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Ethiopian Jews in Israel to get Torah donated by local seniors
Wednesday, June 20, 2001 By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The sweetness of the moment was not lost yesterday on James Rudolph, chairman of the board of the Jewish Association on Aging.
The elderly residents at the Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at Weinberg Village in Squirrel Hill were donating a Torah scroll -- the ancient record of the Jews' covenant with God -- to a community of Ethiopian Jews in Karmiel, Israel.
"There is no greater honor than being able to donate a Torah," said Rudolph, who presented the handwritten Hebrew scroll on parchment to Hana Koval, deputy director of the city of Karmiel.
The Pittsburgh Jewish community's more than decadelong relationship with Karmiel was established through a number of educational, vocational and other human service programs initiated and funded by the United Jewish Federation, the local community's central fund-raising and planning organization.
This year, for example, the United Jewish Federation allocated $500,000 for projects in Karmiel and the nearby Misgav region.
Most of Karmiel's Ethiopian Jewish community arrived in 1981 during Operation Moses, after trekking through Sudan and then being transported by plane from Europe.
The second wave of immigration came during Operation Solomon in 1991, when an Israeli rescue mission airlifted 14,000 Ethiopians to Israel in 36 hours.
Today, there are 75,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel.
Recently, the 1,800-person Ethiopian Jewish community in Karmiel received the use of a building as a synagogue and recreation center from city officials.
Until yesterday, however, they did not have a Torah, which contains the first five books of the Bible.
The Torah scroll originally had been donated to the residents of the Jewish Association on Aging, Rudolph said.
The residents still have five other Torah scrolls.
The donated Torah will arrive in Karmiel before mid-September, said Hank Karp, a United Jewish Federation spokesman.
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