April 13, 2008

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

GONDAR, Ethiopia - Three times a day, the Falashmura gather to pray in a synagogue in their main compound in this city. The 7 A.M. shaharit service draws the biggest crowd, and it is the one to which foreign guests are invited. The importance of the guest also dictates the number of worshippers in attendance. Last week, when an Israeli journalist came, there were about 800 people, both men and women. Three weeks ago, when State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss visited Ethiopia to study the implementation of cabinet rulings on bringing Ethiopian Jewry to Israel, attendance was double that. "One morning I came without warning," a woman from an international Jewish organization that arranges trips to Jewish heritage sites worldwide related, "and there were many fewer people, perhaps 200."

The synagogue uses standard Orthodox prayer books, brought from Israel, but in a departure from standard practice, the worshippers do not take an active part in the service. The men sit on benches, wrapped in locally woven prayer shawls; the women sit separately and out of sight, their heads wrapped in white. Many carry babies on their backs, under their robes.

Five men conduct the service from the elevated bimah, reading the texts out loud. The worshippers are silent, only responding with "Amen" when appropriate and reading the "Shema" word by word. At the end they sing "Am Yisrael Hai" ("the people of Israel lives"). The first sign of excitement comes after the service, when a man reads from the bimah the names of community members who have received money from relatives in Israel. Compound director Getu Zemene then takes the stage, says an Israeli journalist is on the premises and asks for a show of hands from anyone with parents, children or siblings in Israel. Afterward, most of the men leave in search of casual work. Some will return later on for Judaism lessons.

"Sometimes I pick up the siddur [prayer book], but usually I just listen to the cantors," says Almitu Achenf, 28, who has been trained as a religious instructor by teachers sent from Israel. "I tell the women how the Jews pray," she explains, "I talk to them about Shabbat and lighting the candles, but mainly about [the laws governing] family purity, when they are [ritually] impure and when they must immerse themselves" in the ritual mikveh bath.

Achenf is beaming: A few weeks ago she learned she had received permission to immigrate to Israel. She will be on one of the last flights out for the Falashmura, at least according to the current plans to end the immigration wave in early June.

The Falashmura community members are Christians whose ancestors converted from Judaism. The compound, operated by the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), feeds about 1,100 children a day and is a stronghold of religious Zionism in northern Ethiopia. The men are required to wear knitted skullcaps and all of the religious rituals are conducted by counselors sent from the Shvut Am Institute, located in the Yemin Orde Youth Village, near Haifa.

Even the matza, which went into production a few weeks ago, is being baked in accordance with Orthodox practice and not Ethiopian Jewish tradition. The enterprise is supervised by Getent Awake, a serious but smiling member of the community who has lived in Israel for a decade. He and his family underwent "strict conversion" after their arrival, even though, he says, "I felt Jewish long before that and that's how I define myself. My family practiced some Jewish traditions and we had a dream of reaching Jerusalem." Awake is upset about the distinction made between him and the Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel earlier, the Beta Israel community. He says the Israeli government treats both groups the same.

"No government wanted to let in Jews from Ethiopia; it's true they spent money and carried out the immigration operations, but that was only after demonstrations by relatives in Israel and pressure from Jews in America," Awake says.

To a large extent, the religious activities in the Gondar compound are aimed at influencing Israeli and worldwide Jewish public opinion to pressure the Israeli government. In any event, the Falashmura who are allowed to immigrate will receive full Israeli citizenship only after completing conversion. They are deemed eligible for aliyah by virtue of having a relative in Israel who submitted an application for them and by proof of Jewish matrilineal descent. Attending synagogue and baking matzot does not affect that.

The worship and the religious instruction at the compound do not seem to have much staying power. It, and the skullcaps the men wear, are part of the entrance requirements for the compound. Members of three different groups that have been living in Gondar for years and are now preparing to immigrate to Israel say that as soon as they leave the compound, they remove all signs of religious identification forced upon them. They might begin wearing a skullcap when they begin the conversion process in Israel, they say. In addition, they don't remember a word of Hebrew.

Shvut Am director Rabbi Menachem Waldman was the Chief Rabbinate's adviser on Ethiopian Jewry for many years. He did a great deal in advancing the acceptance of the Beta Israel community in Israel, and later on, the Falashmura. He conducted many trips throughout Ethiopia to track down community members and prepare them for aliyah. He is barred from entering Ethiopia at present, because the authorities suspect him of attempting to conduct mass conversions, but is still responsible for the religious activities in the Falashmura compound, via the counselors he sends. His institute also prepares many of the Falashmura for conversion.

"Anyone who enters the compound does so only after receiving permission and after being confirmed as belonging to the Falashmura community, and only with a skullcap," Waldman says. "It's a religious compound, that's clear. We have no interest in bringing them specifically to religious Zionism. Passivity in prayer is typical of Ethiopian Jewry, irrespective of Falashmura or Beta Israel. They don't have individual worship."