Ethiopian Jews in Israel Protest Insulting and Insensitive Treatment

Several hundred Ethiopian Jews demonstrated outside the Knesset today protesting what they charged was insulting and insensitive treatment by the Chief Rabbinate and other religious institutions in Israel.

The demonstration was organized by the Association of Ethiopian Immigrants, one of three organizations representing the estimated 8,000 Jewish emigres from Ethiopia who entered Israel last year by secret airlift from Sudan which had to be terminated when it became public knowledge.

The demonstrators marched from the Knesset to the Jewish Agency building and the Heichal Shlomo, the Chief Rabbinate headquarters in downtown Jerusalem. They objected vehemently to the fact that their absorption in Israel was placed exclusively in the hands of religious authorities, and that institutions claiming to represent them were headed by self-appointed outsiders who are unaware of the needs of the Ethiopians themselves.

A spokesman for the demonstrators said they were shocked by an incident at the Western Wall two weeks ago when Ethiopian Jews who came there to pray allegedly were chased away and told they were not Jewish. The Ethiopians are also objecting to the demand by the Chief Rabbinate Council that they undergo symbolic “conversion” rites, intimating that their authenticity as Jews is in question.

(Meanwhile, leading American newspapers reported today that U.S. Air Force pilots were involved in a top-secret rescue mission that brought some 700 Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan last Friday. Neither the White House, the Pentagon nor the State Department would confirm the reports. There was no confirmation in Israel.)