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Jewish Sinagog Association, Beta Israel Campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Description

The Jewish Sinagog Association is a complex, consisting of a series of one-room buildings spread across the campus, including a kitchen, library, a religious school, and several administrative spaces. These rooms serve the local Jewish community for a variety of cultural and educational needs, in conjunction with a Jewish medical clinic that is just down the street from the complex. The campus itself is enclosed by a stone wall, coupled with a painted blue-and-white metal gate with Star of David motifs.[1]

At the core of the collection of buildings stands the sanctuary, a semi-permanent structure constructed out of hand-cut wooden support beams with a roof topped with corrugated sheet metal and an earthen floor. The sides of the sanctuary are covered in heavy fabric, along with a series of panels depicting scenes from Jewish tradition such as the parting of the Red Sea, Israelite enslavement in Egypt, and the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.[2]

The interior of the sanctuary contains several rows of blue and white-painted wooden benches, evoking the colors of the Israeli flag. The sanctuary is split down the middle by the mechitza (partition dividing gendered seating within a synagogue).[3] The aron hakodesh (ark housing the Torah scrolls) is fashioned into the shape of the two tablets that bore the Ten Commandments, and is flanked by multicolored pieces of fabric, primarily red or maroon, decorating the wall behind the ark.[4]

The Jewish Sinagog Association was established in the 1980s, when Ethiopia was facing an onslaught of political turmoil and famine. This motivated the Israeli government to evacuate about 20,000  Ethiopian Jewish refugees to Israel in what became known as Operations Moses (1984) and Solomon (1991).[5]

Today, the  Jewish community in Ethiopia is far smaller than it used to be, and the bulk of Beta Israel Jews reside in Israel. Many Ethiopian Jews remaining in Ethiopia are currently in the process of making Aliyah,[6] or moving to Israel,  including the population in Addis Ababa where the Jewish Sinagog Association is located.[7] Thus, the Jewish Sinagog Association is notable for its establishment at a time when the bulk of the Ethiopian Jewish population was leaving the country.[8] As of 2024, the association serves the few hundred Jews left within Addis Ababa,[9] the majority who are in the process of making Aliyah, a process where individuals wishing to immigrate to Israel are aided by both local Ethiopian Jewish groups and international Jewish charitable organizations.[10]

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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