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In the video the racist Israelis call the African immigrants sh1t, spit, psychopath, nigger, infiltrator. In the past I heard an Israeli coworker called the Palestinian people trash. The Israeli don't like black African immigrant.
It is an abomination for an Israeli Jew to be discriminating against African people and black people because the original Jew and the Jew of the bible were black people. Egypt was made of many African tribes, religious conflict among those tribes cause some member of those tribe to lived Egypt and settled and Palestine becoming the Hebrew and Jew.
The majority of white Jew today probably 60% are convert Jew descendant of Khazar Turk and Eastern European. The minority of white Jew probably 40% are descendant of the original black Jew who migrated to Europe and USA and bleached out to white. There are million of original black Jew living in Africa today.
African should build their countries into the richest countries in the world and stop immigrating into racist people country. It was a great failure for the African, American and Asian ruling classes to allowed the European to colonized the majority of the world and becoming super rich and powerful.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
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Afric is some 20-25% of the world's land mass and bursting with natural resources it's just amazing that all those people are so frustrated by their corrupt and inhuman governments that they would run to land where racial insults are routine--as if they have no shame. The same for those people paying people smugglers good money to smuggle them into Europe to do menial jobs.
The same with those blacks forced out of Africa from the 17th century onwards. They are daily subjected to casual racist insults plus more jail and more degradation. Yet they never think of going back--always looking to the whites for their salvation. Their hope is that their tormentors stop tormenting them.
Ignorance and lack of shame all around.
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This rising hatred isn't something new. And this "thing" did not appear all of a sudden. There is a history attached to this...
Notice the countries mentioned, Eritrea, Sudan.
But then again, everything has to come to pass. And time passes by, slow but surly.
Ethiopian Jews – A Halakhic Perspective
What follows is Rabbi J. David Bleich's overview of the halakhot regarding Ethiopian Jews, excerpted from Contemporary Halakhic Problems (Volume 1), published by KTAV and Yeshiva University in 1977. I used OCR software to scan this, so if you note any errors please post them in the comments to this post or email me. I have added my own notes when necessary. To read Rabbi Bleich's article, please click the link below:
BLACK JEWS: A HALAKHIC PERSPECTIVE By Rabbi J. David Bleich
…The only question with regard to the status of black Jews which is germane is whether or not they have established a valid claim to Jewish identity by virtue of either birth or conversion. There are, however, numerous distinct communities of black Jews and the claim advanced by each group must be examined on its own particular merits.
Historically, the question first arose with regard to the Falashas, the black Jews of Ethiopia. The earliest reference to the Falasha community is contained in the diary of Eldad ha-Dani, a ninth-century merchant and traveler who professed to have been a citizen of an autonomous Jewish state in eastern Africa inhabited by the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The reports of Eldad ha-Dani were given credence as a result of the endorsement of the then Ga'on of Sura, Zemach ben Chaim, who vouched for Eldad's reliability and trustworthiness. Although such scholars as Abraham ibn Ezra 2 and Meir of Rothenberg3 expressed reservations with regard to the veracity of Eldad's narrative, other rabbinic lumintries, such as Rashi, Rabad, and Abraham ben Maimon, cite Eldad as an unquestioned authority. Eldad ha-Dani speaks of the Falashas as Jews and describes the religious practices followed by the Falasha community. Since at that time, and for generations thereafter, there was little or no traffic between Abyssinia and the Jewish centers of Europe and Asia, the question of the Jewish identity of the Falasha community was entirely a matter of speculative curiosity.
The matter did, however, become the subject of halakhic adjudication in the responsa of R. David ibn Zimra (1479-1589). By that time, a fairly extensive slave trade preying upon inhabitants of North Africa seems to have developed. R. David ibn Zimra, or Radbaz, as he is known in rabbinic literature, was presented with a halakhic question which not only called for a clarification of the religious status of the Falashas but also describes the adversities which they suffered.4. A Falasha town or settlement was attacked, the males slaughtered and the women and children taken captive. One woman, whose husband was presumably among the slaughtered, was purchased as a slave by a Jew who subsequently entered into a sexual liaison with her which resulted in the birth of a son. Later, the son sought to marry a young lady of Jewish parentage and Radbaz was asked for a ruling with regard to the permissibility of the forthcoming marriage.
