Avital+A's+Project

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toc =Rationale= ﻿How can new Israeli immigrants contribute to our country? For the past four months I have been volunteering in the youth group "Bnei Akiva", in an absorption centre for Ethiopian immigrants. When I was told about this project I didn't have to think too much about who I wanted to interview. Firstly, I was sure I was going to interview someone from the absorption centre. After I had thought a bit more about who I should interview; it became obvious to me that I should interview Belynah Reta. Belynah is an Ethiopian immigrant. Up until the beginning of this year Belyaneh lived in the absorption centre that I volunteer in (Mevaseret). The reason that it was obvious to me that I must interview Belynah is because, in the past four months in which I have been a counsler in the absorption centre, I have learnt how hard it has been for all these Ethiopians to come to a new country with a completely different culture. Belyaneh has not only made Aliyah and dealt with all of his personal immigration and adjustment difficulties, he is also helping his fellow Ethiopian immigrants with these particular difficulties. Belynah, in addition to myself, volunteers in "Bnei Akiva", doing activities every Tuesday and every other Shabbat, helping young Ethiopian children adjust to the Israeli culture. From my own personal experience, I know how hard it is to make Aliyah and therefore I admire all the Ethiopian immigrants. However I have an additional reason to admire Belayneh, as he is helping people overcome difficulties that he is still dealing with himself. When interviewing Belayneh, I hope to learn not only about how he has dealt with his Aliyah to Israel, but also to learn how his experience is both similar to and differs from my own.

=﻿Profile Belayneh Reta=

One of my ambitions for the next few years of my life, is to learn about the Ethiopian Aliya and the cultural transition that the Ethiopian immigrants experienced throughout their move to Israel. Up until now, I have learnt a number of things on this subject, through my voluntary work with Ethiopian children. However, I feel that after my conversation with Belyneh Reta that I have a much deeper insight into a lot of things that I was hoping to learn about.

Belayneh Reta is a nineteen year old boy who lives in Rishon Letziyon and learns in Kiryat Arba. Until the age of seven, Belayneh along with his parents and five younger siblings lived in a village in Ethiopia called Alefa. He explained to me that has family owned the land on which they lived and therefore had a very relaxed childhood, hardly experiencing any anti Semitism. When Belyaneh was seven he and his family moved to the city Gonda, where life was made a little bit harder. The place in which they lived was rented; there were a lot of non-Jews who lived in the area and all in all the Reta's felt quite out of place. Belayneh attended a Jewish school but he mixed with non-Jews as a result of living in a place where the Jews were in the minority.

Despite the fact that Belayneh had non Jewish friends, he had a harsh experience of anti Semitism. He described to me how horrible it felt to be sworn at for wearing a Kipa or Tzitzit. As e result of this the family realised that the only place where Jews could feel that they belonged, was Israel. While volunteering in the absorption centre I have learnt from a number of different people that the Ethiopian, Zionist dream, is one that has existed for two thousand years. According to Ethiopian tradition, they are descendants of the tribe of Dan and therefore have always felt that they belonged in Israel. In addition to this, Belayneh's family had a personal dream to make Aliya for the very reasons I mentioned above.

Belayneh explained that there were three stages to his Aliya. First the big picture, whitch was building the dream of making aliyah. Second came the ticket, once the ticket was in there ands, the family had to wait for the third and final stage. Finally came the flight itself. Belayneh told me that when he heard that he and his family, together with 30 other families, would be moving to israel, he couldn’t begin to describe the joy that he felt. They were finally fulfilling there dream! At the very beginning of his aliyah belayneh spoke mainly in English, after afew weeks of mixing with Israelis he took it upon himself to lean Hebrew. Within a year he had learned the language fluently.

Belayneh has now lived in Israel for just over three tyears. Up until a few months ago he lived in the absorption cebntre in Mevaseret Ziyon, He said that living in the absorption centre was in some respects easier than living in Rishon Lezion. He and his family were surrounded by theiro own clulture and people. But he explained that living in the absorption centre centre made it very hard to progress with his absorption. It is already extremely hard to integrate. But if you are sourrounded by people who speak the same language as you and have had the same experience as you, the integration with others is ten times harder. For that reason Belayneh's parents have still not learned Hebrew and find it difficult to mix with other Israelis.

In the summer of 2010 Belayneh was persuaded by his counselors in Bnei Adiva to take on the role of counselor himself in the day camp in the absorption centre during the summer. He agreed and enjoyed it som much that he began to think of becoming a counselor during the school year as well, not only in the summer holidays. Although his teachers had often encouraged him to try being a counselor, it was only when his own counselors also tried to persuade him that he actually did so.

Belanheh feels that in life you cannot live just by taking from other people. There comes a point when you have to also give back to the society from which you have taken. In particular he told me that he has been through the same experience as the latest Ethiopiean immigrants. He has learned how to overcome many of the diffiulties that come with making aliya from Ethiopia. Accordingly he feels that he has an obligation to help as many Ethiopian immigrants as he can, to make their integration easier. He feels that, because he understands the needs of Ethiopian immigrants he is in a good position to help them to meet their needs.

