Israel plans to post young female volunteers in Ethiopia to help Falash Mura prepare to immigrate to the Jewish state. Under the plan, a dozen religious 18-year-old women who opt for volunteer community service over mandatory military service will be sent for three-month stints in transit camps for Ethiopian Jews, preparing camp residents for life in Israel. “The girls’ job will be to teach about Jewish identity and deepen it among the Falash Mura,” Yitzhak Langa told Ma’ariv on Tuesday. The Falash Mura are descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity. “We will visit the camps before operations get under way, to make sure that the girls will be able to preserve their religious way of life in terms of modesty and kashrut, and that they will receive spiritual, as well as physical, oversight,” he said. The main candidates for the new volunteer positions are believed to be daughters of Ethiopian immigrants already in Israel.
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