49 Comments

• The Chabad school should be happy!

  Who needs those racists who are protesting the inclusion of precious little kids?

• Shimon Shak

  Can someone explain why the parents don’t want Ethiopians in the schools?

• WOW

  Biggest Chilul hashem i’ve ever seen.
  These Ethiopians are just as much Jewish as the rest of us-probably even more so. They deserve to be accepted by this school. How sickening how rampant racism is.
  Didn’t the Rebbe stress Am Yisrael Chai more than anything?

  • Milhouse

    What makes you think they are Jewish? Obviously those who converted properly are Jewish, but what makes you think the rest are? The real question is why this school did accept them; what is going on that we are not being told?

  • To: Milhouse

    in the 50’s there were chabad yeshiva principles who didnt want to let others in when the Rebbe heard about it he put a stop to it and that might explain why the schools accepted them

  • Milhouse

    You are talking about yidden. There was no question at all about their status, and there was no good reason to exclude them from schools. Here we are talking about goyim who were brought to Israel but were not converted. The Rebbe is the one who ordered Lubavitcher schools not to accept them. Therefore we need to know why this school did. Without knowing the reason why they were accepted we can’t know why these parents object.

• Im just guessing

  I would assume the reason is that they are required to do a gerus lchumra and if their parents dont keep Torah and mitzvos then the whole geirus is in question, so it would be like sending your children to a school that has a whole bunch of sufik yidden in it, which some people might not be comfortable with. i personally dont think it has anything to do with race, but i also am just guessing…

  • Milhouse

    The gerus is not lechumra; without it they are goyim gemurim.

• Citizen Berel

  Why are all you commenting? It’s an Halachic question.

  To be decided by Chabad Rabbonim.

  Seriously.

  As you reel back in righteous indignation, while knowing absolutely nothing of the relevant halachic contex, that woosh you hearing is from between your ears.

• Yitzchok

  It has nothing to do with race or their skin color. It’s about them being (or nonot being) Jewish.

• Im just guessing

  All the more so then that it isnt about the fact that they are ethiopian, however i do think that there is such an opinion that it is lechumra, even though chabad evidently according to you doesnt hold by that… I dont know enough about it to make a definte statement that we do or dont hold like that opinion

• how lovely

  Amazing how the ideals of Chabad and what it stands for just disappear when it comes to someone who is “different”.Stop preaching inclusiveness when you are just into yourselves and yes,go out and “makarv” others but Gd forbid you actually go to school with “others” or oh no marry someone.Anyone see the hypocracy here etc???Let alone racism but we won’t get into that.Yes,they are not clones of you but they want their children to learn and be a part of the Chabad system.Yes,keep this all in mind this coming RH and lets see your amazing devotion….what a joke.

• There is a horo'oh from The Rebbe

  regarding accepting them into our schools.

• who said????

  Who said they did not convert properly??
  Many Ethiopians converted.
  My Gd!

• Crown Heights Resident

  If the children went through Geirus Lechumra and their parents follow Torah & Mitzvos then their children belong in yeshivah otherwise they don’t

• Blatant racists

  So disgusting and big embarrassment for chabad. I’ve attended and taught in many Jewish day schools where there were halachically not Jewish kids attending. This was a known fact! Some of them would even discuss the non Jewish holidays they celebrated in school. This was mainly overlooked bc of donations. So I don’t buy that the concern of these parents might be if they are actually Jews. I hope no leftists newly indoctrinated bts see this or some rabbis out there will have a lot of explaining to do to their constituents. Somebody better nip this in the bud before chabad donations run dry.

  • Milhouse

    Goyishe children are sometimes accepted into yiddishe schools on an ad hoc basis, when it’s necessary for some reason, or for instance if the mother and child are in the process of giyur. Never as a matter of routine policy.

    Parents are perfectly right not to want their children to be in such a school. Why do they send their children to a Jewish school in the first place, if they’re going to be playing with goyim? They may as well send them to public school. One of the 18 gezeros of Beis Shammai was specifically intended so that parents would prevent their children from playing with goyim.

• lms

  it is simply to be dealt with al pi Torah…..
  are they Jews according to halacha or not? If yes, then they cannot exclude them, they must be included with acceptance and love.
  this is who We are

• It's their fault - they refused to undergo conversion.

