Ark of Covenant ታቦተ ዖሪት

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Thirty Years After Operation Moses: Sigd-2014 | Sandy Wasserman | The Blogs | The Times of Israel

THIS IS AN INVITATION! BUT FIRST, A BRIEF INTRODUCTION!

I have the utmost admiration for my Jewish Ethiopian Israeli friend, Bizu Riki Mullu. She lives in Manhattan now, not far from where my grandparents settled when they emigrated from Poland in the early 1900s. My grandparents emigrated to seek a richer, safer Jewish life, and Riki’s emigration to Israel also fulfilled the dream of a return to Jerusalem, sought by Ethiopian Jews for centuries.

Bizu Riki Mullu

RIKI’S STORY:

When Riki lived in Ethiopia, she enjoyed a rich Jewish life in her village, surrounded by family and the Jewish community, though Riki’s family yearned to return to Jerusalem. Jews in Ethiopia could not own land, and lived at the mercy of their Christian neighbors; they experienced discrimination and hatred, called by derogatory names, and treated as strangers. By 1973 Communism was entrenched into Ethiopian society and the Jews in the villages realized things would only get worse; the government planned to disrupt Jewish life further by separating villages and dispersing Jews to various places in Ethiopia. Instead many Jews chose to leave Ethiopia on foot, a trip that would take three weeks or more – walking through Sudan and Egypt – to finally reach Israel, though thousands died on the way, willing to risk their lives.

RIKI’S FAMILY:

As a pre-teen in the late 70s, Riki and a small group of Ethiopian Jewish children were selected to immigrate to Israel and she did so under Operation Begin, well preceding Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991. In many ways Riki’s immigration is reminiscent of the Kindertransport that took place during the Shoah; parents will do anything and everything they must, to take risks to ensure their children a better life.

After WWII, my grandparents here in NY sought to locate any remaining relatives, and Riki had the hope and dream to reunite with her family, still living in Ethiopia in the early 80s. While having little communication with her family back in Ethiopia and still adjusting to Israel herself, with the help of individuals and organizations, she successfully arranged for her entire family to immigrate to Israel.

FAST FORWARD:

Riki enjoyed being surrounded by her extended family in Israel. Times were tough, and adjustments to a new modern country were many. For those accustomed to the rich but simple life in Ethiopia, arrival and life in modern Israel in the 80s had its challenges. Riki’s skill translating from Amharic to Hebrew for new immigrants became valuable to the Jewish Agency in Israel, and by 1991 Riki was sent to NY as a ‘shlichah’ to represent Israel, and the Ethiopian Jews, as a representative to Jews in the Diaspora.

RIKI’S LIFE AS AN ACTIVIST, ARTIST & NEW YORKER:

Original needlework creation – Torah cover- Ethiopian design

Riki became comfortable living in NYC and decided to stay, though she went back and forth as often as possible and still does, visiting her extended family! Now, 20 years later, Riki is still here, still an activist for Ethiopian Jews, always a Zionist, always seeing the glass half full! Besides Riki’s activist side, she is also a master artist, designing and creating Ethiopian jewelry and traditional Ethiopian needle craft.

ACTIVISM + LOVE OF JUDAISM = A BRAINSTORM!

In Israel, Ethiopian Jews have slowly integrated and have become part of the fabric of everyday Israeli life. Army service, participation in Israel’s IDF, is the glue, and binds people together more than other aspects of society. Ethiopian Jews arrived with special foods and customs, with a unique language, with talents in the arts. These unique, diverse cultural aspects of Ethiopian Jewish life became part of Israeli life; in 2008 the Jewish Ethiopian festival, the SIGD, became a national holiday in Israel.

But Riki is living in NY, visiting her extended family in Jerusalem only when she can. She remembers the customs and celebrations and food and memories of her childhood on those visits.

WHAT IS THE SIGD?

Of the many rituals and traditions, the SIGD festival stands out to Riki. SIGD is a Jewish Ethiopian festival which celebrates the giving of the Torah. According to Ethiopian tradition the Torah was given to the Jewish people exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur, rather than on Shavuot, as is the tradition in the rest of the Jewish world. In Ethiopia the Jewish community would make a special pilgrimage to the nearest highest mountain, since they could not observe the precept of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and there would be prayers and blessings by the Kesim (priests and learned elders), followed by a festive meal. In Israel today, thousands of Ethiopian Jews make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year, beginning with a gathering on the Talpiot Promenade.

AND THEN RIKI HAD AN IDEA!

“There are other Jewish Ethiopian Israelis now living in the New York area too! They are missing the SIGD. And… perhaps the Ashkenazi Jewish population and the Sephardi Jewish population, and all New Yorkers, would enjoy the SIGD festival, this taste of Jewish Ethiopian tradition. WHY NOT bring it to New York??!!”