For Radbaz, the question of the captive's identity as a Jewess was not at all in doubt. "It is clear that she is of the seed of Israel, of the tribe of Dan," declares Radbaz. Describing the prevailing circumstances, be writes: "There is constantly war between the kings of Abyssinia, for in Abyssinia there are three kingdoms; part of the land is inhabited by Moslems, part by Christians steadfast in their religion, and part by Jews of the tribe of Dan . . . and daily they take captives one from the other." Radbaz was concerned solely with the question of bastardy which, in turn, is predicated upon the possibility that the husband, unknown to his wife, may have been spared or may have escaped. If the captive's husband was yet living when she consorted with her master, the child born to them would, of course, be a bastard and forbidden to marry a Jewess of legitimate birth. If, however, her husband had indeed been killed, the captive's status would have been that of an unmarried widow. According to Jewish law, a child born out of wedlock to an unmarried mother does not bear the stigma of bastardy. Radbaz was called upon to decide whether, in the given instance, the child should be considered to be of legitimate birth, whether he should be declared a bastard or whether, in light of the mother's uncorroborated testimony with regard to the prior death of her husband, the status of the child must remain clouded by unresolvable doubt.
Presented in this manner, the question is simply the classic agunah problem in one of its many guises. As such, the question as raised was individual in nature and represented a matter of concern primarily to the persons involved.' However, the ramifications of this responsum go far beyond the question at hand. The question reflects a matter of far broader concern, since it is one which could not conceivably arise unless the Jewish identity of the Falasha community is antecedently accepted. Since bastardy is a matter of concern only with regard to Jewish issue, no problem is posed unless it is assumed that the child is of Jewish parentage.
Radbaz was concerned with yet another factor which might serve as a barrier to marital alliances with any member of the Falasha community. This latter consideration, also, is germane only because Radbaz regarded the Falashas as Jews. The religion professed and practiced by the Falasha community is a form of Mosaism;6; the Falashas are totally ignorant of the Oral Law. "They appear to be of the sect of Zadok7 and Boethus known as Karaites," declares Radbaz. Since they are indeed Jews, marriages contracted by them are entirely valid, but, point out Radbaz, their divorces are defective because they are not performed in accordance with the usages of Jewish law. Furthermore, by virtue of their adherence to Karaite heresies, the Falashas are disqualified from serving as witnesses. Hence, any get (bill of divorce) signed and delivered in the presence of Falasha witnesses is invalid.8. The absence of a valid divorce, of course, precludes the wife from validly contracting a new marriage. The issue of any subsequent (invalid) marriage entered into by the wife would be halakhically categorized as bastards. Radbaz was one of many authorities who were concerned with the permissibility of marriage between Jews and Karaites. In view of the long period of time which had elapsed since the Karaite schism in the ninth century, it was inevitable that numerous Karaite women had, in the course of centuries, been divorced according to Karaite usage. Many undoubtedly remarried and gave birth to children halakhically forbidden to marry Jews of legitimate parentage. Thus, the suspicion arose that any given prospective Karaite bride or groom might bear the stigma of bastardy.
Radbaz, however, does find grounds for permitting Karaites -and Falashas- to marry within the Jewish fold without restriction. He argues that although their divorces are defective by virtue of the use of unqualified witnesses, it may be assumed that members of the Karaite community are also married in the presence of Karaite witnesses. Since Karaites are disqualified from serving as witnesses, marriages contracted in the presence of Karaite witnesses have no halakhic validity. Since a valid marriage does not exist, it follows that a bill of divorce for its dissolution is superfluous. In light of these considerations, Radbaz rules that there is no suspicion of bastardy with regard to members of the Karaite or Falasha communities. Accordingly, declares Radbaz, marriage to a Falasha is permissible provided that the marriage partner is willing to accept the practices of rabbinic Judaism.
In a subsequent (and presumably later) responsum,9, Radbaz expresses grave reservations with regard to Falasha eligibility for marriage within the Jewish community, but is explicit and even more emphatic in his opinion that they are unquestionably of Jewish lineage. The responsum in question was written in reply to a query regarding how one should comport oneself vis-a-vis a Falasha who had been acquired as a slave. Radbaz declares unequivocally: "Therefore.... with regard to the Falasha slave, since it has become clear that he is a Jew, this purchase is nought but the ransom of captives, not the purchase of a slave, and the obligation was encumbent upon all of Israel to redeem him.
" Although the "slave" must be granted freedom, Radbaz stipulates that the ransomed captive may be obliged to serve as a laborer or as an indentured servant for a fixed period of time in order to compensate the purchaser for the sum of money which had been expended in the "ransom" of the captive.
Radbaz felt constrained to add that Falashas taken captive must be ransomed even though they conduct themselves as Karaites. The halakhic obligation regarding the ransoming of captives does not encompass sectarians, and, accordingly, Radbaz affirms that there is no obligation to ransom a Karaite who is taken captive. Yet, despite Radbaz' belief that the Mosaism of the Falashas is the result of Karaite influences, Radbaz rules that the Falashas have not placed themselves outside the pale of the Jewish community and are not to be looked upon as sectarians. With regard to the absence of an obligation to ransom Karaite captives Radbaz writes, ". . . it seems to me that this is so only with regard to those who dwell among the Rabbanites. . . ."