  Ethiopian children are not accepted in Chabad’s institutions. This is an instruction from the Rebbe and also a ruling by our rabbis!
  Ethiopians are not being singled out, since Chabad policy applies to anyone whose Jewishness is in question.
  When the Ethiopian Jews began their immigration from Ethiopia, the Chief Rabbinate obliged all immigrants to undergo giyur lehumra (pro forma conversion) because of doubts raised about their Jewishness.
  However, in 1984 the rabbinate adopted as its official policy the well-known halakhic ruling that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ZT”L issued a decade earlier, which held that there was no doubt about the Jewishness of the Falasha, the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews ). From this point on, instead of the demand to undergo conversion, members of Beta Israel wishing to marry had to undergo a “clarification of Jewishness.”
  Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote to his son-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Tendler concerning the Ethiopian Jews: “As you mentioned, they should not be brought to the Land of Israel, unless they have undergone a conversion, in order to not increase the concern for assimilation [i.e., intermarriage with Jews who do not have a doubt regarding their Jewish status and also a weakening of the faith of Ethiopian Jews themselves]

  These kids may or may not be Jews. But their parent, and grandparents refused to undergo conversion. Now the next generation is not accepted as Jews.
  All Chabad schools should take note – Just because a child’s father (only) is Jewish does NOT entitle that child to sit in a yeshiva with Jewish kids. This can only lead CV”S to more assimilation, more intermarriage, more messed up kids.

• to Milhouse

  Can you please explain what geirus l’chumra is?

  • Milhouse

    What do you need explained? You know the words “giyur” and “lechumra”; now put them together. But it’s irrelevant here, since there is no chumra involved. The people who came from Ethiopia were goyim; those who were megayer became yidden, those who didn’t remained goyim. That’s not a chumra, that’s basic giyur.

• IIRC

  Even those who were megayer and kept halacha were not to be accepted. As Shluchim in a heavily populated Ethiopian neighborhood, we sent frum Ethiopian families to a frum school affiliated with a political party and specifically not to our Chabad school. I’m not specifying what I remember to have been the reason, since some commentors will have no problem bashing the Rebbe-chas v’sholom.

  Why are these issues open for debate when they are clear cut?

  • Milhouse

    I would be very interested in knowing the reason. It seems very strange to me, but if the Rebbe said it then we have to accept it. Could you please email me at milhouse.vh@earthlink.net?

• fear

  how sad that people allow themselves to get caught up in the skin color of other people. it seems these people fear that something might happen if there are children in the school who look different/come from a different background than their own children. i wonder what it is that they fear though.

• Embrace them fully!

  It is no myth they are truly offspring of Shlomo. Anyone of us whom says different should remind themselves how we were viewed and treated in ww2 and leave that demented mindset at the door.

  • Milhouse

    It is absolutely a myth. Shlomo did not have a son with Malkas Sh’vo. Even if he had, that son would have been a goy. And even if that mythical son were to have became Jewish, and were to have married a Jewish wife, there would be no basis for supposing that these people were descended from that marriage.

    What has WW2 got to do with it? I can’t stand people who think that, no matter what the question, WW2 is the answer. I don’t care about WW2. WW2 doesn’t prove anything, and is not a valid argument for any proposition.

• Embrace then Fully!

  You cant stand 6 million fellow yidden whom perished? and you dont care?? Tsk tsk tsk… Now l know your a legend in your own mind.

  I dont know where you come from but it should not be from our heritage or CH. Torah states Moshe actually had a Cushite wife…. It seems that you would find a issue with that also? One day you will have to answer to Moshiach and be left speechless in His presence.

  • Milhouse

    What have the six million got to do with the Ethiopian goyim? How did their deaths turn these goyim into Jews? The six million are not an argument for anything, and it is despicable to invoke them as an argument.

    What does Moshe Rabbenu, or Tzipporah, have to do with this? And no, Tzipporah was not Ethiopian. See Rashi.

• Elesheva Joy to #17

  Dear # 17 I bet my last dollar that you do not know what tribe you are from!

  The Torah says the Wisdom of this world is FOOLISHNESS to HaShem and Moshiach!

  And I would not want my kinder to be taught by you if you were a teacher.

  • Milhouse

    Take your Xian garbage and get out of here. This is a Jewish site, and you are clearly a Xian. (Here’s a clue: looking up words in a dictionary is not enough to hide who you are. Your word choice betrays you.)

• Elesheva Joy to #26

  Your Speech betrays betrays you! You sound like a Goy1 How Dare you Say You Do Not Care About The People who suffered HaShem cares and so should we All! Slavery of All people is wrong…killing of all people is wrong. It is time to follow Rebbi Kaduri and TALK LESS & PRAY MORE! BARUCH HA SHEM!

  • Milhouse

    How ironic, since it’s your speech that betrays you as a Xian.

    By the way, No, slavery is not wrong; the Torah explicitly endorses it.

  • Milhouse

    Not that slavery has any connection to Ethiopians anyway. Ethiopians have never been slaves.

