The Neglected Tribe

Operation Moses, the furtive airlift of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in the Sudan, took place during November and December of 1984. It brought approximately 7,000 Ethiopian Jews into Israel, many of them harbouring tropical viruses, many in severely emaciated condition, but all overjoyed to walk upon the soil which they considered sacred.

When these people finally arrived in Israel from their overcrowded refugee camps, most went through a careful screening process to make certain that they were Jews, and not Christian Ethiopians. Those who could prove they were Jews were proffered immigration cards; their identity cards would only be awarded when they 'renewed their Judaism', the women by ritual immersion in the mikvah, the men through a re-enactment of circumcision, although they were already circumcised. The Israeli government contended that these rites were necessary as a result of the Ethiopians' "significant isolation from Judaism and the Jewish world for hundreds of years". Those 'unfortunates' discovered to be Christian Ethiopians were spared this humiliation, and given temporary visas, then sent to work on kibbutzim.

The most immediate problem of re-settlement was health; doctors were faced with infectious diseases they'd previously only known through their medical textbooks, including malaria, typhoid, jaundice and widespread malnutrition.

These thousands joined a like number of Ethiopian Jews whose slow migration had begun twenty-five years earlier. During that period, a mere trickle of Ethiopian Jews had pulsed into the country, aided by Jewish welfare groups. Later, associations were set up for rescue - and finally, bit by bit, a kind of underground railroad was established by the Israeli government itself.

The Action Committee for Ethiopian Jews had been pleading with the Israeli government for years to act more decisively to negotiate with the Ethiopian government to re-unify families and to bring in greater numbers of Ethiopians from their severely underprivileged environment. Governmental inaction resulted in suicides of despair, with some Beta Israel threatening suicide by immolation before the Israeli Parliament in a last desperate effort to embarrass the government into action.

Who are these dark-skinned Africans who proudly wear the mantle of Judaism? They're familiarly known as Falashas, an Amharic term denoting 'strangers'. But Ethiopian Jews consider themselves denigrated by this, as indeed, the word in Amharic is meant to convey 'outcast'. These black Jews call themselves Beta Israel. The House of Israel; indicative of the pride in their Jewish identity, their biblical descent from Solomon, their adherence to ancient religious rites, and faithfulness against all adversity. They have been ritually scorned, publicly stoned, and officially neglected, in Ethiopia.

This is also a people lost in time, an iron-age still-life, a once-isolated group convinced that they represent the only Jews on earth, the only remnants of a once-numerous tribe. Legend had it that they were one of the ten lost tribes of Israel.

Ethiopian Jews fervently believe their genesis was a bright amour between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the beautiful Abyssinian Princess Makeda, which produced a son, whom Queen Sheba had sent as a child to Solomon to receive his education. His father returned him eventually as a young man, purportedly with the Tablets of the Law of Moses. This son, Menelik I, later ruled Abyssinia.

Although as a group the Ethiopian Jews of this era are largely illiterate, unskilled and desperately poor, in the historical past they were influential and of the ruling class. Several civil wars disrupted the ruling hierarchy and other groups entered the ascendancy. So for past centuries, the Beta Israel have lived alongside other Ethiopians in miserable poverty, practising such lower-class occupations as pottery and iron-mongering. They have lived mostly in Gondar Province, and in Tigre, in northern Ethiopia, among their neighbours, many of whom were Coptic Christians, some of whose religious customs are almost identical. Beta Israel celebrate Passover and observe the Sabbath; succeeding post-Diaspora religious rites were unknown to them. This is, then, a people unfamiliar with the Twentieth Century, for whom a subsistence standard of living has been a way of life. They lived in small thatched huts, and built small circular clay buildings as synagogues.

This is also a people which has been inexcusably neglected. By their country, by the world at large, but inexplicably, by their co-religionists. Their presence has long been known, but interest in their state of being, and later their pathetic plight, has been slow to spark. Even when isolated groups of Canadian and American Jews began to evince some interest and concern, there was no organized movement to attempt to provide support. The State of Israel behaved as though this group did not exist.

