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newish Pres5^ Celebrating More Tfian 75 Years of Service
VoLLXXni No.S7 Omaha
Bethsaida and Jerusalem exhibit to be displayed at UNO A mBjoT exhibition of artifacts [discovered at the Israeli cities of Pethsaida and Jerusalem will be on display starting March 27 fA the University of Nebraska lit Omaha. 'Cities of David: From Bethsaida to Jerusalem' will be exhibited until April 12 at UNO's Mile Bail Student Denter. The artifacts will be on disKlay from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., londay through Friday. Translated as "the house of fisherman," Bethsaida is one and one-half miles from the Sea >f Galilee near the Golan Heights. Five years ago, students led ty Dr. Richard Freund of UNO jegan to dig through the 22icre site. Since then, the remains of three houses have >een found along with, numer>us examples of pottery, coins md statuery. UNO now supervises an interlational consortium of colleges ind universities in excavating ;he site. In 1996, the Israeli (overnment plans to open the Sethsaida diggings-in-progress o the general public. "In addition to the artifacts acavated at Bethspida, we
PATAEKOS fertility god, found In a Oeihurite palace dated approximately 9th century B.C.E.
Ruth Riekes Richards Fund helps elderly remain independent
have received another 30 antiquities on loan from the Bade By Claudia Sherman Archaeological Museum in Berkeley, Foundation public relations director Calif.," said Dr. Freund. "These Services crucial to enabling elderly. Jewish resiantiquities were found at a site dents of Omaha to remain independent and in their seven miles from Jerusalem and it own homes are funded by charges for congregant will be the first time for these two biblical cities to be displayed togeth- meals. Federation funding, federal grants, and Bureau for the Aging endowments such as the er," he added. The exhibit is divided into five dif- Ruth Riekes Richards Endowment Fund, which is ferent areas: fishing implements; one of 28 endowments serving the elderly adminisartifacts from the house of a Roman tered by The Foundation of the Jewish Federation. patrician and wine cellar; gods, godThanks to the Ruth'Riekes Richards Endowment, desses and minor deities figurines; which partially funds Kosher Meals on Wheels, palace wares; and Hellenistic and transportation, and the salary of a professional Roman finds. Thousands of artifacts counselor (who advises and accompanies clients have been excavated from the site. and acts, as a liaison between them and service An important find, which is included agencies outside the Federation), the Bureau for in the exhibit, is a first-century the Aging is able to serve 1,900 senior citizens in shard of pottery displaying a cross. , The pottery shard is significant our community. Kosher Meals on Wheels serves nutritional because it predates by 300 years the use of the cross as a symbol of needs. Transportation for medical appointments helps clients maintain their health. A counselor, Christianity. It is truly a unique exhibit which meal deliverers, and drivers interact with elderly we call the "Cities of David Exhibit" clients to provide for their continued well being. and just in time for the celebration of "Without the Ruth Riekes Richards Endowment the 3000th anniversary of Jerusalem and other funds like it, the Bureau for the Aging and Bethsaida," said Dr. Freund. would be hard pressed to provide the various ser"It's also the first time the public will vices that are supporting the needs of seniors who see show-stopping antiquities like want to remain as independent as possible," stated the gods and goddesses figurines and Gene Brandt, executive director, Bureau for the the cross shard, which has never been displayed anywhere before this Aging. "We're grateful to have these supplementary funds," he emphasized. exhibition," he concluded.