Although in general it has been a positive experience, his Aliya has not always been easy. For example he has exchanged anti-Semitism for racism. Many white Israeli's discriminate against Ethiopians because of the colour of their skin. Furthermore, all the Ethiopians suffered the indignity of having to convert to Judaism not once, but twice. Once in Ethiopia and then a second time when they arrived in Israel. The fact that the family had to wait ten years before finally being able to come to Israel was another reason why Benayeh's family found the whole process quite difficult.

Notwithstanding all those and other problems, Belayneh's overall attitude is very positive. He is thrilled to be in Israel; he has no interest in returning to Ethiopia and his ambition is to work helping other Ethiopians to integrate into Israeli life. Because he understands their needs he feels that he has a lot to contribute in this field.

=﻿Background Research=

Mevaseret Zion Absorption Center
The absorption center in Mevaseret Zion is the largest one in Israel, giving an average of one thousand, five hundred Ethiopian immigrants a year, a home at the beginning of their move to Israel. It is placed just outside of Jerusalem and is like a small village within a city. The absorption center is made up of about three hundred, almost identical apartments, furnished with a small number of metal framed beds, an old television set, a fridge, a coffee table and a number of other household necessities.

In addition to the supply of furniture and housing that the absorption center provides, it also provides social entertainment and adjustment programs for the children and adults. For example, there are two youth groups placed in the absorption center, for children between the ages of five and fifteen and the directors of the absorption center have organised employment training workshops "so that the Ethiopian immigrants can leave with a skill". The culture shock is one of the hardest challenges that the Ethiopian immigrants are forced to overcome. In order to meet this problem the absorption center arranges all of these programs and activities. They help the immigrants to integrate into Israeli society. The directors also provide counseling for the families who need extra help.

After speaking to a former resident of this absorption center I realised that as well as all the positive things that the absorption center has to offer, it also has its drawbacks. For instance, integrating into a new society is something that is extremely hard to do and is made even harder if one is surrounded by the people and the culture that they have left. For the young immigrants this difficulty is less of a problem however, for the older generation it is extremley challenging to learn a new language, dress in a different fashion, adjust to the development of modern technology and learn to cook and eat completely different kinds of food form what they are used to.

All in all, the absorption center is a wonderful organization helping Ethiopian immigrants overcome all of the difficulties that they are faced with once they have arrived in Israel. =Creative Connection:=

Before a flower actually becomes a flower it must go through a certain process. It starts of as a seed, puts out roots and shoots and soon a bud develops. While it is a bud, it is green and not too attractive. As time goes by the bud grows into a flower, however only under the right conditions. In comparison to this, there are many people in the world who would be able to achieve great things if only they had the right tools. For instance, there are many people who may be very good at sport, though due to lack of money and opportunity, they may never reach their full potential. Jews living in Ethiopia are unable to live a full Jewish life. When they immigrate to Israel, they are given the chance to fulfill their Jewish destiny with the help of education and social networks.

=﻿Reflection:=

Before I started this project I thought that I understood a lot about the Ethiopian immigration. However, now that I am at the end of it I realise how foolish I was for thinking that their immigration was so simple. Truthfully, I expected to finish this project with more or less the same knowledge that I already had. The reason for this is because of my voluntary work in the absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants. For the past half a year, I have watched how the kids that I work with have gone through a certain process but I had no idea how complicated this process was. After speaking to Belayneh and learning a bit about the Ethiopian culture I have a much deeper insight into what difficulties these immigrants actually have to face. I have learnt that it is a lot more traumatic for the older generation to move to Israel for the simple reason that they are steeped in Ethiopian culture and find it much harder to digest all of the cultural changes that they discover. They are forced to switch places with their children. Until now they have always helped their children with simple things like homework, but now that their children are fluent in Hebrew and they are not, their children have to start translating everything for them. From experience, this can often be very frustrating and humiliating for the elder generation. This also has a huge effect on the children. They are suddenly confronted with their parents inadequacies and have to learn at a young age, not only that their parents can not do everything, but also that their parents can't do simple things such as reading and writing or even having a basic conversation in a shop. In addition I realise how important it is to have a social network. Most people take for granted that they have aunts, uncles and friends who they can call on to help them in a casual and easy way as a first step to dealing with everyday problems. Through these connections it is easy to find a doctor, a tutor, a plumber or any other such help as people might need. However, where your entire social network is made up of other immigrants who were equally helpless as yourself, then you have no useful social network. This makes solving everyday problems, much harder and in some cases impossible. For two thousand years the Jewish people have wondered the globe and have had to learn to cope with the problems of immigration. Israel is a country almost entirely made up of immigrants, or the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Both accepting immigrants and being an immigrant is part of the Israeli story and I feel that through this project I have also learned a bit more about what it is to be an Israeli. = Work Works Cited = geramyum.com- google images. - [] [] [] Belayneh Reta, Interviewed 2011.

 