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Thursday 29 May 2014

[RwandaLibre] Fwd: Jews in Central Africa

 

Begin forwarded message:

From: marie kampororo <mkampororo@hotmail.com>
Date: May 29, 2014 at 21:21:16 EDT
To: youth democrats <youthdemocrats@yahoogroups.com>, nzinik democrate <nzinink@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: [YouthDemocrats] Jews in Central Africa

Iyi si umenya imaze gusaza ; abantu bagira batya bakihindura ibimanuka, bugacya bagateza akaduruvayo baburana imanza birega ubwabo ngo babise ibyo bimanuka.
Aliko se Bwejeri yaba azi  benewabo b'abatiyopia bakaba n'aba JEWS nk'uko nawe abitangaza uburyo babayeho mu gihugu cyabo ISRAELI bajyanywemo  mu myaka ishize!!!!! 
NA BA BWEJERI BABA BARI HAFI GUSUBIRA IWABO SE BAGENZI!!!!
BAZAGIRE URUGENDO RWIZA KANDI BAZAKIRWE NEZA!!!!!!
 
http://www.irinnews.org/report/94819/israel-the-tribulations-of-being-an-ethiopian-jew
 
Ethiopian Jew
TEL AVIV, 9 February 2012 (IRIN) - Growing up in Israel, Shay Sium became accustomed to being called a "nigger".

Sium, 32, has lived in Israel most of his life, but says he and other Ethiopian Jews are treated differently from other Israelis: factories do not want to employ them; landlords refuse them; and certain schools turn away their children.

"The word discrimination doesn't describe what we experience. There is another word for it: racism. It is a shame that we still have to use this word today," he told IRIN.

An estimated 125,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, but while they are supposed to be full citizens with equal rights, their community has continued to face widespread discrimination and socio-economic difficulties, according to its leaders.

A recent decision - as reported by local media - by 120 homeowners not to sell or rent their apartments to Israeli-Ethiopian families has brought discrimination against Ethiopian Jews in Israel back into the spotlight.

Hundreds of Ethiopian Israelis took to the streets on 18 January to protest the move by landlords in the southern city of Kiryat Malakhi - Shay Sium's hometown.

"This is not an isolated case," said Yasmin Keshet, an attorney for the Israeli NGO Tebeka, which provides legal support to Ethiopian Israelis. The scale of racist offences and discrimination against Ethiopian Jews, she said, is reflected in the many legal cases Tebeka has dealt with in recent years.

"Can't you see I am not taking black people?"

Under the Law of Return, Ethiopian Jews enjoy full rights and have a right to settle in Israel and obtain citizenship. The reality, however, is different.

In 2009, a young Ethiopian-Israeli university student named Idano tried to board a bus in Rishon LeZion city.

"She knocked, but the driver wouldn't let her in," Keshet said. "When he opened the door for someone else, she followed inside, whereupon the driver said: 'Can't you see I am not taking black people. Did you have buses in Ethiopia, or even shoes?'"

The driver eventually appeared before a disciplinary hearing and was fined 20,000 New Israeli Shekels (NIS, US$5,330) in 2010. The next year, a magistrate's court ordered him to pay Idano 60,000 NIS ($15,980) in compensation.

In September 2011, Tebeka represented 281 children who were prevented from registering in a school in Petah Tikva town because of their Ethiopian backgrounds - "a clear breach of law," according to Julie Wyler, director of resource development at Tebeka.

About 30 percent of all legal cases Tebeka deals with are about discrimination in the workplace.

"Ethiopians are a resilient community [but] don't know what is legal and illegal, also because new immigrants often don't speak proper Hebrew," Wyler said.

Lack of awareness and skills also makes Ethiopian Israelis easy to employ on lower-than-average pay. They are often desperate to find a job and willing to work under difficult circumstances.

"Ethiopians are an easy catch for manpower agencies," Wyler said. "They are allowed to hire employees for up to a year without providing social security under Israeli law, so they fire them after 11 months, just to re-employ them again afterwards."

Poverty

About 81,000 of Ethiopian Israelis were born in their home country, while 38,500 were born in Israel, according to official records. Between 1985 and 1991, more than 30,000 were airlifted in three rescue operations after years of civil war and famine had driven hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians into the capital, Addis Adaba, and refugee camps in Sudan.

But more than 20 years on, many Ethiopians still face economic hardship and social problems in Israel.

