COVID-19 restrictions threaten the role of the Ethiopian Jewish holiday in Israel

Sigd, the holiday that Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel that marks a renewal of the covenant with God and has become a force that unites these immigrants with other Israelis, is being observed at a reduced rate this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The holiday, which began at sunset on Sunday and ends Monday evening, became an official part of the Israeli calendar in 2008 and is observed 50 days after Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. “At first, it was a closed holiday open only to the Ethiopian Jewish community, but after a while the spiritual leaders of the community opened the ceremony and the feast of the Sigd to the rest of the people here,” Qes Efraim Lawi, the spiritual leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the northern city of Karmiel, he told The Media Line. “Many people from outside the community come to celebrate, learn and hear the prayers of spiritual leaders in the [ancient] Ge’ez language, “he said. After 35 years [in Israel], the Sigd holiday is still a Jewish holiday that not only connects the Ethiopian Jewish community, but also connects [us] to external Jewish communities. ”Anthropologist and educator Shoshana Ben-Dor, who has been studying Ethiopian Jews in Israel since 1979, told The Media Line that many young Israelis had been influenced by negative stereotypes that Ethiopian Jews were poor and ignorant.
Ethiopian Jews have faced discrimination in Israel. In 2018, police killed two young adult Ethiopian Jews in several incidents. The community still feels undervalued and that there is general ignorance about their identity, Ben-Dor said. However, this has changed over the past two decades as Ethiopian Israelis have shared more information about their ways and Israeli anthropologists and historians have studied them. The number of Ethiopian Israelis in academia has increased and attitudes have changed among the general public. “Israeli society has changed in order to welcome and value the various cultures that did not come from Europe and North Africa but from the rest of the diaspora.”, Said Ben-Dor.

Many people fear that the opportunity Sigd offers to unite the Ethiopian Israeli community and the Israeli public at large will be lost due to COVID-19 restrictions on collection. Although the holiday was a unifying force in Israel, Lawi said it had the opposite function in Ethiopia: “It is a truly unique and special holiday because the Sigd in Ethiopia has kept us away from the rest of the local population living in Ethiopia. It has given us the power to maintain the Jewish identity in a place where most people are not Jewish, “he told The Media Line.” Without the Sigd holiday, I think the Ethiopian Israeli community would never have returned. in Jerusalem. Sigd’s rituals are based on chapter 9 of the Book of Nehemiah, when the biblical scribe and priest Ezra presided over the reintroduction of the Torah to Jerusalem after the return from exile in Babylon and the renewal of the Jews’ covenant with God. just a day when people went up a mountain and returned to Jerusalem. It is meant to be a day of covenant renewal, “said Ben-Dor, who has published works on the Sigd liturgy and other Ethiopian Jewish liturgy, as well as other elements of their religious life and history.” Nehemiah chapter 9 is read to the Sigd; so are the Ten Commandments, the first covenant between God and Israel. Plus, biblical blessings and curses [are read] to emphasize the importance of keeping God’s law. Although there are some prayers that relate to the desire for Jerusalem… even more important in terms of prayers is asking God to forgive our sins, “he said.” The idea is that to renew the covenant, to be worthy of being in Jerusalem, one must be pure, one must observe the laws that God made. “Naftali Avraham, the head of the Ethiopian Jewish Heritage Center, which this year sponsors The Sigd, said that last year more than 15,000 people attended while this year only selected spiritual leaders will be able to attend the ceremony. It is broadcast on television and on social media. There will also be small services held across the country in various synagogues. with permission from the Ministry of Health due to coronavirus restrictions. “It’s really sad, but that’s the situation not only in Israel but around the world, and we have to accept it,” he told The Media Line. “Most of the people who come are elderly and it is very dangerous for them” to go in person. There are fears that some Ethiopian Israelis are unable to access online services and that younger members of the community are drifting away. “We have to exhibit many people [to the holiday], especially the young people who were born here, “he said, referring to the second generation of Ethiopian Israelis who are less attached to their roots. Ben-Dor agreed that the younger generation is less interested in the holiday. More attached to the tradition of the [the spiritual leaders] and their prayers to young people, many of whom are very secularized and less interested in anything of a religious nature, ”he said. “Not enough has been done to teach them what the Sigd really is. To the extent that young people relate to the Sigd it is more … a day for community identity than for everything related to religious aspects. “Also Rabbi Sharon Shalom, head of the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry at the Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono, he is concerned about the loss of connection within the community due to health restrictions that limit the number of people who can gather “The essence of the celebration of the Sigd is common repentance and solidarity. Both have to be done with the whole community in one place, where you see many people who believe just like you, “he told The Media Line. “People can’t have this experience this year.” On the other hand, Shalom said, due to COVID-19, observance of the holidays is broadcast and is not limited to those who attend it in Jerusalem. “In normal years, only people who came to Jerusalem who might experience it, but because of the virus, the media bring the celebration home,” Shalom said.Read more articles from The media line.