REVIVING JEWISH LIFE IN ETHIOPIA

A young couple that never thought of going on shlichus in Africa, found themselves running a seder in Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia. After Yom Tov, the couple returned to Eretz Yisroel. Sometime later they ended up opening a permanent Chabad house in Addis Ababa. * Shlichus in a backward country where everything becomes a major challenge.

Addis Ababa is the capitol of Ethiopia. The name means “the new flower.” Two years ago, a new flower opened its petals in Ethiopia in the form of a new Chabad house. The lives of the shluchim, particularly in the first year, were not strewn with roses. The first thing you notice when you arrive in the city is the enormous number of people sleeping in the street; sick people, lepers, the poor, and other down and outs. Most people live in ancient tin huts. There’s filth everywhere. Addis Ababa is also rife with pickpockets. When you go out on the street you must only take the minimum and make sure to leave important items at home, well hidden.

“Nearly every week we hear stories of tourists whose documents were stolen along with their money,” says the shliach, R’ Eliyahu Chaviv. Everyday life in Ethiopia isn’t easy, especially for someone who was born and raised in Eretz Yisroel and got used to its conveniences.

So how did R’ Eliyahu and his wife Devorah Leah end up in Ethiopia? By divine providence, of course. If you were to ask them, neither of them had plans of serving as shluchim in an African country. Today, they work with dozens of Jews every day, Jews of all kinds, along with the local Jewish community, a small community that has existed in this city for over a hundred years. They also work with people at the embassy and with businessmen, with backpackers and volunteers who come from all over the world to Ethiopia.

The shluchim’s first project was the Seder they organized two years ago, when over 150 people showed up. Jews came from all the neighboring countries to Ethiopia in order to properly celebrate Pesach. That was the kickoff and since then, the Chabad house has become a magnet for all the Jews in the country.

Included in their regular activities are: checking mezuzos, t’fillin, kashrus, minyanim, kosher sh’chita, a Sunday school, shiurim, suppers, Shabbos meals and other Jewish activities.

JUMPING INTO THE DEEP WATER

After they married, the Chaviv couple lived in Shikun Chabad in Lud. R’ Eliyahu learned in the local kollel and his wife completed her studies in Beis Rivka.

“A few months before we married, I was on shlichus in Hampi, India. One day, we got a phone call from an annoyed Israeli who said he was in Ethiopia for a few days with a group of Israelis who were touring the African continent and they still hadn’t located a Chabad house! I repeated this to my friends and after that the joke was that I would open a Chabad house in Ethiopia.”

About two weeks before Pesach of that year, the Chavivs were discussing where to be for Pesach when he remembered that phone conversation. He and his wife made the daring decision to arrange a seder in Addis Ababa.

“After we received a positive answer from the Rebbe, we began fundraising and within a few days we were on the flight to Addis Ababa. The truth is that at that time we knew next to nothing about Ethiopia, except for the fact that many people from Ethiopia emigrated to Eretz Yisroel. We were a young couple with a little girl who had jumped on to the shlichus wagon of l’chat’chilla aribber.

“Before we left, we got the email address of an Israeli tour guide who lives in Addis Ababa. We contacted him and he was happy to help us. When we made a list of what we needed to bring from Eretz Yisroel and what we could buy there, he was a big help. He also helped us a lot once we arrived. As soon as we came, we rented a room in a motel close to the area where the tourists are and also close to the shul in the small community. It’s the only shul in Ethiopia.

“We were prepared with food for a number of days and we began to get our bearings.”

In hindsight, R’ Chaviv realizes how daring he and his wife had to be. Armed with the Rebbe’s bracha, they worked with faith that all would go well.

“The first days were really hard. A week before Pesach we arrived in Addis Ababa. Nothing had been prepared for Pesach except for the fact that we had informed every Israeli we met that we were going to make a seder. Where would it be? Who would prepare the food? We didn’t know yet. When days passed and the food that we brought was fast dwindling, we panicked and asked the Rebbe for a bracha. In the answer we opened, the Rebbe was responding about a shidduch and said that searching for it had to be done like looking for a lost object. We understood from this that the Rebbe wanted us to start making physical ‘vessels’ and the spiritual blessings would come. From that point on, we saw divine providence in all our work.

“The first thing we had to do was find a kitchen that we could use for Pesach and for our entire stay in the city. We figured we could use a part of a kitchen in one of the hotels which we would kasher and then make sure that no hotel employees would be allowed to enter. We did not think a hotel would give us an entire kitchen.

“In astonishing divine providence, when we sat down with a manager of one of the hotels and with hand motions we tried to explain what we wanted, a close friend of his came in, the leader of the Aden community by the name of Sholom. He lives in England but comes to Addis Ababa throughout the year on business and he also looks out for the remaining members of his community.

