Integration, visibility and success

Israeli colleges are working to improve methods of elevating the status of Ethiopians in society.

By CARMIT SAPIR VITZ
ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELIS block a road as they protest against what they say is police racism and brutality, near the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon on May 7, 2015. (photo credit: REUTERS)
ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELIS block a road as they protest against what they say is police racism and brutality, near the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon on May 7, 2015.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Thirty years have passed since the “Cub of the Lion of Judah” aerial operation (more commonly known as Operation Moses) brought 6,364 members of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia to Israel. In the years preceding the operation, another 5,000 Ethiopians made their way to Israel, and in 1991, it was decided to carry out a second airlift – Operation Solomon – during which more than 14,000 Jews were brought to Israel from Ethiopia.
What has happened since then? How have Ethiopian immigrants to Israel integrated? What was behind the May 2015 protests, where thousands of Ethiopian-Israelis took to the streets demonstrating against discrimination towards their community? “The first studies about Ethiopian Jews that were carried out following the mass immigration to Israel in 1984 dealt mainly with the unique characteristics of this community, in terms of the historiographical and political situation in Ethiopia and the study of Ethiopian Jews’ roots,” says Dr.
Esther Kalnisky, author of Journeys of Hope: Ethiopian Jews Following the Paths of Education, Academic Studies, and Success, written with Shosh Millet and Nahum Cohen.
Studies carried out in the 1990s sought to measure how well Ethiopian immigrants adapted to Israeli society and what kind of changes took place among Ethiopian families after they arrived in Israel.
In more recent studies, researchers began looking into two main areas: education and employment difficulties, and individual and group identities.
Kalnisky notes that recent research has focused on the concept of self-identity and visibility among immigrants and their children. These findings show that on the one hand, immigrants want to blend in and be just like all the other Israelis and prefer not to receive preferential treatment from the authorities. On the other hand, research shows that immigrants yearn for the state to offer Ethiopians official recognition of their unique culture and offer them support in housing, education and employment.
“Generally speaking,” she says, “we can say that members of the community have yet to find their niche in Israeli society in terms of identity. First generation immigrants seem to have a great feeling of disappointment since they arrived in the Holy Land with clear Zionist ideals, and yet they have not been welcomed into Israeli society as they expected to be – as heroes who made the arduous journey from Ethiopia.
They also express disappointment that their children have not integrated into Israeli society as well as they had expected.
They are fighting for their own personal advancement, as well as for the elevation of the image of the Ethiopian community in Israeli society.”
The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews (IFCJ) headed by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is launching a new program called Azimuth for which it is allocating between $5 million and $8 million to promote Israeli youth of Ethiopian origins. Azimuth is an affirmative action program that will fund three age groups of Ethiopians who grew up in the geographical or social periphery.
The first group that Azimuth supports is pre-army teens between the ages of 16 and 18. It offers these youth grants to attend pre-army preparatory programs (mechinot) that help the teens get into better units and prepare them for the rigors of army service.
Azimuth is also supporting the Amir Program for Ethiopian Israelis while they are serving in the IDF. Created by the Feuerstein Institute, it helps soldiers transfer into better, higher quality positions in the army. In effect, it offers them a “second chance” to get into better units, since in Amir the army no longer refers to a soldier’s kaba or dapar scores (the systems the IDF uses to rank and place recruits in units) that Israelis of Ethiopian origin tend not to score as well on.
The third Azimuth program helps young Ethiopians between the ages of 21 and 35 find quality employment, offering vocational training and support groups run by mentors. There are seven such mentors who help individuals set goals and then reach them.
“Our mentors help participants build a plan that is especially tailored to their needs,” says Zehava Taspai, from the IFCJ. “Oftentimes, the current system discriminates against young people of Ethiopian origin, and so they begin their army service at a disadvantage. This is a serious problem for Israeli society, and Rabbi Eckstein from the IFCJ feels a special connection with the Ethiopian community and would like to help change this. For years the Fellowship has been supporting programs and organizations that help Ethiopian Israelis, especially those living in the geographic and social periphery, build a better future for themselves and integrate into Israeli society.”