The Falashas, in particular, are not to be branded as sectarians, Radbaz holds, since "these who come from the land of Kush are without doubt of the tribe of Dan and because there are not among them scholars, masters of tradition, they seize unto themselves the literal meaning of Scripture . . . they are as a child who has been held captive among idolaters." Consistent with this newly formulated position but in contradiction to his earlier stated view, Radbaz concludes: "But with regard to genealogy, I fear lest their marriages be valid but that their divorces are not as has been ordained by the Sages, of blessed memory, for they are not at all acquainted with the form of divorces and marriages."10.
A disciple of Radbaz, R. Ya'akov Castro, in a gloss to Yoreh De'alh 158:2, cites the opinion of his teacher and similarly declares the Falashas to be descendants of the tribe of Dan. But, curiously, the same author, in a gloss to Yoreh De'ah 267:14, reports that it was customary to execute a writ of manumission (get shihrur) in emancipating ransomed Falasha captives. Apparently, the established Jewish communities came into contact only with Falashas who had been captured and sold into slavery. It appears that the purchase or ransom of Falasha slaves by a Jew was not an infrequent occurrence. When a Falasha slave was acquired by a Jew, the question of the religious status of the Falashas became a matter of great significance in determining the master-slave relationship. Radbaz, as noted, ruled that since the Falashas were to be regarded as Jews, they could not be held as slaves. Were they to be regarded as non-Jews their status would have been that of a "Canaanite slave" who upon emancipation by means of a bill of manumission acquires the status of a Jew. Since no bill of manumission is required for the release of a Jew from bondage, the fact that such writs were actually executed tends to indicate that the status of Falashas was beclouded and was at least a matter of doubt. Rabbi Castro, however, points out that were a Falasha belonging to a Jewish master indeed to be regarded as a Canaanite slave, in addition to a bill of manumission, immersion in a ritualarium would also be required upon emancipation in order for him to acquire status as a full-fledged member of the community of Israel. Rabbi Castro reports that while delivery of a writ of manumission seems to have been the accepted practice, paradoxically, it was not customary for immersion in a ritualarium to be carried out. Rabbi Castro accordingly concludes that "possibly" the writ was of no religious import, but was drawn up simply to provide documentary evidence of the Falasha's status as a free man.
Despite the unequivocal declaration of Radbaz with regard to the origins of the Falasha community, Radbaz' halakhic decision, handed down in the sixteenth century, may not be valid in the twentieth. In the course of the intervening four centuries it is entirely possible that there has been extensive intermarriage between the Falashas and the indigenous Abyssinian population. It is reported that R. Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk adopted a similar position with regard to the Karaite community. R. Chaim contended that while in earlier periods of Jewish history there was room for significant disagreement regarding the permissibility of marriage between Jews and Karaites, there is no question that in our day such marriages are forbidden according to all authorities. R. Chaim pointed out that over the centuries the Karaites accepted gentile converts but did not do so according to the prescribed ritual. Indeed, since Karaites are disqualified from serving as members of a Bet Din, conversions performed by them would be inefficacious even if the Karaite Bet Din were to adhere scrupulously to all details of the conversion ritual. As a result, declared R. Chaim, every Karaite now has the status of a safek akum and his identity as a Jew is in doubt.11. The same considerations may well be applicable to the Falasha community. However, the Falashas may differ significantly from Karaite communities with regard to the incidence of conversion. The Falashas are known to be shunned as pariahs by the dominant Ethiopian tribes with the result that social intercourse between the communities is severely limited. On the basis of available published information it is impossible to determine whether acceptance of converts over the generations was a common or rare occurrence among the Falashas.*
Despite any qualms which might be voiced, the authenticity of the claims to Jewish identity advanced by the Falashas was affirmed not only in the Middle Ages but in modern times as well. The Falasha community was rediscovered over a century ago and their plight brought to the attention of western Jewry. In 1864, R. Ezriel Hildesheimer, a prominent rabbinic spokesman, issued a call for action in order to counteract missionary activity among the Falashas.12. This was followed by a fact-finding mission undertaken in 1867 by the noted Orientalist and Semitic scholar, Joseph Halevy. However, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that meaningful endeavors were undertaken on behalf of the Falashas. A relationship with the Falasha community was established largely through the efforts of a single individual, Dr. Jacob Noah Feitlovitch, whose efforts on behalf of the Falasha community were endorsed in the strongest terms in a public manifesto issued in 1921 by the then Chief Rabbi of Erez Yisra'el, Rabbi A. Y. Kook.13
Although neither Rabbi Hildesheimer nor Rabbi Kook addresses himself to the thorny question of the permissibility of marriage between Jews and members of the Falasha community or to the question of the possible requirement of a conversion ceremony because of intermarriage over the course of centuries,** both epistles speak of the Falashas in the warmest of terms and proclaim the responsibility of world Jewry both for their material support and for their religious education. Reflected in both statements is deep concen lest the Falashas forsake the Jewish faith.
