Ethiopian Rabbis Demand Equal Pay
Seventeen Ethiopian religious leaders in Israel wrote last week to the office of Prime Minister Sharon, demanding that they be paid the same wages as rabbis who are not of Ethiopian origin. Sharon’s office has been in charge of religious services since the Religious Affairs Ministry was disbanded.
The request was based on a government decision from 1992 that Ethiopian rabbis and kessim (spiritual leaders) are to be accepted as equal members in the religious councils and receive the same wage as neighborhood and regional rabbis, including social benefits, vehicle maintenance expenses and a pension plan.
“We are not seeking charity, but what is our due by law,” said Reuben Yaaiso, 38, the regional rabbi of Gedera and Bet Shemesh, He earns $780 per month. “The government ministries are not treating us as required by law. We are at the point where we have no money for a hot meal on the Sabbath and holidays.”
Kes Avihu Azaria, 37, chairman of the Council of Priests of Ethiopian Jewry in Israel, said that the religious councils had turned the Ethiopian clergy into hostages. “The salaries of the keses and Ethiopian rabbis are swallowed up by the coffers of the religious councils,” Azaria said.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO