Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Affirmative Action Comes To Israel?

24 of the Twelfth Month (Beth) 5771
IsraelNN.com: New Equal Opportunity Law for Ethiopians

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 24 Adar II 5771/March 30, 2011

The Knesset has passed a law requiring government agencies and private companies to guarantee a "reasonable amount” of job openings for Ethiopians.

The new law is aimed at helping Ethiopian immigrants find work in areas where doors have been closed to them despite many instances where they have academic and professional qualifications. However, it does not specify a specific number of job openings to be reserved for Ethiopians. (Read the entire article...)


Sounds like a good idea, huh? After all Ethiopians have been treated as "less than," ever since they first started arriving. They deserve much better than what they have been getting.

There is just one problem.

Most of the Ethiopians arriving now are goyim gemurim, just like the majority of those arriving from the Former Soviet Union.

They should not be allowed to settle in Israel, let alone get any special benefits whatsoever (Ramba"m, Hil. Avodah Zara 10).

But, what does the Israel government care about halakha (Jewish Law)?

2 comments:

Batya said...

Maybe I live in a "different Israel," but I don't see discrimination against Ethiopian immigrants. I taught some girls for a couple of months in a special class. (They were all Jewish.) That bothered me, because it separates them. And another problem was that they are no longer encouraged to take on Hebrew names. I spoke to the people helping them, bringing up just the point that if a name like that applies for a job versus an Israeli name, most people will just go for names they can pronounce.

Esser Agaroth said...

1. The Ethiopians always had worse living conditions that the Ukrainians. No longer being encouraged to take Jewish names doesn't surprise my either. That also places them on the "outside." I have even heard stories of Americans being discouraged from putting a Hebrew name on the ID card instead of an English one, being told that foreign names were popular.

More anti-Jewish, assimilative, be like Europe/US, mentality.