More recently, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, reiterated the commonly accepted halakhic view in stating that the Falashas are "descendants of the tribes of Israel ... and without doubt the aforementioned authorities who determined that they are of the tribe of Dan investigated and reached this conclusion on the basis of the most reliable testimony and evidence." 14. Therefore, declared Rabbi Yosef, it is obligatory upon the Jewish community to rescue them from assimilation and to "hasten their immigration to Israel, to educate them in the spirit of the holy Torah, and to coopt them in the rebuilding of our holy land."15. Rabbi Yosef specifically calls upon the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency to facilitate the immigration of the Falashas. It has been reported that Rabbi Yosef has, on other occasions, counseled that Falashas should undergo a conversion*** ceremony in order to eliminate any possible question with regard to their status as Jews. Curiously, until very recently, a completely antithetical policy was adopted by secular officials of the State of Israel. For many years it was the stated policy of the Israeli government that "Israel does not regard the Law of Return as being applicable to the Falashas" and "is not enthusiastic about the prospect of Falasha immigration."16. This posture was seemingly motivated by considerations of international diplomacy. Following the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, an interministerial committee was appointed to review the status of the Falashas. As a result of the deliberations of the committee, the Falashas have been recognized as eligible for Israeli citizenship and other rights under the Law of Return .17 ____________________________ 1. Bemidbar, 684.2. Commentary on the Bible, Exod. 2:20. 3. Teshuvot Maharam Rothenberg, no. 193. 4. Teshuvot Radbaz, IV, no.. 219 (1290). The identical responsum appears in VII, no. 9. 5. A statement apparently referring to this young man and the ultimate solution to his problem appears in a responsum authored by a disciple of Radbaz. R. Ya'akov Castro, Ohalei Ya'akov, no. 11, writes: "It is a commonplace occurrence for a bastard to marry a female slave who has immersed [herself] for purposes of slavery [in order] to purify his progeny that they may enter into the congregation. Such a case occurred in Egypt in [the case of] a Jewish Falasha who, had been married in her country and gave birth to a son in Egypt [fathered] by a Jew who cohabited with her in ignorance. [The son] married a female slave and purified his progeny in the time of the scholars of the preceding generation, of blessed memory." 6. It should be noted that many other Ethiopians also practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath and perform ritual ablutions. The Christianity practiced by many Ethiopians is highly syncretistic and retains many Judaic elements. Edward Ullendorf, The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People (London, 1960), is of the opinion that the Falashas are descended from elements of the Aksumite Kingdom who resisted conversion to Christianity. Thus their Aksumite practices mirror the religious syncretism of the pre-Christian Aksumites. 7. Rabbinic writers frequently refer to Karaites as Sadduces, not as a result of misidentification, but because the Karaites, in common with the Sadducces, rejected the Oral Law. Cf. J. D. Eisenstein, O[t]zar Yisra'el (New York, 1951), IX, 211. 8. In point of fact, modern scholars report that the bill of divorce is unknown among the Falashas. There is no distinctive Falasha custom in connection with divorce. The formalities are executed in the presence of the local chief. See Wolf Leslau, The Fala,~ha Anthology (New Haven, 1951), p. xviii. Since in dissolving a Falasha marriage a bill of divorce is not written and presented to the wife, as is required by Jewish law, there is no question that from the halakhic perspective, the matrimonial relationship has not been terminated. Either Radbaz was unaware of Falasha practices with regard to divorce or the bill of divorce fell into disuse among the Falashas sometime after the sixteenth century. 9. Teshuvot Radbaz, VII, no. 5. 10. This is also the definitive ruling of Bet Yosef, Even ha-Ezer 4, and Rema, Even ha-Ezer 4:37. 11. Quoted by R. Ovadiah Yosef, Torah She-be-'al Peh, XIII (5731), 28; see also R. Eliezer Yehudah Waldenberg, Ziz [i.e, Tzitz] Eli'ezer, X, no,. 25, chap. 3, sec. 10, who independently makes a similar point with regard to the B'nai Israel of India. 12. Jeschurun, XI, no. 2 (November, 1864). 13. Unpublished letter dated 3 Kislev 5682. See also R. Abraham Y. Kook, Iggrot ha-Re'iyah (Jerusalem, 5722), 11, 83, 89f and 318. 14. Unpublished communication dated 7 Adar 1, 5733. Rabbi Yosef indicates this was also the opinion of Rabbi Isaac ha-Levi Herzog. Radbaz' position with regard to the descent of the Falasha community from the tribe of Dan is also accepted by Ziz. Eli'ezer, X, no,. 25, chap. 3, sec. 19. 15. Loc. cit. 16. David Zohar, First Secretary, Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C., in a letter published in Sh'ma, 3/47 (February 2, 1973), pp. 54-55. 17. JTA Daily News Bulletin, April 15, 1975.
