hjb@hlwpc.UUCP (HJ Bassman) (09/08/85)
In all of the articles in the Jewish Press about the efforts to help Ethiopian Jews make a new home in Israel I have seen no examples of the Israeli authorities or the religious community helping preserve the Ethiopian Jewish culture and the observances unique to it. I would be interested in such examples because I fear that a big mistake is being made in the treatment of these people. If the Ethiopian Jews are not permitted to maintain and retain their unique identity it may have severe detrimental effects on their individual and collective emotional stability. We have seen many examples in the U.S. of immigrant groups who either abandoned or were stripped of their cultural heritage and suffered as a result. I hope those lessons have not been lost in the case of the Ethiopian Jews. As an aside I wonder who is deciding which is the appropriate Jewish observance for the Ethiopians. To restrict the choice would be undemocratic. Furthermore, since the Ethiopians were isolated from "the main body of Jews" perhaps their observances are more authentic than those of the askenazik or sephardic groups who necessarily adopted from and adapted to the majority cultures in their lives. Take, for example the form of the Passover Seder, which is adapted from the form of a Greco/Roman banquet/discourse.