About 52 percent of Ethiopian-Israeli families live below the poverty line, compared to 16 percent among the general Jewish Israeli population. According to the Brookdale Institute for Applied Social Research, only 65 percent of Ethiopian Israelis were employed compared to 74 among the general Jewish population in 2010.

"In the area of employment, the gap between Ethiopians and other Jews has narrowed significantly," institute director Jack Habib said. But about 60 percent of all Ethiopian families are still in a welfare programme, partly due to juvenile delinquency which is four times higher than the Israeli average, and domestic violence, which is estimated to be 2.5 times higher than the average.

Growing up in Israel

Partly as a result of the difficult socio-economic situation, which also triggers prejudice against the community, many young Ethiopian Israelis become disassociated from society at large.

"Growing up was an everyday struggle," said Sium. "For those who are different, the Jewish people can be a very closed community. Simply because I am Ethiopian, life has been harder than it is for others.

"Raising a kid is tough for everyone in Israel, but it is even tougher for us," he continued. "Once, my five-year-old kid asked me after a demonstration why the people on the street are shouting. I couldn't tell him that it is because the white people don't like the black people. I didn't want to give him the feeling that he is not good enough."

In 2008, a report by the Israeli state comptroller and judge Micha Lindenstrauss found that about 20 percent of Ethiopian Israeli children do not go to school. Drug abuse among the youth is widespread, and crime rates are much higher than among the overall Jewish Israeli society.


''Ethiopians are a resilient community [but] don't know what is legal and illegal, also because new immigrants often don't speak proper Hebrew''
These conditions have remained largely unchanged since the report was issued more than three years ago.

Shula Mola arrived in Israel when she was 12. "I was sent to a religious boarding school, where I worked very hard to become Israeli and also religious. Whenever I knew something others did not, the teachers were surprised because I am Ethiopian. I wanted to go to university. But they expected us to become nothing more than cleaners."

Now the chairwoman of the independent Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ), she says growing up in Israel is hard for Ethiopian children. "Many face prejudice in school and little support. They try to connect, but often can't cope with the study gap."

From her perspective, Ethiopian Israeli youth have it even harder today.

"My kids are born here. They face the same problems, but don't have the excuse of being new immigrants. Whatever the problem, people automatically see it as a distinct Ethiopian feature," Mola explained.

Such branding, as well as poverty and a difficult family background, often contribute to the youth's disaffection from society. "Many are hopeless. When facing difficulties at school, poor and uneducated families usually can't support their kids," Mola said, adding that today's Israeli education system puts more and more responsibility on the family.

But others say integration of the generation of Ethiopian Jews born in Israel is much easier than for their parents and grandparents.

"For me, it was easy to adapt," said 27-year-old Avi Yalou of Kiryat Malakhi. "But when my mum goes to the bank, she still doesn't know how to deal with it in Hebrew."

Civil society role

Upon arrival, Ethiopian Jews are usually placed in "absorption centers" - housing arrangements run by the Jewish Agency, on organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews into Israel. There, new immigrants receive support, including cheap housing and language classes. But many stay much longer than the usual period of six months.

"The absorption center is like a closed society where new immigrants get used to being dependent," said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and leading researcher on the Ethiopian community in Israel. She said Ethiopians often end up staying three, four, or even seven years. "When they finally move out, they are suddenly on their own and often face severe difficulties in Israel, which is not an easy country."

Efrat Yerday, speaker of the IAEJ, added: "The Jewish Agency puts a lot of pressure on them to prove how Jewish they are. And this is the main thing they have in mind when they are in the absorption center, because they need to fulfil the requirements."

Some civil society organizations are trying to empower the Ethiopian Israeli community.

"My organization is fighting against a huge monster we have no power against," said Yerday. She cites the "Five-Year-Plan", which was produced by a cross-ministerial committee in 2008, as one such "monster".

With a budget of 870 million NIS ($231 million), it was meant to be a comprehensive strategy for integrating the community and tackling socio-economic problems. One of its goals was to enable young Ethiopian Israeli couples to take out mortgages under preferential conditions and move from overcrowded poor areas to better neighbourhoods.

But many of the 400 young couples included in the plan never moved, because the amounts allocated were not sufficient and banks did not provide any guarantees for the mortgage loan. In 2011, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the key provisions of the plan had not been implemented.

