It’s a simmering late afternoon on a midsummer’s day in the Gimmel neighborhood of Beer Sheba, the capital of Israel’s Negev desert. The sun beats down from the West over the high rooftops of myriad apartment buildings. As the sun continues to sink, the edifices cast lengthy shadows across a green expanse. These shadows offer…
The Interior Ministry is challenging asylum claims by Eritreans who, it says, are Ethiopian and thus eligible for deportation. A Central District Court judge has ruled in favor of the state in 18 out of 19 petitions against the ministry’s classification. Eritrean citizens in Israel are granted collective ‘temporary protection’ and are not deported to…
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky turned over the keys to the Jewish school of Gondar, Ethiopia, to the town’s mayor. Monday’s handover ceremony of the school, which was funded and maintained by the Jewish Agency, comes as the final flight of Ethiopian immigrants prepares to leave for Israel. Some 2,500 Ethiopian children awaiting their immigration…
The last community synagogue in Gondar, in the north of Ethiopia, is in a rented building cordoned off from the street by large metal sheets. Several men passively stand guard in front. From the outside, a Jewish Agency for Israel sign is the main indication of what lies within. But neighbors know. “You,” two men…
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira announced on Sunday he would launch a probe into the allegations that Ethiopian women who sought to immigrate to Israel were administered the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera with the intent of reducing birthrate within Ethiopian community. The comptroller’s announcement said that “it is possible that some of the women did not understand”…
What is bringing down the birth rates of Israel’s Ethiopian immigrants — culture or chemicals? A new study by the nonpartisan Knesset Research and Information Center found that while Ethiopian Jews traditionally have large families, by 2010 those who arrived in the preceding decade were actually having fewer kids than other Israelis. They were having…
A Knesset study prompted by news reports about the administration of contraceptive injections to Ethiopian immigrant women before and after their arrival in Israel shows that these women gave birth to significantly fewer children in Israel than their peers who came to Israel in the 1990’s, before the practice became widespread. But the authors of…
When Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw, entered a Solomon Schechter Day School prekindergarten class, in New Milford, N.J., a caretaker excitedly asked the children, “Do you know where she’s from?” “Africa!” one confident little girl shouted. The adult quickly corrected the 3-year-old, explaining that Aynaw is in fact from “Eretz Israel.” The little girl’s reaction demonstrated…
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