Cultural Retention and Ethnic Identity Among Ethiopian Israeli Youth

Cultural Retention and Ethnic Identity Among Ethiopian Israeli Youth
Soc 8500
Submitted by Ki Sarita
5/24/09


Introduction

“This year I decided not to eat cheese on Passover, just as our Kessim (Ethiopian spiritual leaders)” says Ziva Mekonen Dagu (2009), in an introduction to an article on the Passover customs as practiced by the Jews of Ethiopia. “The sudden abrupt loss [of our heritage] out of the need to assimilate among the rest of the Jewish people is a tragedy. As the transitional generation, it is up to us preserve it.” She inserts a qualification: “Not out of self segregation, and not, God forbid, in opposition to Halacha (prescribed Orthodox Jewish practice)” before the passionate conclusion: “It is our moral and ethical obligation as Jews.”
The paradoxical nature of these choices represent a conundrum that faces Ethiopian Israeli youth today: To assimilate or to withdraw? To adopt the practices of the new homeland, or to reclaim their traditional culture, which belonged to a land and lifestyle that no longer exists?

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