In conjunction with Premier Menachem Begin’s reiteration of Israel’s recognition of the Falasha Jews of Ethiopia as “Jews in every respect,” the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC) will make a special effort to bring the situation of the Falashas to wider attention and to support agencies involved in trying to save them from chaotic conditions in Ethiopia.
The announcement came following a report mode by Benjamin Abileah, director of Israel’s Information Center in New York, to a session of the NJCRAC’s Plenary meeting here. Prof. Howard Lenhoff, president of the American Association for Ethiopian Jew, also addressed the meeting. Abileah said that a delegation of Falasha Jews now living in Isrdel was received by Begin in Jerusalem Jan. 5, and Begin stressed the priority accorded by his government to the emigration of Falasha Jews to Israel.
The Falasha Jews who have lived in Ethiopia since the time of King Solomon, and who have resisted attempts to convert or subjugate them, have been estimated to once have numbered a quarter million, but they have been decimated by attrition and persecution. The estimated 28,000 Falashas now are caught between the chaotic conditions of civil war, invasion by hostile neighboring countries, and the depredations of marauding slavers. Many refugees are now homeless in neighboring territories, the Plenary meeting was told.
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