Saturday, December 8, 2012
Learning about the Ethiopian Aliyah
This past Thursday, my program had the opportunity to learn about the Ethiopian Aliyah, and Ethiopian community here in Israel. We were guests in Gedera, a city just south of Rehovot. There we met with the Chaverim B'Teva group that works with the Ethiopian Community there. There we met with Uvi or Rachel, who works with Chaverim B'Teva. We heard here story of migration from rural Ethiopia, through Sudan and finally to Israel. Her journey from Ethiopia to Israel was similar to many other Ethiopians who migrated to Israel. This meant walking on foot from the rural Jewish villages in Ethiopia to refugee camps in Sudan. From Sudan, the Ethiopian Jews were flown to Israel just like Uvi had. The Ethiopian Aliyah was a result of actions taken by the Mossad and the US Government in what is known as Operation Moses. There are other operations such as Operation Solomon and Operation Joshua which the Government of Israel undertook to transport the Ethiopian Jewish community to Israel. After arriving in Israel, Uvi wanted to become Sabra(native Israeli), yet she faced some of the troubles many Ethiopians have experienced here in Israel. Such troubles included discrimination based on being Ethiopian, which is still a social issue in Israel. We then ate Ethiopian food which was delicious. The meal centered around this spongy grayish flatbread known as injera. Then there was spiced potatoes, two types of pea stews which were delicious. The Injera is made from a special kind of flour known as teff which is high in iron. The Injera however can be made of other flour due to the limited availability of the teff flour. After the batter is mixed, it is allowed to sit and ferment for a few days, which results in the sour flavor when cooked. After fermentation, the Injera is then cooked on a special pan. Even though we heard about one person's story of Aliyah, it is representative of how the Aliyah happened. Many Ethiopian-Israelis old enough experienced something very similar to Uvi. It was a fascinating experience. More to come from Tel Aviv soon.
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