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New Year, New Life

Metro Detroiters help welcome Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Robin Schwartz I JN Contributing Writer

Program, a two-year effort sponsored
by Jane and Larry Sherman of Franklin
to develop and educate the next genera-
tion of leaders for Federation's annual
campaign.
Each member paid about $1,000 and
made a commitment to take on a future
leadership role in raising funds for
Federation; the rest of their costs were
covered by the program.
What the group saw and experienced
during their visit to Africa's second-
most populous nation made an indel-
ible impression.
"The conditions were so stark and
an assault on one's senses that we are
all still processing it:' Terri Farber Roth
of Farmington Hills said in a recent
speech to the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit board.
"Daily life for these people is akin
to going back in time to a long-ago
era of what must have been biblical
Jewish life. [We saw] children with no
shoes or underwear walking or run-
ning on rocky, open terrain, mud straw
hovels and stick-walled structures
with dirt floors and no running water.
There was dust and dirt and strong
odors of incense, spices and excrement
everywhere, inescapably so. [It was]
a perspective-altering experience on
many levels:'

Gone To Gondar
The group, with various experts lead-
ing them along the way, started out
in Israel. They spent two days near
Tel Aviv visiting programs funded by
Detroit's Federation aimed at helping
at-risk youth. They also took part in an
orientation before traveling to Gondar,
Ethiopia, where the Falash Mura live.
"There were throngs of people in
Gondar moving, mostly walking, in a
non-hurried pace Farber Roth said.
"The markets were teeming, bustling
with people in rows sitting in huts or
on open ground, flowing with products
crafted by hand, vegetables, spices, cof-
fee and grains."
Federation CEO Scott Kaufman of
Huntington Woods was part of the
Metro Detroit contingent. He's been on
countless missions all over the world,
but this was his first trip to Ethiopia.
"The first place we stopped [in
Gondar] was the outdoor market:'
Kaufman said. "There was livestock all
over the place wandering the streets,
donkeys, sheep and goats walking
in the street, little kids barefoot, and
women carrying wares on their heads"
During their two days in Gondar, the
group also had the unique opportunity
to visit Jewish families at their homes,
tour the Ethiopian version of schools

Above: Ethiopian Jews arrive at Ben Gurion

airport near Tel Aviv. Many kissed the
ground of the land they never dreamed

they'd see.

Right: The Detroit contingent in front of a

synagogue in Ethiopia

8 January 5 2012

and health clinics, and attend daily
prayer services. Even without sharing a
common language, Kaufman says they
were able to bond with families they
met and communicate through music,
dancing, hugs and smiles.
"The people were so happy and
thankful and appreciative he said.
"Every kid would just run up to you
and smile. They wanted to see our
cameras. They thought that was very
neat; they wanted to see pictures of
themselves:'
Farber Roth also was struck by the
personalities of the people and their
upbeat demeanor, despite their poor
living conditions.
"The quick smiles, their mildness,
the soft-spoken tone of their voices" are
impressions she says will stay with her,
along with the "elegance of the women
in beautifully woven cloths of white
and bright colors:' which she describes
as "mesmerizing:'

Israel Bound
This past year, Israel marked the 20th
anniversary of Operation Solomon,
a massive three-day airlift of nearly
15,000 Ethiopian Jews in 1991. Now,
an estimated 130,000 have immigrated
to Israel. But their arrival and integra-

New Year New Life on page 10

Lasting Impressions

The Ethiopia to Israel journey made a last-
ing impression on all of the participants.
Several others also shared their thoughts
about what the trip meant to them.
Karen Sosnick Schoenberg of Birmingham
works in commercial real estate development
and investment.
"My biggest takeaway is my pride in being
a part of a global Jewish community that
takes care of Jews in need, wherever they
may be," she said. "On our last evening, I sat
next to a man who had come to Israel in the
1980s. His first words to me at dinner were
'Thank you, thank you for everything you
have done for us.'
"His was one story of many, and I feel
grateful to have witnessed the result of the
work of our global Jewish community. We
have so many needs at home, but the fact
that we do not forget those who could be so
easily forgotten fills me with pride."
Rob Colburn of Bloomfield Hills helps run
his family's insurance and risk services corn-
pa ny.
"On one hand, there was this beautiful
African countryside that seemed to go on
forever," Colburn said. "In sharp contrast
were the very real, stark, primitive conditions
in which most Ethiopians live. I really under-
stood for the first time what a universal com-
munity the Jewish community is."
Robb Lippitt of Bloomfield Hills, co-founder
and CEO of Scrapbuck, an online marketplace
for discounted scrapbooking supplies, was
struck by the tenacity of the Ethiopian Jews.
"They clung to their religion and dreams
of a life in Israel," he said. "Ultimately, they
were willing to give up everything they knew
to follow that dream. They abandoned their
whole world, friends, and even family mem-
bers to journey to a new land."