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Specializing in Shiva Meals

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64

MEAT TRAY

May 17 • 2018

Israel’s Ethiopian Community
Mourns Those Who Died
En Route To Jerusalem

GREER FAY CASHMAN JERUSALEM POST

www.MonumentCenterMichigan.com

DAIRY TRAY

Benjamin Netanyahu at a
remembrance ceremony at
Mount Herzl on Jerusalem
Day for Ethiopian Jews who
lost their lives on their way
to Israel.

FRUIT TRAY

jn

MEDITERRANEAN TRAY

MARTY'S COOKIES

n 1984, Israel evacuated some
8,000 Ethiopian Jews from the
Sudan. The Ethiopians had been
trapped there in a civil war caused
by famine.
During May 24-25, 1991, in yet
another covert operation, Israel
airlifted more than 14,000 Jews from
Ethiopia and brought them on 35
non-stop flights to Israel.
The planes were overcrowded
and the people were frightened, but
it was a faster and more preferable
way of getting to Israel than trekking
across the desert for weeks, months
and even years.
Many of those who had no choice
other than to travel through the
desert died along the way. They had
been caught up in the dream of one
day seeing Jerusalem, but it was a
dream that for some 4,000 Ethiopian
Jews who fell victim to illness, star-
vation and physical attack was never
realized.
Both President Reuven Rivlin
and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, in their addresses on
Mount Herzl on May 13 at a state
memorial ceremony commemorat-
ing Ethiopian Jews who died en
route to Jerusalem, underscored the
special attachment that Ethiopian
Jews have to the city.
Ethiopians identify with Jerusalem
more than any other immigrant
community, Rivlin said.
Among the Kessim in their tra-
ditional robes, and relatives of the
deceased, were members of the
family of Avera Mengistu, one of two
Israeli civilians who wandered into
Gaza and are believed to be held
captive by Hamas.
Rivlin and later Netanyahu
pledged that Israel would not rest
or remain silent until Mengistu is
returned home.
Rivlin revealed that during his
recent state visit to Ethiopia, he had
asked President Melatu Teshome
to help in the battle for Mengistu’s
release so that he could rejoin his

family.
Rivlin spoke of Israel’s obliga-
tion to do all that it can to obtain
Mengistu’s freedom from captivity.
While he was in Ethiopia, Rivlin
said he began to realize the signifi-
cance of the bond that Ethiopians
have with Jerusalem.
The president emphasized the
importance of the retelling of the
story of the hardships under which
Ethiopian Jews came to Israel. The
story should not be something they
preserved only for themselves, he
declared, but should be taught in
schools and academic institutions
where it is important to include the
Ethiopian Jewish legacy in the teach-
ing curricula.
Praising the courage and convic-
tion of Ethiopian Jews, who often
had to wait for years to get out
of Ethiopia and then trekked for
weeks and months across Sudan in
all weathers — hungry and thirsty,
beset with a variety of life-threat-
ening illnesses, and not always able
to defend themselves from looters
and cruel soldiers — Netanyahu said
that the realization of the dream
began with a trickle that increased
to a stream, becoming a stirring and
exciting chapter in the saga of Jews
returning to their ancestral home-
land.
Netanyahu noted that many of the
arriving women had made the peril-
ous journey with children walking
alongside them and while carrying
babies on their backs.
He was also full of admiration for
the way in which Ethiopian Jews
banded together and cared for each
other. “The people of Israel can learn
so much from you about love for
Jerusalem and mutual responsibil-
ity,” he said.
In a reference to those who died
along the way, Netanyahu said that
the moving story could be summed
up by a brief note left on one of the
graves. “My body lies here, but my
heart is in Jerusalem.” •