Two areas in which members of the Israeli- Ethiopian communities are working hard to get ahead in are education and employment. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in the 2014/15 academic year, 2,946 students of Ethiopian origin were enrolled in higher education in Israel. Of those, 88.5 percent were studying for an undergraduate degree, 10.7% for a graduate degree, 0.5% for a doctoral degree and 0.3% for an academic diploma. The most popular field of study among Ethiopian graduate students was business administration and management sciences.
Unfortunately, the number of Ethiopian students who find employment related to their field of university study is extremely low. To that end, a number of government programs have been created to encourage college graduates to find employment in government agencies and in education.
The Achva Academic College, near Kiryat Malachi, created a special program that makes receiving an academic education more readily available to Ethiopian Israelis. This program is based on the principles of recognition of Ethiopian culture. Its underlying principle is that if Israel is to become a pluralistic, moral and democratic society, we must acknowledge all the diverse cultures that make up our country. Achva has established a center for Ethiopian Jewry that is open to all its students.
Kalnisky, who founded and runs this program at Achva, has also led groups of adults on visits to Ethiopia.
“We at Achva carry out the admissions acceptance process in a manner that makes it fair for everyone,” she says. “This is not a paternalistic approach and we do not accept students who aren’t qualified.
But neither do we just accept students and then just leave them to fend for themselves.
For example, students who do not score well on matriculation and psychometric exams because during their early years they were busy focusing all of their energy on integrating into Israeli society and developing language skills, deserve a chance to shine and show us what they’re capable of. And I’m proud to say that today there are 150 teachers of Ethiopian origin who are teaching in regular schools throughout the country and a number of Israeli colleges have decided to replicate Achva College’s program.”
Oranim Academic College in the North carried out a study that examines how Ethiopian students are faring in their studies academically, socially and culturally.
The study measured how well they’re integrating, what kind of difficulties they’ve endured and what their level of potential social mobility in the Israeli educational system is.
Students of Ethiopian origin who study at Achva are known to be especially strong with regard to social, leadership and moral-cultural issues. These strengths, say staff members at Achva who were involved with the study, make Ethiopian students incredibly valuable to others at the college who can learn to become more sensitive and attentive leaders, and encourage them to be more involved in communal activities. In addition, Ethiopian students in general have weaker academic skills and weaker financial capabilities, which makes it harder for them to progress academically.
Prof. Lilach Lev-Ari, Research and Evaluation Authority director at Oranim, says that in 2009, there were not any Ethiopian students enrolled in the college, and so she decided to create a teacher training program especially geared for Ethiopian students. In order to succeed, she set three main goals: to train Ethiopian teachers and help them find jobs in schools; to create an educational-leadership group in the Ethiopian community; and to expand the cross-cultural dialogue at the college and throughout the educational system.
Two studies that Oranim recently carried out show that the relationship between Ethiopian students and the general college population was very positive.
In addition, participants in the study said they feel that Ethiopian students were treated as equals and that their involvement in college and community activities such as in-class discussions or participation in the Student Union increased over the years. Most of the students who participated in the study consider themselves leaders in the education field and believe that the teaching profession is an important tool in shaping students’ characters and challenging them intellectually.
“Over the two-year period in which we tracked students’ attitudes towards their integration into college life and Israeli society, we’ve recorded a very positive picture,” says Lev-Ari. “The only criticism we encountered were from non-Ethiopian students who felt that the course on Ethiopian identity, which was restricted to Ethiopian students, served to reinforce cultural differences. Overall, the college was satisfied with the program and believes that it is having a positive effect on everyone involved.”
When asked about the integration of Ethiopian teachers in Israel’s educational system.
She replied that, “Our research shows that from the point of view of Ethiopian education students, minority groups with highly visible differences can successfully integrate at an academic college. Institutions of higher education can indeed function as agents of multicultural learning for undergraduate students. Participants in the study indicated high motivation to engage in educational fields, to initiate change in the Israeli educational system and to become leaders in their communities. Most of the study participants admitted that they were interested in pursuing additional graduate degrees.”