Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews who Perished on their Way to Israel

Lexicon of Terms

Sigd - a holiday of Ethiopian Jewry

Lexicon of Terms

Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews who Perished on their Way to Israel - 28th of Iyar

The 28th of Iyar is marked by the Israeli Ethiopian community as the memorial day for those who perished on their way to Israel.

A mass immigration of Ethiopian Jews ("Beta Israel") took place in the years 1980 – 1984, from their villages in the area of Gundar and through Sudan. Many of them, who dreamt for many years of making Aliyah to Israel, managed to flee Ethiopia and arrive at the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, where they waited in provisional camps to make Aliyah. The passage through Sudan was made possible by an unspoken agreement, only known to a few senior officials in Sudan. Agents of the Mossad awaited the immigrants at the Sudanese border and instructed them to hide their Jewish identity.

In their escape and in the Sudanese camps, they suffered from disease, hunger and acts of harassment, rape, and violent robberies. The families, with their elderly and younger members, walked for long periods of up to several months and were forced to wait in refugee camps in Sudan for up to two years.

Approximately 4,000 members of the community perished on the way and in the camps, in their attempt to arrive at Israel. Their instructions on minimizing their Jewish identity made it difficult on them to observe Jewish law and tradition; they could not bury their dead in the desert for fear of robbers, and they could not perform Jewish burial ceremonies at their camps for fear of the Sudanese guards.

"Operation Moses" began in November 1984, and it was the first national operation for bringing the Ethiopian Jewry to Israel. The operation was done in secret and brought some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews over on Israeli aircrafts. A leak of information to the Israeli press brought the operation to an end before schedule. Many families were left behind, torn apart, and remained there until May 1991, when 14,324 immigrants were brought within 36 hours during "Operation Solomon."

In 1989, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption erected a temporary memorial for those who perished at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel with the help of the Jewish Agency and the Israel National Fund. In late 2003 it was decided by the ministerial cabinet for immigration, absorption and the Diaspora that a memorial will be established at Mt. Herzl. The government had decided that a national memorial ceremony will be held each year on the 28th of Iyar, Jerusalem Day.

In March 2007, the memorial for Ethiopian Jewry who perished en-route to Israel was erected on the southern part of Mt. Herzl. Its establishment was made possible with the assistance of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the Israel Land Administration, the World Zionist Organization and representatives of the Municipality of Jerusalem. The commemoration department in the Ministry of Defense was the coordinator of the technical aspects for the planning and design of the memorial. It was designed by architect Gabriel Kertesz, in cooperation with artists and authors of Ethiopian origin. Their work was introduced into the design of the memorial, as well as monologues by the members of the community describing their way of life in the Ethiopian villages, their journey to Israel, waiting in the refugee camps in Sudan and their yearning for Jerusalem. The area surrounding the memorial serves as a gathering place for uniting with the loss and courage of the thousands of Ethiopian Jews who perished on their way to Israel.

The Ethiopian community in Israel consisted in late 2007 of 114,070 people: 79,545 of which made Aliyah since the 1980s, and the remaining 34,525 were born in Israel.