An Ethiopian Jew, now a citizen of Israel, urged Jews in the United States and Canada to take up the cause of his fellow Falashas in Ethiopia who he said are facing extinction. Zecharias Yona, secretary general of the Association of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, charged that the problem of the Falashas has been ignored by the Israeli government and Jewish organizations.
Yona, a reserve sergeant in the Israeli Army, and Simcha Jacobovici, chairperson of the North American Jewish Students Network (NA JSN), spoke yesterday to the Jewish media at a press conference which concluded Yona’s speaking tour of the U.S. and Canada under NA JSN’s auspices.
Jacobovici urged a massive letter writing campaign to President Carter and to Zionist and Jewish organizations urging them to devise a "creative approach" to the problem of the Falashas. Yona, noting the efforts to rouse world opinion over the arrest of Jewish activist Anatoly Shcharansky in the Soviet Union, asked whether the slaughter of thousands of Ethiopian Jews in the last few years could not also be made into an international cause.
The Falashas, who numbered 250,000 in the 19th Century and 28,000 in 1976 are believed now to number only 20,000. They live in northwest Ethiopia which has been the center of a civil was since the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1972. Thousands have been killed, many sold into slavery and an estimated 7000 are refugees, according to reports.
Prior to 1972, when Yona immigrated to Israel, the aliya of Falashas was hindered by doubts over their Jewishness. In 1972, Israel’s two Chief Rabbis recognized Falashas as Jews. Yona said that some 300 Falashas now in Israel are fully accepted and integrated into Israeli life.
NOT BLAMING ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT
But Yona said that although 124 Falashas made aliya in 1977, the situation in Ethiopia is desperate and nothing is being done to get the Falashas out of Ethiopia. He took pains to stress that he was not blaming the Ethiopian government for the plight of the Falashas.
Yona was among a group of Falasha immigrants who staged demonstrations in Israel last December to urge help for their fellow Falashas in Ethiopia. Both the Israel government and the Jewish Agency who were criticized by the Falashas, said they were doing things to aid the Falashas but could not reveal them.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