Another plan was started in January 2012 by the Immigrant Absorption Ministry to tackle domestic violence through workshops and awareness-raising, after a study by Shalva Weil found that 81 percent of Ethiopian immigrant women murdered by their husbands came from new immigrant families.

"The plan will be implemented in towns where new immigrants hardly live," she told IRIN. The cities include Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi, Afula, Netanyam Rehovot and Richon LeZion, where almost no immigrants from Ethiopia have settled for several years.

Optimism

Despite the challenges, the Ethiopian Jewish community has done relatively well, experts say. "You can't compare someone who recently arrived from Ethiopia to someone who lives in a villa on the north of Tel Aviv," Weil said. "Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Many immigrants came from remote villages."

Weil, who has studied the community for more than 30 years, added: "Given the difficult background of many immigrants, it is quite fantastic how well they have managed in Israel."

Israeli government officials have called for mutual coexistence. "We, the state of Israel, should say thank you to immigrants from Ethiopia, and not vice-versa," Israeli President Shimon Peres said after the protests in Kiryat Malakhi.

The younger generation also gives reason for hope.

"The generations are different in dealing with problems," Sium said. "The old generation is quiet. We have witnessed many demonstrations, but saw hardly any older people there. It is the young people who move things forward today. The elders understand that our situation is changing."

As Yalou, one of the organizers of the 18 January protest, put it: "My parents know that we, the young generation, are the future."

In the meantime, activists say they will continue resisting what they see as racism.

"Right now, groups of activists are sitting together to see what we can do to fight the current situation," Yalou said. "Further protests are in the process of being planned… We hope to make changes."

ah/eo/ha/cb


Theme (s): Conflict, Governance, Human Rights, Migration, Urban Risk,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

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To: nzinink@yahoo.com
From: YouthDemocrats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 19:25:34 -0400
Subject: [YouthDemocrats] Jews in Central Africa

 

"The Tutsi people originated in Ethiopia when it was known as Kush and was a Jewish kingdom".


http://kulanu.org/tutsi/jews-africa.php

Jews in Central Africa

© 2003 by Irwin M. Berg

Professor Yochanan (Jean) Bwejeri is a member of the Bene-Zagwei clan of the Tutsi people of Burundi. He claims that he is a Jew by birth. His ancestors and the ancestors of all Tutsi were all Jews by birth and not by conversion. Except where I write in the first person, I relate these claims and the facts and opinions upon which they are based as they were told to me by Professor Bwejeri — and as often as possible in his words.
The Tutsi people originated in Ethiopia when it was known asKush and was a Jewish kingdom. There are numerous references to Kush in the Bible.
These claims, facts and opinions are in many instances at variance with what we have been taught as Jews. These departures may create difficulties for traditional Jews to accept Professor Bwejeri, his Bene-Zagwei clan and the Tutsi tribe as Jews. Are these departures bridgeable? There are additional issues. Is Professor Bwejeri sincere or is he trying to obtain Jewish support for the Tutsi struggle to survive the genocide committed upon them by the Hutu majority? Are the Tutsi intolerant or are they trying to maintain their distinct religious beliefs and culture in an alien and hostile environment?
Professor Bwejeri appears sincere in his conviction that he is a Jew and that the Tutsi are Jews. Nevertheless, I am not sufficiently knowledgeable in Jewish law, African history or Tutsi attitudes to answer any of the questions that I have posed. But since he has approached us with sincerity and in need, we are obligated to listen, to have open minds, and to welcome if it is appropriate to do so after having listened with open minds.