No less an historian than Abba Eban, in Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, mentions them on three occasions in passing, with no reference to their historicity and heritage. Similarly, in the seminal work, The Jews: Their History, edited by Louis Finkelstein, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in a brief, dismissive sentence, it is noted: "The dark-skinned Falashas of Abyssinia, presumably descended from proselytes made in a remote age, retain their individuality even now." Thus in one fell swoop, while the venerableness of their existence is not disputed, the genuineness of their heritage is, and thus the legitimacy of their pride.

These views, sadly, are typical. As a result, Jewish welfare agencies neglected the Ethiopian Jews. Although some relief work was undertaken from the 1950s, it was sparse and sporadic. In 1973 the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel declared himself finally to be satisfied that the Beta Israel were legitimately Jews. Soon afterward the Israeli government pronounced them to be eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

But no energetic activity to aid their emigration to Israel was undertaken. The Beta Israel themselves obviously hadn't the means by which they could effect transit to Israel, nor lobby the Ethiopian government to permit emigration. Relief agencies were slow to convince themselves to act in the interests of the Beta Israel.

Finally, North American concerned groups such as Friends of Falasha (Calgary), Ottawa chapter for Ethiopian Jewry, the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jewry (Toronto and Montreal) began moving things forward. Countdown - New York Association for Ethiopian Jews and Centre for Beta Israel (Ramat Gan, Israel) began to lobby vigorously for public subscriptions. They sought to raise massive amounts needed to send food and medicine to the villages in Ethiopia, along with medical teams, and to pressure the Israeli government to act. Even so, the Israeli government appeared to be loathe to follow through on its own welcoming edict.

Finally, the desolation of the drought in Africa. Ethiopia was hard hit. the drought had devastated the countryside. With the growth of public concern and outrage over the horrific conditions in Ethiopia in late 1984, the world responded, sending great sums of money for relief work, airlifting medical teams, foodstuffs, tents and drugs to those hellholes of human despair.

The 400,000 Ethiopians who had fled from the dreadful drought and the fallout of the civil War in Eritrea Province to try to find comfort in the burgeoning camps in the Sudan were dying of starvation almost as quickly as those left behind in their villages.

Even in the camps of Sudan, mostly crowded with Muslim Ethiopians, the Ethiopian Jews were harassed and harried. The death rate from starvation and illness mounted day by day. Of the Ethiopian Jews who had made their way into the camps, roughly one-third died of privation and an epidemic of diseases before Israel launched its airlift. The rescue was never completed. It was estimated that some four thousand Jews were left behind in the camps when premature disclosure of news of the rescue halted the airlift.

The U.S. had acted as liaison to bring Sudanese officials and Israeli agents in concert to plan the logistics for the airlift. The Sudanese government had insisted that the planeloads of refugees from the rescue mission not be flown directly to Israel, but that they be flown first to another destination, then on to Israel - for diplomatic reasons. The news media were urged, and pledged themselves to secrecy so that the rescue attempt would not be jeopardized.

However, word did leak prematurely, effectively aborting the mission. When Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir had visited the United States several weeks earlier, he had told Jewish leaders that Israel would require about $100-million to resettle Ethiopian Jews. And then Leon Dalzhin, chairman of the Jewish Agency, the Israeli organization charged with absorbing new refugees, is said to have noted also in early December that there had been "a sudden jump in immigration, far beyond the figures we had projected for this and the coming year - one of the ancient tribes of Israel is due to return to its homeland". An Israeli magazine picked it up. One of its reporters had been the recipient of this coy little bit of news, and soon afterward the news of another dazzling Israeli coup was flashed around the world.

Dismayed, American Jews pressured their own government to rescue the estimated remaining four thousand Ethiopian Jews left behind in the camps. A later American airlift was able to find and remove a mere additional nine hundred, all that could be found of those who were left. Many had perished, and no doubt some had made the long trek back to their mountainside villages.

It is now estimated that an additional eight thousand women, children, the ill and the elderly are left to languish in Ethiopia. In early 1984 the Beta Israel communities had steadily been depleted as the young and the hale left to find refuge in the Sudan. Those who were unfit for travel were left behind in the primitive villages. Young children, the ill, the old and the women who care for them, are now left to fend for themselves. Those who had travelled to the refugee centres set up in the Sudan found the situation slightly better, with relief supplies and food being supplied as a good-will gesture by the Sudanese government for 'fellow Muslims' in an effort to help their neighbours. (This was, of course, at a time when the Sudan hadn't yet been hit as hard as Ethiopia; since then the situation in Sudan has paralleled that of its neighbour.) Food was anything but plentiful in the camps, hygiene was poor, and if those Jewish thousands had not been rescued what is left of a once-numerous tribe might well have dwindled to an endangered species.

