Most Ethiopian Jews Now in Israel

TEL AVIV —  A majority of the estimated 25,000-member Jewish community in Ethiopia, known as Falashas, are now in Israel, an Israeli official said in an interview published Wednesday. They are leaving in the face of Ethiopia’s killing drought and famine.

Yehuda Dominitz, director general of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department, told Nekuda, a magazine published by the extreme nationalist movement Gush Emunim (Faith Bloc), that it is no longer clear how many Jews still live in Ethiopia.

The issue is being treated by Israeli authorities as a security matter, and the Reuters news agency’s account of Dominitz’s reply was subjected to Israeli censorship. Asked if most of the Falashas are now in Israel, Dominitz replied, “It is possible to say that this is so without going into details.”

The Falashas--the name means strangers--were cut off from the rest of world Jewry more than 1,000 years ago and were rediscovered by anthropologists at the end of the 19th Century.

Israeli rabbinical authorities recognized the black community--which traces its origins back to Solomon and Sheba--as true Jews only 10 years ago.

Dominitz said that the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental body handling immigration, is directing some Ethiopian immigrants to Jewish settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River.