“Thus declares Hashem, Who gathers the dispersed of Yisrael: ‘I will gather still more to those already gathered.’” Isaiah 56:8 (The Israel Bible™)An additional 1,000 Ethiopian Jews have been determined to meet Israel’s criteria for making aliyah (moving to Israel), the Knesset’s State Control Committee announced on Monday. The committee revealed that earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had received a letter from the Population and Immigration Authority validating the status of the 1,000 Jews. “At the Interior Ministry there are some 5,000 requests which have yet to be processed.”It has not been easy for Ethiopian Jews to make aliyah because Israel’s Law of Return reserves the right to immigrate only for individuals who can show that they have Jewish ancestry. Israel’s Ministry of Absorption concluded in 1973 that Ethiopian Jews did not fulfil such criteria, however, this policy was eventually reversed after the late Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef ruled that Ethiopian Jews were in fact descendants of the tribes of Israel. Approximately 100,000 Ethiopian Jews have made aliyah since Rabbi Yosef’s ruling.

Source: Ethiopian News February 14, 2018 11:03 UTC