North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ)

03/29/2018

Making matzoh in Ethiopia 2018

01/25/2017

http://conta.cc/2jyrTxD

08/25/2016

From Ethiopia to the Olympics! Agaza's Story

Agaza Guade (pictured below) came to Israel from Ethiopia with family members as a pre-teen. He recognized the importance of learning Hebrew and integrating into Israeli society as fast as possible and worked hard to do so.

Following high school, Agaza joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he demonstrated a real talent for athletics which the army supported and encouraged. He continues to serve in the reserves now.

He is now studying teaching and physical education at the Wingate Institute, where he has a sponsor through NACOEJ.
Agaza was the Israeli champion runner for 2008 - 2009 in the long distance 1500 to 10,000 meter runs.

We are thrilled and proud to tell you that Agaza, having qualified in Rotterdam, represented Israel in the marathon in the Rio Olympics! This is an extraordinary achievement as he continues his education at the same time. Well done Agaza!

08/18/2016

From the Students at the Ben-Eliezer High School

High school students at the Ben-Eliezer School in Ness Ziona, who were sponsored through NACOEJ, took the time as a group to express their appreciation to NACOEJ as they graduated 12th grade in June, 2016.

Dear NACOEJ,

With the studies of the 12th grade coming to an end, we are graduating.

We are joining the army; each will go wherever the army will need him or her most. We hope we will love and succeed in the position, our first as adults.

We are leaving school filled with knowledge, graduates who know the history of our people and about the need to contribute to the security of the country. Now it's our turn.

During our studies at the school we were able to travel to different areas of the country. We experienced being together with our friends just like everybody else.

Your sponsorship made it possible to go on trips with the other students and we thank you.
____________________________________________________
For more information on the NACOEJ/Edward G. Victor High School Sponsorship Program, just email: [email protected]

08/18/2016

New York City office was visited by Tarik Goshu and her family. Tarik is an AAS student.

04/25/2016

Just as they do each year, the Ethiopian-Israeli children in our after-school programs have been busy learning about Passover and enjoying many activities to prepare and celebrate. In Ramle, they had "activity centers", where they made their own Hagaddahs, Seder plates, and, as you'll see, danced enthusiastically to Jewish music.

Our Ethiopian-Israeli students dance to Holiday music as part of Passover preparation activities in Ramle, Bar Ilan.

11/17/2015

Chanukah, the holiday of light and miracles, will soon be here.
In Israel, over 700 Ethiopian-Israeli elementary school children attend our after-school Limudiah classes.

But many of these children live in families that suffer from “food insecurity”. And they can’t learn on an empty stomach. So, we begin each Limudiah class with a nutritious well-balanced meal.

Your 8th Night of Chanukah gifts make these meals possible. With every gift of $36 we’ll send an American child (or adult) a personalized certificate telling them you’ve made a gift in their honor. Just click here to give this gift: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=nacoej&id=5&formid=52&Preview=true

All of us at NACOEJ wish you, your family and friends a bright, joyous, and meaningful Chanukah.

08/27/2015

NACOEJ runs a Back-to-School Program with games, sports, music, arts and crafts and lunch, as well as fun reading and math sessions to prepare the children for the coming school year. For Ethiopian-Israeli children whose families can't afford summer camp or tutors, these two weeks provide a lot of fun and learning combined. An excursion to a zoo was one of the highlights.

07/21/2015

Come join in the annual prayer service for Israel and hear Barbara speak on July 26th! See below:

SUNDAY, JULY 26th - 2:00PM
ISAIAH PEACE WALL - First Avenue & 43rd Street, opposite UN
The day after Tisha B'Av ten years ago, the 21 Jewish communities of Gush Katif were expelled in a failed effort to achieve peace with their Palestinian neighbors in Gaza. One year ago, thousands of rockets were launched and dozens of terror tunnels were dug from Gaza into Israel in a bloody war.
As Congress intensely debates the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran continues to threaten Israel with annihilation. Here in the US, we wonder if our president shares our existential fears for our Jewish homeland. And in France, across Europe and the former USSR, terror attacks on Jews and over anti-Semitism rear their ugly heads.

There's so much to pray for this Tisha B'Av. Join our 38th annual prayer service for Israel and Jews in danger worldwide at the dramatic Isaiah Peace Wall, opposite the United Nations.
The service will be led by Rabbi Steven Exler of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Rabbi Avi Weiss, who was in Gush Katif during the expulsion, will address us by phone from Israel. Helen Freedman, director of Americans for a Safe Israel, also present during the expulsion, will share her intense recollections of that day and of followup visits to the expellees over the past decade.

Barbara Ribakove, director of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jews, will discuss the recent challenges facing our Ethiopian-Israel brothers and sisters.

The prayer service is a traditional mincha, complete with reading from a Torah scroll. If you can, please bring your siddur (prayerbook) and tallis and tefilin as needed. See you there!

Coordinated by AmchaCoalition for Jewish Concerns (3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, Bronx, NY 10463) together with Americans for a Safe Israel, and the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.
Info: (212) 6635784 or tishabavattheisaiahwall.

05/08/2015

Statement on Actions in Israel

The leadership of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ) is appalled at the unprovoked attack at the hands of Israeli police on a uniformed Ethiopian-Israeli member of the IDF, 21-year-old Corporal Damas Fikade.

An ensuing mass protest in Tel Aviv on May 3 ended in violence. But up to the point when the hours-long march entered Rabin Square, it had been a model of democratic process.

The Ethiopian demonstrators walked peacefully, chanting, carrying their messages on signs, some carrying Israeli flags. They were joined by members of the Knesset and non-Ethiopians.
Although the marchers, who did not have a permit to demonstrate, blocked traffic in downtown Tel Aviv, police were instructed to show restraint, and did so.

It is not clear what turned this peaceful protest into a violent confrontation. According to Chief Superintendent Nissim Doudi, Commander of the North Tel Aviv police precinct, the violence was started not by Ethiopians but by “anarchist groups” that co-opted the demonstration.

Everyone from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Ethiopian-Israeli leaders deplored the violence, as have the American Jewish organizations that have worked with Ethiopian Jews, NACOEJ prominent among them.

Shoshana Ben-Dor, NACOEJ Director of Israel Programs, was among the first to sign a letter from a large forum of Ethiopian-Israeli organizations, urging the national Comptroller’s Office to start an investigation into police treatment of Ethiopian citizens.
Corporal Fikade said on Army Radio: “I am opposed to violence against citizens and against police. It’s important that they hear our side, but violence will not solve the problem.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Corporal Fikade, and with Ethiopian leaders, police officials, members of his cabinet and many others to look at what Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called “an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society”.

The protest has brought to the forefront other distress signals coming from Ethiopian-Israelis as to housing, employment, social acceptance, and of course poverty and education.

In response, Israeli President Rivlin said: “We have erred. We have not looked, or listened, enough.”

Let us all look and listen with newly opened eyes and ears, and work together toward solutions that will provide the Ethiopian-Israeli community with the resources and opportunities that they deserve to take their rightful place in Israeli society.