopians are learning very bad habits of
Israelis and Russian immigrants that is: Chuyzpa and the "I deserve it"
attitude. Maybe this is the sign that they are really absorbing in the
country :-))

David.
-- 
=============================================================================
  David Ben-Ami (irc: bigdav)      |   "I can resist anything but Temptation"
  s2780369@Techst02.Technion.Ac.Il |       Oscar Wilde
  davidba@Carmel.Technion.Ac.Il  davidba@Moav.Techniona.Ac.Il
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