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As a child of survivors, I see my parents in every Ethiopian immigrant to Israel
(JTA) — Recently, I watched a mother reunite with her son for the first time in 41 years.
On May 9, I was part of a delegation of the Jewish Agency for Israel that accompanied Ethiopian olim (immigrants) from Addis Ababa to Ben Gurion Airport and new lives in Israel. The mother had made aliyah in 1982 as part of Operation Moses, when Ethiopian Jewish immigrants trekked for weeks through the Sudan, hiding out from authorities in the daytime and walking by moonlight, to reach Israeli Mossad agents, who were secretly facilitating their transport to Israel.
But the son, due to family circumstances, was left behind. And here she was on the tarmac, praying and crying, and the embrace they had when the now grown man walked down the stairs, that depth of emotion after decades of waiting and yearning, was something that I will never forget.
The Ethiopian Jewish community dates back some 2,500 years, from around the time of the destruction of the First Temple. We know that they have always yearned, from generation to generation, to be in Jerusalem. Most of the Ethiopian Jews emigrated to Israel during the 1970s and 1980s and in one weekend in May 1992, a covert Israeli operation, dubbed Operation Solomon, airlifted more than 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over 36 hours. Those coming today are being reunited with family members who came during one of these earlier operations.
On my four-day trip from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I listened to the stories of incredible perseverance, and of heartrending suffering, among Ethiopian Jews — our brothers and sisters. Close to 100,000 of them have made their way to Israel over the past 40-plus years, fulfilling this community’s centuries-long quest to come to Israel.
I heard about the Ethiopian Israeli who, as a 15-year-old, marched through Sudan with his family and lost three of his siblings to starvation. I heard the stories of families waiting, for months or years, for that moment of aliyah, as clandestine negotiations among government negotiators dragged on. It was so powerful to hear of the sacrifices they made and how strong the dream was, and is today, of coming to Jerusalem, to Israel.
RELATED: How Israel’s Falash Mura immigration from Ethiopia became a painful 30-year saga
And I thought of my own family’s journey — a different time, under different circumstances. But also a Jewish journey of perseverance, suffering and, for the fortunate among us, survival.
My parents were born in Poland in the 1930s. During World War II, my father and his family survived in a Siberian labor camp and then in a remote part of Poland. My mother’s family managed to get work papers, but her father did not have them. He survived the war by hiding under the floorboards of a barn on a farm where they were living. The woman who owned the farm did not know they were Jewish, so it was a harrowing day-to-day existence.
But my mother and father survived, managed to make it to liberation, and eventually came to the United States. They were first sponsored by the Birmingham, Alabama, Jewish community, and then made their way to New York and New Jersey, where our family has built a new life. We now have fourth-generation children growing up here in New Jersey, and we feel so fortunate for the lives we have.
Here is the essential difference from their story and mine: For my family, there was no state of Israel. Many members of my family perished in the Holocaust. There was nowhere for them to go.
This drives what I do. Today, everything has changed because we have a state of Israel, and we have a Jewish Agency that ensures that Jews can make aliyah and helps them make new lives in Israel.
Last year, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I traveled to Poland and stood at the border as thousands of Ukrainian refugees streamed across. I was standing only a few miles from where my grandfather hid under the floorboards of that barn about 80 years earlier. Back then, there was no one there to protect my family, no one to do anything for them. And here I was in 2022 standing amid a massive array of aid agencies, and the very first thing these refugees saw — whether they were Jewish or not — were signs with the Star of David, marking the Jewish Agency, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and other Jewish groups.
While there has been significant hardship and struggle for the first generation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, it was incredibly inspiring for me to meet members of the second generation — those who made the trek as children or teenagers in the 1980s and ’90s — who are now Israeli adults in positions of leadership and significant responsibilities. We heard from Havtamo Yosef, who immigrated as a young child from Ethiopia with his parents, and then watched his father become a street sweeper and his mother a housecleaner while he was growing up. Now he heads up the entire Ethiopian Aliyah and Absorption services for the Jewish Agency, ensuring that there are stronger absorption procedures, better education and firmer foundations for better lives for these new immigrants than there ever was for his family.
While there was no Israel for my family when we were refugees, there were — in Birmingham, Alabama; in Hillside, New Jersey; and everywhere along the way of my family’s journey — people who thought outside of themselves, who cared and took care of my relatives. This is my legacy and what motivates me today.
So when I stood on the tarmac at Ben Gurion earlier this month, I cried tears of sadness at the long family separations and tears of joy that today this Jewish journey continues, from Ukraine and Russia and Ethiopia to Israel. Today, there is a place to go and a people to welcome Jews on that tarmac, with an Israeli flag, a smile and a warm embrace, and a promise of better lives in freedom.
