Building A Brighter Future for Ethiopian Israelis
- Posted on:
- November 5, 2010
David Kivrat recently told the story of how his family arrived in Israel in 1991 as part of Operation Solomon, a daring initiative supported by UJA-Federation that rescued more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews from war, poverty, and religious oppression.
After his father died five years ago, David continued, he struggled to stay in school during that difficult time. With the help of Birth to Bagrut, he explained, he remained in school, completed 12th grade, and passed his matriculation, or bagrut, exams.
“Because so many people helped me and reached out to me, I’m doing a year of service in the community before I enter the army,” David said to a group of 50 high school seniors at Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan on November 3rd.
David and three other young Ethiopian Israelis from Rehovot were part of a delegation visiting New York for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Birth to Bagrut, an initiative of UJA-Federation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a beneficiary agency.
“Birth to Bagrut has given UJA-Federation an opportunity to participate directly in one of the most wonderful and challenging stories in modern Israel — the aliyah of Ethiopian Jewry and the process of working with them to become full partners in Israeli life,” said Evelyn Kenvin, chair of UJA-Federation’s Commission on the Jewish People.
Helping the Next Generation of Ethiopian Israelis
Birth to Bagrut is designed to help young Ethiopian Israelis integrate into Israeli society. Their parents grew up in remote parts of Ethiopia and have struggled to bridge the gap between a rural culture and Israel’s modern, technological one. More than 50 percent of Ethiopian Jews in Israel live below the poverty line.
“The biggest challenge for my parents was learning the language, and that they didn’t know how to write,” David explained. “The biggest challenge for me is that it’s difficult for me to communicate with my parents. They don’t know Hebrew, and I don’t know Amharic — which they speak — very well.”
Birth to Bagrut, initially concentrated in Rehovot and now expanded to Gedera, helps Ethiopian-Israeli children stay in school, and offers academic support so students can pass the matriculation exams, which are key for going on to higher education and ultimately occupational success.
Birth to Bagrut is a flagship program that has much to celebrate, notes Ilan Halperin, planning director at UJA-Federation’s Israel office.
“Sixty-two percent of Rehovot seniors enrolled in Birth to Bagrut have passed the high school matriculation exams,” Halperin said. “This compares to 40 percent of Ethiopian Israelis overall — and 60 percent for the national average.”
In addition to their visit at Heschel, the delegation has been busy raising awareness about Birth to Bagrut by meeting with members of the New York Jewish community, attending receptions, and visiting other schools, including Hempstead High School in Long Island and Westchester Hebrew High School. At Hempstead, they met with African-American and Latino students and talked about what it means to be the first in their families to graduate from high school.
The visit to Heschel also helped highlight the importance of such exchanges for enhancing Jewish peoplehood.
“I’ve seen books and movies about Ethiopian Israelis,” said one Heschel student. “But I’ve never spoken to an Ethiopian Jew before. I didn’t know what their life was like. David’s conflict with his family in being able to communicate is not an issue I’ve ever thought about.”
Another student remarked on the difference between the difficulties of the parents trying to integrate into Israel and the second generation who feel more at home. “This was something I didn’t know about,” she said.
Read what Steve Schwager, executive vice president & CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, has to say about Birth to Bagrut's success.