• Elesheva Joy to #26

  Also, didn’t HaShem say to DO GOOD, LOVE JUSTICE AND FOLLOW THY G-D. How can you Hate those Ethopian Children? Did you choose to be born to the family you have? Did I choose to be born to the family that I am born to? No. Unless you can prove it you should not judge innocent children. Are they considered Garbarge to Hashem? Because all of the HEALTH CARE, ALL OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY, ALL OF THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND ARMED FORCES THAT PROTECT US IN THE UNITED STATES ARE PEOPLE OF ALL DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS…

  So you should not deny any child any an Education and to be close to HaShem We adults are sinners, but the children are called to HaShem. Such a shame, such a shame. Ha Shem forgive us all. Didn’t you see the poor little child that died on the beach running from a dangerous country. Does this child deserve such a horrible death? Do the
  Ethiopian Children derseve to be denied education?

  • Milhouse

    I don’t hate goyim at all, but they don’t belong in a yiddisher school, with yiddishe kinderlach. The Torah says that we have to remain separate from the other nations, lest we learn from them. You want your idolatrous children to play with Jewish ones so they can spread your false religion. We will not allow it.

• Embrace them Fully!

  Milhouse over the years its very apparent that you have brainwashed yourself. lm glad your not nor ever will be a leader in anything. Inspect your soul.

  The Facts are My Father is a Well known Rabbi, in the Midrash Tanhuma, ‘Kushi’ is used as a slang for ‘beautiful’; in the popular quote about Zipporah, the Midrash states: “Because of her beauty she was called a Kushite”.

  Yet, in reality ‘Kushi’ is nothing but the Hebrew demonym for the ancient land of Kush. In other words, ‘Kushi’ is the Hebrew word for ‘Kushite’. Also known as ‘Ethiopia’, or alternatively as ‘Nubia’, Kush is the historical name for the region that is today Northern Sudan. The Kushite civilization is one of the earliest, and was once one of the most powerful, in the world.

  Since Kush is an inseparable element of the Bible world—and since Moses’ wife Zipporah herself is identified as Kushite—restoring the definition of the word ‘Kushi’ should perhaps be considered as integral to conserving the sanctity of the Hebrew language.

  One final thing : Let us never forget what happened in ww2 to us from the CH community and from around the world. Precious yidden souls always matter even if Milhouse and his warped self righteous mindset thinks otherwise. Happy Shabbos.

  • Milhouse

    Enough with your amhoratzus. Tziporah was not from Kush. She was from Midyan. Rashi says clearly that the posuk calls her Kushi because she was as beautiful as a Kushi is ugly.

    And none of this has anything to do with the fact that the Falasha people in Ethiopia are not Jews, were never Jews, and their ridiculous fairy tale about Shlomo Hamelech and Malkas Sh’vo doesn’t change anything.

    And WW2 is irrelevant. Nothing that happened in the war can magically change a goy into a yid, any more than it can change a cat into a giraffe. Only giyur kehalocho can do that.

  • K

    The so-called “myth” of Eldad Hadani (and Jews of Ethiopian origin) is perpetrated on Chabad websites and published by Kehos:

    http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112285/jewish/Eldad-Hadani.htm

    An excerpt:

    ” They went by way of Egypt further down the upper Nile River and settled in Ethiopia, in the land of the negroes of East Africa. The Danites were great warriors, and after fighting many battles against native black tribes, they established themselves securely, with a kingdom of their own.

    Later on, after the Destruction of the Beth-Hamikdosh, three more tribes joined the tribe of Dan, Eldad related they were the tribes of Naftali, Gad and Asher. The four tribes lived side by side in peace and brotherhood.
    …
    The Jews of Kairwan welcomed Eldad the Danite as a prince, but they did not know whether they could believe him and trust him. So they inquired about him from the Gaon Rabbi Zemach, who was the head of the famous Yeshiva in Babylon at that time. The Gaon Rabbi Zemach replied that Eldad the Danite could be trusted, and much of what he related was true. In some instances his memory and imagination may have been affected by the terrible experiences which he had had.

    From the enquiry by the Jews of Kairwan, and from the reply which the Gaon sent back to them, which were preserved as written historical documents, we now know the exciting story of Eldad the Danite.”

  • K

    Tshuvas Radbaz IV, no. 1290:

    Cush is in a perpetual state of war. There are three kingdoms:
    Moslems, Christians and Jews of the tribe of Dan. As best it can be determined, they are descended from the sects of Zadok and Boethus i.e. they are Karaites, for they have no knowledge of the oral law.

  • Milhouse

    K, what is your problem with the article you cite? It accurately reports what happened — that Eldod Hadoni showed up in Kairouan with his fantastic tale, and that while people were skeptical of some of the wilder parts of his story they generally believed the basics. From our modern perspective we have good reason to be more skeptical than they were.

