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| Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot |
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| Cantorial Soloist Mark Britowich |
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Providing Hope
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Ethiopia – Only We Can Provide Hope – Rabbi Don Goor 1/5/07 Exactly a month ago, I was in Ethiopia. Television just can’t portray the depth of the poverty. Thousands of people live in abject poverty in a Shanty Town across the street from the Hotel where I stayed in Addis Ababba – the capital of Ethiopia. Movies, with all the sites and sounds, just can’t portray the depth of despair in which millions of people in Ethiopia live. I saw the movie Blood Diamond last week – a very powerful movie with an important message. The mud huts and the shanty towns through which Leonardo Decaprio runs provide a taste. I smiled when they spoke of their fixation on Purel. There is no way to feel clean in a 3rd world country. My recent trip to Ethiopia wasn’t only of sites and sounds, it was a tactile visit which overwhelmed my senses. Nothing - nothing can truly convey the dirt and dust that stuck to my skin; the smells that couldn’t be avoided, the grime and stench that permeated my clothes, that seemed to saturate my lungs.
Despite the darkness of modern day Ethiopia, it was still a blessing to visit last month for four days as part of United Jewish Communities Mission. In just four days I was able to witness a modern day miracle – the ability of the Jewish people to bring hope to the lives of thousands. Our mission was an attempt to share with the leadership of the American Jewish community what is happening in Ethiopia, and in Israel, to rescue and then settle 10,000 Falash Mura – 10,000 modern day Zionists who are waiting to go up to the Holy Land.
In our four days we didn’t really get a chance to do much site-seeing. The sites that brought us to Addis Ababa and then to Gondar in the north of Ethiopia, were the schools, feeding stations, the clinics that we offer for the Falash Mura. The sites that brought us to Ethiopia were the people: those waiting to fly to Israel and those Ethiopians, Israelis and Americans who have dedicated their lives to bringing hope to people whose nation is mired in utter poverty.
In only four days I was reminded of why I am a Zionist. I was so proud of how Israel takes cares of and ultimately is welcoming thousands of foreigners who have thrown their lot with ours. I believe that Israel is the only country in the world that is welcoming to its shores black immigrants. In only four days I was reminded of how proud I am to be a Jew because in only four days the ancient Jewish narrative came alive for me.
Thousands of years ago our people was mired in slavery in Egypt. Throughout our years of servitude, we held onto the hope that God would bring us, with a mighty arm, to our promised land, to Israel, to Jerusalem. The history of our people is that despite the difficulty of our circumstances, we always have hope; we always hold onto a vision of a promised land. When we wandered in the desert, we may have complained, but we schlepped through the sounds and eventually arrived in Jerusalem. Through countless Diasporas we have always dreamed of Israel, of Jerusalem. During the Holocaust our people sang “Ani Maamin – We believe”. The Dali Lama, worried about survival in their Diaspora, studies our history to learn the art of survival. I learned the answer in 2 Ethiopia. We are a people that have vision. Despite the harshness of our circumstances, we are a people that hold onto hope.
There are over Seventy Five million people in Ethiopia who their lives in utter poverty. I found them to be a proud people. Even when we walked through the Shanty Town, no one, not an adult or a child, put out a hand to beg. We visited a clinic for AIDS patients during mealtime. There were beds lined wall to wall. And as I walked by, a voyeur in a living nightmare, a patient held out his food to share it with me. He couldn’t have thought I was another patient. In Ethiopia an American can’t blend! Our clothes, our affluence, our skin color make it very clear that we are outsiders. And yet this weak and very ill patient turned to me and offered to share his lunch.
Yes, I found Ethiopians to be a proud and dignified people. They were, as the rabbis of Pirke Avot would say: “Sameach b’chelkam – content with their lot.” It just might be that without T.V. or radio, they don’t know what they don’t have. However as proud and dignified as they seemed, one thing they were missing was hope. I don’t imagine that an Ethiopian mother or father dreams that their child will leave that Shanty Town behind. I can’t imagine that parents believe their children will do better than they. Hope is not a part of life in Ethiopia.