The History of the Tutsi

(As told to me by Prof. Bwejeri)
The Tutsi people originated in Ethiopia when it was known as Kush and was a Jewish kingdom. There are numerous references to Kush in the Bible. The Jewish kingdom fell in 1270 CE. As a result, several clans, including the Bene-Zagwei clan, moved south and west to an area Bwejeri calls Havila or the African Great Lakes Region, consisting of Burundi, Rwanda, and parts of Uganda, Tanzania and the Congo. In this region, these clans reconstituted the South Kushitic Empire, which lasted from 1270 CE to 1527 CE. In the South Kushitic Empire the laws of Moses were the laws of the land. But it was the laws of Moses as they were remembered through oral transmission. The link between the written Torah and the Tutsi was broken with their departure from Ethiopia.
Beginning about 1880, Catholic missionaries arrived in the South Kushitic Empire. A period of conflict began between the Tutsi who sought to remain faithful to their Tutsi religion and the missionaries — a conflict that lasted well into the 20th century. The military tide turned in favor of the missionaries when German forces entered the land and occupied it. Still the Tutsi resisted conversion. The missionaries found success only among the Hutu "gerim". Because of Tutsi resistance and Hutu acceptance of Catholicism, Tutsi land was confiscated and given to Hutu "squatters". This is the origin of the conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu.
About the time of World War I, Belgium became the colonial ruler of Rwanda, Burundi and Kivu (eastern Congo), which were in the historic domain of the Tutsi. Under the Belgians, the Catholic Church "began to destroy methodically the basis of the Tutsi Jewish religion." Rwanda, Burundi and Kivu were separated and placed under different figureheads. The Jewish Rwandan King was exiled, and his converted son placed on his throne. An annual gathering of Tutsi lasting eight days used to take place in what is now Rwanda. The Catholic hierarchy noted that the rituals of the festival were in accordance with the Old Testament rites of Sukkoth, and in 1917 the festival was banned by the Belgians.
The Jewish Tutsi King of Burundi managed to survive by subterfuge. One of his descendants, King Mwambutsa, was the first African sovereign to recognize the State of Israel and make a pilgrimage — "a symbolic aliyah" — to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, one hundred years of "Inquisition and terrorism annihilated" the Tutsi ancient Jewish faith.

The Genocide

In 1993, the Tutsi of Burundi were slaughtered by the Hutu in the hundreds of thousands, and over a million were killed in Rwanda. Bwejeri is a Tutsi from Burundi.
The Tutsi of Rwanda were able to reorganize to expel the murderous Hutu bands. Today a Tutsi army rules Rwanda, but security is still a problem. In Burundi the situation is much worse for the Tutsi; the Hutu are in control. Although the slaughter has abated, Bwejeri is of the opinion that in the "coming months," the Tutsi of Burundi will face a new shoah.
The Tutsi have left the Burundi countryside for the towns and cities where they live in "ghettos" for their mutual protection. Should a Tutsi venture out of the protected enclaves, the male would be murdered and the female raped and enslaved. Bwejeri introduced me to his cousin, Joseph, living in the U.S.A. Joseph's brother was ambushed by Hutus while driving in convoy from one town to the next. Joseph returned to Burundi to attend his brother's funeral, but because of the danger did not take his wife — who has not seen her parents for 15 years — or his children – who have never seen their grandparents or their homeland.
Bwejeri blames an "International Catholic Network" for supporting the Catholic Hutus in the goal of ridding the country of Tutsis. He blames the Network for being behind the "Arusha Agreements" which called for Tutsi participation in a Hutu led government. According to Bwejeri, these agreements are a "pretext" to establish a system of anti-Tutsi laws and are the prelude to the physical eradication of the "Tutsi Hebraic people."
The plot also includes African "Bantu" forces who have allied themselves with the Hutu. In particular, he singles out the South African "Bantu" Army sent by Nelson Mandela to Burundi. With their dollars they buy the sexual favors of Tutsi women or take them by force. The result is that the virus which causes AIDS has spread from South Africa, where it is widespread to the Tutsi, where it was unknown.
Tutsi women are "unusually graceful." They have never intermarried with the Bantu peoples around them, but are much desired by them. The Tutsi features of both men and women are distinct and therefore an "identity card" for those who want to prey upon them. The refusal to intermarry with the Bantu is but one of the ways the Tutsi have respected the laws of Moses (Deut 7:3-4). The Tutsis and the Hutus are now, and always have been, different people.
…some fled with Moses to Sinai and others fled southward to Ethiopia […] thus Moses, the Beta Israel and the Tutsi were original Hebrews.
I am troubled by Bwejeri's emphasis upon separation of the Tutsi from those Africans he calls Bantu. One of his objections to the Catholic Church is that it supported intermarriage between the Tutsi and the Hutu. Is this objection racial or religious? Jewish history has taught us that intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews where Jews are a minority generally results in assimilation and absorption into the majority population. To my mind, our Jewish objection to intermarriage is religious, not racial; it would not apply to a marriage between a born Jew and a Jewish convert no matter what the race or origin of the convert.
Bwejeri's emphasis upon separation for the Tutsi sometimes has the same religious basis as the Jewish objection to intermarriage and sometimes not. He has written to me that a non-Tutsi can become a part of the Tutsi people and marry with a Tutsi if he or she adopts Tutsi customs and "converts in the Jewish Tutsi religion and law." Very few Hutu converted to the "Jewish Tutsi religion" because the Tutsi priests "avoided proselytism and prohibited forced conversion." At the same time he quotes with approval a French anthropologist who wrote: "One is born a Tutsi; none can become Tutsi afterward." This lack of clarity may be a defense to the most difficult and dangerous position in which the Tutsi find themselves but it is also one which must make Jews cautious.