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The Rebbe's Letter on the Rescue of Ethiopian Jews
Do Not Waste Energy On Any Work Which Is Not Connected With Fulfilling The Mission Of Lubavitch
By the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson – as published in Kfar Chabad Magazine, Volume 1079, 5 Shevat 5764 (January 28, 2004) Page 35.
The Rebbe's Letter on the Rescue of Ethiopian Jews
Do Not Waste Energy On Any Work Which Is Not Connected With Fulfilling The Mission Of Lubavitch
By the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson – as published in Kfar Chabad Magazine, Volume 1079, 5 Shevat 5764 (January 28, 2004) Page 35.
[The letter the Rebbe was responding to can be read here: Part 1; Part 2. The USPS Certification.]
Baruch HaShem 12 Shevat 5744 [Monday, January 16, 1984] Brooklyn, NY
Mr. Shmarya Rosenberg1S. Paul, MN 55116
Shalom u’Bracha! 2
Your special delivery registered letter with enclosures dated 7 Kislev [Sunday, November 13, 1983 -- two months before the Rebbe wrote this letter] was received in it’s proper time. You are raising several questions beginning with a question that is related to a complicated problem of Jewish law (“Halakha”). As is well-known and widely publicized, it is outside the scope of my duties to render Jewish legal decisions (“paskin shailot”). I can only suggest that your question be addressed to a qualified rabbinical body, like Agudat HaRabbonim. 3
Aside from this, I am surprised by the wording of your letter because I do not remember receiving any letter from you in the past. 4
Your attitude appears presumptuous and unbecoming. You demand to know why Chabad-Lubavitch representatives (“shluchim”) are not doing anything or are not doing enough, related to this problem that you are very concerned with. Not only this, but your letter is tasteless and illogical, because your questions would be no more logical if you asked a physician why he is not actively involved in a matter related to engineering.
You should know that Chabad-Lubavitch representatives (“shluchim”) have a specific mission assigned to them, which is to spread Judaism in the communities designated to them. Congressional resolutions and the like are not part of those duties that are planned for them.5, 6
Furthermore, there is very little -- if anything -- they can achieve in the area that interests you most. Therefore, to divert their minds and to turn their energies and their time to something not related to their mission will be wasteful and diversionary to the work that they already do superbly and with full devotion.
Equally, your claims regarding scholarships and other projects you mention in your letter are not logical and they do not fit in with the activities and duties of Chabad-Lubavitch institutions of representatives (“shluchim”).7
The impression received from your letter is that you are probably not familiar with the correct way to achieve success for the cause you are so eager to work for.
In light of the above mentioned, and because you have begun your letter with B”H [an abbreviation for Baruch HaShem, Blessed is God], it is absolutely correct for me to ask you two questions related to this matter:
1. Remember the law ("din kadima") that the needs of the poor of your own city come first. Did all the Jews in your city receive adequate necessities to cover their Jewish [i.e., spiritual] needs? If not, why not?
2. What have you done and what are you currently doing -- are you doing all you can? -- to convince and encourage the Jews in your community -- men, women and children -- to live their lives as truly devoted Jews, Jews devoted to the Torah and its laws, fulfilling the daily mitzvot and acting as Jews? If not, why not?
Of course, there are many differences between your questions and mine. In fact, an operation to benefit the Jews of your community (along with it having precedence in Jewish law, "din kadima") can be carried out without the necessity of assistance from the American Congress and without the approval of any foreign government. Furthermore, such an operation would undoubtedly be successful -- it depends only on you and your willingness and determination to carry out such an urgent action. 8 Surely there is no need to explain to you the conditions in America -- including in your state and in your city -- that so very many Jews -- men, women and young children -- are carried away on the stream of assimilation, influenced by foreign surroundings that leads to intermarriage, etc. So many of them are lost to our people day-after-day, and, according to our sages, even the soul of one Jew is regarded as an entire world, and certainly it is so with regard to the rescue of so many of our brothers [from assimilation].
I must say that the purpose of my letter to you is not to argue with you or even to give you mussar (“moral guidance”) because I do not know you. Your letter is one of very many letters I receive and your letter does not fit in with any of them. It occurs to me that perhaps it is providential (“hashgakha pratit”), and that this gives me the opportunity to bring to your attention the fact that the many Jews nearby you have important needs and that an effort must be made to reach and save them -- they have the priority, the first claim on Jews like you.
