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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 23, 1*»82
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Soul hern fewry
Established 7925
Vida Goldgar
7 ditor and Publisher
I una Levy
Assistant Editor
Bambi Jo Eaton
Feature Editor
Louis O. Hertz
Business Manager
Leonard Goldstein Eschol A. Harrell
Advertising Duet tor Production Manager
Published every hridoy by The Southern Israelite, Inc.
Serorrd Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
Mailing Address P O Bo* 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Location 188 15th St , NW Phone (404) 876-8248
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $20.00, 1 year; $35.00, 2 years
Member <>t .Wish Telegraphs Aqeruy. Religious News Service
Amen, an Jewish Press Assn . Georgia Press Assn National Newspaper Assn
Jew vs. Jew
It is a sad sight to see Jews fighting Jews in Yamit and hard to
see Israeli soldiers tearing down the homes and businesses built so
lovingly by those who thought they were building for all time.
But for the most part, it is not the residents of the Sinai who are
barricading themselves in or threatening to kill themselves rather
than leave. Despite their objections and desolation at having to be
transplanted, most of the residents have gone peacefully.
The resisters are militant squatters from the “Stop the
Withdrawal" movement and the militant of all are those followers
of Meir Kahane’s Kach movement.
We have sympathy for their desire to keep the land but no
sympathy for their actions. Israel has promised to give back the
Sinai. It should be done in the same spirit in which it was
promised peace.
A winner
With all the doom and gloom in the world it’s nice to have at
least one thing to cheer about. At press time, the Atlanta Braves
have won 13 straight record-setting ballgames.
Yeaaaaa team!
Vida Goldgar
This Budd’s for you
tion really be the
I
eshama, despite all
Could the person who was chattering away on
long-distance phone about matzo balls and Seder and
her son’s Hebrew School education really be the
subject of the pink publicity sheet
in front of me that dwelt
glittering nightclub acts, sell-out
concerts, record albums and movie
roles? Since I was talking to Julie
Budd the answer was “yes.'
Those of you who heard Julie
sing at the JNF dinner earlier this
year might have suspected that the |
sandy-haired, green-eyed
entertainer was a f(uia Ytddishe neshama. despite ;
the glamour.
As we talked she was packing to come back to
Atlanta for an engagement at the Hyatt Regency’s
Club Atlantis.
Julie’s been packing and unpacking since she was a
teen-ager. In fact, she was 12 when she accepted a dare
from her cousin and entered a talent contest at the
Catskill resort where her family was vacationing.
Composer/arranger Herb Bernstein was a guest at
the hotel and as it happens in the movies her career
was launched
No question about it, her coast-to-coast
engagements keep her on the move. Still, as she
describes it, when she has time off the road, her life
reverts to being wife to Alan Ramer, recording studio
owner, and mother to Alan’s eight-year-old son,
Jordy.
And that brings us back to Seder “It was a great
Seder," she says, “it really, really was,” and 1 could
sense her smiling over the phone. “I had my father and
my husband lead the Seder. Usually only one person
does it but I had both of them because it was my first
Seder in my new apartment,” she said, adding, “You
know. I’ve only been married 2‘fi years.”
The Seder was especially nice or “really, really
nice” she repeated for Jordy. “He was so excited
about it he loved being part of it. It’s great for the
kids. They get so excited.” I could tell that Julie was
excited, too. “It’s not fair to rob them of that."
While she is on the road, there is full-time help to
take care of Jordy—to take him to school, help him
with his homework, cook, etc. When it’s possible,
Alan and Jordy join Julie for a week. “It’s a crazy
life,” she admits, “but we love it." 1 told her, that in
spite of all that, she sounded very much like a Jewish
mother “Yeah,” she laughed, “tradition is funny, it’s
all in your head. It isn’t the way you live, it’s the way
you think.”
On the subject of families, I wanted to clarify once
and for all the rumor that had swept the JNF dinner—
that Julie was Barbra Streisand's sister. No truth to
it. Streisand has a sister who sings but her name isn’t
Julie. And Julie has two sisters. Neither sings and
neither is named Barbra. Susie is a psychiatric social
worker and Jill is in the special education field.
Although each excels in her field, Juliedidn't feel they
were very competitive a* children. “We were very
individualized. We were each very clear about what
we wanted to do.”