A passover story -- Exodus delayed By Ellen Grosman and Yosef I. Abramowitz ^DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Amid the calm Eucalyptus grove in the Jewish cemetery of ^dis Ababa, Berihun Ambau, 43, has buried four family members in three years while praiting to leave for the Holy Land. Standing over the fresh unmarked grave of their light year-old daughter, Alem Berei, who died four Donths ago from complications from an ear infecion, his wife Tsehanesh Tamrat, 30, wails. Her «dy rocks up and down, her arms flail as she cries lUt, overcome with grief. When she has no voice sft, she leans against a tree, eyes red with tears, iding her face in her scarf, "We starved ourselves to take Alem to the clinic ut we had no money for medicine," Berihun says. (Then there is work he earns 6 birr a day, or 85 ents, carrying stones. The family is not eligible for id from the American Jewish Joint Distribution iommittee (JDC). Yet they, like most of the other 1,800 people in Addis Ababa commonly referred to I Falash Mura, have family in Israel, have been ving an Orthodox religious life for years in Addis kbab, and qualify under the Law of Return for emiration to Israel because of their Jewish lineage. The family came from Gondar three years ago ,oping to join Berihun'i brother and sister in irael. Instead, two years ago, his mother, father, pd other brother died of starvation. They lie liried in the same cemetery at his daughter. 'If we •d all gone to Israel we would all have gotten •dieal trMtment,* Berihun sayt. *Her« w« wait for the embassy to take us to Israel . Ut now we are starving and dying." Berihun, behaneih and the other Falash Mura, are stuck in le bureaucratic nightmare that followed peration Solomon. At the close of the miraculous t-hour airlift, which in the midst of a civil war rought 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the raeli government stated that there were no more left in Ethiopia. Yet 111 people have been n^i«it
buried in the Jewish cemetery in Addis Ababa since May, 1991 when the last El Al plane left. During the weeks before Operation Solomon, as Jews were beckoned by Jewish Agency emissaries to come to Addis Ababa, they were met by officials with a rough census of Jewish villages and famihes. Tliuse whose names were on the list were classified as Beta Yisrael and were given clearance to go to Israel; the others were classified as Falas Mura, converted or assimilated Jews. As the Beta Yisrael left on the planes, the Falas Mura were told that they would be leaving the next day. Six years later 1,000 people draped in white sit in an open-air compound in Addis Ababa listening to the Torah being read on Shabbat. An Israeli flag flaps gently in the wind, as a young man takes the fringes of his prayer shawl in his hand, kisses them, and touches them to the standing, blue Sephardi-style scroll and recites the proper blessing in Hebrew. "Blessed are you, Adonay our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who chose us from among all the peoples and gave us the Torah..." The men close and dress the Torah. The service ends with 1,000 strong, clear voices quietly singing 'Am Yisrael Ctiai," The people of Israel lives." Each weekday morning in the former Solomon compound administered by the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), community members gather for morning prayer. The adults meet in and around the synagogue for the lull shacharit service, while the first-shift of school children line up in the courtyard to say the morning blessings and sing the Israeli national anthem. On this March morning two school children stand below the Israeli flag, next to torches that commemorate the &7 Israelis lost in the recent bombings. Bayush, a pretty 11 year-old girl, says, 'I wish that their families will have comfort and I tiiink about the peace in Israel."
The compound is the center of the community, although the Falas Mura live outside it in rented one-room shanties. The school, which serves two shifts of children each day, provides adult education classes most afternoons. One member from each of 427 families works daily in the compound's embroidery program, which produces pillows, bags, wall hangings, an occasional chuppah as well as challah and matzah covers. The compound also houses the children's lunch program, the administrative office, and the ritual bath that has served more than 550 women since it opened two months ago. Tebka, 10, is one of 1,160 children in the school. Aschalew Feanta, the director of the school, says that since her grandparents left for Israel a year ago, Tebka misses them so much that she can't concentrate. Her grandparents left under Israel's family reunification policy, which permits Israelis to bring in immediate family members out of humanitarian concern. Until her grandparents left, Tebka had family to care for her and a living subsidy from the JDC. Orphaned at birth and raised by her grandparents, Tebka, has lived half her life around the compound in Addis Ababa. The Jewish Agency and the Israeli Interior Ministry refused the grandparents request to bring Tebka with them to Israel because she is a granddaughter not a daughter. She was left by herself with no income because she is not eligible to receive money from the JDC. Her 13 year old sister was eventually brought down from Gondar to care for her, and supports them both by spinning cotton. "I want to go to Israel, I want to be with my grandparents," she says in a whisper. "Can you help me join my grandparents?" she asks a visitor. Aschalew Feanta , the director of the school, says 'It is mental torture for the students when one of ^^ neof (Continued on page R)
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