King David instructed the Jewish nation never to forget Jerusalem even for one moment. He warned that forgetting Jerusalem would mean forgetting their Jewish identity. The eternal bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem has kept their spirits alive throughout their long exile.
This was the case with the Jews of Ethiopia, descendants of the “lost” Jewish tribe of Dan who were isolated from the rest of the Jewish people for thousands of years and, in modern times, were forbidden by the Ethiopian government from emigrating. Still, during this long period of exile, they prayed daily to return to Jerusalem, nurtured their children to long for Zion, and prepared them to make any sacrifice necessary to reach the Holy Land.
Even prior to the relaxing of oppressive laws forbidding emigration, the Ethiopians’ deep hunger to go to Israel led them to take a proactive approach to returning home. Thousands journeyed on foot through the desert into Sudan where they were hidden secretly in refugee camps. Many perished during the torturous journey through the desert, and still others died in the camps.
So it was appropriate that the State of Israel chose Jerusalem Day to hold an event honoring the thousands of Jews who died making their way to Israel from Ethiopia. At the event on May 12 in Jerusalem, I spoke with one Ethiopian Jew, Avraham, who was 17 years old when he first heard about Jews being smuggled to Israel through Sudan.
“My parents spoke of Jerusalem daily – it was the answer to all our prayers,” Avraham said. He decided to be the first in his family to make the long journey to Sudan and from there to Israel. He set out through the desert with another companion. They walked by night and hid by day, the night providing cover from the heat and shielding them from the danger of thieves in the desert.
After 88 days Avraham and his companion reached the Sudanese border, where they were detained as political prisoners. “We had to hide our Jewish identity in the camps,” he remembers. “Sudan is a Muslim country and would deal harshly with Jews escaping to Israel.” Avraham spent the next year going from one refugee camp to the next, camps where disease was rampant, and refugees were not provided with even the bare necessities for survival.
With sorrow in his voice, Avraham told me the hardest part of the ordeal was to bury all the dead: “Every day in the camps we lost more and more people. We buried the dead at night so we could give them a traditional Jewish burial without being recognized as Jews.” Avraham contracted malaria and lay in bed worrying – not about dying, but about the risk his friends would have to take in order to give him a Jewish burial.
Avraham survived that ordeal, later meeting an agent of the Israeli government working covertly to help Ethiopian Jews return to Israel. The agent provided Avraham with a fake European passport and plane tickets, and snuck him out of the camp to an airport. Avraham flew to Rome and from there to Israel.
Avraham spent his first two months in the Holy Land in a hospital recovering from the effects of malaria. Though filled with joy to be in the Holy Land, he also experienced much sorrow – every day, he heard news about another family member who had been confirmed dead while attempting their journey to Israel.
Today, Avraham has his own family and travels around the country telling his story to high school students. He is deeply concerned for the Jews still remaining in Ethiopia and prays for their safe return. “I have seen families reunited, mothers seeing their sons and daughters for the first time in ten years,” he says. “But so many remained behind.”
At the Jerusalem Day ceremony, President Shimon Peres expressed his admiration for the Ethiopian community’s strength and unbending will which brought them back to Zion: “In the history of mankind, no other nation has ever been reunited with their land and held such a bond with their capital city after such a long exile.”
Indeed, the fact that 43 years ago Jerusalem was reunited with her people shows that the strong will of the Jewish people to hold on to Israel through their exile has found God’s favor and blessing. King David said, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.” The Jews of Ethiopia never forgot Jerusalem, and on Jerusalem Day, we told them that we will never forget them, either.
What do you think?
8:41 am
Jerusalem is truly a jewish land,The Arabs there are trouble makers,The Temple Mount mosque should be demolished,That site is holy and therefore no devilsh mosque should be there.
6:26 am
To the Lord God Almighty be all the glory and honour for the continued return of all Jews in exile. I pray that Jehovah Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will give the present crop of Isrealis leaders the courage and wisdom to do the right thing in respect to the contested East Jerusalem.They shouldn’t allow President Obama Of U.S, to intimidate them to concede or even cede any part of the Jewish land specially Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Because some other Jews in exile could come back to their land and if they came where would they live. And I would that a proper research should be made in respect to the people of Abiriba and the Igbo nation of the South-East, Nigeria they claimed Jewish descent. Thank you
10:44 pm
I am so thankfull for all the Jews that are comming home to Israel. They are coming from all over the world from seemingly every nation. Praise be to almighty God.
12:04 pm
I thank God for the love He has given me for the
Jews, even though I’m not Jewish.I look forward
to the day when we will worship the same Lord
together.
11:53 am
I have always wanted to know more about the Jewish people because it is part of our history and the bible, I am glad to know more are returning. I have been enlighten by reading about it. The Holy Land has always been a place I would like to visit on day. May God continue to bring the people back.
11:51 pm
How truly wonderful so many Jewish people are being able to return to Jerusalem and how very sad that that journey is made so hard for them and so dangerous! Pray for everyone’s safety. A wise man once told me: There can be no peace in the world until there is peace in Jerusalem! Shalom.
9:06 pm
Wonderful and wonderous…..continue your good deeds and blessings on earth and you will be rewarded in heaven……
7:00 pm
Israel is truly blessed of all nations~ to be the “Prized possession” of the L_rd G_D and able to make the phrase “next year in Jerusalem” a reality. I have been once to the city in 1973 after Yom Kippur. We had a very good trip/visit and learned much about the city, the people and history. The yearning of the Diaspora to return is amazing, beyond understanding for people that do not share that history. May G_D continue to bring His people to their city, the city of Peace.
6:44 pm
I rejoice at the coming home of all the Lost Tribes of Israel.
5:52 pm
Praise the Lord!!…may be there are some Fijian Jews..and I may be one of them!!
5:31 pm
I praise the Lord that the Jews have their own land and that He will keep it for them. May their hearts be softened toward Him and may He continually bless them.