The bus parks on a cobbled hill. We exit into the milling crowd and pass through a gateway in a corrugated metal wall, painted in vertical blue and white stripes, under the watchful eye of a rifle-toting guard. Past the plastic-laminated ‘house rules’ in English and Amharic (no electronic devices, long skirts required for ladies),…
(JTA) — “We are committed to helping ensure that the State of Israel welcomes Jews of all colors.” “We say, we have black lives that matter in Africa.” “In America, race has been a central area of Jewish concern historically.” These are all statements that have been made in the course of a well-orchestrated public…
Civil unrest is roiling Ethiopia. Hundreds of protesters have been killed in recent months by a government crackdown that human rights groups say has been ruthless. The United Nations is demanding that its observers be allowed in the country, but Ethiopia’s rulers have refused. And 9,000 men, women and children who say they are Jews…
Wide-eyed superwomen mesh with history in an eye-catchinge new exhibit by an emerging Israeli artist, currently on view in Harlem. Bold, lively, and abstract, “Mulu and the Beta Clan” by Hirut Yosef features a range of medium from collage to painting to woodworking. Some prints are intimate photographs of her family members overlaid with graphic…
In the local Amharic language, the forgotten Jews of Ethiopia are called the Falash-Mura – the people without a land. Numbering around 5,000 families, many have been waiting to make aliyah and immigrate to Israel for decades. I had heard about their struggle long before travelling to Ethiopia. I’d been told that in the 19th…
Much has been written and said about the social and economic disparities between Ethiopian Israelis and the general Israeli population. The numbers are nothing short of shocking. For example, 40% of Ethiopian men serving in the Israel Defense Forces have spent time in military jails, an incarceration rate 760% higher than their proportion in the…
On Monday, gathered in Tel Aviv to protest police brutality and discrimination against the Ethiopian-Israeli community. Two weeks ago, protests by Israel’s Ethiopian minority against police brutality and discrimination in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv drew international attention. While the protests were sparked by a video of an Ethiopian soldier in uniform being attacked by police…
The comparison is irresistible. In Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — thousands of black citizens took to the streets to protest racism and police brutality. And in Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — the urban streets became akin to a war zone, with water cannons and stun…
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