Chanting, “We are Jews in every way, the rabbis are racists, ” some 400 Ethiopian Jews marched to the Western Wall today to pray and protest against the demands by the Chief Rabbinical Council that they undergo ritual immersion, a religious conversion rite, before they can be allowed to marry.
The marchers were part of more than 1,000 Ethiopian Jewish immigrants who have been camping for over two weeks in the large square outside the Heichal Shlomo, Chief Rabbinate headquarters, to demonstrate their anger against the rabbinical decree. They consider the demand by Chief Rabbis Mordechai Eliahu (Sephardic) and Avraham Shapiro (Ashkenazic) for symbolic conversion to be a gross insult because it questions their authenticity as Jews.
The Ethiopians, who are deeply religious, arrived in Israel by secret airlift from Sudan between November, 1984 and January, 1985. They endured severe hardship and risked their lives to make the trip, a fact they point to in their bitter controversy with Israel’s highest religious authorities.
Last night, leaders of the Ethiopian demonstrators met with Absorption Minister Yaacov Tzur who has been sympathetic to their grievances. They worked out what they described as a compromise formula containing several concessions, but gave no details. This was submitted to the Chief Rabbis. The latter have summoned rabbis from all over the country to consult over the crisis. The Ethiopian demonstrators have gained considerable public support. A petition organized by Na’amat-Pioneer Women has already gathered thousands of signatures. It calls on the Chief Rabbis to recognize the Ethiopians unequivocally as Jews. Groups of artists and writers have visited the demonstrators and so have Knesset members of Mapam, Shinui and the Civil Rights Movement.
Local workers councils are sending food to the protestors who have erected a makeshift village of tents and cardboard boxes. The fire brigade hoses down the area regularly. Young Ethiopians are distributing leaflets in English to explain their case to passing tourists and the foreign news media.
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.
