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Before I comment on this article, let me introduce myself. I am a 78 year old Ethiopian and a friend of Israel. Israel and Ethiopia have had long and healthy historical relations. Both nations are surrounded by potential danger and should watch each other's back.
I am now addressing my comments to Mr. Steve Lipman (Staff Writer) of the The Jewish Weekly (NY). The article entitled "How One Brave Woman Rescued An Ethiopian Slave" is ludicrous. It may be stylish to write derogatory stories about third world countries and may in the short run sell a few more papers, but this story is totally unsubstantiated, and disregards essential elements of journalistic ethics namely accuracy and objectivity.
I do not think the author has any idea of what slavery is. I suggest he should be sent to the nearest library to read about how black African slaves were treated in Brazil and the United States. How they are today treated in certain Middle Eastern countries.
There are no slaves in Ethiopia. This does not mean that Ethiopians, Eritreans or Somalis are not kidnapped, sold, tortured and enslaved, but never in their own country. Human trafficking is something we should condemn and fight against.
Let us now come the heroine - Judie Oron, a Canadian resident in Israel. Could she be looking for attention or acceptance by the Israelis and exaggerating if not fabricating the story ? The author, for reasons best known to himself, has built her up into a courageous single white women who in spite of untold dangers succeeds in her crusade to save a slave. Indiana Jones would look insignificant beside this giant.
I was a witness of the period in Ethiopia's history referred to as "red terror" during Ethiopia's Marxist revolution and 17 years of Military rule, when internal conflict which lasted for years and claimed more than a million lives. During this period not a single foreigner, to my knowledge, while or of any other pigment was touched or placed in grave danger.
There are many loop holes in Ms. Oron's fairytale. Why did Wubit no make aliyah with her family in the first place ? Why did Oron take Wubit's younger sister into her Jerusalem home ? cheep labor perhaps? This genius of a women, is supposed to have discovered Wubit after doing research. A she Sherlock Holms, sits in a library in New York or wherever she conducts research, she searches for a lost 17 year old and whoops !! not only did she discover her whereabouts but that she was also a slave ! "If she is alive.... she could not be living a good life" Oron says of course through the use of her superb analytical mind.
Not many village folks in Ethiopia or anywhere in the third world live like the affluent westerners. Slave are usually sold and taken far away from their villages and normal surroundings. How much was Wubit sold for and by whom? Why when she returned from the Sudan did she chose to go to the village where she might be made a slave, and not to the capital city or other major city like Gondar or Dessie. Why is it that not one word of what Wubit said was quoted in the whole article ?
Who was the author of this silly article referring to when he said "an Amharic speaking visitor on a Canadian visa " does Ms. Oron speak Amharic or was it another super detective Canadian ? Somehow, Wubit is located, through bribes and street smart operation - what rubbish, who did Oron have to bribe and why? What street smart activities were accomplished in a village with one dirt road. A slave would never be freed for as little as 500 Birr, this is the amount I used to pay my house maid monthly and in addition she had adequate accommodation, electricity, running water free of charge and exclusive use of WC in what is commonly referred to as servants quarters. Would you not think that a slave who would serve for years if not a lifetime, be worth a great deal more than USD 111 (500 Br.).
As an anti-slavery advocate, without doubt Ms. Oran will recover all the money she claims to have spent as a good Samaritan, all she has to do is establish a fake foundation and beg for donations. She will be very rich in no time.
Why does she not go to where human being are sold as slaves - on the Sinai desert bordering Israel or in Yemen bordering Saudi Arabia. Many Ethiopians, Eritreans and Somalis have perished in these parts in their quest for better pastures. The going price for rescuing an individual kidnapped, and sold to Arab salve traders in the areas mentioned above is between USD 30,000 and 40,000. MS. Oran has gotten away with USD 111 - she is an incredibly skillful women. I wish Wubit all the best.
For the record, the Edison Police Dept and the prosecutor's office are taking this seriously as a bias crime. Obviously the Edison police and prosecutor feel the threat is against my synagogue and the person who emailed this, according to the police has a history of bias and bigotry. I guess the damage done to my garage door with 40 indentations is imaginary. The Edison police are investigating.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
Thank you for responding. It if means anything, please accept my apologies for the lack of protection and security due you that the Orthodox community failed to provide.
