Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
We arrived in the late afternoon, about a half hour before sundown. We walked from our bus to the transit center along narrow, dirty alleys strewn with trash and animal bones. I picked up a ram’s horn thinking I'd take it home but the smell was just too awful.
We entered the transit center one by one through a narrow gate. The center was clean but certainly no palace. There were rooms with mattresses on the floor where the soon to be olim/immigrants slept the night before and there was a modest open courtyard.
The Ethiopian Jews stood along the exterior wall in two lines. Their only possessions were in small carry-on bags or backpacks. They were absolutely quiet. Even the children were still. Sometimes silence is truly deafening.
Together we exited the narrows (Mitzrayim) of the center's gate one by one. Two lines reformed. We walked down the dusty and dirty alleys. People from the neighborhood stood and stared but did not say a word. The olim stayed in two lines throughout. No one spoke; all we heard was the soft sound of their feet taking them home.
The walk took about 20 minutes, the silence continuing. Some of us held hands with the younger children; connections made. The faces of the olim were neither happy nor sad, just serious. This was an exodus march and the olim understood the awe of the moment. And we felt it and we too transcended to an Exodus long ago.
Asher Seyum, an Israeli consul and Jewish Agency director of operations, led the march. Some 30 years ago, as a young teen, Asher made a more difficult exodus. He and members of his family walked some 500 miles from Gondar to Sudan in order to reach Zion. They traveled at night and hid by day. After three weeks, when they reached Sudan, they were thrown into detention camps. Many were beaten and many became ill. At least 2,000 Ethiopian Jews, some say 4000, died in those camps. Fortunately, the government of Israel, with the help of North American Jewry, rescued Jews like Asher as part of Operation Moses.
About 100 yards from the bus that would take them to the airport and the plane to Israel, Asher began to sing “Am Yisrael Chai” — the people of Israel live. The olim joined in and so did we. We had felt it but at that moment it became clear… the people of Israel live, truly one people united, caring and responsible for each other, and strong together. Am Yisrael Chai!
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