Rabbi Yafet Alemu

As Conservative Jews from across North America (including not only Canada and the United States but Mexico and Cuba as well) came to Orlando for our biennial convention, we paid tribute to Israel on its upcoming 60th anniversary.

On Friday morning, as we drew closer to Shabbat, we listened to Rabbi Yafet Alemu, the first Ethiopian Jew to be ordained as a Conservative/Masorti rabbi, discuss his harrowing escape from Ethiopia – he walked across the Sudan – his formal education – very little, back in Ethiopia, because the culture didn’t offer very much, and much more, including certification as a nurse, in Israel – and his faith – God, he firmly believes, has had a hand in his survival.

"I am living the Torah, I am thinking the Torah, I am dreaming the Torah,” he told the convention.

Rabbi Yafet, as he likes to be called, is distressed by the condition of the Ethiopian community in Israel, which is mired in poverty and the problems that accompany it. Certain that many of the community’s problems come from the breakdown of its traditional family structure -- hierarchical, autocratic, and androcentric – he believes that working with entire families to strengthen bonds and rebuild respect will help them feel comfortable in Israeli society and soon be accepted as fully functioning.

Working with United Synagogue’s Israel Commission, Rabbi Alemu has set up the Family Education Initiative, a program that works with families to strengthen their bonds with each other as they integrate into Israel. Social workers from the community are trained to help family members work together; the more the help comes from within the community the more it is likely to help, organizers believe. Pilot programs in centers around Jerusalem have proven successful and the program is now expanding.

Rabbi Alemu and the Israel Commission ask synagogues to consider adopting one Ethiopian Israeli family. Just $1,000 can make a difference in a family’s life.