For Julie, it was always singing. She admits that a
singing career wasn’t exactly what her parents had in
mind back in those growing-up days in Brooklyn
Family life sounds pretty typical. “My father was
raised in a typically Orthodox Jewish immigrant
family and they were very, very strict," she says. “My
father was a big macher in the synagogue.” Her father,
she says proudly, “has been a big giver all his file. He’s
worked hard and it’s paid off for him, so he’s been able
to afford to give money away.” Hesitating just a
moment she adds, “But, hey, there a lot of people out
there who have money and don’t give.”
Perhaps that is why Julie does so many benefit
performances. She finds a way to make time for them.
“I feel when you get a lot you’ve gotta give a little back,
too. I have a very strong identification with being
Jewish. I feel it’s something 1 have to do." That
“something” has included singing for the troops in
Israel.
So here’s a young woman who—still a few years
away from 30 seems to have the world by the tail,
who has worked with Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and
other greats, and we talk about kugel and tzedaka and
the Sabbath candles she lights.
That’s show biz???
The Jews of Ethiopia
by Stanley M. I^efco
(Part one of a three-part series
on the history and condition of
Ethiopian Jewry.)
lhc Jews of Ethiopia call
themselves Beta Israel, House of
Israel. They are commonly
referred to as Falashas, meaning
people who are without land, but
loosely translated as exiles or
strangers.
In 722 B.C.E.. lOof the I2tribes
ol Moses were carried into exile
and lost, including the tribe of
Dan. Ethiopian Jewry claims its
ancestry from this tribe, which
either escaped or was earned off by
the Assyrians in 586 B.C.E., and
traces its history back to Menelik,
legendary son of King Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba. The story
goes that she was tricked into
sleeping with Solomon, and their
son and his followers are the
forefathers of the Falashas.
Another theory of the Falashas’
ancestry is based on the
Abyssinian (Ethiopian) invasion
of Yemen in the sixth century. C F
lews were enslaved and taken back
to Abyssinia where thev mixed
with the local tribes Some Western
scholars believe the Falashas are
indigenous Africans converted by
Jews from Elephantine (in
Fgvpt). or from Yemen.
During the Middle Ages the
Falashas conquered much of
Ethiopia, but later were defeated
by Christian tribes. To avoid
capture and slavery in 1559 by
Ethiopian King Sarsa Dengel, the
Falashas on the mountain fortress
of Mashaka, in the Masada-like
situation, cut their own throats or
jumped from the fortress precipice
In 1869 Professor Joseph
Halevy of the Sorbonne sought to
strengthen the Jewish identity of
the Falashas. In 1904 Jacques
Faitlovich, a Polish-born
Orthodox Jew who died in 1955,
traveled to Ethiopia to help the
Falashas build schools and
assist them in the training of
teachers. The Ashkenazi chief
rabbi of Palestine. Rabbi Yat/hak
Herzog, in 1921 called for their
rescue.
At one time it was estimated that
there were one million Ethiopian
Jews, but by the turn of the century
the estimate was only 100,000
Today, figures vary from as few as
10,000 to 28,000. In the early 1970s
many Falasha families were wiped
out by weary landlords, afraid for
their own safety, due to new harsh
tax laws Some Falashas were sold
into slavery.
After the fall of Ethiopia’s
Emperor Haile Selassi in 1975, the
Falashas were caught between the
revolutionafies and those loyal to
the former royalty. The same year
Israel officially recognized the
Falashas as Jews eligible for
aliyah. Although (hey have no
knowledge of (he Talmud, they
observe the Sabbath, eat only
kosher food and pray in straw-
roofed synagogues. By 1968 only
10 Falashas lived in Israel, but by
1976. the number was 165
In January 1973 a report of the
Israeli Ministry of Absorption,
signed by Joseph I itvak, noted
that the Falashas are not Jews and
cannot emigrate to Israel under the
Law of Return The same year
Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yossef
declared that they are in fact Jews.
Israel entered into secret
arrangements in August 1977 with
Ethiopia to allow its Jews to leave
in exchange for guns. On Aug. 29,
1977, 62 Jews entered the country.
Only 121 Ethiopian Jews managed
to leave Ethiopia before the
arrangement was terminated
Fifteen Falashas addressed
world Jewry in a March 16, 1979,
letter: "...the Israeli government
and the Jewish Agency have failed
to act or even to attach great
importance to the lives of those
Jews of Ethiopia who have aspired
lor thoOsands of years to return to
Zion ..."
To be continued.