From: perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU (Eric S. Perlman)
Subject: Re: MORE ABOUT COLOR DISCRIMINATION IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE (ISRAEL)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:12:12 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.190710.2409023@locus.com> jle@locus.com (John Elghani/10000000) writes:
>I received the following article about the discrimination there.   To make
>story short, I'll only show sections of the article.  Apparently
>the government knows that the Ethiopian Jews are converts, but not
>*FULLY* converted yet. Read on.  -JLE

I suggest that John Elghani go back and learn how to read the English
language.  The last sentence is nowhere in the excerpts from the article
below, nor can *any* part of it be implied from the wording that Elghani
presents.  Typical.

>	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- ...
>	...
>	But younger members of the tightly-knit community of 40,000 Jews
>airlifted from Ethiopia over the last decade said the dispute over their
>kessim was only the most humiliating part of the growing bitterness they
>feel over their reception in Israel.
>	From a shortage of permanent housing for the Ethiopian immigrants to
>the Israeli rabbinate's refusal to accept many of them as Jews, the
>community's early complaints have given way to major protest
>demonstrations that are only now beginning to capture the government's
>attention.
>	``The most pressing problem for the Ethiopian community in Israel,
>more so than those problems of housing and unemployment, is the deep
>insult to us as Jews,'' Jobza Etzinpa, head of the Movement of Ethiopian
>Jews in Israel, said in a letter to the Chief Rabbinate.
>	``Instead of actively integrating and connecting our community to the
>nation of Israel, the discriminating policies of different governmental
>ministries have contributed to the separation and tearing of this
>community from the societal fabric of Israel.''
>	It was a weeklong sit-in by some 50 kessim that finally brought the
>invitation from Rabin to meet with them. On Thursday, hundreds of
>Ethiopians joined their religious leaders and blocked the road outside
>the prime minister's office. The demonstration turned violent when rocks
>were thrown and police arrested 28 of the protesters. Nine people were
>hurt in the pushing and shoving that ensued.

And bravo to Rabin for having met with them.  The problem here, pure and
simple, is not with the government, but rather with the religious
establishment.  The Ethiopian Jews were separated from the rest of world
Jewry from a time *before* such works as the Talmud, and many of the
oral interpretations that govern modern rabbinic decisions were
delivered.  They were also subject to as much discrimination and tragedy
in Ethiopia as Jews were throughout the world before WWII, made worse by
their utter isolation - when they were re-discovered, they still
believed they were the only Jews left in the world, and many of their
Kessim were reluctant to accept the representatives of Israel, even
rabbis from Israel, as truly Jewish.

The religious establishment in Israel is overwhelmingly Orthodox, and
therefore wants the Ethiopian Kessim to learn all the modern writings
before being recognized.  This is just plain wrong.  But the problem is
not governmental, it is the religious establishment.

>...
>
>	Besides recognizing the authority of the kessim, the Ethiopians want
>Israel to cease its requirement that the immigrants undergo a symbolic
>conversion, which they call ``a great insult.''
>...
>
>	They are calling on the state to list them all as ``Jews'' on their
>national identity cards. Currently, the line for religion on the cards
>is marked ``Ethiopian'' or ``unknown'' for those who have not performed
>the abbreviated conversion ceremony, which involves ritual immersion in
>water.
>
>jle

And in my opinion, these requirements should be ceased; the Ethiopian
Jews are clearly in the right.

-- 
"How sad to see/A model of decorum and tranquillity/become like any other sport
A battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee." -Tim Rice,"Chess"
     Eric S. Perlman 				 <perlman@qso.colorado.edu> 
  Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast