Grandma's army

Running parallel but separate from Operation Brothers , another top secret mission, called Operation Moses , airlifted 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan between November 1984 and January 1985. Named after the Jewish biblical figure, Moses - who led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt – the mission began shortly after a devastating famine swept through Ethiopian, threatening the survival of the local Jewish community. Those who survived the arduous journey by foot, through the deserts of Ethiopia and Sudan, were airlifted to Israel in a complex and clandestine operation that was the result of close cooperation between the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad, the United States Embassy in Khartoum, and Sudanese State officials. When word leaked out to the press, and under pressure from other Muslim countries, Sudan blocked further flights, leaving many behind. In the United States, all 100   senators signed a secret petition to President Ronald Reagan, asking him to have ...

Because the sanctity of life is of primary concern in Judaism, Jews throughout their history have come to the rescue of their brethren - in whatever means they were able to effect. This imperative to save a fellow Jew began at the very beginning of Bible times when Abraham rescued his nephew Lot. [Genesis 14:14]         . Ethiopian Jews, also known as Beta Israel (House of Israel), are believed to have emigrated from ancient Israel to Ethiopia between the 1st and 6th centuries. Although many of their members were forcibly converted to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, Ethiopian Jewry continued to secretly observe many Jewish traditions and holidays, and remained steadfast in their Jewish faith. Like thousands of Jews around the world, the Ethiopian Jewish community prayed for centuries to return to the Land of Israel.  From 1983–1985, Ethiopia suffered a devastating famine. In desperation, thousands of Ethiopians—Jews among them—fled...