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‘Genocidal Settlers’: Pomona College Group Issues Rabid Manifesto After Raiding Jewish Event on Campus
Illustrative: Anti-Zionist protesters being arrested at Pomona College on April 5, 2024. They had taken over an administrative building. Photo: Screenshot/Students for Justice in Palestine via Instagram
In a disturbing open letter, an anonymous group has claimed credit for storming a Jewish event at Pomona College in California held to commemorate the lives of the children, women, and men murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, or subsequently in captivity in Gaza — a harrowing incident in which security failed to deter the intruders and protect those gathered inside the venue.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, footage of the incident from earlier this month showed the group, whose members concealed their faces with keffiyeh scarves, attempting to raid the room while screaming expletives and pro-Hamas slogans. They ultimately failed due to the prompt response of the Claremont Colleges Jewish chaplain and other attendees who formed a barrier in front of the door to repel them, a defense they mounted on their own as campus security personnel did nothing to stop the disturbance.
“Satan dared not look us in the eyes,” says the note, which the group released on social media, while attacking event guests and Oct. 7 survivor Yoni Viloga. “Immediately, zionists [sic] swarmed us, put their hands on us, shoved us, while Viloga retreated like he did on October 7th, 2023.”
Appearing to threaten murder, the group added, “We let that coward know he and his fascists settler ideology are not welcome here nor anywhere. zionism is a death cult that must be dealt with accordingly [sic].”
First promoted by the “Claremont Undercurrents” social media page, the note is so laden with expletives that The Claremont Independent — the official student newspaper of the Claremont consortium of which Pomona College is a member — declined to publish the entirety of its contents. However, it did publish some of the more virulent comments targeting Viloga, over whom the group obsessed: “Viloga comes from a family of genocidal settlers”; “Viloga served in the zionist [sic] occupational force and is a settler on stolen land”; “Yoni’s fictitious ‘state’ destroyed 92% of Gaza.”
Pomona College, which vowed to find and punish the students responsible for the disruption, denounced this latest action, telling the Independent that “the language shared in a post by Claremont Undercurrents is vile, threatening, and highly disturbing. It has no place on our campus.”
Radical, pro-Hamas student groups continue to convulse higher education campuses across the West.
Earlier this month, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a primary organ of the student anti-Zionist movement in the US, appeared to call for executing Muslim “collaborators” working with Israel in retaliation for the death of Palestinian influencer Saleh Al-Jafarawi during a conflict between the Hamas terrorist group and a rival clan, Doghmush, in Gaza City.
“Saleh’s martyrdom is a testament to the fact that the fight against Zionism in all its manifestations — from the [Israel Defense Forces] to its collaborators — must continue,” the group said in a statement posted on social media. “In the face of hundreds of thousands of martyred Palestinians these past two years alone, collaborators and informants maintain their spineless disposition as objects of Zionist influence against their own people.”
The statement went on to volley a series of unfounded charges alleging that anti-Hamas forces are “exploiting Gaza;s youth for money” and pilfering “desperately needed aid to the killing of their own people in service of Zionism.” NSJP concluded, “Death to the occupation. Death to Zionism. Death to all collaborators.”
In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, Israeli professor Michael Ben-Gad has been unrelentingly pursued by a pro-Hamas organization which calls itself City Action for Palestine. It has subjected him to several forms of persecution, including social media agitprop, spontaneous, unlawful assembly at his place of work, and even a petition of their own.
City Action for Palestine is one of London’s most notorious anti-Zionist groups, convulsing higher education campuses across the city with pro-Hamas demonstrations which demonize pro-Israel Jews, attack policies enacted to combat antisemitism, and amplify the propaganda of jihadist terror organizations. Ben-Gad is not its only victim, as the group has targeted Members of Parliament, the Union of Jewish Students, and City University London president Anthony Finkelstein, who is Jewish and the child of a Holocaust survivor.
“Regardless of diverse views on the recent Gaza war and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we deplore any campaign that seeks to intimidate and drive out lecturers because they are Israeli, Jewish, or members of any other group,” a petition, signed by hundreds of professors calling for a defense of Ben-Gad’s rights, said in response to the hate campaign. “Academics and students have a right to go about their work at any university without facing harassment.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘Nowhere Near Netanyahu’: Thom Yorke Says Radiohead Will ‘Absolutely Not’ Perform in Israel
Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead. Photo: Alex Cropper/Sipa USA
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke said the British rock band will not be performing in Israel again, even though the group’s lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, has family roots in the Jewish state.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Yorke, 57, was asked if Radiohead would return to Israel for a concert after the band’s controversial gig in Tel Aviv in 2017.
“Absolutely not,” the vocalist replied, before taking a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime, but Jonny has roots there. So, I get it.”
The interview took place before the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization halted fighting in Gaza.
“I would also politely disagree with Thom,” Greenwood added during the interview. “I would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, ‘Everyone hates us — we should do exactly what we want.’ Which is far more dangerous.”
Radiohead performed at Park Hayarkon in July 2017 despite criticism and pressure to cancel the show from supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, including director Ken Loach and musicians Roger Waters, Thurston Moore, and Young Fathers.
During a solo show in Melbourne, Australia, last year, Yorke was heckled by an audience member about his silence on the Israel-Hamas war. The incident resulted in Yorke storming off stage. He later posted a lengthy statement on social media explaining what happened and also his thoughts on the Middle East conflict.