“Sholom turned out to be a warmhearted Jew with a great desire to help. He was excited about the purpose of our being there and presented our needs to the hotel manager.

“He amazed us when he said he had managed to convince the hotel manager to designate an entire office for us which would serve as a kitchen. He also arranged that the lobby of the hotel be given to us for free and that we could use it for the seder. Within a few days, hotel employees had finished renovating the office space and turned it into a kitchen. We bought pots, an oven, and lots of utensils. We got a fridge from an Israeli woman who lives here, and we bought fruits and vegetables and got down to work.”

Two days before Yom Tov the shluchim were busy getting the word out. They estimated that about fifty people would be joining them, even though far fewer registered.

“Israelis are last minute kind of people and Erev Pesach a few more dozen registered. We ended up having about 150 people, most of them Jews who work at foreign embassies. We got the entire staff from the Israeli embassy. Aside from them, many tourists came, as well as some people from the Aden community. We had people wearing ties sitting alongside backpackers wearing shmattes; there was a lot of ‘achdus’ that Pesach night.”

ADDIS ABABA FOREVER

When Pesach was over, the Chavivs returned home and thought that was the end of their exotic shlichus and now they would look for a posting somewhere in Eretz Yisroel.

“Divine providence thought otherwise. For a few months following our Pesach expedition, we received daily phone calls saying, ‘We heard you were here for Pesach. Where can we get kosher food?’ ‘Where is the Chabad house?’

“We saw that a Chabad presence in Addis Ababa is important. We wrote to the Rebbe and after opening to a bracha, we decided to go back. We spent Tishrei in Addis Ababa, knowing that this is our shlichus till the moment of the Rebbe’s hisgalus.”

The couple spent the initial months in the hotel where they had been for Pesach and in small apartments.

“It wasn’t easy to find a spacious, normal home. The good houses are rented at very high rental fees because they are a rarity and are used by embassy people. But finally, after several months, we found a nice, spacious apartment. The first Shabbos we were nervous about how people would find us but our fears were allayed when 35 people showed up. Part of the house is for our personal use and part is the Chabad house where we have the t’fillos and other activities.”

The shluchim are quite busy throughout the week. In a country where they are the only Orthodox couple, they are the ones people turn to for anything Jewish-related. In addition to the routine activities, there are some special ones as well.

They send a text every Shabbos with a message from the parsha and the times that Shabbos begins and ends.

“The texts are sent to hundreds of people, mainly Israelis in Ethiopia.

“Our first year here, after Yom Kippur, an Israeli tourist came in who had been touring in a distant village. He said that for the first time in his life he had desecrated Yom Kippur. For some reason, he had miscalculated and during Yom Kippur he had visited a museum full of statues and idols. One of the pictures in the museum depicted a Jewish woman lighting Shabbos candles and this picture reminded him of home. He called to say hello but nobody answered the phone. He could not get through until the next day and was nervous about what was going on. The next day he received an annoyed call from his parents with them wanting to know why he had been calling on Yom Kippur. That’s when he realized his mistake.”

He wanted to know how to make up for this terrible sin. R’ Chaviv learned a lesson from this. “We are the shluchim in this country. How is it possible that there is a Jew in Ethiopia who forgets about Yom Kippur?

“Over several weeks we compiled a list of phone numbers of all the Israelis that we knew in Ethiopia and every Erev Shabbos and Erev Yom Tov we remind them of when it begins and ends along with a short d’var Torah. We have amassed hundreds of phone numbers. When the people at the embassy wanted to send out invitations for a Memorial Day ceremony, they asked to use our list.”

The shluchim are in close contact with the embassy staff. On that Memorial Day, for example, R’ Chaviv was invited to speak.

The shluchim don’t suffice with reminders about Shabbos. Thursday night, Mrs. Chaviv makes about a hundred challos which they give out to dozens of families living in Addis Ababa.

“We stop for a few minutes at each house and talk. In some places, we stay to put on t’fillin with someone and to repeat a point from a sicha on the parsha.”

Shabbos is completely devoted to outreach. We have each participant at the meals speak up if they want to. We ask each one to introduce himself and to tell some hashgacha pratis story or about his connection to Judaism.

“A tourist once got up and introduced himself and then told us something that happened to him just hours earlier. He said he had been sitting in a taxi when he felt a slap in the face. When he recovered, he discovered that the cell phone he had been holding had been snatched from him. What was the hashgacha pratis in that, people wanted to know. Clearly exasperated, he said, ‘Don’t you get it? If I still had my phone, I would be busy with it and wouldn’t be here at the Shabbos table!’”