THE ANNUAL SIGD IN NY IS BORN!

Chassida Shmella, the organization of the Ethiopian Jewish Community of North America, is the umbrella non-profit organization founded by Riki. The SIGD has been its annual stellar program for the past five years! Each year, it is bigger and better!

THERE ARE TWO PARTS TO THE SIGD FOR 2014!

-SHABBAT DINNER ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14TTH, BEGINNING WITH SERVICES

-THE SIGD, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH IN THE AFTERNOON

ALL DETAILS BELOW!

SIGD IN NY 2013

On Friday afternoon, November 14th, at the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue (Congregation Shearith Israel on 70th Street) services begin at 4:30pm, followed by a lecture and Shabbat dinner – PREPAID – details below -(consisting of both traditional and Ethiopian food, kosher of course) at 7pm.

At that time Shabbat dinner guests will have the pleasure of meeting Ethiopian rabbis, who travel to NY from Israel, and are present for the entire SIGD weekend. These guests will also be present, chanting during the SIGD on Sunday, November 16th at 3:45pm at B’nai Jeshurun synagague on the Upper West Side. The presence of the rabbis from Israel is made possible with the support of the Israeli Consulate.

You’ll be there, along with rabbis and scholars, Ethiopian music and dancing, reading and chanting, Ethiopian food and coffee. All in all, quite diverse and interesting company! All details – regarding fees and locations, all contact information, can be found in the beautiful invitation below.

Sunday’s SIGD, November 16th – Be sure to come on time, and HUNGRY! Hungry for the colors and the sounds, the music and the food, hungry for the experience, and the opportunity for families and people of all ages to learn about another dimension of Jewish culture. After all, Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la-zeh, – ‘all the people of Israel are responsible for one another.’ And we are so lucky that we are living in this time, when, outside of Israel, the four corners of the Jewish world can meet in one place in Manhattan. ALL DETAILS AND FEES BELOW!

AFTERWORD!

A few years ago, Riki founded a non-profit organization, Chassida Shmella, whose name means “stork” in both Hebrew and Amharic. The stork is the bird whose migratory patterns over Ethiopia and towards Jerusalem follow the dreams Ethiopian Jews wished for themselves. Chassida Shmella’s programs inform us about the rich customs and traditions Ethiopian Jews kept through centuries. In this masterful way, Riki has been both supporter of other Ethiopian Israelis living in the New York area- helping them to remember their traditions – and as educator … with programming about Rosh Hodesh in Ethiopia, Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, the challenges of Jewish Ethiopian emigration and immigration, Ethiopian films and music, and Jewish holidays. VISIT CHASSIDA SHMELLA’S WEBSITE http://chasmell.webs.com/ or visit Chassida Shmella on Facebook for further information or to learn about all the fascinating programs.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

'There’s a naivety in saying there is no God’ Prof Brian Cox: - Telegraph

Professor Brian Cox talks about religion, alien life and the Reithian ideals behind his new TV series

'I'm a Manchester academic. I don’t do TV because I want a career in the media,' says Prof Brian Cox Photo: BBC

By Matthew Stadlen

7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2014

1556 Comments

Once he was a scientist who used to be a rockstar, now he’s a rockstar scientist. So successful have his TV programmes become that Professor Brian Cox is more in the limelight now than he ever was as a member of the chart-topping D:Ream in the Nineties. “I was playing keyboard so I was always at the back,” he tells me, when we meet to discuss Human Universe, his cosmology series starting tonight on BBC Two.

Early last year, Sir David Attenborough himself hailed Prof Cox as his heir apparent. “If I had a torch I would hand it to Brian Cox,” said the giant of natural history programming. Time will tell whether Prof Cox can scale Sir David’s broadcasting heights, but he already has two things that the 88-year-old lacks: a professorship and a No 1 hit.

Prof Cox is returning to our screens to ask profound questions about our existence. Why are we here? How did the universe make us? What made the universe? The series is, he says, a love letter to the human race. “During the shooting I realised that we are rare and therefore valuable and quite remarkable and worth celebrating.” In the first programme, he takes us on a fast-track journey from monkey to the space station.

Tall but slight, Prof Cox is a youthful 46, though his trademark fringe is beginning to grey. He was born in Greater Manchester to parents who worked in a bank and was privately educated at Hulme Grammar School in the Eighties. He excelled in physics but got a D in his maths A-level (he was “more interested in New Order and the Smiths”). Today, he lives in London with his wife, the American television presenter Gia Milinovich, their five-year-old son and her son from a previous relationship.

