Quara Jews Celebrate High Holidays In Israel

by Simon Griver

Masresha Kase insists that he always had faith that he would one day immigrate to Israel. As Kase, 41, prepared to celebrate his first-ever Rosh Hashana in Israel with his wife and four children after being brought to the country two months previously by the Jewish Agency, he was surprised to discover that there were some basic differences between the way the festival is celebrated in the Jewish state and the way it was marked back in his native Ethiopia.

"Honey has always been an important part of Rosh Hashanah for a sweet year," he explained. "But there were no apples in Ethiopia. Traditionally at Rosh Hashanah we would slaughter a sheep. Roast it on a spit and eat the meat with honey."

Kase is one of nearly 1,000 Jews from Ethiopia’s Quara province who have reached Israel since July and are being housed at the Jewish Agency’s Mevasseret Zion Absorption Center west of Jerusalem.

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Yitzhak Zagai of the Ethiopian community in Rehovot explained to the newcomers how the High Holy Days and Succot are celebrated in Israel as compared to Ethiopia.

"Essentially the festivals are the same," observed Rabbi Zagai. "Ethiopian Jewry celebrates all the same festivals as the rest of the Jewish people except for Hanukah and Purim, the two minor festivals which were introduced after the First Temple Period."

Kase, who was a farmer in Ethiopia, said: "Everything is very different here," The noise of the traffic -- and the amount of goods in the stores and shopping mall. In our home in Ethiopia we had no electricity and we traveled on a donkey cart. But there was always plenty to eat, especially at Rosh Hashanah."

Since arriving in Israel Kase and his family have been registered at the Ministry of Interior, given thorough medical check-ups and briefed on the basics of life in Israel. After the festivals they will begin learning Hebrew in a year-long ulpan. At the same time Kase’s children have already been placed in kindergartens and schools and have even picked up some rudimentary Hebrew. His four young children will grow up to be as Israeli as sabras.

"Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is a time for soul searching,"said Masresha Kase. "This year in Jerusalem we are especially in awe of God’s power to give or to take away."

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