Links to Ancient Hebrews

Insofar as the Tutsi trace their origin to Ethiopia, I expected that they would adopt the same mythic origin to which the Ethiopian Beta Israel adhere: namely, they are descended from the union of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and the priests which Solomon sent to accompany the Queen upon her return to Ethiopia. But Bwejeri, while never denying the connection, more often emphasizes the common Egyptian origin of the Hebrews and the Tutsi — a connection which pre-dates Solomon.
Under the Pharaoh Ikhnaton, a monotheistic religion was imposed upon the Egyptian people. As a result, an opposition party of priests who had served the traditional Egyptian gods developed. Sometime after Ikhnaton died, the priests revolted and compelled the followers of Ikhanton to flee. Some fled with Moses to Sinai and others fled southward to Ethiopia. All who fled shared the religion, customs, symbols and laws that were developed under Ikhnaton. Thus Moses, the Beta Israel and the Tutsi were original Hebrews.
I pointed out to Bwejeri that the Torah traces the origin of Jewish monotheism not to Moses but to Abraham, who was a Mesopotamian, not an Egyptian. His response was that the stories about the patriarchs were later inventions made up by Jews during their Babylonian exile to curry favor with their Babylonian masters who were in conflict with the Egyptians.
During the course of this conversation with Bwejeri, I expressed the opinion that the Ethiopian Beta Israel might have originated with the Jews who settled in Elephantine between the years 600 and 400 BCE. Elephantine was the site of a large military camp of Jewish mercenaries situated in Egypt where the Aswan Dam is now located. Bwejeri dismissed this view: the Hebrew origin of the Tutsi was much older than 600 BCE.
Linguistically, Bwejeri links the Tutsi to the ancient Hebrews. The Tutsi homeland — which extends beyond the regions where the Tutsi now reside — is called by him Havila. Havila is the name applied in Genesis 2:11 to the territory watered by the Pishon River which, according to Bwejeri, is the White Nile. (The Jewish Encyclopedia expresses the view that the location of Havila and the River Pishon are unknown).
The original name of the Tutsi patriarch was Himai, a descendant of Ham, one of Noah's sons. The word Tutsiis built from the root of Kushi. Kush or Cush is the land situated south of Egypt along the banks of the Nile. The Cushites and the Hebrews have many biblical contacts. One of the most interesting is that the Cushites encouraged King Hezekiah of Judah to resist the Assyrians. (II Kings 19:9.14).
The Tutsi are "traditionally devoted" to the "auburn ox" which in the Bible is called the red heifer (parah adumah). The sacred auburn ox was sacrificed in the Temple built by Ikhnaton. Under Jewish law (Numbers 19), the ashes of the red heifer were used in the ritual purification of persons defiled by a corpse.
…he hoped that someday the Tutsi would be able to prove to all Jews that they were Jews by birth going back to biblical times.
Sometime between 1270 and 1527 CE (during the period of the South Kushitic Empire), the Tutsi secretly codified their oral Mosaic law into the Twelve Hidden Codes of Havila. Pursuant to the Codes, they developed a national festival of return called Umuganuro, which he compares toSukkoth.
The Jewish emblems of the South Kushitic Empire are the Drums of Solomon, the Lion of Judah and the Scepter. The Scepter recalls the institution of the 70 elders according to the suggestion of the "Kushitic" priest, Jethro, to Moses. (I have been unable to identify this specific suggestion in the Bible but Bwejeri has referred me to Exodus 18, Numbers 10:29-30 and Habakuk 3:7). These three emblems remained the sacred symbols of the Tutsi into the early 20th Century. The Drums of Solomon were exhibited once a year at Sukkoth (Umuganuro). Beyond the three symbols and the attachment to the auburn oxen, the Tutsi share with Jews the worship of one God and the prohibition of intermarriage with non-Hebraic peoples.