The government of Israel still appears reluctant to use diplomacy to complete the rescue of Beta Israel. One might think that Israel is unwilling to further burden itself with this dark-skinned and primitive people. Granted, the rescue itself, the relocation of the refugees, their housing, medicine, food, clothing, education, work placement and training all require a massive expenditure of bureaucratic planning, and scarce Israeli shekels in an already over-strained war economy. But public subscription (particularly from North American sources) to assist the State in its commitment should help considerably to make up for the costs involved.

Perhaps settling this people throughout a country housing Jews whose background is European/Mediterranean/Arabic presents the government with another dilemma, integrating a socially and economically disadvantaged group whose existence was an embarrassment to the State.

Another thorny issue of course, is the reaction of the orthodox to this influx of 'others'. Both the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic chief rabbis have finally declared the Beta Israel to be truly Jews, with no need for further demeaning 'conversion' ceremonies. But regional orthodox rabbis are steadfastly refusing this recognition without the ceremonial of the mikva and ritual circumcision. The Beta Israel, deeply insulted by these emotionally injurious demands, are heartbroken at the turn of events. A protest march staged around Israel by the Beta Israel to bitterly demonstrate their opposition to the symbolic conversation (which holds their belief in their heritage in absolute contempt) was emotional and led many Ethiopian Jews to declare that this final humiliation compelled them to compare Israel unfavourably with their former condition in Ethiopia where they were at least recognized as Jews among strangers.

This is a sorry dilemma which deserves a fitting end. That end appears to be a long way off yet.

 

The Trial of Immanuel Velikovsky

The Trial of Immanuel Velikovsky
In 1950 a book was brought to publication, the repercussions of which are still reverberating in scientific circles to this day.

Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian Jew, born in 1895 and educated and graduated in medicine, in Moscow in 1921. He then went on to practise psychoanalysis in Tel Aviv, Israel, in the 1930s. While there, he pursued his interest in Egyptology. That pursuit led to the publication of a somewhat controversial book, 'Akhenaton and Oedipus', written co-jointly with Madam Velikovsky. But it was not until his later publication of 'Worlds in Collision' and then 'Earth in Upheaval', that the good Doctor's reputation was made - as an upstart lunatic, piddling in branches of science for which he held no recognized 'papers'; had no qualification as an unqualified 'expert'.

In fact, it was while he was researching ancient writings that he began to come across intriguing references to cataclysmic world upheavals. Not all of these references were rooted in mythic source as his detractors would insist they were; some were passing references in ancient, respected texts to geologic reversals, previously unsighted stellar bodies and other unexplained phenomena. All of which had puzzled the ancient observers who had set down their observations and which, when Dr. Velikovsky came across those references in many diverse sources (yet oddly corroborating each other) intrigued him no end. The sources were as diverse as Babylonian mythic sources, Egyptian sacred writings, Chinese historical texts and Hindu records. One Hebraic rabbinical text read: "The brilliant light of Venus blazes from one end of the cosmos to the other".

And that, in a nutshell, is what Velikovsky's controversial and scientifically-unpalatable theory is all about. After much study of such texts, and countless other sources, in addition to his own observational abilities applied to astrophysics, geology and astronomy - in addition to informed intuition, Velikovsky evolved the startling theory that an instant-in-time ago astronomically speaking (around 10,000 years ago) the Jovian planet Jupiter expelled a fiery object from itself which object then went on to enter a long elliptical orbit around the sun, dragging its considerable tail behind it. As Velikovsky would have it, Venus reached away from one perihelion to finally threaten our own planet earth, in its inexorable and frightening approach. That as the comet's tail entered the Earth's orbiting ambit a ferruginous dust filtered over the earth, colouring it red and rendering its waters unpotable so that life on earth was thereby threatened with extinction. Following this, a torrential rain of meteorites, presumably expelled from the comet's passage, pelted the earth, flattening all in their wake. And as our globe passed deeper into the comet's tail petroleum derivatives rained down, floated on the seas, impregnated the land - and earth became one great smouldering holocaust. Finally, caught in the comet's gravitational grasp, the earth shuddered as its axis tilted and structures both natural and man-made were laid waste. The oceans rushed over mountains and gushed into continental basins as rivers reversed their flow and islands disappeared into the sea - then overall a great hurricane rent forests and left incredible devastation in its wake.

