I LIFE IN ISRAEL I
"BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICES
ON QUALITY HOME FURNISHINGS."
Teak T.V. Cart
$69EA.
#137
Teak Leather
Magazine Table
Teak
Bookcase
A $165 Value
Clearance Center
$69EA.
#110
7EA
$8
or 3 for
$249!
70" X 30" X 111/2"
Ethiopians protest the ruling.
house of denmark
CL r
NCE
(Quantities limited.
All merchandise
Symbolic Conversion
Pains Some Ethiopians
.
DAVID HOLZEL
Israel Correspondent
subject to prior sale.)
ONLY AT Keego Harbor 3325 Orchard Lake Rd.
(1 Mile North of Long Lake Rd.) 682-7600
BEAD
WORKS, inc.
0
n their first Shabbat
in Israel, many Ethio-
pians watched the
drivers speeding by in their
cars, the cafe patrons order-
ing coffee and cake, and the
sunbathers at the beach, and
asked, "Are these Jews?"
Devoutly religious in
Ethiopia, one of the many ad-
justments the Ethiopians had
to make after their aliyah
was learning to accept the
heterogeneous nature of Is-
raeli society. Most of Israel's
Ethiopian Jews arrived in the
1980s. The long and often
enigmatic history of Ethiop-
ian Jews, the structure of
their society, and their strug-
gle for acceptance by the
Israeli religious establish-
ment was the subject of a lec-
ture recently by Shoshana
Ben-Dor of Jerusalem's Ben-
Zvi Institute.
"Most Ethiopian Jews are
desirous of being accepted in
Israeli society and as reli-
gious Jews," Ben-Dor said.
"So they have accepted rab-'
binic Judaism."
This, despite their form of
Judaism that in several re-
spects is at odds with Ortho-
dox Judaism, and despite the
Israel Rabbinate's insistence
that the Ethiopians undergo
a symbolic conversion to en-
sure their Jewishness, Ben-
Dor said.
Only the Ethiopian prac-
tices of conversion and divorce
contradict rabbinic Judaism,
Ben-Dor said. According to
Halachah, if conducted incor-
rectly these practices could af-
fect the Jewishness of later
generations.
So when in 1973 then-Chief
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled that
Ethiopian Jews were indeed
Jewish, despite the communi-
ty's uncertain origins and
.
ANNUAL SUMMER SALE
August 19-26
20%-50% OFF
On All Merchandise
Sale does not apply to previously selected items.
855-5230
Tues.-Sat. 10-5
32751 Franklin Rd.
Just South of 14 Mile
358-4085
M-F 10-4
HEALTHY OPTIONS, INC.
•
• Weight Control
• Individual
Counseling
• Eating Disorder
Specialty
in 00
SP eel'
sew" r ate'
that take you
anywhere,
anytime
29107 NORTHWESTERN
2ND DOOR FROM 12 MILE RD. • REAR ENTRANCE NEXT TO CAPITOL DRUGS
40
FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1989
647-5540
DEA FARRAH
MSW, ACSW
BINGHAM CENTER, BIRMINGHAM
questionable religious prac-
tices, he stipulated that all
Ethiopian olim must undergo
a symbolic conversion. The
rite included immersionin a
mikveh for men and women,
and a symbolic circumcision
for men, in which a drop of
blood is spilled. Such a con-
version would rectify any non-
Halachic rites of passage in
even the dim past of Ethio-
pian history.
"lb the rabbis it was a great
concession," Ben-Dor said.
The Ethiopians were in-
sulted. Many went through
with the ceremony anyway;
others refused.
In 1985, the Rabbinate
decided that only immersion
would be necessary. Rabbi
Yosef subsequently reversed
his earlier ruling upon lear-
ning of the anger the re-
quirements caused. He decid-
ed the symbolic conversion
would not be necessary. "Un-
fortunately, by then he was no
longer chief rabbi," Ben-Dor
said.
During The High Holidays
in 1985, Ethiopians staged a
32-day sit-down strike in front
of the Chief Rabbinate to pro-
test the symbolic conversion.
Their argument was, "Either
we're Jews or we're not," Ben-
Dor said.
Such public pressure is
often enough to change
political thinking in Israel.
Pressure tactics were enough
to remove the need for sym-
bolic conversion of the Bene
Israel Jews of India when
they immigrated in the
1950s. In the case of the
Ethiopians, the pressure fail-
ed. Ben-Dor said the reason
was that the Ethiopians had
a strong independent
religious tradition, something
the Bene Israel lacked.
"The rabbis didn't cave in
(to the Ethiopians) because
they said if they accepted the