NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON ETHIOPIAN JEWRY INC
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Mission Statement
The North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry provides crucial educational programs to Ethiopian elementary school, high school and college students in Israel. In Ethiopia, NACOEJ is providing funding for food, medicine, and now, other Covid-related needs.
About This Cause
NACOEJ was founded in 1982 with four mandates: to help Ethiopian Jews survive in Ethiopia; to assist them in reaching Israel; to aid in their absorption into Israeli society; and to preserve their unique and ancient culture. During the 1980's, with famine and war in Ethiopia, NACOEJ sent 18 missions into remote Jewish villages, bringing doctors, clothing, school supplies, and other necessities. Subsequently, NACOEJ operated programs for Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa and Gondar Province, waiting to immigrate to Israel. NACOEJ provided thousands of daily meals for children under age six and for pregnant and nursing women, operated an elementary Jewish Day School with a school lunch program, and supplied religious facilities and adult education, paid employment for heads of households, and more. NACOEJ is now back in Ethiopia, working with local Jewish organizations to provide food and more for a starving population. In Israel, NACOEJ focuses on educational programs because in many Ethiopian-Israeli families, both parents arrived illiterate, speak little Hebrew, and lack the skills to navigate the educational system or help their children with school work. This is still impacting the third generation of Ethiopian children in Israel, while newcomers are still arriving. Yet without educational success, Ethiopian-Israelis will be relegated to a future of low-paying, menial work, an outcome that is not good for either Ethiopian Israelis or the State of Israel. Our flagship program in Israel is the Limudiah: Intensive Education Program, geared to first through sixth grades. In the 2020-2021 academic year, the Limudiah is serving about 350 students, operating in 9 schools in 4 communties: Bat Yam, Kiryat Ekron, Lod, and Rishon LeZion. Lod has a large Ethiopian populations and is very poor and crime-ridden. Rishon LeZion is prosperous but has Ethiopian slums. Kiryat Ekron has a small Ethiopian population so little recognized that it is completely devoid of programs other than the Limudiah. Bat Yam recently saw an influx of new Ethiopian immigrants whose children were badly behind in their schooling. The Limudiah provides students with 10 weekly hours of academic assistance in reading, mathematics, and study skills, as well as enrichment in English, arts and crafts, music and general Israeli culture. Work groups are grade-specific with no more than eight students to one highly qualified teacher. Unlike most programs for Ethiopian children, NACOEJ works in the children’s own schools, which enables Limudiah teachers to coordinate closely with the students’ homeroom teachers. For example, Limudiah teachers often introduce information that will later be taught in the classroom, ensuring that Ethiopian-Israeli students benefit more fully from regular classroom instruction. While providing a framework in which children gain skills to integrate into Israeli society, the program also embraces Ethiopian-Jewish customs through parental participation. The Limudiah is recognized in Israel for its effectiveness, and NACOEJ continually receives expansion requests, both from individual schools and from municipalities. While we would love to accommodate them, since the recession NACOEJ’s income has decreased while teacher salaries – NACOEJ employs many teachers for this program – have increased. The NACOEJ/Barney & Rachel Landau Gottstein College Sponsorship Program (AAS), our oldest educational program, gives Ethiopian-Israeli students a modest monthly living stipend through individual sponsors that makes it possible for them to stay in school without any assistance from impoverished parents. While college tuition is currently covered by the Israeli government for many Ethiopian students, the cost of food, housing and educational materials often forces them to drop out. The NACOEJ High School Sponsorship Program has enabled thousands of Ethiopian teenagers to attend local schools instead of leaving home for lower-level, state-subsidized boarding schools. Basic high school tuition is covered by the Israeli government, but local schools charge for books, lab fees, educational trips, etc., costs that are often beyond the means of Ethiopian families, 70% of whom currently live in poverty. About 1000 Ethiopian-Israeli high school students receive NACOEJ sponsorships each year, with hundreds more on the waiting list. The 130,000 or so Ethiopians Jews in Israel today represent an historic aliyah, perhaps the last great movement of Jews to Israel. But Ethiopian Jews came from third-world rural environments and were totally unprepared for Israel's highly technological society. Their absorption in Israel has taken considerable effort and resources, and will continue to do so for a while, both because new immigrants have just arrived from Ethiopia and because one generation is not sufficient for full integration of those who arrived as adults. But given educational assistance, a surprising number of young Ethiopians have demonstrated the ability to become doctors, lawyers, scientists, artists, teachers, entrepreneurs and government officials. Our endeavor is to give many more that essential opportunity.