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c Slowly, Slowly

Will the EggWalk'

'Although Ethiopian immigrants (of
whom there are over 60,000 currently
living in Israel) were generally wel-
comed with open arms by Israel, they
still
faced difficulties adjusting to a
N-
country and culture so dramatically
different from their own: an Urban
not a rural lifestyle, a modern democ-
ratic society rather than a traditional
/- religious one and a direct and aggres-
sive manner rather thana humble and
restrained one.
The Institute for Ethiopian Jewish
Culture, known as Bahelachin
(Aramaic for "our culture"), was offi-
\- cially opened in January 1996 in Tel
Aviv. Established by the Ministry of
Absorption and the Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC), it aims to help
bridge the cultural gap between veter-
an Israelis and new Ethiopian immi-
grants and to preserve the cultural
integrity of Israel's Ethiopian Jewish
\- community - the majority of whom
made aliya in Operation Moses (1984)
and Operation Solomon (1991) from
the Gondar and Trigray regions.
Fortunately, in Ethiopian culture
patience is still a virtue. "Slowly,
Slowly will the egg walk on its own
feet" — a traditional Ethiopian
proverb — can be applied to the
absorption process. This patience has
proved a blessing, for despite the years
that have elapsed, Ethiopian immi-
grants are still widely misunderstood
by the Israeli people.
Since the Center's establishment,
English-born social worker Danny
Budowski, along with several
Ethiopian immigrants, have given over
600 lectures about Ethiopian culture
and commonly held stigmas associated
with this unique group of olim.
One stigma is that the Ethiopians
came to Israel because of hunger.
Hunger didn't actually strike the area
of Gondar and Tigray, where most of
the Jews lived. The fact is, they came
for Zionist and religious reasons, a
longtime longing for their homeland
and Jerusalem. At least one major
attempt was made by Ethiopians to
come to Jerusalem in 1862. "As a mat-
ter of fact, the Jews made considerable
sacrifices and suffered great hardships
to come to Israel," says Budowski.
Approximately 4,000 Jews died in the
Sudan on the way, and just 7,000 sur-
vivors arrived in Israel in Operation
Moses. "

/-

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/-;

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1997