Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, a visiting scholar at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, spoke about the challenges facing Ethiopian Jews in Israel in a lecture on Wednesday titled, “Between Identification and Identity: a Case Study of the Second Generation of Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel.”

Born in a small village in Ethiopia, Rabbi Shalom had always dreamed of coming to Israel. As he wrote in his short biographical essay, at the age of 8, he and his family embarked on a more-than-two-month arduous trek to the Twawa refugee camp in Sudan, where they waited for the Israeli Mossad (secret service) and the Jewish Agency to organize their transport to Israel. 

After being told that it would take years to gain permission for his entire family to travel together, Shalom emigrated to Israel with only his aunt and uncle. He spent his early years in Israel in a children’s home feeling daunted by the physical and cultural novelties of his new environment. At times, he admitted, he even found himself questioning his own identity as an Ethiopian Jew living in Israel.

Shalom entered the Schusterman Center conference room with a smirk on his face. “What did you think when I walked in with my jacket and my tie?”

“You looked good,” responded the audience in unison.

His expression changed. “But, I do not feel good,” he said. “I am [uncomfortable].”

He removed his suit jacket and tie. “I feel much more comfortable now.”

He paused. “But you know, there is clothing that you cannot remove: skin color. If I feel uncomfortable in my clothing, I can easily remove [it] and feel comfortable, but skin color is something that is inherently part of you, and you can never remove it.”

As of the end of 2015, he said, “People of Ethiopian descent … represented almost two percent of the total population of Israel. [Yet] the Ethiopian community has faced and continues to face complex social and financial problems. Two well-known events of discrimination targeted toward [the Ethiopian community] greatly offended their personal and religious identity.”

“The first event was the disposal of [Ethiopian] blood donations. … Magen David Adom [Israel’s national emergency service] disposed [of] blood donations [from] Ethiopian [immigrants] and their descendants born in Israel … without the knowledge of the [Israeli] Health Ministry or the donors,” he said.  

The second event, he explained, reflected an ongoing dispute about the “Jewishness” of the Ethiopian, or “Beta Israel community,” and occurred when the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, without explaining the symbolism of the act, deluded many Ethiopians into immersing in ritual baths for the purpose of conversion. This particular event, he said, was extremely insulting to many Ethiopians who had been persecuted in Ethiopia because of their Jewish identity and who had risked their lives in order to emigrate to Israel.

Shalom also cited the statistic that, “In 2014, some 30 percent of the youth in Israel’s Ofek detention center, the only prison for minors in Israel, were Ethiopian — a percentage 2,000 percent higher [than] the percentage of the rest of the population.”

Shalom then described what he believed to be a major misconception in many parts of the world, particularly in the late 20th century, when the Israeli government performed most of its major covert operations to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel. “The world saw what happened with the Ethiopian community in [Israel] as a hierarchy — that the Israeli government went and brought starving Black Jews from Africa. … [However,] in my village in Ethiopia, the [quality] of life was actually very high — higher than in Israel. … And this is the trouble, a rampant misconception in the world.”

Beginning in May 2015, Shalom explained, protests and demonstrations initiated by mostly second-generation Ethiopian youth broke out in many major Israeli cities and attracted widespread media coverage.

“Many of the youth who led the demonstrations saw a connection between the riots [from] African Americans in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States and their own problem. In other words, part of the Ethiopian youth has come to believe that there is a global battle between Black and white,” he said.

“I would like to contend that the immigration from Ethiopia, without a doubt, has created new, [unforeseen] challenges. The fact that the Ethiopians are of Black skin, and, in this respect, different from Israeli Jews, [has set] a whole world of stereotypes before Israeli society. It has created a tension for Ethiopian Jews which [has caused them] to question their characterization and identity. This [problem has] become especially present among second-generation Ethiopian-Israelis.”

Shalom cited a 2015 research study which surveyed Ethiopian-Israeli youth on their self-identity; the survey had asked participants whether they identified most strongly with being Jewish, Israeli, Black, or Ethiopian. He explained that 70 percent of the Ethiopian-Israeli youth identified most strongly with being Black. He pointed out the irony of this statistic, stating that in Ethiopia, most Ethiopian Jews had self-identified first and foremost as Jewish. He also explained that many of the Ethiopian youths who responded to the survey had been born in Israel, had never visited Ethiopia, and spoke Hebrew as a first language.

Shalom concluded by quoting a Mishnah, a traditional Jewish teaching, which he believed illustrated the inherent equality of all human beings.

“Through its explanation of why Adam was created alone, [the Mishnah teaches]…‘Why did all of humanity begin with one person?’ To teach us … .that a person should never say, ‘My father is greater than yours,’ as we are all descended from the same person.”