May G-d give you the correct answers to answer my questions, not for my self-indulgence but for the sake of our brethren (“acheynu b’nai yisrael”), especially the younger generation in your city, assuming that you are a resident there for at least a few years or perhaps were born there.
With The Respect That Is Fitting (“B’Kavod HaRoy”),
[Signed] P.S. I would like to respectfully ask you as an additional question related to this matter: In what way can it be helpful to this issue (that you are so angry about) for you to be well-informed on what I do or do not do to benefit it?
Footnotes
1. The Rebbe was writing to a university student who at that time had already been very active in outreach efforts on his campus, in his city and, in fact, throughout North America for several years, including working with Chabad-Lubavitch representatives in his city and across the country, and would continue to do so for many years to come. His first contact with Lubavitch had come almost two years before this when he hand-delivered to Chabad-Lubavitch representative Rabbi Moshe Feller a letter smuggled out of Ethiopia from Ethiopian Jewish leaders to American rabbis desperately pleading for help and describing the horrible situation in Ethiopia. The student asked Rabbi Feller to send a copy of that letter to the Rebbe. It appears from the Rebbe's letter that this was not done. The student also had extensive contact with Chabad leadership in Brooklyn and repeatedly asked them to help Ethiopian Jews. They refused, and either did not pass along the student's requests to the Rebbe, or, if they did, the Rebbe simply ignored them.
As the Rebbe's letter soon makes clear, and as Chabad's subsequent actions demonstrate, Chabad's position is that a Jewish educational project in Minnesota is more important than saving the lives of starving tortured African Jews.
2. “Greetings and Blessings!”, a standard opening to a letter in rabbinic Hebrew discourse.
3. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the Dean of the Rabbinic Court of Agudat HaRabbonim, had already ruled that Ethiopian Jews must be saved and had widely publicized that ruling. Rabbi Feinstein and Agudat HaRabbonim would soon rule again, very publicly, that Ethiopian Jews must be saved and that one can certainly and must in fact violate all Sabbath restrictions in order to carry out the rescue if it be necessary to do so. The Rebbe did not listen to either decision, and continued to withhold help, both with rescue and with absorption and acclimation to Israeli society and modern Judaism.
4. Note the previous letter on Ethiopian Jews sent September 16, 1983 and published here for the first time. Also note that many requests for help and guidance had already been made verbally through representatives of Lubavitch in Minnesota, Crown Heights -- including Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the Rebbe’s secretary and public relations person -- and other locations throughout North America, without any response from the Rebbe.
5. Getting Congress to pass resolutions declaring the Rebbe’s birthday as “Education Day, USA,” was part of their duties, however.
6. Here is a copy of the Congressional Resolution I asked Chabad-Lubavitch and the Rebbe to support.
7. The Rebbe was asked to send Chabad 'Mitzva Tanks' into absorption centers to visit Ethiopian Jews. That is what the Rebbe is referring to when he says the projects mentioned "are not logical and they do not fit in with the activities and duties of Chabad-Lubavitch institutions of representatives."
8. Chabad was unwilling to help with that, as well.
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Make No Mistake – Israelis Have Always Been Racist
In its early days, when Israel's character was taking shape, it determined that the white race was superior. When the people who would eventually become "Mizrahim" arrived and were brought here from North Africa, it wasn't suggested or made possible for them to take part in the government, the land, the systems of power and the media. Very quickly they became citizens, but second-class citizens subject to humiliation and inferior conditions. They were excluded from public life and official cultural life, living with the knowledge and experience of inferiority. And separation: They were put in separate housing projects and separate neighborhoods.
Among those shocked at the "spread of racism" are people who claim that the residents of the neighborhoods protesting against foreigners are not racist but merely afraid, merely in distress. Indeed, the chief activist in the neighborhood of Kiryat Shalom, Eli Mizrahi, said, "There is no hatred .... We know they are suffering .... I don't understand: Why is it necessary to make it harder for us, in a place with a weak population? ... Why pile weakness on weakness?"
It's true; the neighborhoods are weak, with weak residents who have a hard time making a living and getting ahead. One can just read the reports on increasing poverty, declining wages and growing nutritional insecurity to know how tangible the distress is; a struggle for survival. Israel neglected these people and communities, and in recent years is only increasing their number.
But the distress does not contradict the racism, it goes hand in hand with it. In its early days, when Israel's character was taking shape, it determined that the white race was superior. When the people who would eventually become "Mizrahim" arrived and were brought here from North Africa, it wasn't suggested or made possible for them to take part in the government, the land, the systems of power and the media. Very quickly they became citizens, but second-class citizens subject to humiliation and inferior conditions. They were excluded from public life and official cultural life, living with the knowledge and experience of inferiority. And separation: They were put in separate housing projects and separate neighborhoods.
