Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes: How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews

by Howard M Lenhoff

Overview

Seldom has a small grassroots organization polarized American Jewry as did the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) and seldom has a grassroots organization been so successful. How were five governments persuaded that it was to their interest to allow the threatened Jews of Ethiopia to fulfill their dream of rejoining their brethren in Israel? From 1974 through 1991, active AAEJ members demonstrated that it was possible to rescue black Jews from Africa. They enlisted the support of college students, American Rabbis, editors of the Jewish press and other Zionists. Lenhoff's memoir provides many untold stories behind this historic drama: How Israeli Ethiopian Jews and Americans Jews worked secretly to rescue over 1,000 Ethiopian Jews. How Jerry Weaver masterminded Operation Moses – the first mass exodus of black Africans as free people – not as slaves. How two gutsy American women set up a situation allowing Israel to rescue 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in one day of Operation Solomon. There is more: the intrigues in Israel between the politics of religion and the Law of Return; the daring heroic adventures of courageous Ethiopian Jews as they trekked from Ethiopia to Sudan. These are the stories of activists who challenged the establishment and won! Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes is written from the first-hand experiences of one of the AAEJ's three Presidents, scholar-activist Howard Lenhoff. Lenhoff and Gefen Publishing House are especially pleased to present also as part of this book, the untold story of "righteous gentile," Jerry Weaver.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789652293657
Publisher:	Gefen Publishing House
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Howard Lenhoff is currently Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Mississippi. He was President of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews from 1978-1982 and a member of its board of directors from 1974 until the AAEJ closed its doors in 1993. Author of over 200 publications and 11 books, Professor Lenhoff has served for various periods as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and as Professor of Political Sciences at UCI. He has been a guest researcher, faculty, or fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and in Eilat, at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), and at Ben Gurion University.

What People are Saying About This

"A blueprint for grass roots mobilization as well as a stirring saga of rescue and relief, Black Jews, Jews. and Other Heroes is above all else a tribute to the small group of Jewish activists who in spite of the indifference and even hostility of the Israeli government and some of the mainstream Jewish organizations in the US, managed to put the fate of the ancient Jewish community in Ethiopia on the agenda of the US and Israeli governments, and through their courage and persistence made possible the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry.
This riveting first person account of the role of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews in bringing about a modern day miracle is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand how Operations Moses, Sheba, and Solomon came to pass. If it is true, as the Talmud tells us, that 'he who saves a single life it is as if he has saved the entire world,' then Howard Lenhoff and the AAEJ have saved the world many times over, and Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes explains how and why they did it.
The book is a literary tour de force in praise of a monumental organizational achievement. May it inspire others to replicate their triumph on behalf of other downtrodden and repressed peoples who, unlike Ethiopian Jewry, still await the salvation of a helping hand."
— Stephen Solarz, former Chairman of the Sub-committee on Africa of the House Foreign Affairs Committee