Shikma's+I_Faces

toc =Rationale= I decided to interview Mavratu Solomon. Mavratu made Aliyah from Ethiopia in the time that the Ethiopian Jews went threw hard journeys to get to our land. Mavratu went threw his journey, built a beautiful family here in Israel and today he is a rabbi that converts people. He is a special person, and I think that we have a lot to learn from him.

=**Profile**=

Mavratu Solomon lived in north Ethiopia in the state Tgrai. Growing up in Ethiopia is really different from growing up here, in Israel. Not all children go to school because they don’t have schools in every village or place. From a young age children have tasks to do and jobs to help in their family, like being shepherd or helping at home with cooking. So there is no time for pampering. It wasn’t easy for Mavratu to live in a strange country as a Jewish child. He said that it feels strange to be born and live in a country where one feels that he doesn't belong there. He always just dreamt about getting to Israel because it is his true country. In Ethiopia the Jews were very observant, so, every week that he kept the Shabbat and all the people around him didn’t made Mavratu feel strange. In 1983, Mavratu Solomon started his way to Israel. His reason for making Aliya is because he says that every Jew has to make Aliya, to live in Israel and not in a strange country. He started his hard way with his grandmother's sister and met his family in Sudan. Someone had to start the way with his grandmother's sister, and his parents chose him. Then Ethiopia didn’t allow people to make Aliya so they had to run away to Sudan and from there Israelis helped them get to Israel. In those days, as we all know, to come to Israel from Ethiopia was really hard. The way was really long and they had to run away from the government. They had to stop on the way in a place that they weren’t familiar with. All the people who were with Mavratu in the group came safely to Israel but usually in those times not everyone got to see the Holy Land. Mavratu imagined that there is still a Temple and that everyone goes to bow and pray there. He thought that the whole country is made of gold, and that everyone in Israel keeps Torah and Mitzvot (the commandments). When Mavratu got to Israel he lived in Ashkelon and learned in a high school there. After high school, he came to learn in Alon Shvut in the Har Etzion Yeshivah, and then he got married to his wife Ahuvah, raised a beautiful family which includes eight children. Today he lives in Alon Shvut. Today Mavratu has a job which contributes to a lot of people. He is in charge of spiritual absorption for immigrants from Ethiopia. Today in Israel there are a lot of non – Jews, such as foreign workers who want to convert to Judaism. However most of the people who want to convert are those who are connected in some way to the Jews like, a Jewish man who married a non – Jewish woman and they have kids. It disturbs him that his family isn’t Jewish so he comes to have them convert. The whole process takes about a year. Mavratu keeps in touch with most of the people who he converts. He sees his work as an important job and adds that his job helps and adds a lot of meaning to his own life as well because he successfully helps people. What is more then that, he says that you need to convert any one who wants to be a true Jew and live in the Jewish land, since we cannot have non Jews in our land, it’s not good and it's bad for the Jewish people.

=**Backround research**=

Ethiopia –

Ethiopia is one of the most ancient countries in the world. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth largest by area. The capital is Addis Ababa. Prehistory - Ethiopia is considered one of the oldest human settlement areas, if not the oldest according to some scientific findings. [|Lucy], discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's [|Afar] region, is considered the world’s second oldest, but most complete, and best preserved adult [|Australopithecine] fossil. Lucy's species is named [|Australopithecus afarensis], which means 'southern ape of Afar', after the Ethiopian region where the discovery was made. Lucy is estimated to have lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago. [|[25]] There have been many other notable fossil findings in the country including recently found oldest human fossil, [|Ardi]. Regions, zones, and districts - Before 1996, Ethiopia was divided into 13 [|provinces], many derived from historical regions. Ethiopia now has a tiered government system consisting of a [|federal government] overseeing ethnically-based regional countries, [|zones], [|districts] , and [|neighborhoods]. Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnically-based administrative countries and subdivided into sixty-eight zones and two chartered cities: [|Addis Ababa] and [|Dire Dawa] (subdivisions 1 and 5 in the map, respectively). It is further subdivided into 550 //woredas// and several //special woredas//. The constitution assigns extensive power to regional states that can establish their own government and democracy according to the federal government's constitution. Each region has its apex regional council where members are directly elected to represent the districts and the council has legislative and executive power to direct internal affairs of the regions. Article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution further gives every regional state the right to secede from Ethiopia. There is debate, however, as to how much of the power guaranteed in the constitution is actually given to the states. The councils implement their mandate through an executive committee and regional sectoral bureaus. Such elaborate structure of council, executive, and sectoral public institutions is replicated to the next level. Religion - According to the 2007 National Census, Christians make up 62.8% of the country's population (43.5% Ethiopian Orthodox, 19.3% other denominations), Muslims 33.9%, practitioners of traditional faiths 2.6%, and other religions 0.6% [|[1]] This is in agreement with the updated CIA World Factbook, which states that Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia. According to the latest CIA factbook figure Muslims constitute 32.8% of the population. [|[100]] Orthodox Christianity has a long history in Ethiopia dating back to the first century, and a dominant presence in central and northern Ethiopia. Both Orthodox and Protestant Christianity have large representations in the South and Western Ethiopia. A small ancient group of [|Jews], the [|Beta Israel] , live in northwestern Ethiopia, though most emigrated to [|Israel] in the last decades of the twentieth century as part of the rescue missions undertaken by the Israeli government, [|Operation Moses] and [|Operation Solomon]. [|[101]] Some Israeli and Jewish scholars consider these Ethiopian Jews as a historical [|Lost Tribe of Israel].