Except for the Falash Mura. For the approximately 10,000 Ethiopians on the official Israeli government list, there is hope – hope for a better life, hope that their children will leave Gondar and create a better life. That hope is deeply Jewish; it is the story of our people since ancient Egypt. That hope is nurtured by those who have devoted their lives to service. In the feeding centers, the clinics and the schools hope is the main course, served by true Lamed Vovnicks.
Do you know the legend of the Lamed Vovnicks? 36 truly righteous people on whom the world depends. In ancient Egypt the Lamed Vovnicks upon whom our world depended were the likes of Moses and Miriam, Aaron and Joshua. In Ethiopia I met Lamed Vovnicks, righteous people upon whom our world today depends.
- Shlomo Mulla is an Ethiopian who made aliyah to Israel as a 10th grader, after walking across the desert to Sudan. He survived hardship and pain in order to leave his Egypt and to arrive in the Promised Land. He struggled to acculturate and become an Israeli.
Because of a scholarship to a fine school in Haifa (sponsored by the Reform movement – I must add!) He succeeded. Today he is on the Kadima party list. Today he works with Ethiopians in Israel ensuring that they will succeed as he succeeded. Shlomo is a Lamed Vovnick.
- Last month I spent time amazed at the work of Gidon Herscher, who directs Ethiopian programs for the Joint Distribution Program. In Ethiopia and in Israel, he works tirelessly to provide Ethiopians with food and medical care. In Ethiopia and in Israel, Gidon supports programs that teach Ethiopians Hebrew; help parents bring up healthy and well adjusted children in PACT centers – Parents and Children Together nursery schools. Speaking lovingly in Amharic, he holds their hands, smiling as he makes sure 3 there is soap in the one shower that must serve hundreds of people. Gidon is a Lamed Vovnick. He not only assists in serving Ethiopians in Addis Ababa and in Gondar, he also ensures that the can become fully functioning and successful Israelis.
- Uri Konforti is a Lamed Vovnick. On behalf of the Israeli Government, and the Jewish Agency for Israel, Uri works tirelessly to bring each Ethiopian to Israel. With his unflagging energy and childlike enthusiasm, he creates passports for those with no last names and no birthdates. In the Israeli Embassy compound he coordinates the delivery of clothes to those who are quite literally naked; provides the refrigerator, the stove and the toilet that serve as models of the technology these hopeful people will encounter in Israel – technology they’ve never seen before. And with a smile he jumps in and plays soccer with barefoot poverty stricken children in the streets of Gondar. Uri surely is a Lamed Vovnick.
I could go on and on, but let me share the story of one truly righteous person, a real Lamed Vovnick in our midst. In the midst of utter poverty, thousands living without electricity or plumbing, Dr. Rick Hodes supervises medical clinics in which women and children are fed, families are inoculated, patients are treated with the most modern of medicine. In a country with virtually no medical care, the Falash Mura are treated as if they walked into a hospital here in Los Angeles. And I’m not speaking purely of medical technology. Dr. Rick calmly ensures that each person is seen as created in the divine image bringing health and life to thousands of Ethiopians. His work is holy work – he is truly a Lamed Vovnick.
Our people couldn’t leave Egypt without the Lamed Vovnicks who provided vision and hope, leading them to the future. Our people, who are currently leaving Ethiopia 300 a month, are able to leave because of these dedicated and passionate Lamed Vovnicks.
These people, Shlomo and Gidon, Uri and Rick, are ensuring that the true Zionists of our time, the Falash Mura, who dream of being reunited with their families in Israel, who dream of returning to the Promised Land, can fulfill their dreams.
My trip to Ethiopia reminded me how proud I am to be a Jew. The story of our people, of hope and of vision, began with Yitziat Mitzrayim, when we left Egypt thousands of years ago, and continues today in Gondar and in Addis Ababa, here in the Valley, and of course, in Israel, in our Holy Land.
And what is our role in this ancient and ongoing narrative? We must ensure that the hope and vision that is intrinsic to Judaism is made real today. We must enable Lamed Vovnicks to do their work, to hold up our world. I learned in Ethiopia that we can be proud to be Jews, proud of Shlomo and Gidon, Uri and Rick. Our ancient story is alive today. How wonderful that as Jews we provide hope and vision. How wonderful that as Jews, we are still making ancient dreams a reality.
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