THE MANAGER OF THE TEMPO COMPANY LOOKING FOR SOULS IN ETHIOPIA

The prophecy of the End of Days, that no Jew will be completely lost, is something experienced in Ethiopia. Sometimes, the feeling is that the reason for going on shlichus is only to discover more and more lost Jewish souls.

“The Ethiopian government gives a three month tourist visa, that’s all. If you want an extension, you need to go to the immigration office and submit a request for an extension for another month, and you need to do this every month.

“On our first year on shlichus, I would visit that office every month. In a spacious area are some counters with immigration officials manning them and there are three hundred seats. When the first person on line is called to the counter, a ‘musical chairs’ ensues, with everyone moving one seat forward. This game can take hours and it took up way too much of our time, but we had no choice.

“By divine providence, each time I would go to the immigration office I would meet an Israeli or a western tourist who would help me fill out the forms in English. One time when I got there I found a westerner sitting a few seats before the end of the line so I wasn’t sure whether he would be willing to help me. I had no choice and I went over to him. He spoke French and so do I, which made it easy to have a conversation.

“He went out of his way to help me and even relinquished his place in the line to help me. When he finished filling out the forms, I asked him whether he was Jewish. To my surprise, he smiled and said, ‘half Jewish,’ for his mother was Jewish. He said Jews claim he is Jewish and gentiles claim he is a gentile. He said once a year, on Yom Kippur, he goes to synagogue as his mother wanted, but he does not understand anything there. That summed up his Judaism.

“I was thrilled because that day the manager of the Tempo company in Eretz Yisroel had come to Addis Ababa and he was in the year of mourning for his father. He had asked me to get a minyan together for Mincha and Maariv and I was having a very hard time finding a tenth man. I convinced this fellow to join us at the Chabad house. He did not readily agree and I had to explain to him that a Chabad house is not a synagogue but a Jewish community center; only then did he agree.

“On the way to the Chabad house he told me his purpose in coming to Ethiopia. He said he was looking for quiet in an out-of-way place after recently having gone through challenging divorce proceedings in which he had lost custody of his children.

“We became good friends and he came for Mincha and Maariv and even put on t’fillin with tears in his eyes. The next Shabbos he was one of our guests and later on he rented an apartment in a building near the Chabad house. He visited us every day and on Shabbos he was our steady guest. Before our eyes we saw how a lost Jewish neshama was returning to its source. He learned the t’fillos and at a certain point he translated all the relevant t’fillos into French. He would come with his papers to shul while everyone else davened from a siddur. He was a quick learner. He is now planning a trip to Eretz Yisroel where he plans on learning in a kollel for French speakers in Yerushalayim.”

R’ Chaviv continued with another fascinating story:

“In our first month here, we sat with the head of the Aden community, Sholom, who told us about the Jews in the city. He said there was an Israeli, Yoram, but it was impossible to reach him. I asked him where Yoram was and he told me that he was in jail on trumped up charges. I was taught not to give up on any Jew and we decided to go see him in jail.

“We set out with a supply of kosher food and books. The trip was particularly arduous but despite the exhausting trip we had taken they did not let us in to see him. They said we did not have the proper documents. In our stead, we sent in the local driver who brought in our package and said it was from us.

­­­­­­­­­­­­“When we returned to Addis Ababa, we went directly to the embassy in order to get the right papers, and when we got them, even though it was Chol HaMoed Pesach, we set out to see him a second time.

“We met an elderly Jew who was ecstatic to meet us. We danced and sang Pesach songs. We learned that he was in jail for two years already. The jail was a collection of tin huts, a kind of large pen in which 200 inmates lived without being able to contact the outside world. ‘The Rebbe saved me,’ he said, and he told us that he always joined Chabad activities.

“We began agitating on his behalf and in the end, he was released early. On the Chag Ha’Geula, 12 Tammuz, we got the good news of his release. The man then returned to his family in Eretz Yisroel.”

UNEXPECTED DONATION

One of the difficulties facing every shliach, certainly in such a primitive place, is fundraising. We asked R’ Chaviv where he gets his money from. He said:

“We recently visited Eretz Yisroel and during our stay I raised money. Many people think that the cost of living in Ethiopia is low, but they don’t understand that it might be low for the locals but not for someone who wants to live a western life.”

According to R’ Chaviv, what keeps him going are the miracles that he experiences with divine providence apparent all around him. Here is one of his stories:

“When we finished our first Pesach in Ethiopia, we were left with a debt of 4000 birr (that’s the local currency, about $200) which we had to pay the hotel. We had no idea where we would get the money. We wrote to the Rebbe and asked for a bracha. The answer we opened to was that we need to fundraise in our area.

