Sharing communal sukkot during the ‘Holiday of Shade’
In the Ethiopian celebration, families join together in a community sukkah
Ethiopian Jews
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Culture In the story of Ethiopian Jewish immigration, is Israel really the hero?
When we hear about racism or discrimination in Israel, it is usually about Jewish-Arab relations. It is far more rare that we hear the complicated story of Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jewish community, who also face discrimination in the country. Usually, if we hear anything about their plight, we hear of Israel heroically airlifting thousands…
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News Israel’s first Black Cabinet member knows the aliyah struggle. It’s why she kept immigration open during COVID.
(JTA) — To immigrate to Israel from Ethiopia, Pnina Tamano-Shata’s family had to trek on foot through the desert to Sudan in the middle of a famine. Later, the truck bringing her mother and two of her sisters to the airfield broke down. It wasn’t until the plane doors closed that Tamano-Shata realized that they…
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Community The Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd is more relevant than ever
In the 1997 Seinfeld episode “The Strike,” George Castanza is embarrassed when his father Frank shamelessly promotes Festivus, a December 23 celebration that Frank created years ago in reaction to the other winter festivals in popular culture. The episode ends with George’s friends and enemies joining together at the Castanza home as Frank leads the…
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Community Especially now, we cannot forget the Ethiopian Jewry
Immediately after the normally joyous holiday of Passover, Jews enter the period of Sefirah, a traditionally somber time that concludes seven weeks later with the joyous festival of Shavuot. The Talmudic tractate of Yebamot ties this period of sadness to the fact that thousands of disciples of the great sage, Rabbi Akiva, perished in a…
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Fast Forward Israeli Preschool Ordered Closed After Segregating Ethiopian Children
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli kindergarten was ordered closed after segregating students by race. The children of Ethiopian descent in the southern town of Kiryat Gat met in an auxiliary room with a separate entrance, The Times of Israel reported. They were spread out to kindergartens and day cares throughout the town, with transportation provided…
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Fast Forward Dozens Arrested Protesting Ethiopian-Israeli’s Shooting Death By Off-Duty Cop
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of Ethiopian Israelis and their supporters demonstrated in cities across Israel on Tuesday night to protest the killing two nights earlier of an Ethiopian teen by an off-duty police officer. At least 60 protesters were arrested and at least 47 police officers were injured as protesters blocked major intersections throughout the…
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Fast Forward Ethiopian-Israeli Teen Shot, Killed By Off-Duty Police Officer
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Ethiopian-Israeli teen was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer who said he felt in danger after he tried to break up a street fight in a northern Israeli city. Solomon Tekah, 19, was killed on Sunday night in Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa. Eyewitnesses to the incident told…
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Yiddish אַ ייִדיש־לערער פֿאַר אַלעמען: זכרונות װעגן מרדכי שעכטערן אױף אַ קאָנפֿערענץ צו זײַן 15טן יאָרצײַטHe taught us all Yiddish: Sharing memories of Mordkhe Schaechter at a conference for his 15th yortsayt
אַ סך פֿון זײַנע תּלמידים האָבן נישט געשטאַמט פֿון ייִדיש־רעדערס; פֿאָרט האָט ער זיך אָפּגעגעבן מיט זיי, סײַ װי תּלמידים סײַ ווי מיטאַרבעטערס.
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News Critic of yeshiva education promises ‘independent’ coverage of Haredi issues in new publication
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Film & TV Haredi Jews won a legal battle against conversion therapy — a new film shows the fight’s not over
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Culture ‘We enjoy being in shul together’: Tony Kushner talks about his friendship with Steven Spielberg