Wow, so let's find a man based on things that aren't important. In my list, a man must have not ordered anything at Mcdonald's for the past year and he must drive either a toyota prius C or honda civic 2012. Also, he had to of grown up in a green color house or he is not a match for me and I hate any guy who hasn't been raised in a green colored house.
I have non-hyperactive ADD, and at age 8 in 1963 my 90% scholarship (awarded for a high IQ) to Ramaz was revoked on account of my inattentiveness. It's past time this discrimination stopped!
Once again DA Hynes makes it clear that he's all about politics and votes. Not Justice. He has the head of his reelection Committee respond to an expose article instead of the ADA in charge of his CIU.
The bottom line is that the Hynes/Vecchione team aggressively prosecuted an innocent man without any credible evidence and robbed him of 23 years of his life.
This brings to mind what a friend in the Lakewood area tells me -- that, without the signs, people 'not dressed modestly enough' are ignored by salespeople in certain establishments there. I wonder if this has happened in these stores as well.
"Ironically, members of Poland’s small Jewish community infrequently patronize these Jewish-style restaurants."
Ironically, these restaurants are serving "Jewish style" pork.
Patronizing such places, so desirous of creating "authentic" Jewish flavors and environments, would be to condone an egregious display of poor taste and cultural insensitivity - albeit born of ignorance - in a place that has no business taking such a casual approach to this piece of its "lost" heritage. I see no irony in the choice to stay away.
Well, all I can say is that you have to visit KJ and see there new playground. one for fathers and sons, one for mothers and daughters and one for boys seperate from girls....NON-JEWS not allowed NON-Haredi JEWS not allowed. This is not stereotyping them but it is truly adverse to all our thinking as regular Jews. This is a shonda! I hope they find out that they used Federal or State money for this and they have to allow everyone in the playground.
Greenberg leads the water-down orthodox Judaism movement.
If memory serves me correctly,many years ago he advocated pre-marital relations which got him into scalding water at YU.He was obsessed with catholic-jewish relations ad nauseum,and now supports a group of feminists who wear tefilin,kippot,taleisim,as in your face jewish symbols-crying out for a social and political-egalitarianism.The holy Torah ascribes different and equally important roles \to Jewish men and women-by crossing lines these women are desecrating G-ds name.
The Psalmist tells us- bat melech penimah-the real jewish princess doesn't thrust herself into the public eye but is modest and low-key.Ladies find a husband if you don't have one,go home and take care of your kids, and make a good cholent for Shabbat.These are special activities And yitz Greenberg ,please,move onto the correct side of an issue.Slicing the holy Kotel into three is like keeping a dairy,meat,and non kosher set of dishes at home.
Moslem brothers and sisters, please educate the extremists of your religion too! Those who want to kill Jews and others. That should take preference, inner-outreach, before outer-outreach. Thanks.
JM in the AM listener, I just heard you speaking with Nachum, Googled, and found this.
There are more of us (anti-Democrat Party Politics) out here than many imagine.
Slavery in Ethiopia in 1991? Rubbish! I think this story in fabricated by someone who is utterly ignorant of Ethiopian history. We have done away with slavery long time ago. Conditions for rural women in Ethiopia, especially for women in northern Ethiopia, are tough. No doubt about that. But to claim the existence of slavery in Ethiopia in 1991is totally unacceptable. We were all poor, miserable and down-trodden, be it a Beta Israel, Amhara, Oromo, Tigre or Kimant, because we were in the front line of the so called 'cold-war'. But a slave? Bullshit. Try telling that to Wouditu!
i was too young to remember what happened in 1991 but i don't believe this story one bit for starters how come a woman from Canada, with no ulterior motives, be roaming the Ethiopian streets after a civil war? we don't even that much Canadians here now, where we live in relative peace. OK lets say she was how can you expect me to believe that the same Ethiopians who provided peaceful safe living quarters for hundreds of years to all Jewish settlers in there land turn out to be slave masters of wuditu(which means the precious one in Amharic).Further more this sort of lies about my country and its people coming from a Jewish news paper is shameful after all Ethiopia and its people were safe heaven for jews where they were prosecuted in Europe and elsewhere. then you have the audacity to vlaim she was sold for 111$ shame on you we had outlawed slavery and slave trade long before 1991 please check your history.
now you want the world to believe that poor wuditu is living happily in the land of Israel, well lets see i have recently read a statement by the israeli government apologizing for using contraceptive methods against the jews from Ethiopia with out their knowledge, which is basically aganist evry human right. so please stop trying to distort history Ethiopia is a blessed land filled with wonderful people, try to show the true picture,
First of, Jihad doesn't automatically mean Hokly war.