“I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease,” the musician wrote. He also argued that “the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages still have not all been returned? For what possible reason?”
Greenwood, 53, is married to Israeli artist Sharona Katan. He has collaborated with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa since 2008, and in 2023, they released an album titled “Jarak Qaribak” (“Your Neighbor Is Your Friend”), which features musicians from across the Middle East. Greenwood and Tassa have performed together in Israel and were scheduled to have shows in the UK this summer, but they were canceled following pressure and alleged threats from BDS supporters.
Radiohead announced last month that for the first time in over seven years, the band will play live shows across Europe in November and early December. During the band’s break, Yorke and Greenwood worked together on three albums for their side band, The Smile. Yorke told The Sunday Times he is concerned about the new tour being targeted by anti-Israel agitators.
“But they don’t care about us,” he added. “It’s about getting something on Instagram of something dramatic happening and, no, I don’t think Israel should do Eurovision. But I don’’ think Eurovision should do Eurovision. So, what do I know?”
Immediately after the announcement about Radiohead’s tour, supporters of the BDS movement called for a boycott of the concerts. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) complained about the band’s alleged “complicit silence” about the Israel-Hamas war and support for Israeli performers, like Tassa, during the “genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” PACBI urged Radiohead fans to boycott the band’s concerts until it “convincingly distances itself” from Greenwood because of his performances in Israel and collaboration with Israeli musicians.
PACBI also noted that Radiohead has “yet to apologize” for the band’s 2017 performance in Israel and criticized Tassa for entertaining “genocidal Israeli forces in between these massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, willingly acting as a cultural ambassador for apartheid Israel.” Tassa played a show for the Israel Defense Forces in November 2023.
“This wakes me up at night,” Yorke told The Sunday Times about the boycott efforts. “They’re telling me what it is that I’ve done with my life, and what I should do next, and that what I think is meaningless. People want to take what I’ve done that means so much to millions of people and wipe me out. But this is not theirs to take from me — and I don’t consider I’m a bad person.”
“A few times recently I’ve had ‘Free Palestine!’ shouted at me on the street. I talked to a guy. His shtick was, ‘You have a platform, a duty and must distance yourself from Jonny’ … It’s a purity test, low-level Arthur Miller witch-hunt,” he added about being targeted by pro-Palestinian activists and pressured to distance himself from Greenwood. “I utterly respect the dismay but it’s very odd to be on the receiving end.”
Greenwood defended himself against the criticism over his close connection to Israel and work with Israeli musicians.
“When what I do with the musicians is described as sinister or devious? Well, I’ve done this for 20 years,” he explained to The Sunday Times. “Look, I have been to anti-government protests in Israel … I spend a lot of time there with family and cannot just say, ‘I’m not making music with you f–kers because of the government.’ It makes no sense to me. I have no loyalty — or respect, obviously — to their government, but I have both for the artists born there.”
“The only thing that I’m ashamed of is that I’ve dragged Thom and the others into this mess — but I’m not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians,” he told the publication. “I can’t apologize for that.”
Yorke previously responded to backlash about Radiohead’s 2017 concert in Tel Aviv. “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than [US President Donald] Trump,” he said.
Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien, 57, has posted on social media in the past in support of the “Free Palestine” cause. He also wrote in a social media post last year: “Like so many of you I have found the events of Oct. 7 and what has followed too awful for words. Anything that I have tried to write feels so utterly inadequate. Ceasefire now. Return the hostages.” When asked by The Sunday Times about the controversy surrounding Radiohead’s 2017 gig in Israel, he said, “We should have played Ramallah in the West Bank as well.”
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway, 58, told the publication that it is “impossible” for the band to meet the demands of the BDS movement. “They want us to distance ourselves from Jonny, but that would mean the end of the band and Jonny is coming from a very principled place,” he said. “But it’s odd to be ostracized by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.”
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Rubio Says Israeli Strike on Gaza Didn’t Violate Ceasefire
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press following his meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Oct/ 23, 2025. Photo: Fadel Senna/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Washington does not view a strike that Israel said targeted a member of a Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza as a violation of a US-backed ceasefire.
Israel said it struck a member of the Islamic Jihad group on Saturday, accusing the individual of planning to attack Israeli troops. Islamic Jihad denied it was planning an attack.
Speaking aboard President Donald Trump’s plane during a trip to Asia, Rubio said: “We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire.”
The US top diplomat added that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defense as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt, and Qatar that saw the main terrorist faction in Gaza, Hamas, release the remaining living hostages held in Gaza this month.
“They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that,” Rubio said.
Rubio said the ceasefire in Gaza, which remains in force between Israel and Hamas just over two years since the war began, was based on obligations on both sides, reiterating that Hamas needs to speed up the return of the remains of hostages who died in captivity.
Israel’s Saturday strike came shortly after Rubio departed Israel after a visit aimed at shoring up the ceasefire.