Israeli officials order halt to underhanded contraception of Ethiopian women

Published on January 28, 2013

Following a TV report alleging that Ethiopian Israeli women were being given contraceptive shots against their will, Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered physicians to put a stop to the practice.

Ariela’s legacy gives others direction, purpose

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Published on September 19, 2012

Aviva Dese believes that without the Ariela Foundation, she’d probably be back in Nazareth Ilit, the factory town in the Galilee where she grew up, maybe with a low-paying assembly-line job, or maybe still wondering, like so many of her friends, what to do with her life.

Ethiopian immigrants can operate protest tent, court rules

Published on April 25, 2012

Israelis of Ethiopian descent can keep operating a protest tent outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, Israel's Supreme Court ruled.

Ethiopian immigrant is top Jewish finisher in this year’s Jerusalem Marathon

Published on March 18, 2012

Ashrat “Assaf” Mamo is such a common sight when he pounds the pavement in Jerusalem that he’s on a first-name basis with city bus drivers who, he said, always “ask me about the marathon and encourage me.”

Ethiopian named to Israel’s Council for Highter Education

Published on February 15, 2012

An Ethiopian immigrant to Israel, who serves as the director of Tel Aviv University, is the first Ethiopian Jew appointed to Israel's Council for Higher Education.

Israeli school bus driver suspended for slurring Ethiopian children

Published on January 19, 2012

An Israeli school bus driver was suspended for making racist statements to Ethiopian children.

Ethiopian students protest segregated school

Published on September 1, 2011

Some 300 Ethiopian students and parents protested against their segregation in a Petach Tikvah elementary school, as nearly 2 million Israeli children began the school year.

Despite diplomas, Ethiopian Israelis can’t find jobs

By Dina Kraft
Published on December 26, 2008

Of the approximately 4,500 Ethiopian Israelis who have earned university degrees, fewer than 15 percent have found work in their professions, according to a recent study. Instead, most end up working temporary public-sector jobs serving the Ethiopian Israeli community, remaining disconnected from the larger professional Israeli workforce.

VIDEO: A visit with the Jews of Ethiopia

Published on January 23, 2008

A group from the Jewish Federation of Nashville went to visit Jews in Ethiopia who were awaiting aliyah. This is their story

Book captures before and after of Israel’s Ethiopian Jews

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on December 6, 2007

A woman of biblical beauty, a dark-eyed Ethiopian gazing directly at the camera, appears on the cover of a new book of photographs, "Transformations: From Ethiopia to Israel" by Ricki Rosen (Reality Check Productions, $45). She's wearing white embroidered robes, her hair covered with a kerchief. Flip to the back cover and fast forward 13 years, and the woman, with the hint of a smile, is dressed fashionably in an orange sweater, her hair falling loosely in tiny braids.

Post-war belt-tightening: Israel could cut Falash Mura dreams in half

By Uriel Heilman
Published on September 14, 2006

Israel's Finance Ministry is proposing substantial cuts to Ethiopian immigration next year.

Valuable Art From a Disregarded People

By Loolwa Khazzoom
Published on September 9, 2004

From the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to the Museum of the Negev in Beersheba; from the walls of Reverend Al Sharpton's home in New York to the mantle of photographer Irene Furtik's home in Santa Monica, Ethiopian Israeli art has arrived.

Kershaw Museum Plans Ethiopian Show

By Journal Report
Published on July 1, 2004

"A lot of people went to Israel when the country was new and bought Yemenite art, but they didn't tell you it was Yemenite," said the museum's director and founder, Norma Kershaw. "Ancient or modern, whatever people have" would be welcomed.

Most Ethiopians in Israel Find Life Hard

By Dina Kraft
Published on April 15, 2004

The mix of Western and African culture at the Zamena club, one of a small number of discos that cater to Israel's young Ethiopian immigrant set, appears to be an extension of these young Ethiopians' experience in life in Israel, in general.

Some were born in Israel or came here as young children. Along with their parents, they made their way to Israel as part of the modern exodus-style airlifts of Operations Moses and Solomon in 1984-85 and 1991.

Tour of Gratitude

By Michael Aushenker
Published on February 22, 2001

On the surface, they may not seem to share much in common. Victoria Gendel is a charming, pixyish Russian woman. Elias Inbram is a tall, photogenic Ethiopian male. However, both are Jewish 20-something college students who grew up in small, isolated villages and are now living in Israel.

Diversity in the Desert

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on March 23, 2000

For Dr. Jonathan Friedlander, the photography exhibit at UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History evokes vivid memories of the Sunday morning in 1991 he arrived at the central bus station in Be'er Sheva and discovered a place where worlds collide.

Torah Portion

By Rabbi Steven Z. Leder
Published on June 11, 1998

I never heard the N-word, growing up, because we were Jewish. For my parents, the S-word sufficed. Although they never would have denied someone an opportunity based on skin color, it was "schvartzes" who tried to rob my Uncle Max and Auntie Jean at their grocery store. When "schvartzes" moved into the neighborhood, it was time to sell the house. My dad had "a big schvartze" who worked in his scrap yard.