As anyone would readily admit, that is a catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions. Nothing so inimical to life on earth, to the very survival of the planet itself had been suspected before Velikovsky's theory became public. the total effect could perhaps be compared to the Big Bang when all celestial bodies were not yet evolved; were only radioactive dust clouds; when an ineffable nuclear reaction took place which eventually cooled enough to render gases into their mineral state and the stars and planets gradually evolved.

But the solar system took billions upon billions of years to evolve, and Velikovsky was postulating the theory that the dreadful upheaval that he envisioned as having occurred to this globe took place within the period of written history - at a time when man was literate and had founded great empires. The question is, could anything of that monumental and catastrophic nature possibly have taken place a mere five thousand years ago? Such phenomena are generally conceded to evolve over incredibly long time-spans. Could the Earth and its environs have recovered so rapidly from its postulated near-destruction in 1,500 B.C.E.?

That question seems to demand quite a credibility gap - to be answered either way. It requires the suspension of an unswerving belief in things As They Are Currently Explained. In short, a re-structuring of scientific belief in the evolution of the Solar System.

Some of Velikovsky's persecutors (for they were no less than that) have made the observation that if he were to be believed, Newtonian theory would go by the boards. Well, the great Albert Einstein did present a theory which was soon after validated, which gave pause to Newton's theory and we have all somehow managed to survive that shock.

Velikovsky's detractors, and they are legion, maintain that with the high degree of scientific specialization currently necessary in all fields to properly investigate various aspects of science, it is impossible for any one man to know even one science thoroughly in all its aspects, let alone the many disciplines that Velikovsky drew upon to present his formidable theory. As a generalization, it may be true that it appears impossible for one man to become expert in many fields which require minutely detailed data ingestion, yet there are exceptions to many rules and Velikovsky has earned the respect of experts in a variety of fields, who have themselves dared to run the gauntlet of their own professions' disapproval, and support his right to a fair hearing.

There have been respected scientists who, though not entirely accepting Velikovsky's theories, yet found reason to respect the man's scientific integrity, all-around knowledge and theoretical grasp who regarded his theories with an open mind and felt them worthy of airing, discussion and empirical study, where applicable. Perhaps the most respected of these eminent scientists who gave Velikovsky support was none other than Albert Einstein, who, shortly before his death, read Velikovsky's manuscript, commented on it briefly and kindly and bade him to "...savour the whole episode (the unrelenting hounding and vilification by the scientific community) for its humorous side". (Letter, March 17,1955)

The scientific mind which was most outraged, which did its utmost, both clandestinely and aboveboard, to damage Velikovsky's reputation was Harlow Shapley, the eminent astronomer, whose tactics ranged from outright coersion (letters to Velikovsky's publishers in an attempt to have them withdraw as publishers) to spreading word abroad that Velikovsky was a lunatic, shunned by the respectable scientific community. Shapley, a past director of the Harvard Observatory, was, in fact, initially approached by Velikovsky who asked if he would read the manuscript, comment on it, and perhaps order a few spectroscopic (analytical) tests which might prove or disprove some of his points. Shapley told Velikovsky that either the whole scientific community was mad and only Velikovsky sane, or that he (Velikovsky) was mad and the scientific community sane. His theories, Shapley said to Velikovsky, were completely unacceptable.

This, without ever bothering to read the controversial text, although he had promised at one point that if Velikovsky had the manuscript 'vetted' by someone of whom Shapley approved, Shapley would condescend to read it. The condition was fulfilled, but nonetheless Shapley disdained to read the manuscript. And during Shapley's decades-long persecution (ending only with his death) of Velikovsky, the text in question remained unread. In fact, it can be said of all Velikovsky's most fervid detractors that none of them took the trouble to read the book. What they excelled in doing was to take statements from the book out of context, then twist them to suit their purposes, which was that of denigration.

