The 8,000 Falasha Mura must convert from Christianity to Judaism

Haredi officials clarify Ethiopians Jews slated to immigrate Israel will have trouble marrying if they fail to undergo strict conversion process

Ultra-Orthodox conversion officials clarified Sunday evening that the 7,846 members of the Falash Mura slated to immigrate toIsrael from Ethiopia will have to undergo a strict conversion to Judaism. Those who fail to do so, the officials warned, would not be recognized as Jews and will have trouble marrying in Israel.

 Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein, chairman of the International Rabbinical Committee on Conversions, who is considered an associate of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, told Ynet that the conversion must include the acceptance of a religious lifestyle as a condition for approving the immigrants' Judaism.

According to Eisenstein, this process is referred to as "strict conversion" but it is similar to regular conversion according to Jewish Law.

No one can rule that the Falah Mura members are Jews according to the Halacha, Eisenstein explained, as hundred and maybe even thousands of years have passed since this was a known fact in the families of origin.

Related Article: Israel to allow in 8,000 Ethiopian Jews

 He added that he and his fellow rabbis had many reasons to oppose this immigration, which could cause "many genealogy problems among the people of Israel", but that they were not objecting because of the issue's current political aspect.

 Other rabbis, who have been working to bring the Falash Mura to Israel, confirmed that the immigrants would have to undergo "strict conversion." However, they said they were convinced that the process would be much easier than the conversion of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

 'Accustomed to religious lifestyle'

Rabbi Menachem Waldman, director of the Shvut Am institute and an expert on Ethiopian Jewry, explained to Ynet that many of the community members converted to Christianity starting in the late 19th century for about 50 years. From a halachic point of view a Jew cannot convert, so they are still considered Jewish, but their offspring must not convert for fear that some of them had married Christian women.

 According to Waldman, who was sent the Chief Rabbinate to probe the issue in the past, the Falah Mura are direct descendants of Ethiopia's Jews and so their status must be similar. "I don't call it conversion but rather 'a return to Judaism,' he said, "even if it's basically the same thing."

 Waldman added that the need to convert would not pose a problem for the Ethiopians, as they come from a religious country and have been holding a halachic lifestyle.

 "The Falash Mura members prayed three times a day, maintained the sanctity of their family and lived a Jewish life back there, and when they immigrate to Israel they send their children to study in religious educational institutions," he said.

 According to Waldman, the situation is more complicated among immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as the Halacha forces them to observe mitzvot in order to be recognized as Jews but this is not a lifestyle they are accustomed to.

Source

Israel to allow in 8,000 Ethiopian Jews

 

Israel's cabinet has approved a scheme to allow into the country nearly 8,000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent. Many members of the Falash Mura community are living in poor conditions in transit camps in northern Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israelis had a moral duty to resolve the "complex humanitarian crisis". The Falash Mura's ancestors converted to Christianity under pressure in the 19th Century and so are not eligible to emigrate under Israel's Law of Return. Thousands who were deemed eligible by Israel have arrived in smaller groups in recent years, but the flow was largely halted in 2008.

'Worst living conditions'

At the weekly cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu said the remaining Falash Mura would be brought to Israel over the next three years. These are the seeds of Israel - men, women and children - that currently find themselves in the worst living conditions”. Six hundred would arrive as soon as next year, and in the three years that follow 200 would make the move each moth, he added. "The government of Israel wants to solve this problem, because there is a difficult humanitarian crisis there," the prime minister told ministers.

"These are the seeds of Israel - men, women and children - that currently find themselves in the worst living conditions," he added.

Ethiopia's last remaining Jewish community, the Falash Mura traces their roots to the biblical King Solomon. But they are not eligible to enter Israel under the Law of Return, which guarantees a place in the country for every Jew, because they have largely been unable to prove they are Jewish.

Ethiopian Jews who kept their faith throughout centuries of adversity were flown to Israel by the thousands in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The last mass immigration was in 1991, when Israel organized an airlift of 15,000 people who had fled fighting at the end of Ethiopia's civil war.

More than 100,000 Jews from Ethiopia are believed to live in the country. They make up one of the poorest sections of Israeli society.

Source BBC