    But despite the Radvaz’s speculation there is no connection between Eldod and the so-called “Beta Israel” or “Falasha” of Ethiopia. For one thing, their own story of their origins is completely different. Eldod had a story about Shevet Don. If the “Beta Israel” made this claim, we could associate them with Eldod, and with whatever stories the Radvaz had heard.

    But they do not tell such a story. None of them have even heard of it. Instead they tell some ridiculous fairy tale about Shlomo Hamelech fathering a son on Malkas Sh’vo, and that son stealing the Luchos from the Beis Hamikdosh and bringing it to Ethiopia. Mind you, not only do the alleged “Jews” tell this story, the acknowledged goyim of Ethiopia tell the exact same story too. They even claim to have these stolen Luchos hidden in some Xian temple. And they all claim to be descended from this mythical thief, as if that would somehow make them Jewish.

    The truth is much more prosaic. The “Beta Israel” are descended from Xian goyim who, a few centuries ago, decided that the NT was garbage, and started following only the “OT”. That could not and did not make them Jews, and they have no connection to anything Jewish (unless of course they convert, just like any goy).

  • Milhouse

    By the way, K, where is a sefer attributed to Eldod Hadoni quoted in a Tosfos?

  • K

    Milhouse, you mean the first Tosfos in Chulin quoting the sefer “Hilchos Eretz Yisroel” authored by Eldad Hadani – which Tosfos proves is wrong (since women can shecht kodshim, kal vchomer they can shecht chullin), although the Bais Yossef explains that noshim da’atom kallos means that they are prone to fainting.

    I put quotations around the sefer “Hilchos Eretz Yisroel” because it seems that the original was Roshei Teivos “Hilchos Alef Yud”. At some point, “someone decided it stands for “Eretz Yisroel” but it could stand for other words (such as “Hilchos Ish Yehudi or Aino Yehudi”).

    BMG has a huge library – it is not among our seforim.

  • K

    First Tosfos in Chullin quotes Hilchos “Eretz Yisroel”.

  • Milhouse

    Got it in one. The “Alef Yud” actually stands for “Amar Yehoshua”. The sefer consists of halachos that Eldad claimed to have come from Yehoshua, each one starting with “Amar Yehoshua mipi Moshe mipi haGevurah”. Of course it was all nonsense, and, as you say, Tosfos dismisses it. Which just goes to show that just because a sefer is old, and is quoted in Tosfos, doesn’t mean it’s authoritative. Old nonsense is still nonsense.

    BMG does indeed have a huge library. I once found there an intact copy of a sefer I’d been looking all over for; the only other copy I’ve ever seen was a tattered one at 770, and when I went looking for it again I couldn’t find it, so I assume someone saw its condition and got rid of it.

  • K

    770 has a library? I was never there but is that the “Rebbe’s Library” that had those seforim stolen and later subject to a court case with his nephew?

    Anyway, as you know, toldos takeh disproves Eldad’s halacha, but the Bais Yossef and minhag yisroel are mekayem hu s halacha and women do not shecht. That seems to give validity to it! (Hard to call it “nonsense”).

  • Milhouse

    No, K, the Beis Yosef rejects the Ogur’s claim that there is a minhag for women not to shecht, because לא ראינו אינו ראיה. The Shach tries to rescue the Ogur’s claim by saying that after all, nobody has ever heard of a woman shechting, and surely if it happened even once we would have heard of it.

    Well, he was mistaken. There were places where women did shecht, and the Shach never heard of it. This fact disproves his argument, and therefore the Beis Yosef’s position is correct, that there is no such minhag. The reasons that over the years women usually didn’t shecht are obvious, but where it’s necessary a woman who knows the halochos can shecht, exactly as the mishna says.

  • Milhouse

    No, 770 doesn’t have an organized library like BMG’s. It just has a lot of seforim, but finding anything unusual is a chore, even if it’s there. The Rebbe’s library is a separate thing, and you have to make an appointment to use it, but a lot of it is now on hebrewbooks.org.

    As I said, this sefer that I had been looking for for years, I happened to find in 770 one day, so I hid it somewhere till I had gone through it, and took it to photocopy some pages, and then I never saw it again. It was in bad condition. But the one time I was at BMG I decided to see if this sefer was there, and sure enough it was on the shelf, easy to find, and in very good condition. Even hebrewbooks.org hasn’t got it.

• to millhouse

  they aren’t goyim their either geirim or safek yiden!

  • Milhouse

    No, the ones who have not been megayer kehalocho are vadai goyim, and the ones who have been are vadai yidden.