marching song

A prisoner of Zion and the mythological aliyah activist who was a pioneer before the camp of members of the Ethiopian community

Aspa Geta-Yosef Zabdia was sent as a child from Ethiopia to Israel and was destined to be one of the future leaders of the community in Ethiopia, through a program for young members of the community that will form a leadership infrastructure when they return home.

Eli Ashkenazi

19/03/2022

Saturday, 19 March 2022, 10:55 Updated: 11:31

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

In 1956, when he was only 13 years old, Aspah Geta-Yosef Zabdia came to Israel, with 26 other young boys, born in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Jewish community was then known to few in Israel.

Zabdia and his friends sent to the young country were destined to be the future leaders of the community in Ethiopia.

From then until the day he died, last week, Geta-Yosef Zabdia was a pioneer before the camp, and over the years one of the leaders in the affair of the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Aspa Geta - Yosef Zabdia, born in 1943 in the village of Mieliko in the area of ​​Debt-Amba Georgis in Vogra, to his mother Addis Rada and his father who was an important religious leader - Lika Kohanat Geta Asarso.

Aspa-Yosef was the eldest of nine brothers and sisters.

In the mid-1950s, the leader of Ethiopian Jews, Yona Bugla and the President of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, decided on a groundbreaking project: In Israel, young members of the community will be educated in Ethiopia and they will form a leadership infrastructure when they return to their homes and communities.

In January 1955, 12 boys arrived at the Kfar Batya youth boarding school in Raanana, and in November 1956, 15 more boys, including Zabdia.

More on Walla!

The boy from Morocco who grew up in the Kastina transit camp and established a moshav in Sinai as an adult

To the full article

More on Walla!

• The engineer who fought his body in the Chernobyl disaster and for the recognition of casualties

Zabdia (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

Dr. Azriel Kamon, who co-authored a book on the same story with Ovadia Suleiman, called the group of boys "spies sent to explore and learn about the country." Lived in Israel for eight years, after graduating from elementary school, went on to study at ORT Netanya, where he was elected chairman of the student council and played in the uniform of the youth team of Maccabi Netanya in football.

Blainsh Zabdia, the younger sister of Aspah-Yosef, a special envoy to the Unity of Africa and former Israeli ambassador to Addis Ababa, said that "this is a difficult time for my brother and parents. A child alone in a new country, without parents, for eight years away from home. "And he had complete faith that he would take care of his son. It was harder for the mother and she was worried."

Some of the group of boys chose to stay in Israel, others were integrated upon their return to Ethiopia in senior government positions in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Aspa-Yosef and several of his friends returned to their families and the places where they grew up.

"He said, 'I promised Dad I would come back to help my community,'" his sister, Blainsh, said.

His and his friends' plan was that upon their return to Ethiopia they would serve as Hebrew teachers among the members of the community and learn the customs they had learned in Israel.

He and his friends became key figures in the network of Jewish schools of the Beta Israel community and were in contact with various bodies in Israel and the United States.

Zabdia with his sister (Photo: courtesy of the family)

He defined the group of friends he worked with as "the friends who moved with me from the time of darkness to the time of the rising sun."

The group included Zimna Barhanu, Gedalia Uriah Eileen, Baruch Tagania and Yosef David - Zichram Lebracha, Yaakov Elias, Tadasa Bioch, Akiva Barhan and Avraham Kehat, who will be separated for a long life.

In 1968, Yosef and his friends were sent by Yona Bugla and other leaders to the Sudan-Homer border to set up an agricultural farm.

Joseph headed the group.

The Sudanese claimed that this was their land and did not accept the settlement favorably, the settlers insisted on their right to operate on the spot, but the Sudanese took over the farm, confiscated the agricultural equipment and destroyed the food reserves.

Aspah returned to Ambover and was a teacher at the school for 16 years.

Among his many students in those years was Shlomo Molla, later a Member of Knesset ("Kadima", "The Movement") and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. "He was my teacher from first grade to ninth grade.

We adored him.

Aspa and his friends were considered for us as having caused a real revolution.

He gave up various jobs that were offered to him and devoted himself to education and believing that the redemption of the community would come soon

. "

When I was punished, he would kick the ball and tell me to run to get it. "In 1972, he married Eileen and over the years the couple had six children

. Soldiers to the school, put the teachers outside and said they were going to shoot them.

Their goal was to scare us. "

A key figure in the network of Jewish schools in the Beta Israel community (Photo: courtesy of the family)

In November 1979, during an agriculture class, soldiers came to the school looking for wanted teachers.

Aspah-Yosef was on the wanted list.

He was arrested on suspicion of Zionist activity and began undergoing a series of harsh interrogations that included torture and was charged with treason in his homeland and being an agent of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad.

He was released after three years in prison and placed under house arrest suffering from health damage that accompanied him from then until the end of his life.

"He was an outstanding athlete," his sister said. "After his imprisonment, he was no longer the same person. The torture caused him suffering and pain," she added.

In 1984, when he learned that the authorities intended to arrest him again, Aspah-Yosef managed to escape to Israel with two of his children.

Shortly after arriving in Israel, he was asked by the Jewish Agency to assist in "Operation Moshe" which was about to begin.

He went to Sudan, where he worked for three weeks to bring Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel.

A few months later, his wife and children also arrived in Israel.

His parents immigrated after two years.

At first the family lived in Arad and then moved to Jerusalem.

Yosef and his friends were recognized as prisoners of Zion and received a letter of appreciation from the president for their work in rescuing Ethiopian Jews.

After his aliyah, he continued to absorb immigrants from Ethiopia as an absorption guide and interpreter in the southern region on behalf of the Jewish Agency.

In 1988 he began working at the JDC and took part in the care of the remaining Jews in Ethiopia.

He was one of the founders of the school in the Israeli embassy complex in Ethiopia and participated in the preparations and Operation Solomon.

Worked to bring Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel (Photo: courtesy of the family)

In 1991, he began working for the Ministry of Education in the Department of Education and was a senior advisor to the director of the department on studios and programs for immigrants.

In addition, Aspa-Yosef worked to preserve the heritage and established an association called "From Generation to Generation - The Heritage of Ethiopian Jews."

The association was able to restore and renovate the synagogue in Ambuber.

This synagogue is one of the remaining sites in Ethiopia and as a result many young people are going to pray and preserve the place.

At the same time, he studied for undergraduate and graduate studies in education at the Hebrew University.

His sister Bleinsh said that in education he saw the way to integration, change and progress in Israeli society.

"He would always say you have to work hard and prove yourself. He would say, 'Do and prove you can. No one will do the work for you,'" she added.

"He was a guide for many and of course for me. When I was informed that I had been appointed ambassador, his first news of it was Aspa-Yosef. It made him very happy and at that moment he cried with excitement. My request was that he give me his wisdom."

The signs of torture gave their signals and his health condition deteriorated.

Half a year ago a tribute evening was held for him and many came to pay tribute to him for his deeds.

"I ask the rest of the generation, to continue our beautiful heritage, and not to forget for a moment the education and good deeds I learned from the wisdom of my father, who was the caseworker and one of the great rabbis and leaders in it," was his wish.

• news

• News in Israel

• Events in Israel

Tags

• Ethiopia