|
|
May 12, 2006
Reality falls short of the dream
This year marks the 30th anniversary of official Ethiopian Jewish
immigration to Israel.
SIMON GRIVER ISRAEL PRESS SERVICE
In 1976, the Israeli government gave Ethiopian Jews the right to
immigrate to Israel after both Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis
finally accepted their Jewishness. Several hundred Ethiopian Jews
already living in Israel at the time were granted full citizenship.
The subsequent dramatic airlifts of Ethiopian Jews from the heart
of Africa to the Promised Land in 1984 (Operation Moses) and 1991
(Operation Solomon) captured the world's imagination. For centuries,
Ethiopian Jews had cherished the dream that one day they would return
to Jerusalem. The dream finally came true, but for most newcomers,
the reality has fallen short of their expectations.
Before arriving in Israel, most Ethiopian Jews were semi-literate
subsistence farmers living in simple villages, usually without electricity
or any modern conveniences. Being thrust into a fast-moving, high-tech
society has been traumatic, especially for those who were over 30
years old when they arrived. For the young, change is always easier.
Some of Israel's 100,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community have
done well, especially the children of community leaders, but most
struggle to keep their feet on the lower rungs of the social ladder.
Yitzhak Dessie became the first-ever Ethiopian-born Israeli lawyer
when he qualified in 1998. With the support of the New Israel Fund,
which promotes social justice and human rights in Israel, he set
up Tebeka – Centre for Legal Aid and Advocacy for Ethiopian
Jews in Israel. Tebeka is currently suing a major supermarket chain
in Israel because one of its sales people in a Rishon leZion branch
refused to serve a woman because she was black.
"The kind of prejudice that existed in pre-'60s America or
apartheid South Africa is very rare in Israel," said Dessie.
"One of the main forms of discrimination is still the belief
that Ethiopian Israelis are not fully Jewish."
Tebeka recently won major compensation from the Arad Labor Court
for an Ethiopian immigrant woman who was fired from a restaurant
when a local rabbi refused to renew the establishment's kashrut
certificate if she continued in its employ.
There is also deep-rooted socioeconomic prejudice and cities are
reluctant to take in large numbers of Ethiopian immigrants, fearing
that they will make their city less attractive for young middle-class
couples. Last September, Yitzhak Bokovza, the mayor of Or Yehuda,
near Tel-Aviv, reversed his refusal to register 42 Ethiopian Israeli
immigrant children in the city's schools after Tebeka appealed to
the Supreme Court against the action.
Despite these incidents, Dessie believes that the Ethiopian Israeli
community's future can be a bright one and that it is in its own
hands.
"The essential obstacle confronting Israel's Ethiopian born
community," he insisted, "is not discrimination, but lack
of employment opportunities and their own ability to grasp Israeli
culture."
With this in mind, Tebeka initiated a positive discrimination program
with the Israel Bar Association last summer and, so far, 12 Ethiopian
Israeli law graduates have been fast-tracked as interns with leading
Tel-Aviv corporate law firms, with eight more due to be employed
in the coming months.
Asher Elias had similar motivations and priorities when he established
Tech-Career in 2004, a centre for training Ethiopians to work in
high-tech industries. He sees employment as the key to the full
integration of Israel's Ethiopians.
"Of course, employment is tied to education," he said,
"but, even so, there are over 3,000 university-educated Ethiopian
Israelis. That's a huge potential reservoir. The problem is that
they are channelled towards low-paying careers in teaching, social
work and nursing. Ethiopians cannot be accepted into the computer
science departments of universities and go into high-tech, which
is one of the most lucrative areas in the economy, because the academic
elite has set criteria in the form of psychometric exams, which
our community scores low on."
Elias, who gave up his own lucrative career in high-tech to prove
that large numbers of fellow Ethiopians do have the potential to
make it in the advanced technology sector, set up Tech-Career together
with American immigrant Glen Stein, who was involved with a U.S.
project called Byte Back, which trained the disadvantaged for high-tech
work. Based at Kibbutz Nachshon, between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem,
Tech-Career offers a year-long intensive program for high school
graduates from the Ethiopian Israeli community.
In the first year, nine of 15 students graduated the course and
found work in the high-tech sector, while in the second course (still
running), nine students began and six remain. Benjamin Melko, 26,
a graduate of the first Tech-Career class, joined a high-tech company
as an Internet site developer. Today he earns a salary far higher
than his previous job as a security guard.
"I immigrated to Israel at the age of four with my mother.
My father stayed in Ethiopia," said Melko. "I wanted to
go to university, but I knew that in order to live I'd need to work
at random jobs and that it would affect my studies. I heard about
the Tech-Career project and decided to join. It's one of the smartest
decisions I ever made. I still haven't given up the dream of going
to university, but, right now, with the salary I'm earning, it will
be easier for me to finance my studies."
A recent Jewish Agency campaign to celebrate 30 years of Ethiopian
immigration has emphasized this type of success. Advertisements
have focused on Ethiopian immigrants like Maj. Shlomi Vicha, an
Israel Defence Forces company commander who reached Israel as a
young child, and Shlomo Molla, former head of the Jewish Agency's
Ethiopian Immigration and Absorption Department, who just missed
out on becoming a Knesset member for the Kadima party in March.
"We want the Israeli public to have a positive image of our
community and our own people to have role models," said Dessie.
"But let's not lose sight of the fact that most Ethiopian Israelis
are not succeeding."
The statistics do not bode well. According to the Israel Association
for Ethiopian Jews, well over 50 per cent of the community live
below the poverty line and almost all who are employed have menial
jobs.
The good news, however, is that more than 50 per cent of the Ethiopian
Israeli community are younger than 18 and not yet alienated from
Israeli society. Moreover, Israel has a fresh chance with the thousands
of immigrants – mainly Falash Mura who converted from Judaism
to Christianity in recent generations and are converting back upon
reaching Israel – who have immigrated in the past few years.
It is not too late to introduce more educational tracks like Tech-Career
that will lead to the improved employment opportunities that are
necessary if Israel's Ethiopian immigrants are to be mainstreamed.
Much has been accomplished for and by Israel's Ethiopians over the
last 30 years but much more remains to be done.
^TOP
|
|