People who grow up with this experience of inferiority, when racism is directed at them, internalize that racism. When a landlord, the master, determines that white is good and black is inferior, you internalize that standard and hate yourself because you are not white. The standard of white superiority and the racism that comes with it become part of you, even when you are its victim.
And then you project your racism onward, to anyone who is darker and more inferior than you. Add to that the existential distress and the inflaming of baser instincts by types like extreme right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who don't miss an opportunity to gather new believers, and you get the recent racist demonstrations.
After all, this is always how it works: The racist, extreme right wing gets in and fills the vacuum left by the negligent social left. But make no mistake - the hatred and racism were always here; now they are emerging more loudly.
The white upper classes sublimate their racism: They employ the people they perceive as inferior; they have the money to pay them (not much ) to clean for them and take care of them. Once it was the Arabs and the Mizrahim, now it's the "infiltrators" and the foreigners (in fact, upper-class women are the employers, the men don't even have any contact with them ).
And so this class does just what the white and racist prime minister is doing, inciting against the very things that step on the weakest points of the weak: "a concrete threat to the Jewish and democratic character of the country," and a "wave threatening Israeli workplaces". And immediately thereafter, warning Israelis "not to take the law into their own hands and not to hurt the illegal infiltrators" so he can wash his hands of the matter: They are the racists, those baboons, not him.
That's the way this class is, part of which belongs to the good old "left," disappointed with the peace process and party to the building of the separation fence, the roads for Jews only and acceptance committees to communities. And in the same breath, they frame the others with the charge of racism, those others from the Hatikva neighborhood and Bat Yam.
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Religious Zionist rabbi: Moroccan Jews 'can't match Ashkenazi knowledge' Rabbi is father-in-law of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, who was filmed striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist was quoted in a pamphlet distributed on the Sabbath in Jerusalem synagogues. Chaim Levinson • Ha’aretz
A high-profile religious-Zionist rabbi - and the father-in-law of the IDF officer who hit a protester with his rifle last week - says Jews from North Africa and the Middle East are "purer" than European Jews but are no match for them intellectually.
Yehoshua Zuckerman - father-in-law of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, who was filmed striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist - granted an interview to a pamphlet distributed on the Sabbath in Jerusalem synagogues. He tried to explain the difference between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews.
"A Moroccan Jew can't say anything about faith in the Western discourse. They can't match Ashkenazi knowledge," he told the pamphlet. "So what do they do? They connect to simple nationalism and vote Likud." Zuckerman taught for years at Mercaz Harav, religious Zionism's most prominent yeshiva.
"Sephardi Jews are more natural and purer than Ashkenazim because, unlike the Ashkenazim who went as far as Europe, the Sephardi Jews didn't move that far away, didn't live among Christians and studied the Zohar," he said, referring to the key work in Jewish mystical thought.
Zuckerman added that Sephardi Jews didn't study the Zohar "extensively or deeply, so they lack a well-founded opinion."
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Chief Rabbis Try To Force End To Traditional Ethiopian Jewish Religious Leaders
Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism.
Chief Rabbis Try To Force End To Traditional Ethiopian Jewish Religious Leaders
Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism.
Israel seeks to end ancient African Jewish custom stumbleupon: Israel seeks to end ancient African Jewish custom By DANIEL ESTRIN
ASHKELON, Israel (AP)— Israel is closing the books on a rare millennia-old Jewish tradition.
Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism.
The effort has added to the sense of discrimination felt by Israel's 120,000 Ethiopian citizens. These sentiments boiled over this month after a group of landlords in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi refused to accept them as tenants, prompting a large rally planned for Wednesday across from Israel's parliament.
"We are just like all the other Jews. We don't have any other religion," said Kess Semai Elias, 42.
Descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Dan, according to Jewish lore, Ethiopian Jews spent millennia isolated from the rest of the Jewish world. In most Jewish communities, the priesthood of the Bible was replaced by rabbis who emphasized text study and prayer. Ethiopia's Jewish kessoch continued the traditions of Biblical-era priests, sacrificing animals and collecting the first fruits of the harvest.
The two traditions diverged so much that the first trickle of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel were asked to undergo a quickened conversion ceremony to appease rabbis who were dubious about their religious pedigree.
When Israeli clandestine operations rescued large groups of Ethiopian Jews from war and famine in the 1980s and early 1990s, a rabbinic consensus was reached and the newcomers did not have to convert – except for a group known as the Falash Mura, whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity generations before.
The 58 kessoch who arrived in Israel in those early days maintained their leadership role in the Ethiopian Jewish community, and in 1992 successfully lobbied the Israeli government to grant them salaries and status similar to those of government rabbis. But as the aging clergy began ordaining a new generation of kessoch over the past decade, and those new leaders also wanted recognition, Israel's rabbinate objected.
