PC Rabbi and KTI Member Escort Ethiopian Jews to Israel

 Rabbi Jaymee Alpert of Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester and congregation member Nancy Kansler spent a week helping to escort remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel earlier this month. The two worked with Jewish Federations of North America’s “Completing the Journey” mission in what the temple calls the “final chapter in a modern day Exodus from oppression to freedom.” Alpert also organized a mission to Cuba to bring medical supplies and material goods to Jews in need there. Alpert and congregation members leave for that mission on Monday, June 24.

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Twenty five years ago, thousands of Jews began fleeing Ethiopia on an often treacherous journey through Sudan to the Land of Israel. During that time more than 80,000 Ethiopian Jews were returned to their homeland, opening an extraordinary chapter in Israel's, and the Jewish people's history.

Helping to fulflil the prophecy of gathering Jewish exiles "from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12). Alpert was profoundly appreciative of being able to share in the mitzvah (good deed) of helping members of the Jewish community escape anti-Semitism and extreme poverty, and helping them to realize the dream of living in their biblical homeland.

From.lune 9 through 13, Rabbi Alpert, together with Nancy Kansler, an active Federation and KTI member, served as the rabbinical escorts for 60+ of the few remaining Jews  in Ethiopia on the Federations' last flight from Ethiopia to Israel, taking part in the final chapter of this modem Exodus and welcoming her fellow Jews to a new beginning in their homeland.

Upon arrival in Israel, the Ethiopian emigres are provided with a broad support program to help them become productive citizens. The resettlement servies include intensive Hebrew language study, educational and occupational courses, and cultural and social integration workshops. Now more than 120,000 strong, the Ethiopian community in Israel has produced Members of Knesset, journalists, models, rock stars, soldiers, and success stories in every facet of Israeli society, even as the community continues to work to overcome enormous challenges to full integration in a 2lst century state.

From Monday, June 24 to July 1 Rabbi Alpert will continue KTI's humanitarian efforts when she and Aaron Kischel, founder of Synagogue Solutions USA and former Executive Director of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in the Northeast, and a group of 15 KTI members, relatives and affiliates travel to Cuba to provide its Jewish community with much needed medical supplies, food, clothing, and other material goods. Each member of the trip will be taking at least 15 lbs. of these vital goods to share with the Cuban Jews for whom these items are in short supply. The KTI mission will visit several different Jewish centers and synagogues on the island, meet with community leaders and members and demonstrate to them, as with the Ethiopian Jewish community, that the Jewish people are one people, wherever they live.