Israel Speaks
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim
the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, -
from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath
and from the islands of the Mediterranean. -Isaiah 11:11
The nation of Israel consists of many groups of Jews
who have been dispersed around the world for the last 2000 years.
One very interesting group is the Ethiopian Jews.
Today there are over 100 000 of them in Israel.
There are different theories about the Jewish drift to Ethiopia.
According to one suggestion, they are the descendants of the tribe of Dan.
Dan was one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel who were expelled
from the kingdom of Israel in 700 BC.
Others believe them to be the des- cendants of those Jews who followed
the Queen of Sheba after she retur- ned from her visit to King Solomon.
During hundreds of years the Ethio- pian Jews lived in complete isolation
from the rest of the Jews and be- lieved they were the only remnants
of their people.
Only in the mid 20th century did connections start emerging
between the Ethiopian Jews and the rest of the Jewish world and Israel.
In the beginning of the 1980's small Jewish groups began moving
to Israel.
Because Ethiopia and Israel did not have diplomatic ties, -
most of the immigrants had to go on foot through Sudan.
Tzion Getahun was born in Ethiopia and moved to Israel in 1984.
It was not easy to live in Ethiopia, -
because the Christians and Gentiles didn't want us to be there.
Some people managed to escape from Ethiopia to Sudan
and from Sudan to Jerusalem.
People started writing and telling about their journey to Jerusalem.
When we heard this, we also wanted to try it.
We were sure we would make it, too.
Thousands of Ethiopians saw that an opportunity to return to Zion had come
and embarked on a difficult journey towards Sudan.
A monument has been set up on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem
telling of the 4000 who perished on the way unable to fulfill their dream.
Also Tzion who was then only 14 years old decided with a few friends
to start the journey to Israel.
We began the journey and left our village towards Armajaho
which is inside Ethiopia.
There were a lot of Jews who had come from different villages.
There we met our guides who divided us into two groups.
I was in one of the groups and the other group
went to another direction.
We had a woman in our group who was 9 months pregnant.
After two days of walking she gave birth in the middle of the road.
We had to stay in one of the villages until the woman recovered
for about two weeks.
After having finished all our food we started byuing hummus and corn, -
because that's what we could find in the villages.
Then we started our journey again and walked for almost 1,5 months.
When we started approaching the border of Sudan, our guides told us
they would not go further, because if the Sudanese saw us, -
they would kill us.
So we separated and gathered on some mountain.
We thanked them for guiding us and gave them donkeys and horses.
We were half a day away from Sudan.
Half an hour after the group dis- persed we were attacked by robbers.
Five robbers told us to stop.
They commanded us to put our hands up, -
and at first we didn't understand why.
We thought maybe they came to help us, but when they told us to put our
hands up, we knew they were robbers. We had heard from groups who came
before us that some people were robbed and killed on the way.
They told us to turn left and we walked half a day.
Then they left us in the middle of the desert with our hands lifted up
and robbed us.
After robbing us, they started pic- king out young girls from the group.
Five young girls were chosen from the group.
We knew they would rape them so we asked them to kill us all or
to let us all go.
There were some rabbis in our group who started begging for mercy
asking them to take everything else, except the women.
They started arguing and somehow the rabbis managed to convince them
and they left us.
Then we could continue our journey. However, we didn't know the way
because they had taken us to a different direction.
Our group dispersed into smaller gro- ups who started looking for the way
and also water to drink, because it was hot.
I and another 3 young men started looking for the way and water.
All of a sudden, we saw a monkey in the middle of the desert.
A monkey cannot survive without water, so we decided to follow it.
We ran after it and at some point, we came to a tree in the middle
of the desert and started digging under it.
We found wet sand and began eating it.
This saved our lives.
On the way we found abandoned canisters.
Some people before us had died on the way leaving their clothes and bodies.
We collected the canisters and star- ted filling them with the wet sand.
We decided to return to the group that was left behind.
Upon reaching the group we saw that some of them had fallen on the way
and their eyes were open.
We put a few drops of water in their mouths and suddenly
they started to recover. We con- tinued like this until we had used
all the containers.
We managed more or less to gather together the group that was dispersed.
Some had managed to bring water from the Sudanese border.
This way the entire group managed to continue to Sudan.
Sudan is a Mouslim country and Israel had to use secret measures
in order to transport the Jews out of there.
After reaching Sudan, Tzion and thousands of other Ethiopian Jews
had to wait for an unknown time in refugee camps to be transferred
to Israel.
Some things from that journey are engraved in me.
First, I was in another refugee camp.
When I came to the Tuava camp I had a childhood friend, whose mother
was in another camp.
My friend died in the camp and we went to tell his mother.
When we came to the mother, it was evening.
When we got there, she was dying.
We didn't know if we should tell her or not. We decided not to tell.
We sat down next to her and suddenly she died.
The son didn't hear of his mother's death and the mother didn't hear
of her son's death.
These things are engraved in you. You cannot forget them.
When Israel understood that the situation in the Sudanese camps
was dangerous, the government decided in 1984 to organize
operation Moses.
Through this secret operation some 8000 Ethiopian Jews were flown to
Israel from the Sudanese camps.
Tzion was one of them.
They came to our tents and said there is a flight to Israel today.
Don't miss it!
Four buses came to take us and began driving to Khartoum.
During the journey we had to stop many times at army checkpoints.
Sudanese soldiers checked the buses. We were covered in sacks.
When they saw us, they let us go and wished us a good journey.
We continued driving all night and arrived in Khartoum.
There we saw how the Israeli airplanes were landing.
We went from the buses to the planes that flew us to Israel.
I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations
and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, -
and I will be proved holy through you in the sight of the nations.
Ezekiel 20:41
We started thinking if we had come to the garden of Eden.
But I'm still looking for that garden of Eden.
Thank God I was able to come to Israel.
Many of my family members and friends have not been able to
fulfill this dream. It's sad.
Thank God, I got here and I've also managed to adapt to
the society and learn this culture.
It has not been easy.
Thinking back, I'm not sure I could survive the journey again.
Coming to Jerusalem can be compared to touching the Moon.
In Ethiopia Jews strictly observed the Jewish religion and regulations
of the Old Testament and kept the Holidays mentioned in the law of Moses.
In addition, they have their own Sigad holiday
based on the book of Nehemiah when they were praying for
the return to Zion. The Sigad holi- day is celebrated by the Ethiopians
annually also in Jerusalem.
Moonlight, last for a moment more
Our food bag got lost
The desert does not end, the jakals are howling
and my mother is calming down my little brothers
Soon, just a little bit more, and we will be redeemed.
We will not stop walking to the land of Israel.
Shmuel Belai grew up in a believer Jewish home who immigrated to Israel
from Ethiopia.
Like numerous other Ethiopian Jews, also Shmuel's family was first
placed in one of Israel's many immi- gration centers - Mevasseret Tzion.
Adapting to the Israeli society has not been easy for the young people
who came from Ethiopia.
The gap between children and parents is one of the biggest problems
among Ethiopian Jews today.
In his current home in Jerusalem Shmuel and his friends are setting up
a prayer room which will serve all the believers in the area.
Translation: Sonja Mattayev