After public demonstrations and a brief hunger strike, the newly ordained kessoch struck a bittersweet deal last month with Israel's ministry of religious services.
The ministry would finally implement a 2010 government resolution to recognize 13 of them and give them state salaries. But Israel's state rabbis made it very clear to the new kessoch: They would be the last.
"It's for the best," said Rabbi Yosef Hadana, 63, of the Israeli rabbinate.
Himself the son of a respected kess, Hadana long ago traded the shash, the white turban of his father's tradition, for the black suit and fedora of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
"After 2,500 years of isolation from the nation of Israel, we have returned. Now we need to find a way to be one people," Rabbi Hadana said.
Hadana says he holds great respect for the kessoch. They were the ones who once spun tales of Jerusalem's splendor at evening storytelling sessions, keeping alive the Ethiopian Jews' religious tradition. But anyone in Israel who wants to continue that tradition, he said, must get rabbinic training. Streamlining their religious practice can help integrate Ethiopian immigrants into Israeli society, he said.
Ethiopian-Israelis have long struggled in Israel, with literacy rates relatively low, the culture gap wide and rates of poverty and domestic violence well above the national average.
Many of the older generation work menial jobs, men as security guards and women as cleaners. Their children, most of whom grew up in Israel's Orthodox Jewish religious schools, speak fluent Hebrew, serve in the army alongside native Israelis and are increasingly studying engineering and sciences in Israel's universities. Despite these gains, the younger generation is still struggling compared to other Israelis.
The immigrants have also long complained of discrimination. In the late 90s it was discovered that Israel's health services were throwing out Ethiopian-Israelis' blood donations over fears of diseases contracted in Africa.
This is not the first time in history that Ethiopian Jews have been asked to reform. Jacques Faitlovitch, one of the first Jewish outsiders to meet the community, told the kessoch in 1904 they would have to stop antiquated paschal sacrifices if they wanted acceptance in the wider Jewish world.
Polish-born Faitlovitch also pushed them to stop Judaism's last existing monastic tradition. Ethiopia's last Jewish monk spent his final days in Israel, secluded in a synagogue annex and preparing his own food for reasons of purity. He died about 10 years ago.
Other traditions, like priestly tithes and huts for menstruating women, were also given up upon moving to Israel.
Still, the kessoch, easily recognized by their ceremonial fly-swatting tassels and rainbow-colored sunbrellas, are not ready to be relegated to history. First-generation Ethiopian immigrants still call on them to adjudicate family conflicts, lead funeral prayers, and slaughter meat according to tradition.
Israel only recently allowed kessoch into butcheries to slaughter their own animals – even though it is not considered kosher by rabbinic standards.
But the rabbis still put their foot down when it comes to marriage. To be legal, weddings must be presided by state-recognized rabbis and include mainstream Jewish practices, like exchanging rings and stomping on a glass.
Despite the country's secular majority, its Orthodox rabbis strictly govern Jewish weddings. Israel does not recognize civil marriages, intermarriages or marriages performed by rabbis from the more liberal Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism – unless they took place abroad.
Israeli rabbis have now agreed to train the 13 new kessoch to perform marriages the mainstream Jewish way. Nevertheless, for most of the kessoch, the prohibition on marrying is such a slap in the face that they cannot bear to show up at the weddings of their own community members.
Instead, they perform their own pirate wedding ceremonies for the newlyweds a few days later – a modest reenactment of the weeklong marriage celebrations they used to hold back in Africa.
At one nighttime ceremony in seaside Ashkelon, women in embroidered cotton robes bounced their shoulders to African beats. Family and friends greeted the couple with the toot of a golden horn. Honey beer flowed from a steel kettle, and an army of men scooped curried lamb – slaughtered by the presiding kess – onto flat injera bread.
Newly ordained Kess Abiyu Azariya, 44, pushed his way to the head of the dance floor. Wearing a white turban and shawl, he recited wedding blessings in the ancient Ethiopian tongue, Geez. "I am singing these prayers to remind the young people what a wedding was like in Ethiopia," he told the crowd in spoken Amharic.
But the young people were nowhere in sight. Most of the 300 revelers in the room were of the older generation. The dozen young Ethiopian-Israelis who showed up that evening were outside drinking cheap Israeli beer and fiddling with their smartphones. When asked about the practice, they were ambivalent.
"I hope it continues, but it probably won't," said David Nadou, 24, shrugging.
The newly ordained kessoch are trying to work against that tide. Kess Semai says they're close to ordaining yet another group of 30 kessoch – even though Israel vows not to recognize any more.
"We kept this tradition for more than 2,500 years," Kess Semai said. "Our community won't allow in the span of 30 years for this tradition to be erased completely."
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