titif fit-frru Natural Bedding and Home Furnishings just as black, yet are accepted as Jews. But these Ethiopian Jews are so . . . different. For example, there are people like the woman I met who was convinced the Beta Yisrael were not Jewish because she had heard they did not have seders. In fact, this woman is cor- rect that Ethiopian Jews did not have seders. Seders are rabbinic in structure, and because Ethiopian Jews were isolated from other Jews before Talmudic times, the seder is a recent development in their practice of Pesach. Until recently they fasted and had a karban pesach, a Passover sacrifice, complete with smearing the blood of lamb on their doorposts as described in Tbrah. Since the sacrifice was stopped, they have continued to observe the festival through prayer, re- counting the Exodus, eating unleavened bread, and scrupulously avoiding 'chametz. r In 1984, I spent seven months in Israel working with recent Ethiopian im- migrants. A friend in the United States sent me an ar- ticle from a Jewish newspaper about Ethiopian immigrants in S'fat, describing them as not only illiterate, but unable to hold a pencil or open and close a window. I read it with pain and rage. I had been in the very absorption center the reporter had visited, and knew the people she was describing. Among them were several who had studied through the high school level in Ethiopia and spoke English, yet there was not a word about them. After returning to the New York area, I happened to be r===. introduced to the reporter. I asked her why she had writ- > ten what she did. Her answer: "I wrote what I saw." But she saw only what she was prepared to see while wearing ethnocentric blinders: that people from Africa are primitive; there's no point in asking a group of primitives, "Who here speaks English?" Last year, The Jewish Museum in New York City held an exhibit on Ethiopian Jewry. The Museum bulletin describing the exhibition stated that "Contrary to com- mon belief, the Beta Israel did not traditionally possess many of the objects and sym- bols used in normative Judaism. The now well- known photographs taken in the late 1970s and '80s that — depict the Beta Israel holding lbrah scrolls and wearing prayer shawls in front of a synagogue surmounted by the Star of David are really reflections of external Jewish influences ... " This has been described by some Jewish scholars as ethnology — an outside view of a people. It is that, but to me it is also Jewish ethnocen- trism in scholarly garb, say- ing, in effect, "We will analyze these people in terms of our definition of Judaism, not in their terms." One would not know it from the bulletin, but Beta Yisrael had lbrah, albeit in Ge'ez (an- cient Ethiopic, a Semitic tongue close to Hebrew) and customarily bound in a book rather than rolled in a scroll. It was written on parchment and, according to an Ortho- dox rabbi in Israel who studied this matter, the words were laid out in col- umns on the pages according to the same formula as Tbrah texts in scrolls. The six-pointed star was used historically by both Jews and Christians as no more than an ornament until the 19th century when Jews, seeking a "symbol" of Judaism akin to the Christian cross, adopted its use, which was taken up by the Zionist movement. What is to be learned about the intrinsic Jewishness of Beta Yisrael from the bulletin informa- tion? They didn't have the Star of David? Is there any meaning beyond the message that "they" are different from "us" in terms of this practice? One of the most striking aspects of the Jewish Museum exhibit was its failure to rely on Ethiopian Jews for testimony as to their origins. People who have had an opportunity to spend time with Ethiopian Jews are moved by the enormous power of their self-perception as Jews. "All our lives in Ethiopia, we were treated differently because we were Jewish," they say. "We prayed to come to Jerusalem, just as our fathers and grandfathers had prayed, so that we could be with other Jews." If Beta Yisrael attachment to Jewish values is intense, so is their dedication. The fact that over 2000 of them died in the attempt to reach Israel can be read as the ultimate Jewish devotion. It is also important to note SALE Nov. 22nd thru Dec. 3rd I'S 15% OFF on Selected Frames & All Shoji Lamps & Screens FUTON = SOFA BY DAY, BED BY NIGHT 1461t41 Novi Town Center 26164 Ingersol Dr., Novi 349-5040 306 S. Main St. Royal Oak 548.4422 Sign up to win a twin Futon and Frame at the new Novi store only "Where You Come First" Kosins Uptown Southfield Rd. at 11 1/2 Mile • 559-3900 Big & Tall Southfield at 101/2 Mile • 569-6930 $ WANTED $ Herman Miller and Knoll Furniture 1940s - 1970s (w) 398-0646 (h) 661-4236 Ask for Les $ TOP CASH PAID $ GOT A QUESTION? 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