Shabbath with Bwejeri

Bwejeri spent the Shabbat of December 13-14, 2002, in New York City with me and my wife, Elaine. On Friday evening, I took him to the Carlebach Shul for services,kiddush and dinner. Prayer in the Carlebach Shul is accompanied by singing, dancing and other expressions of exuberance. A glance at the high mechitzah (barrier) which separates men and women and the number of black-hatted men make it unmistakable that the Carlebach Shul is an Orthodox synagogue.
Bwejeri cannot read Hebrew and is not familiar with the service. Nevertheless, from his clapping, swaying and singing this would not be apparent. He participated with enthusiasm. The parsha (selection of the Bible to be read) was about Joseph's meeting with his brothers in Egypt, and a lengthy dvar Torah (lecture) was given on the parsha. Bwejeri was totally familiar with the story from his reading of the Bible in French. The style in which the dvar Torah was rendered and the way new meanings were derived from the text kept him enthralled.
During the dinner, there was also a considerable amount of singing, including the rendering of Ashet Chayil (woman of valor). I told him that it was customary for a man to sing these verses to his wife every Friday evening. When he asked me for a copy of these verses, he was delighted when I told him that they were the last 22 verses of the book of Proverbs. It was a tradition, he said, that he would like to introduce to his followers since it reinforces the reverence that the Tutsi have for their wives.
During the dinner, there were several speeches relating to the survival of the Jewish people in the United States and of the Jewish State of Israel. He was all attention. The emphasis on the dangers of assimilation were as near to him as to us. He resonated to the speeches in support of the State of Israel and the settlements. One concept repeated in the speeches attracted him greatly: that all Jews are responsible for the safety and well-being of all other Jews. This became clear next morning when I took him to the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue.
The Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue was founded byanousim (the forced ones), Jews who were compelled to convert to Catholicism but returned to Judaism at the first opportunity. The Tutsi are anousim in Bwejeri's view. They were forcibly converted to Catholicism by the missionaries and prevented from returning to the religion of their ancestors by the Catholic "inquisition." He donned a talit (prayer shawl) with no apparent discomfort and sat attentively through a rather long service. In comparison to the Carlebach Shul, he found the regulated atmosphere of the service and some of the tunes to have a Catholic flavor.
After the service, he was invited by Rabbi Marc Angel to say a few words to the congregation at the Kiddush(blessings over the wine). It was here that he repeated the theme heard at the Carlebach Shul, that all Jews are responsible for the safety and well-being of all other Jews, while talking about the Hebraic origins of the Tutsi and their dire predicament.
On the way home from the synagogue, I explained to Bwejeri the traditional, Jewish view of who is a Jew — anyone born of a Jewish woman who was descended from a line of Jewish women or anyone who was a convert to Judaism. The test (except in the case of a convert) was less the acceptance of Jewish beliefs and practices, but one of birth. Bwejeri replied that he hoped that someday the Tutsi would be able to prove to all Jews that they were Jews by birth going back to biblical times.

The Present and the Future

Bwejeri recognizes that there is much that the Tutsi must learn about Jewish beliefs and practices. They might be willing to accept the yoke of the Torah if they were familiar with it. There are about 1,000 Tutsi living in Belgium, of which about 200 are members of the Havila Institute.
Bwejeri is the President of the Havila Institute. The purpose of the Institute is to research the Hebraic origins of the Tutsi tribe and reacquaint its members and all Tutsi of their Jewish origins, customs, symbols and religion. He regrets that the Havila Institute has not received any encouragement from the Belgian Jewish community. As a first step, he would like Tutsi children to be invited to go to Jewish schools, and Tutsi families to be invited into synagogues. There is not a sufficient comfort level for the Tutsi to attend uninvited.
I would urge Kulanu to use all its resources to contact Belgian Jews and synagogues in and around Brussels to work with Professor Yochanan (Jean) Bwejeri to make available a Jewish future for the Tutsi if they wish to have one. This may not be a remote possibility. While at the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, I met a young woman who knew Tutsis who were Seventh Day Adventists. Seventh Day Adventists have many customs and attitudes that appeal to Christians who have a belief in a Jewish origin. If these Tutsis had been welcomed in synagogues, would they have found a more comfortable home in the synagogue than in a church with the Seventh Day Adventists?

Professor Bwejeri can be contacted at institute __ de __ havila @ yahoo.fr


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