“Where could we raise money in Ethiopia? I thought about it and decided to go to the Aden shul and ask for help. As soon as I went downstairs, I was stopped by the receptionist who told me there was a phone call for me.

“I picked up the phone and it was an Israeli businessman who had attended the seder and wanted to give me an envelope with a donation before he left Ethiopia. I waited for him in the lobby of the hotel and within a few minutes he arrived with an envelope and hurried off. When I opened the envelope and counted the money, I froze. It was exactly 4000 birr. How astonishing, because I hadn’t told anyone how much we owed.”

***

When you see the Chabad house’s photo album, there is no need to ask about publicizing about Moshiach because it shouts from every corner. Still, I asked him about it and R’ Chaviv told us that they make a point to connect people to the Rebbe through writing to him, using the Igros Kodesh.

“On Pesach Sheini, someone came to us who runs a big kiruv organization in Yerushalayim, not a Lubavitcher. He was on his way to South Africa. He has a practice of stopping in every country where there is a Jewish community in order to strengthen them in Torah and mitzvos.

“I got together a group from the community at the Chabad house and he addressed them. Afterward, I suggested that he write to the Rebbe and he agreed. The answer that he opened to moved him to tears. The Rebbe wrote to someone who wanted to leave his shlichus in chinuch, whose work saved lives. He said he had a center for dropouts in a central city in Eretz Yisroel and he had lately planned on closing it. The Rebbe’s answer changed his plans and while he was still in the Chabad house, he called some of his friends to tell them about the Rebbe’s answer and his change in plans.”

Another story:

“One day, an Israeli tourist came into the Chabad house. When he saw that we have chalav Yisroel he got very excited. He said that he liked dairy products but was particular to drink only chalav Yisroel and so during his trip he had not drunk any milk.

“This guy did not look religious so this was quite surprising! He told us that some time in the past he had written to the Rebbe at an Igros Kodesh stand and had opened to a letter in which the Rebbe said to be particular about chalav Yisroel.

“This sounded bizarre to him since he lived in Eretz Yisroel where all the milk is kosher, but when he went home he checked his cabinets and found many products that were not chalav Yisroel. He was amazed by how the Rebbe knew what he had in his kitchen cabinets when he himself did not know. Since then, he was particular about chalav Yisroel and was happy he could drink milk with us.”

As for plans for the future, R’ Chaviv surprised me when he said he was in the middle of building the first mikva in Ethiopia which is located in the basement of the Chabad house. Until now, when a mikva was needed, they had to travel far away to warm springs, ten hours away from Addis Ababa, since one is prohibited from entering the nearby lakes.

EVERY TASK IS A CHALLENGE

Ethiopia has become a popular tourist spot. There is a lot to see there with its salt flat deserts, lakes, wild animals, tall mountains, and even an active volcano. Aside from the scenery, there are local tribes that are untouched by civilization.

For the shluchim, life in Ethiopia entails numerous challenges which they experience nearly every day.

“We are constantly looking for solutions. Things that are taken for granted in Eretz Yisroel or the US don’t exist here. For example, it is very difficult to find disposable dishes, which makes our constant hosting difficult. I do the sh’chita myself. Unlike in western countries, the chickens in Ethiopia are not clean and plump. They are very scrawny and their meat is not flavorsome.

“The country is not sanitary so the feathers turn gray and the smell is almost impossible to get rid of. For a long time we looked for better chickens and finally found a distant village where they raise better chickens. Over there they also supply us with an electric machine to defeather them.

“Getting chalav Yisroel is a whole project. We have to get up at five in the morning for the milking. The cows do not always have enough milk, so each time we try to calculate how much milk will be enough.

“The workers at the Chabad house are replaced at a dizzying pace and this is because they do not speak English and don’t understand what we want them to do. We spent a lot of time recently learning words in Ethiopian, mainly the names of fruits and vegetables, but there are still a lot of communication problems.

“A fruit or vegetable we have today is no guarantee we will have it tomorrow. We only drink mineral water and there have been times we were left with almost no water because the shipment had not come into the stores.

“Another thing which is very difficult is that each product is sold someplace else. There is a store for vegetables, a store for fruits, a store for toiletries. At first we wasted a lot of time going from store to store. Today, our workers do it for us but we have to make a list every week of what we need.”

The biggest hardship, according to the shliach, is the very slow pace of life. A popular Ethiopian aphorism is, “What you need to do today, do tomorrow.” That’s the opposite of a Chabad chinuch in which what needs to be done today, we did already yesterday.