Protest for Falashmura (Archives)
Photo: Gil Yochanan
Rabbi Yosef, will he join the cause?
Photo: Guy Assayag
Tigray cry out for relatives
Days before interior minister is slated to request 8,000 Falashmura be allowed to make aliyah from Ethiopia, Tigray appeal to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to push for allowing their relatives in Africa to immigrate as well
Interior Minister Eli Yishai is slated to submit a proposal to the government on Sunday to allow over 8,000 remaining Falashmura in Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel. But there are also some 2,000 Tigray whose relatives in Israel hope will have their eligibility to make aliyah to Israel examined.
The Tigray (named after one of the districts in Ethiopia) live in northern Ethiopia near the border with Eritrea and Sudan, and their level of Judaism is unclear. Interior Ministry representatives sent to the region to examine the eligibility of the Falashmura said they would also examine the matter of the Tigray.
Aliyah
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However, relatives of the Tigray in Israel have yet to receive a response with regards to the fate of their loved ones, and have recently decided to turn to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef for help.
"We turn to you in the name of some 2,000 Jews, members of the Beta Israel community, who are located in the Tigray region and are eager to immigrant to the land of Israel," the Tigray community's organization wrote in a letter to the Shas spiritual leader.
"These people have many (first degree) relatives in Israel, who immigrated in the start of the 1980s and left relatives behind," the letter continued.
According to the Tigray: "The Interior Ministry, which is responsible for the matter, stated that it would examine their eligibility to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, but it did not. We turn to you… with a request that you make your voice heard and cry out for the lone Jews that wish to return to their homeland."
Copies of the letter were also sent to Minister Yishai and Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver.
The organization wished to stress that it is not seeking to bring non-Jews that are not eligible to make aliyah to Israel. All they want is to apply the Law of Return – and nothing more. "Their relatives have been seeking to bring them to Israel for decades," said Rabbi Avraham Shai of Arad who heads the organization.
"We fear that we may soon miss our last chance to have them make aliyah. The Interior Ministry keeps saying: 'We will check, give us the lists of relatives', but nothing has been done."
Asa Gadash, a 69-year-old resident of Arad who immigrated to Israel during Operation Solomon, is seeking to bring her sisters to Israel. "I miss them, and send them the money from the National Insurance. I cry all the time but no one hears me. My husband passed away and I am left alone, and would like to be reunited with my family," she said.
