THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, September 13, 1985
37
THE JEWISH NEWS
YEAR
IN
REVIEW
BY GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
MIRACULOUS RESCUE of thousands of Ethiopian Jews by Israel was the
highlight of year. Here, a young mother feeds her child in an Israeli hospital.
It was called "Operation Moses" and
the proportions of the exodus were indeed
Biblical. Thousands of oppressed Jews,
abandoned in the desert, were taken from
their deadly misery in the dark of night
and delivered to a spiritual homeland they
knew only from their fervent prayers.
It was the stuff of miracles, the very
fulfillment of Zionism's essence, to save
lives, to provide a haven for Jews in peril,
to re-define the nature of peoplehood.
During a three-month period this
winter, some 7,500 Ethiopian Jews — more
than 5,000 of them children — were flown
to Israel from Sudanese refugee camps. The
average age of the immigrants was 14.
Within 24 hours of their arrival in Israel,
they were given citizenship and identity
cards.
There were tragic problems along the
way. At least 2,000 Ethiopian Jews died in
refugee camps awaiting their salvation;
thousands more remained behind, too old or
infirm to make the arduous trek on foot
through the wilderness of Gondar in north-
ern Ethiopia to Sudan; publicity surround-
ing the rescue caused its delay; and a con-
troversy in Israel over the religious status
of the new immigrants brought shock, pain
and embarrassment. Many of the Ethiopian
Jews who had risked their lives to proclaim
their Jewishnesss were infuriated to dis-
cover, upon their arrival, that the Israeli
Chief. Rabbis required more of them before
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