Falash Mura

Rock of Israel: Ethiopians fly home to the Jewish state

Surviving war, famine and the pandemic, Ethiopians make aliyah and come to Israel.

|ByMAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
Azanu Girmay Melese and her extended family kiss the ground at Ben-Gurion Airport on July 4.
Children of Falash Mura children help hand the washing outside their home in Gondar, Ethiopia, May 29, 2022.

Israel’s Falash Mura aliyah from Ethiopia: A painful 30-year saga

How did the Falash Mura immigration become a painful and protracted saga despite multiple Israeli governments’ pledges since 1992 to resolve it?

|ByCNAAN LIPHSHIZ/JTA
Members of the Falash Mura community from Ethiopia land in Israel as part of the second flight of the Rock of Israel operation.

NIS 150 million secured for Aliyah and absorption budget

Aliyah Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata says the budget will enable the immigration of 3,000 Ethiopian immigrants from the Falash Mura community by the end of 2022.

|ByJEREMY SHARON
The fifth flight of Operation Rock of Israel lands at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Fifth Operation Rock of Israel flight lands in Israel

The immigrants will enter coronavirus quarantine for two weeks and then be reunited with family members who are waiting for them in Israel.

|ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF, JEREMY SHARON

Aliyah minister plans to bring remaining Falash Mura community to Israel

The Falash Mura are descendants of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

AUGUST 13, 2020ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF, JEREMY SHARON
Members of the Falash Mura Jewish Ethiopian community attend a prayer service at the HaTikvah Synagogue in Gondar, northern Ethiopia, September 30, 2016

Ethiopian-Israel activists threaten new protests over ‘empty promises’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, MK Yevarkan made election promise to bring remainder of Falash Mura community to Israel but there has been little progress since elections.

AUGUST 12, 2020ByJEREMY SHARON
Ethiopian-Israelis protest throughout the country

Ethiopian youth call on Netanyahu to honor election pledge to bring them to Israel

In the run up to the election, Netanyahu met with the leaders of the Ethiopian community in Israel and promised that he would bring the remainder of the Flash Mura community still in the cities of Addis Ababa and Gondar to Israel.

JUNE 30, 2020ByJEREMY SHARON
WITH DEPUTY Public Security Minister Gadi Yevarkan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the memorial ceremony for Ethiopian Jews who died in Sudan on their journey to Israel, one of her first public events as a minister.

Aliyah minister hopes to bring all Falash Mura Jews to Israel in 2 years

IMMIGRATION AFFAIRS: ‘We don’t want immigrants to suffer the same problems we’ve seen in the past’

JUNE 25, 2020ByJEREMY SHARON
PNINA TAMANO-SHATA: We are the generation that merited to be the one that returned to Zion, and we need to encourage aliyah because this is the home of all Jews.

Black lives matter: Time to bring home the Ethiopian Jews left behind

In 2015, the Israeli government committed itself to bringing some 9,000 additional Falash Mura to Israel over a period of five years.

JUNE 11, 2020ByBRENDA KATTEN
FALASH MURA COMMUNITY members arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport on May 21.

Government approves immigration of 398 Falash Mura from Ethiopia

A cabinet resolution in 2015 resolved to bring all the then 9,000 remaining members of the community, but it has only been partially implemented, with some 2,000 arriving since then.

FEBRUARY 9, 2020ByJEREMY SHARON
Members of the Falash Mura community attend a prayer service at the Hatikva Synagogue in Gondar, northern Ethiopia, in 2016

Cape to Cairo

A conference in New York explores the ups and downs of Jewish life in Africa.

MARCH 3, 2019ByDAVE BLOOM
A performance of Sebt (or Shabbat) Gnawa, the summoning of Judeo-Moroccan spirits, by the Grammy-nominated Innov Gnawa

Jewish Agency calls on gov’t to expedite Falash Mura immigration from Ethiopia

Professional team to fly to Ethiopia in March to determine whether to restart funding for health, education programs.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019ByJEREMY SHARON
Members of the Falash Mura community in Ethiopia

Here and There: Whither the Falash Mura’s ‘Hatikva’?

It is somewhat ironic that it is Arye Deri, current head of the Shas party of which Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was founder and spiritual head, who is able to decide on the fate of these 8,000 Falash Mura.

DECEMBER 27, 2018ByBRENDA KATTEN
THE ‘JOURNEY to Identity’ group heads to the spot where their parents and grandparents began their trek to Sudan.

Enough promises – act now to allow Ethiopian Jews to come home!

Today, there are still 8,200 Jews in Ethiopia. Their dream is to make aliyah.

OCTOBER 20, 2018ByJEROME M. EPSTEIN
Ethiopian Jews prepare for Passover