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April 8, 2005
Improving their neighborhood
Israel's Ethiopian community faces several socioeconomic challenges.
NECHEMIA MEYERS
Abi Zavda said it was a mistake to make Kiryat Moshe an isolated
Ethiopian enclave in Rehovot. The head of the Kiryat Moshe Residents
Association and member of the Rehovot city council said it would
have been far better if Ethiopian immigrants had settled in various
parts of the city. "But there is no point in crying over spilled
milk. Now all we can do is try to bring our neighborhood up to the
level of others in the town."
That will demand a major effort, physical and psychological. Housing
is one example. Many of the apartment houses are not only dilapidated,
but also overcrowded. The Ethiopians have large families. One-third
include five or more children, which means that seven to 10 or 11
people are crowded into three very small rooms. These apartments
had previously been occupied by smaller families, which moved out
when the Ethiopians began moving in, leaving the neighborhood predominantly
Ethiopian with an admixture of no-hopers from other backgrounds.
According to Ruthie Inbar, who co-ordinates the efforts of a dozen
official bodies and voluntary groups that are helping the people
of Kiryat Moshe, "Employment is a greater problem than housing
for them, and particularly for old people – which means anybody
over 40. Many of the men in that age group have not held a real
job from the time they left their agricultural villages 10 or 15
years ago. First there was a long wait in Addis Ababa and then another
prolonged period of idleness while they were in absorption centres
here in Israel. Today – lacking either a reasonable knowledge
of Hebrew or a marketable skill – they can only work as unskilled
laborers, and, for the most part, they aren't strong enough for
manual labor.
"Tradition and the need to look after a multitude of children
keeps their wives at home as well," she continued, "which
means that social welfare payments are the sole source of income
for half the Ethiopian families in Kiryat Moshe. They won't starve,
but their future is bleak. What remains to be done is to ensure
that their children and grandchildren escape a similar fate."
It is for this reason that educating the young is the first priority
of the official bodies, the volunteer organizations and the supportive
Jewish communities of Toronto and New York. Education starts early,
with a program for home stimulation beginning with infants at six
months old. It continues in various forms until the kindergarten
phase, when there are special language development and arithmetic
readiness schemes in preparation for the first grade.
When it turned out that the local elementary school wasn't very
successful, it was closed down and Kiryat Moshe children were scattered
among 13 other Rehovot schools. But that didn't work either –
most of the Ethiopian kids couldn't keep up with their classmates.
Now the local primary school is to be reopened, hopefully staffed
by a team of top teachers. In Zavda's opinion, "it can become
the focus for neighborhood development."
Some Kiryat Moshe children have overcome their environmental problems
and gone on to graduate from high school and, after a period of
military service, to tertiary institutions. At the same time, an
increasing number of police files have been opened for youth of
Ethiopian origin in Rehovot. Residents cite four main reasons for
the youngsters' behavior: loss of parental authority, idleness,
economic hardship and an abandonment of cultural roots. The kids
no longer feel Ethiopian but haven't formed true ties to Israeli
culture.
What they require, among other things, are role models, who would
play the same role for them that Condoleezza Rice and Michael Jordan
do for African-Americans. One such person who pleased Zavda and
other residents of Kiryat Moshe was Mehereta Baruch: a beautiful
and intelligent Ethiopian woman who participated in an extremely
popular TV contest designed to find a young person who could best
represent Israel's cause to American audiences. She came in second,
but she was the audience favorite, and brought pride to her fellow
Ethiopians.
Hopefully, there will be many more such examples, perhaps even from
Kiryat Moshe.
Nechemia Meyers is a freelance writer living in Rehovot,
Israel.
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