Ethiopians Jews – till the 14th century no one new about the Jews in Ethiopia. From the 14th century till the 17th century the Jews in Ethiopia had to fight against the Christine governing, about the religion and economic background. The immigration to Israel started in the end of the 70th. Between 1977 – 1984 8000 people made Aliya and came to Israel. Ethiopia and Israel has good relations.

=Literary Connection=

[|**שלמה גרוניך ומקהלת שבא**]
 * המסע לארץ ** **ישראל**
 * __ מילים __**** : **** חיים אידיסיס **
 * __ לחן __**** : **** שלמה ** ** גרוניך **

הירח משגיח מעל על גבי שק האוכל הדל המדבר מתחתי, אין סופו לפנים ואמי מבטיחה לאחי הקטנים

עוד מעט, עוד קצת להרים רגלים מאמץ אחרון לפני ירושלים

אור ירח החזק מעמד שק האוכל שלנו אבד המדבר לא נגמר, יללות של תנים ואמי מרגיעה את אחי הקטנים

עוד מעט, עוד קצת בקרוב נגאל לא נפסיק ללכת לארץ ישראל

ובלילה תקפו שודדים בסכין גם בחרב חדה במדבר דם אמי, הירח עדי ואני מבטיחה לאחי הקטנים

עוד מעט, עוד קצת יתגשם החלום עוד מעט נגיע לארץ ישראל

בירח דמותה של אמי מביטה בי, אמא על תיעלמי לו הייתה לצידי היא הייתה יכולה לשכנע אותם שאני יהודי

עוד מעט, עוד קצת להרים רגלים מאמץ אחרון לפני ירושלים

** The journey to Israel **
__melody:__ Shlomo Gronic **
 * __ Shlomo Gronic and the quire of Shva __**
 * __ Words: __**** hayim Ididi

The moon supervises above. On my back I have my poor food-sack. The dessert is under me, I can't see the end. And my mom promise my little brothers-

In a little while, just a little bit more, raise your feet, last exertion, Before we get to Jerusalem.

Light of the moon-hold on. We lost our food-sack. The dessert is infinite, jackals are wailing. And my mom soothing my brothers-

in a little while, just a little bit more, soon we'll be freed, we won't stop walking, to the land of Israel.

In the night, robbers attacked, with blade, with sharp sword, my mom's blood stayed in the dessert, the moon is my witness. So I promise my little brothers-

in a little while, just a little bit more, our dream would come true, we'll get there, to the land of Israel.

In the moon I see the figure of my mom, she's watching me, mom- please don't disappear if she was next to me, she would have convince them I'm a Jew!

In a little while, just a little bit more, raise your feet last exertion, before we get to Jerusalem.

The song 'the journey to Israel' was written to describe the journey of the Ethiopians Jews on their way to the holy land. The moon that is described in the song symbolized the loneliness and the fear that exist on the way. The moon is considered as forever, because that the moon is something that will always be there, and for the Ethiopians – that everything around them is dynamic and changes every minuet, besides the loneliness and the fear that pronounce their desire threw the moon, the permanent, the fixed, the one that’s always their, and will be there. They rely on it because that he is a force major – comes from God and for sure he can help, on the time that everything is hard, and you cant know what to except for. The mother in the song symbolized the hart. The good inclination. The mother is the one who's claming down, symbolized the peace of  mind. And in this manner on the moment that the mother is disappear, the quietude in the song dissolve. In the song there is progression in few examinations – First examination – faith: in the beginning of the song there is a felling that the family is reaching for faith, they reach on what they have left in order to get to Israel and to fulfill their dream. Very slowly when we hear the story, the feeling of the faith clash. However it's important to mention that the faith in the song is not disappearing and the family is still relay on it and they say that they will get there – to Israel. For example – in the beginning of the song it says that the moon protects, on the other hand in the end the mother is described inside the moon – indeed the mother was diapered, and the child is trying to hold his faith, the desire inside the moon, the permanent, the durable but the mother is not there. And the faith cant established surround ed her. Another examination – the children conditions: when they started their way the children were durable, with the food, with their mother and they had a clear future in front of them, someone to trust. But then the food disappeared, the mother was murder and the children slowly got left without anything. The journey that Mavratu surpass is similar to the journey that the child in the song got threw. A hard journey. That you don’t have someone to rely on, and you don’t know what is in front of you, but the eyes, the thoughts, the intention and the hart are internalized exclusively to Israel, in each price. I see this deeds as a big courage and 'Kiddush Hashem' that people do a lot over then what we imagine and all that is in order to live in this land. We need to appreciate them and our land.

Creative connection
For my creative writing I chose to do a video. In the video I want to show the amount of Jews that make Aliya to our holy land. The fact that it's important for people to make Aliya and leave all their good lives and come to live here, in Israel shows us that we have good nation that wants to become close to each other and live with each other. It's not easy for Russians, Ethiopians and England's to live together and grow up their kids. I think that the immigration connects all of us the Jews and makes us a good and better nation.

media type="file" key="creative connection.wmv"

Reflaction
It is not the first time that I hear the story of Mavratu. Mavratu is my friends' father, so I herd his story few times, but I never knew how much we need to appreciate the immigrants and especially those who went threw hard journeys. Mavratu has a different life observation to most of us, he says that he managed Jerusalem a city full of gold…he was desire to come here, that shows us that for him, Israel is not just our fathers' land, it's much more. That is one huge thing that I took from him, the love to our land, to appreciate that I was bourn in Israel and to live in our beautiful country. I also got to know about a different country, and it was beautiful. Finally, the experience of having the project on-line made it much better project and it made me to want to work on it more then I thought it will. The project exercised my writing skills, and improved my English.