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01/03/2005:

"Ethiopian Jews Yearn for Entry to Promised Land: Israel"

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Nearly a decade ago, a mixture of religious devotion and desperation prompted Meles Mandefro to sell off his family's possessions, abandon his farmland in rural Ethiopia and move to this crowded capital, where he and his family settled in a hovel on a hillside near the Israeli Embassy.

Mr. Mandefro, whose weathered face makes him look older than his 47 years, and thousands of other Ethiopians who made similar treks did not plan to stay long in Addis Ababa. They were Falash Mura Jews, and word had reached their villages that Israel would fly them soon to the Jewish state. All they had to do was get to the capital, turn in an application to the Embassy and wait.

More than nine years have passed, and Mr. Mandefro and his family are still waiting. So are more than 15,000 others, some in Addis Ababa and some in the northern town of Gondar, another place where Jews have congregated to pass the time while Israel processes their papers.

Over the years, dozens of Mr. Mandefro's relatives have been tapped to join the 300 people who go every month to Israel, including his younger brother, Gizat, and his wife's parents. Countless friends and neighbors are now leading new lives in Israel, as well.

"The waiting is too much," said Mr. Mandefro's wife, Tilanesh Gulma. "Even if we're walking around, we're dead inside. We've stopped living here. Our families are there in Israel. Our lives are there."
Full Article: nytimes.com