Secondly, Sharia doesn't mean just one set of Law since there are 4 major Juriprudence in Islam.
Thirdly, you are a hatemonger.
"it has never been able to co exist with another culture"? Ever heard Andalusia?
You do know that Muslims accepts Jesus, a Jew, as a prophet, don't you? So much for your propaganda that the followers of Islam truly believe that Jews are the descendants of "apes and pigs". Lier!
Yitz, Persuasive and thoughtful and needed to be said! A female modern orthodox friend also mentioned that even the Sharansky proposal doesn't entirely address the problem, as it still does not provide a place for groups of women to daven as a women's minyan (without males, but as a group) and lein Torah.
I remember you saying many years ago at CLAL that if both the 'right' and the 'left' are uncomfortable, we're probably doing something right. I have come to really appreciate the courage you have shown all these years in promoting pluralism. For years I have felt alienated from the kotel experience, and angry that the largely secular government of Israel was allowing fundamentalists to control a public holy place for all Jews.
It is a truly wondrous thing, The Midrash, through finding "cryptic midrashim" finds an excuse for all evil human behavior, Even Esau got an evil rap, not evident in the Tanach.
The chassidim (some of whom i actually almost like) are particularly adept at this. But I am so tired of reading, "in a cryptic Midrash" give me a break, we are not brain dead. the rabbis can come up with ANY interpretation they want on any occurance.
And and and re child abuse, no one, no one, has found a source, amongst the several lists of gilui arayot, that forbids the daughter, acharei mot, kidushim, i am not an expert perhaps there are another fifty lists, but on YOM KIPPUR, daughter is conspicuously absent, There are those who quote from gemara shemara midrash whatever that by implication, by intention, clearly they meant the daughter as well, well, every other possible combination and permutation of family connection is listed, mother, granddaughter, so, I ask you, was the daughter just considered chattel? I find the by "inference" or by "implication" that they clearly meant to include the daughter, a major crock. a distortion.
All over the commentaries, the little i have been exposed to, there are long explications of why, some point was listed twice in two different versions, IF, it already was said, Kacha, why was it repeated again Kacha. and so I bring up the missing daughter in lists (all, as far as any rabbi I know can tell) as being a sign that the daughter was chattel.
Odd. I spoke out in favor of Anat Hoffman and in favor of the Sharansky plan.
http://finkorswim.com/2012/10/22/is-anat-hoffman-a-victim-of-religious-persecution-at-the-western-wall/
http://finkorswim.com/2013/04/10/natan-sharansky-is-a-hero-again/
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove’s conversions are not recognized as being authentic - he is of the reform/conservative/reconstructionist group. They do not convert anyone - even if they try.
In a case with authentic Orthodox Jewish conversion - that cannot be done "overnight"! It is a process, dictated by the Torah.
The real reason why "Quick Conversions Won’t Last" is because they are not valid at the outset.
Thanks for this, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, on behalf of my grandchildren who are Israelis, the boys as well as the girls...reeve brenner
Rabbi Greenberg displays the integrity, wisdom, and courage needed to lead Modern Orthodoxy and 21 century Judaism into a world that takes seriously tradition, democracy, and dignity for all. May his words be heard and heeded.
Phyllis Chesler makes the argument as forcefully as could be wished. But it is still hard for me to understand the delusionary stance of the traditionalists who cannot see in women full human beings or in the Women of the Full full and sincere Jews. Nor can pierce the logic of Sharansky's attempt to read a mealy-mouthed pseudo-compromise as a victory for talmudic reasoning or common sense. Either you respect women's rights to be halachic agents of Jewish Law or you don't. The ultra-Orthodox rabbis don't, can't in their present state of mind. Sharansky obfuscates and fools no one but himself.
At Cornell, unless you had a specific person you wanted to room with, you could not make a religious request. At Rutgers, and at Cornell, my children had Shabbat lamps, timers, and their own microwave. They learned to live with the non-observant/non Jewish in a dorm room. We are a tiny minority, and must learn to navigate ourselves, in the world.