It becomes almost immaterial as to whether Velikovsky's theories can be correct. That something akin to a witch-hunt went on and still continues is the moot point. Science does not care to have its cherished apple-carts upturned with impunity. At one time in history the stake was employed as a useful expedience for ridding the scientific community of embarrassment; such as was done with Giordano Bruno when he insisted that our globe was only one of many in the universe; that the sun and other heavenly bodies did not revolve around the Earth and that the chances of intelligent life on planets other than ours is a distinct possibility. In the centuries which have passed since Bruno's impious declaration, only the methods have appeared to have altered, but the persecution goes on.

There have been other scientists in our era who have transgressed the boundaries of discipline other than their own and have suffered no repercussions such as befell Velikovsky. Take, for example, Carl Sagan, a noted astronomer himself enamoured of the idea of extraterrestrial life, penning a somewhat controversial book on the evolution of the human brain ('The Dragons of Eden'), though self-admittedly he is no expert on evolution, anthropology or biology. The intelligent reader assesses the information available and draws his own conclusions. Censure from the scientific community, a jealous mafia, is entirely inconsistent with free thought, freedom of speech, and an open-mindedness in education.

Indeed, Velikovsky's fresh, frank and open-minded approach, unfettered by scientific orthodoxy, aided by his formidable intellect, can be held responsible for some of his theories which although derided by the scientific community, have later proven to be quite correct. As, for example, his contention that the surface of Venus was considerably hotter than science had expected it to be - and which the Venus probe later corroborated. And his urging of the IGY (International Geophysical Year/1957) to investigate a possible magnetic field in the magnetosphere. This, before the Van Allen magnetic belts were finally verified. Velikovsky predicted that petroleum derivatives would be discovered outside Jupiter and they later were. He predicted radio signals from planets and stars, and this before any were received by dish telescopes. Astronomy recognized inertia and gravity as forces in the universe, while Velikovsky predicted that electrical charges, space plasma and solar winds would have to be reckoned with in the near future.

Each and every one of these predictions and theories have been validated. None yet, of this theories, have been scientifically disproved, yet no accolades accrue to him as scientist/prophet, no indication from the scientific community as yet, that here is a great theoretical mind which was capable of predicting as-yet-undiscovered natural phenomena.

If recognition is withheld because some of his other theories appear to be embarrassing to science, then one has only to recall that Isaac Newton, with all his gravitational genius, was also an enthusiastic mystic, dabbling in the occult. A little-advertised side of that great man's interest, yet his was hailed as one of the greatest minds of his century.

Some of Velikovsky's colleagues at Princeton University, in particular, H.H. Hess, a world-renowned geophysicist, attempted to open the minds of his scientific colleagues to Velikovsky's work, but all his efforts were in vain. Similarly, Horace M. Kallen, philosopher and educator, went out of his way to intervene with Shapley on Velikovsky's behalf, then finally, was so disgusted by the vengefulness of Shapley-et-al's vendetta against Velikovsky that he wrote a public renunciation of his erstwhile friend, Shapley.

Velikovsky's treatment at the hands of the scientific community is a travesty of what is often claimed to be scientific open-mindedness and intellectual elasticity. The various scientific disciplines are as closed-minded, but for a few renegades, as they have always been; jealous of their reputations, their fondly-held beliefs in the immutability of personal theories, accepted theories. These are theories which are described as uniformitarian - which, translated, means that only processes that we can observe operating today could have existed in earlier periods of history. Thus effectively ruling out any type of sudden global catastrophe such as the type envisioned by Velikovsky in his maligned 'Worlds in Collision'.

Again, it hardly matters whether or not the intelligent and informed reader wishes to accept the totality of Velikovsky's theories. But an open-minded skeptic has a far healthier mind than a vicious closed-minded cynic with his own ax to grind. Velikovsky continues to be a thorn in the intellectual-scientific world which refuses to give credence to unorthodox, unapproved approaches to the unfolding of the universe. Despite that most of Velikovsky's initial defenders and detractors are now dead, Velikovsky is still denied the right to legitimately voice his heretical theories, without a rain of vociferous scientific criticism. It disturbs many that life does not unfold as it is expected to.