June 23, 2008 – Gondar, Ethiopia

June 23, 2008 – Gondar, Ethiopia

When I last wrote, I was going to bed in order to be ready for a day in Gondar visiting a church to see frescos, go to the market, and try to visit a group of Ethiopian Jews trying to get permission to emigrate from Ethiopia to Israel. It didn't quite work out that way for me. To quote my mother, "It was the chicken stomach!" Let's just say that Ethiopian food tastes much better going down than it does coming up. I spent the day in the hotel bed with a fever and a bad stomach. Thus the following is constructed from the notes in Brad's journal as I thought piecing together his day would be much more interesting than reading about me sleeping through "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Importance of Being Ernest," movies I tried to watch on my computer but just managed to sleep through.

The highlight of Gondar was the Selasse Church. The only remaining church from the late 18^th century as the others were destroyed by the Dervish (Sudanese). This one, it is said, was saved because a swarm of bees attacked the soldiers and instead of destroying the church the fled.

The architecture of the church is nothing out of the ordinary, but inside, the prolific painting is a site to behold. Angels cover the ceiling and most o f the stories of the bible are depicted on the walls of the church. There is a large painting of Jesus on the cross as you would expect. There is also a depiction of St. George slaying the dragon, the three wise men, the devil, and even the depths of hell. Every wall and the entire ceiling is covered in paintings which sounds overwhelming, but it is truly remarkable.

For the afternoon, we had hoped to visit the Felasha, an community of Ethiopian Jews. We tried to do this yesterday on our way from the airport to the hotel when we stopped at the Felasha Feeding Centre and Synagogue. We figured here we were, four Jews, coming to visit fellow Jews far away from home. We pulled up to the gate of a tin-roofed building decorated with a Star of David expecting to be welcomed in as unexpected, but happily accepted visitors. Only the man with the very large gun guarding the door had different ideas. He said we had to have official permission from Addis in order to visit. As everyone in Ethiopia now has a cell phone, we tried to call said official in Addis, but he was out. Why we needed permission to say hello to people and see the synagogue was unclear, but getting around the red tape of a formerly-socialist-still-not-so-open-to-foreigners-government was apparently not going to be easy. But in the morning our guides tracked down the man we needed to speak to and gave the number to Brad. Brad called and used his charm and pretty easily got permission to visit.

The Felasha at the centre have to prove Jewish heritage or, as our tour guide put it, produce a family tree that showed Judaic roots. If they could do this, then they could qualify for the feeding centre, which gives food to pregnant women, children under the age of six, and their mothers. In addition to the feeding centre, there are adult and children's Hebrew classes, wine making, a weaving project, and a school for children 6 – 18 with approximately 1000 students. The school consists of about 14 classrooms, where in addition to their normal classes, they study Hebrew, and Judaism. Every month, approximately 300 leave to live in Israel. Whether this will continue indefinitely is unknown as there is political pressure in Israel and in Ethiopia to stop the program.

They didn't get to meet many of the Felasha since none spoke English, but they did meet a female rabbi who is Ethiopian but was schooled in Israel. The official guide of the centre, Mr. Geytu, described her as a "real Jew," which made it clear that he was skeptical about the validity of the other Felashas' claims or at least a bias against Felashas as compared to Israeli Jews.