MAY 25 • 2023 | 61

Eric Cheng, and Bina and 
Zack Colman; grandnieces 
and grandnephews, 
Logan Doyle, Charyle 
Bello, Talia Cheng, Aiken 
Colman and Jae Colman. 
Marilyn is also survived 
by cherished cousins all 
over the world. Through 
her second marriage to the 
late Edward Goodman, she 
is also survived by Marci 
Goodman Brill, Steve 
and Asmina Goodman, 

and grandson, Hesham 
Goodman.
It is suggested that those 
who wish to further honor 
the memory of Marilyn 
may do so by making a 
contribution to the Michael 
and Elaine Serling Institute 
for Jewish Studies and 
Modern Israel (jsp.msu.
edu) or to a charity of one’s 
choice. Arrangements by 
Dorfman Chapel.

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Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu and other govern-
ment leaders joined Israel’s 
Ethiopian Jewish community 
on May 18 for a ceremony 
commemorating the thou-
sands who died trying to 
reach the Jewish homeland.
The gathering paying trib-
ute to the 4,000 members of 
Beta Israel who died on the 
arduous journey took place 
at the official memorial site at the 
National Civil Cemetery of the 
State of Israel on Mount Herzl in 
Jerusalem.
Most died of malnutrition and 
disease between 1979 and 1990 
while traveling by foot from 
Ethiopia to transit camps in neigh-
boring Sudan.
Netanyahu praised changes 
in the educational curriculum 
expanding on the story of the 
Ethiopian exodus, and promised 

to boost housing, employment, 
education and health assistance.
Some 90,000 Ethiopian Jews 
came to Israel in a series of airlifts 
dating back to 1980.
However, those airlifts were 
bogged down by Israeli budget 
and bureaucratic issues.
Today, Ethiopian Israelis num-
ber around 160,000, almost 2% of 
the population. 

From JNS.org

AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu with members of the Beta 
Israel community at Mount Herzl in 
Jerusalem, May 18, 2023. 

Honoring Ethiopian Jews Who Died 
Trying to Reach Israel