The Wonders of the Solar System, in 2010, was the TV series that tipped him over the edge into mass appeal, and since then he has fronted, among others, The Wonders of the Universe and Stargazing Live.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Mixed results for army's Ethiopian integration program | The Times of Israel

IDF tells Knesset committee incarceration rates were down but that dishonorable discharge figures are rising

BY MITCH GINSBURG September 29, 2014, 4:34 am

A soldier of Ethiopian heritage in a Nahal Brigade drill in the Golan Heights (photo credit: Nir Gal/IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The incarceration rate of Israeli soldiers of Ethiopian heritage has dropped considerably during the first half of 2014 as opposed to the same period in 2013, the army told a Knesset oversight committee on Sunday.

The overall figures, however, are still troubling, the army conceded, with the community still severely over-represented in army prisons and the dishonorable discharge rate hovering at 22.8 percent for men and 10.6% for women – both figures that have risen slightly over recent years and which are well above the national averages of 16.5% and 7.5% respectively.

“Although the figures do show a slight improvement, the gaps are still large and in certain realms there has even been a regression,” said MK Omer Bar-Lev (Labor), a colonel in the IDF reserves and the chair of the subcommittee of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that heard the IDF report on Sunday. The committee is closely monitoring the army’s progress in integrating the Ethiopian community successfully into its ranks.

Motivation to serve in the IDF is high among the 130,000 or so Israelis of Ethiopian heritage, IDF data indicated, with 89% of teenage boys and 57% of teenage girls joining the army.

Soldiers of Ethiopian heritage near Beer Sheva (photo credit: Serge Attal/ Flash 90)

The discrepancy between the desire to serve at the onset and the service record upon discharge has spurred the army into action. Early in 2013, the army’s first female major general, the recently retired commander of the IDF’s Manpower Division, Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, set aside funds, despite across-the-board cuts in the army’s budget, for the establishment of a department devoted solely to the advancement of soldiers of Ethiopian heritage.

The army now runs a 24-hour call center in Hebrew and Amharic for soldiers, pre-draft teens and parents. It streamlined the process of requesting financial aid by requiring only the recommendation of an officer and an NCO, and not the bevy of bank statements required of other soldiers requesting assistance. It mandated yearly home visits by direct commanders, beginning no later than eight weeks after a soldier’s draft date. And, among a score of other measures, it launched a pre-army program solely for Israelis of Ethiopian heritage, AMIR, and began administering an alternative set of evaluation tests which gauge cognitive capacity rather than aptitude.

Maj. Hila Halpern, right, the commander of the IDF department charged with integrating and advancing soldiers of Ethiopian heritage (Photo credit: Mitch Ginsburg/ Times of Israel)

Maj. Hila Halpern, the commander of the new department, told the MKs that the new testing method had proven effective, enabling the army to post soldiers from the community to more challenging and interesting positions in the Air Force and the Intelligence Corps, among other units, and led to the corresponding drop in the incarceration rate, which fell over the past year from 10.8% to 9.1% – though the reduced figure is still more than double the community’s representation in the army at large.

Bar-Lev scolded the army at the outset for sending him a copy of the new figures “eight and a half minutes” before the start of the session, and insisted that the drop in the number of male officers and the rise in the number dishonorable discharges suggested the army was taking credit for the improvements but deeming as inexplicable the setbacks. “You keep finding the coin under the beam of the flashlight,” he said.

Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev arrives at a session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Knesset, Tuesday, May 20, 2014 (photo credit: Flash90)

There are currently 10 times more soldiers of Ethiopian heritage being dishonorably discharged than attending officers’ training school, he added.

MK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima) asked Halpern what had become of the committee’s earlier recommendation to change the way soldiers from the community are put on trial, with an emphasis on higher-ranking officers meting out justice. “That is the sort of change we are looking for,” said Hasson, a former deputy head of the Shin Bet. Halpern replied that the army was still weighing the matter.

Ziva Mekonen Degu, the executive director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, lamented the army’s “segregationist” approach, adding that the solution to the problem can’t be based on skin color alone.

MK Pnina Tamano-Shata. (photo credit: Flash90)

MK Penina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid) told The Times of Israel in May that the Amir course, which is solely for members of the community, “is an embarrassment and a disgrace and a certificate of poverty.” Can you imagine this happening in the US Army, she asked, “a course only for African-Americans?”

Seated at the head of the committee’s large oval table, Bar-Lev ignored the charges of segregation and instead asked the army to prepare a plan for the successful re-entry of the soldiers into the civilian world. “In the end, most of the years that these young men and women serve the state are after their discharge,” he said, adding that bridging the gaps for these teens “is a social and security imperative of the first order.”