Out of Hiding
A group of Ethiopia’
s Hidden Jews fi
nds aid and
support to improve their lives and practice Judaism.
KERI GUTEN COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Jews in the D
A
fter spending a week with a remote
tribe in southern Ethiopia in June
2018, Suzi Colman of Commerce
Township had two days left in the country
when she asked her guide, “Is there a syna-
gogue in Addis Ababa?”
A typical question for a Jewish tourist
anywhere in the world. But the answer led
Colman to a three-hour visit that ignited
her quest to help sustain and uplift the
self-described Hidden Jews of Ethiopia.
From that trip, she helped start an organi-
zation that already is making a difference.
During those three hours in Kechene —
essentially a Jewish ghetto on the outskirts
of Addis Ababa where poverty reigns,
food is scarce and homes are brimming
with extended family members — she met
with young leaders of a group of about 200
Ethiopian Jews.
After centuries of hiding their religion,
much like the converso Jews in Spain and
Portugal forced to convert to Catholicism
during the Middle Ages, this group now is
ending the assimilation and proclaiming
their Judaism proudly.
It’
s a bold stand in this Coptic Christian
country where most Jews had converted
to Christianity centuries ago to survive
mistreatment and even death from their
Christian and Muslim neighbors.
“I was entirely unprepared for what I
discovered,
” Colman said. “It was simulta-
neously astonishing and deeply disturbing.
”
She met with Belayneh Tazebku, 42, a
leader of the group of emerging Jews, and
Michael “Miki” Moges, 30, who aspires to
become a rabbi. Tazebku serves as director
of the Lovers of Zion Association (LOZA),
which runs a synagogue and is working
to improve conditions for the community.
Moges is hazzan of the synagogue and a
LOZA leader.
They told her of the Hidden Jews, a
group of about 150,000 living in Kechene
and in North Shewa, a mountainous region
50 miles from the capital. Collectively,
they are known as the Beta Israel of North
Shewa: ancestral Jews whose history dates
back 2,000 years. (See sidebar history.)
They have purposefully lived under the
radar in modern times, known mainly to a
few academics, some travelers and Kulanu,
a Jewish organization working with emerg-
ing Jewish communities globally.
Many American Jews know of the Beta
Israel of Gondar, a region in far north
Ethiopia, who were airlifted to Israel
during Operations Moses in the mid-
1980s and Solomon in 1991 (and smaller
TOP: Aba Minas is
leader of the Jambaria
gedam, one of 15
hidden Jewish religious
centers in Ethiopia’
s
North Shewa region.
14 | JUNE 25 • 2020
on the cover