The longing, yearning, and dreams of Jerusalem never stopped throughout the history of Ethiopian Jewry, and were expressed in the words of their prayers, on the Sigd holiday, in songs, at joyous times and times of mourning. Jerusalem was and remains their deepest desire. In 1862, the spiritual leader Abba Mahari led many members of the community on a journey toward the Red Sea, in order to reach Jerusalem. However, the journey failed; many perished and those who remained were forced to turn around and head back.
Despite the crisis that the community experienced following this failed immigration attempt, their desire to realize this dream did not die. The arrival of Joseph Halevy in Ethiopia that same decade opened up a line of communication with the rest of the Jewish world and with Jerusalem in particular. Halevy\u2019s student and follower, Yaakov Faitlovitch, established Jewish schools in Ethiopia with the assistance of Professor Taamrat Emmanuel, Gete Yirmiahu, and Yona Bogale, and they encouraged worldwide Jewry to recognize the Beta Israel. A small number of the community\u2019s youth were sent to schools in Europe and Israel, which further encouraged the community to realize its dream of immigrating to Jerusalem.
There are letters from the early twentieth century written by leaders of the Beta Israel such as Lika Kahanat Berhan Baruch and Yona Bogale to Jewish leaders in Israel and worldwide, expressing their desire to reach Israel and unite with the rest of the nation. These leaders did not suffice with letter writing; their activities included traveling on lecture tours to raise awareness of the cause.
After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Israeli government decided not to initiate an operation to bring the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel. In addition, they were not included in the Law of Return. This was due to doubts regarding their Jewish status. Despite the state\u2019s reservations, about 200 members of the community immigrated to Israel independently over the years. This small community that lived in Israel worked tirelessly to bring the rest of Beta Israel to Israel, through petitioning, protesting, and holding meetings with government entities in Israel and worldwide. In addition, leaders of the community in Ethiopia, activists, and organizations in North America such as the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ), put pressure on the Israeli government and sent representatives on campaigns around the world in order to increase awareness of the issue among foreign governments and Jewish communities in the Diaspora, who then also put pressure on Israel.
At the end of the seventies, all of these efforts finally bore fruit, when the state began to initiate immigration operations, some of which were kept secret. Aside from the two large immigration operations, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, many other operations were conducted, and essentially, immigration from Ethiopia continues to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The longing, yearning, and dreams of Jerusalem never stopped throughout the history of Ethiopian Jewry, and were expressed in the words of their prayers, on the Sigd holiday, in songs, at joyous times and times of mourning. Jerusalem was and remains their deepest desire. In 1862, the spiritual leader Abba Mahari led many members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/aliyah.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n