Newspaper Page Text
2
December 14, 1995 AUGUSTA FOCUS
Black Jews find going rough
From page one
“The worst thing is the Rus
sians,” he said, pointing across
the only paved road in
Beerotayim to another group of
trailers housing immigrants from
the former Soviet Union.
The groups never interact, ex
cept foroccasional fistfights among
youths, he said.
Alex Melnik, an 11-year-old on
the Russian-speaking side, said
he had trouble believing his dark
skinned neighbors were Jews at
all. “They’re very strange,” he said.
“And we don’t like them very
much.”
Discovered in 1867 by French
Jewish scholar Joseph Halevy,
Ethiopia’s Jews remained most
ly isolated until former Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Be
gin decided in the 1970 s to press
for their emigration to Israel.
Theories about their origins
range from the conversion of an
African tribe to them being de
scendants of biblical King
Solomon.
“When Israelis started to come
over some decades ago, we our-
Horrors of war in Sierre Leone prompt dispatch of UNICEF team
By Carolyn Henson
Associated Press Writer
GENEVA
A special UNICEF team will
be sent to Sierra Leone in the
next few days to assist children
and other victims of the coastal
African country’s increasingly
bloody civil war, the U.N. chil
dren’s agency said Monday.
m !l
MARK SUMMERS IN
THE MORNING!!!
TODAY'’S BEST
MUSIC
ALL DAY ON
4
£
today's best music 105.7
Get a great Christmas gift for only $19.95!
Subscribe to AUGUSTA FOCUS by calling 724-7855.
“The biggest impediment to
integration is skin color. We see
it all over the world, and it’s the
case here, t 00.”
—lsraeli Immigration Minister Yair Tsaban
selves couldn’t believe there were
Jews who aren’t black,” said
Masala, the activist who heads
the Ethiopian Immigrants Asso
ciation. “But for millennia we
dreamed of returning to Zion, and
this was our chance, sowe took it.”
The community arrived first in
trickles and then in two large air
lifts—one in 1984 and a second in
1991. Virtually no Jews are be
lieved to remain in Ethiopia.
Optimists say government sta
tistics indicate the beginnings of
integration.
Dorit Karlin, the government
official responsible for the ab
sorption of the Ethiopians, said
more than 600 are in college,
triple the number of two years
ago.
More than half have bought
homes with government grands
The team of six experts is espe
cially concerned with the children,
who have been hardest hit by the
fighting, UNICEF said.
Margharita Amodeo, a
UNICEF spokeswoman who just
returned from a 10-day visit to
the West African country, said
armed gangs are committing
unimaginable atrocities.
“I saw one child who had had her
World News
of up to $120,000 for families, far
more aid than available to other
immigrants. There are several
dozen Ethiopians serving as
army officers and numerous cas
es of marriage between Ethiopi
an immigrants and other Israe
lis, Karlin said.
Immigration Minister Yair
Tsaban said: “There has never
been such a colossal effort to ab
sorb immigrants. I regard it as a
test of honor for Israel. But it will
take more than a year, and more
than a generation.”
Tsaban conceded there are
“casesofracism” against the Ethi
opians.
“The biggest impediment toin
tegration is skin color. We see it
all over the world, and it’s the
case here, too,” he said in an
interview.
mouth removed with a spoon be
cause when the rebels came into
her home she was being fed, and
theyspooned outherlips,” Amodeo
said.
The toll from the four-year civil
war, which has spread through
out the country, includes mutilat
ed and severely malnourished
children, 2,500 child soldiers, near
ly 1 million refugees, and up to
15,000 dead.
Micha Odenheimer, a U.S.-
born activist for Ethiopianrights,
said the government is failing in
the primary challenge of helping
Ethiopian children and teen
agers close the educational gap
with Israeli-born contemporar
ies.
He noted that only 7 percent of
those eligible completed high
school entrance exams last year
— by far the lowest proportion of
any immigrant group in Israel.
That is a virtual guarantee of a
future as low-paid unskilled la
borers.
Masala, therights activist, con
tends Ethiopian children are as
signed to the poorest boarding
schools, often sharing them with
delinquents. He says the schools,
most of which are part of the
state’s special Orthodox religious
education system, actually alien
ate young Ethiopians from reli
gion.
“A terrible generation gap has
been created between the chil
dren who are moving away from
our traditions, and their parents
who are very religious and have
difficulty with Israeli secular
life,” Masala said.
In the last few years, the conflict
between the Revolutionary Unit
ed Front and government forces
-has apparently splintered into
gangs focused more on intimida
tion than pelitical goals.
“People going looking for food
are coming back without arms
and hands. It is one way of instill
ing their terror campaign,” said
Amodeo.
REPAIR
YOUR
CREDIT
* SLOW CREDIT*NO CREDIT
* BANKRUPTCY * DIVORCE
*REPOSSESSION
WE CAN HELP!
CALL JOHN DUFFY
ON OUR CREDIT
HOTLINE TODAY!
736-5500
AUGUSTA
) MITSUBISHI
1 BLOCK WEST OF REGENCY MAI} .
GORDON HIGHWAY
Feds slash majority
black districts
From page one
nosurprisetothe McKinney camp.
“We weren’t really expecting
anything. Thisis the same court
that struck down the 11th Dis
trict in the first place, so I guess
it was not a hopeful situation,”
Mr. Jabara said.
Thedirectlocal impact of these
configurationsis that portions of
Richmond County that were once
in District 11 will now be in Rep.
Charles Norwood’s 10th District.
This adds a large pocket of black
voters to the white Republican’s
district that now extends farther
south.
In a news release written be
fore the ruling, Ms. McKinney
Atlanta airport to offer direct
charter service to Africa
ATLANTA
(AP) An Atlanta-based charter
service will soon begin the first
direct charter service between
Hartsfield Atlanta Internation
al Airport and Africa, officials
said Monday.
Airline Marketing Inc. has
flights to Accra, Ghana, sched
uled Dec. 17 and Jan. 7. The char
ter company plans weekly day
time-arrival service thereafter
from Atlanta and Accra Interna
tional Airport, with an extension
flight to Lagos, Nigeria, where a
connection to Port Harcourt, Ni
geria, will be available.
promoted legislation she recent
ly introduced that would allow
states to draw multi-member
congressional districts using one
of three proportional voting
methods.
If adopted, Ms. McKinney said
her Voters’ Choice Act would
permit states to abandon a “win
ner-take-all” method and allow
voters to rank their choices for
Congress.
“Regardless of what the court
does, we will be back in this re
districting mess five short years
from now. Itis time that we look
to the built-in deficiencies in our
electoral system which shut out
independents, third parties and
minorities,” Ms. McKinney said
in the release.
Airport officials said the compa
ny has an agreement with World
Airways Inc. and will be served by
a wide-body DC-10 seating 31 in
business class and 316 in econo
my.
“This first direct service between
Atlanta and West Africa reinforc
es our intention to become the
American gateway to Africa,”
Mayor Bill Campbell said.
Segun Adesanya, president of
Airline Marketing, said Atlanta
was chosen “because itis a major
city and is considered the major
transportation center of the
South.”