Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews

The longing of Ethiopian Jews to reach Jerusalem stretches back centuries. As early as 1862, a community leader named Abba Mahari — described as the first Ethiopian Zionist — led a mass attempt by Beta Israel to make aliyah to Jerusalem. The journey failed and many perished, though no precise death toll was recorded.[6]

Between 1977 and 1985, approximately 20,000 Ethiopian Jews left their villages for Israel; the best-documented period of mass emigration through Sudan occurred from 1980 to 1984 among communities in the Gondar region.[2][3] Families — including elderly people, children, and infants — sometimes walked for several months before crossing into Sudan, where they could wait in provisional refugee camps for as long as two years.[3]

The conditions on the route and in the camps were brutal. Deaths resulted from disease, hunger, and lack of clean water, while travelers also faced harassment, rape, robbery, and murder.[7] Passage through Sudan depended on an unspoken agreement known to only a few senior Sudanese officials, and Mossad agents instructed immigrants at the border to conceal their Jewish identity. This made observance of Jewish law extraordinarily difficult. In the desert, fear of robbers sometimes prevented burial of the dead; in the camps, fear of Sudanese guards could prevent Jewish burial ceremonies.[3]

Community leader Farede Yazazao Aklum worked with the Mossad to help smuggle people from Ethiopia to Israel through this route.[8] Survivor Benny Goshen, who made the journey as a child, later recalled at the Mount Herzl memorial: “The desert fever began to hit us hard — whoever caught a fever, they would leave under a tree.”[9]

Estimates of how many Ethiopian Jews undertook the journey and how many died vary across sources, reflecting different periods and scopes of inquiry. Official and journalistic accounts commonly cite approximately 4,000 deaths on the roads and in the Sudanese camps.[3][7] The American Jewish Year Book gives a range of 2,000–4,000, noting that Ethiopian community members and Israeli officials consistently cite the higher figure, including at the annual memorial service.[10] A scholarly analysis published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs estimates that approximately 20,000 Ethiopian Jews left their villages for Israel between 1977 and 1985 and that about one-fifth died during the journey. This is broader than the Knesset account of mass emigration from 1980 to 1984, so the estimates reflect different scopes rather than a direct contradiction.[2][3]

Israeli rescue operations ultimately brought most of the community to Israel in phases. Operation Moses began in November 1984 and brought about 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel by air before a press leak forced the covert operation to end early, leaving families separated.[3] In May 1991, Operation Solomon brought 14,324 immigrants to Israel within 36 hours.[3] Those who survived the journey through Sudan and reached Israel were generally in poor physical condition.[10]

The first formal memorial site for Ethiopian Jews who perished on the journey was a temporary monument erected at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in 1989. It was built by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption with assistance from the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, and ceremonies were held there until 2007.[3][5]

In 2004 the Israeli government made the memorial ceremony an official state event, decreeing that a national commemoration would be held each year on Jerusalem Day to honor and acknowledge the desires and contributions of the Ethiopian Jewish community.[4][11] A ministerial committee had decided in late 2003 to establish a permanent memorial at Mount Herzl. The memorial was dedicated in the southern part of Mount Herzl in March 2007, and the annual ceremony has been held there since.[3][5] The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research describes the monument as incorporating features symbolizing Ethiopia and the journey to Israel, including desert expanses and wooden huts.[5]

The observance falls on 28 Iyar — the same date as Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, which marks the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.[4] The shared date places Ethiopian Jewish longing for Jerusalem within the national observance and mourns those who died before fulfilling their dream of reaching it.[1][5]

The permanent memorial on Mount Herzl serves as the focal point of the annual state ceremony. Israel holds the service at the national cemetery to honor an estimated 4,000 Ethiopian Jews who died trying to reach Israel.[12] Because many of the dead were scattered across deserts and refugee camps without proper burial, identifying and commemorating individuals has required the continuing review of testimony and community records.[3][13]

At a 2014 official ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that, under a government resolution, the names of the fallen were being collected individually and engraved on the memorial “as an eternal tombstone.” He described the journey as having torn families apart and taken the lives of children alongside or in front of their parents.[14] By 2022, approximately 1,700 names had been engraved on the memorial wall.[15]

In 2024, the State Committee for Commemorating the Fallen announced that 30 names had been added to the memorial wall — the first addition since 2015. The names were engraved during renovations overseen by the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. The committee collaborates with the Ethiopian-Israeli community, ministry representatives, and academic researchers to find and verify new information about those who died.[13] The 2024 state ceremony was attended by President Isaac Herzog, who opened his remarks in Amharic, alongside Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and community representatives.[16]

Recent ceremonies at Mount Herzl have brought together senior Israeli officials, members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community, and families of those commemorated.[15][16] Testimony from survivors and their descendants is a central feature, grounding the state observance in personal and familial grief.

At the 2022 ceremony, Asher Maharato recounted that his mother and 18-month-old brother died during the family’s journey. His mother fell ill at the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan and was hospitalized; while the family waited for transport to Israel, his younger brother also died. His mother’s final instruction to him had been to look after his brothers.[15]

The 2020 ceremony coincided with the arrival in Israel of 119 Ethiopian immigrants on Jerusalem Day itself. Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog called the moment a “symbolic and moving closing of the circle” — new arrivals completing a journey for which earlier travelers had died, on the same day the community mourned those who never reached Israel.[1]

In 2025, thousands of Ethiopian Israelis gathered at Mount Herzl for a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Moses and commemorating the losses that preceded the rescue.[17]

The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research identifies the annual ceremony as an expression of Ethiopian Jews’ strong attachment to Jerusalem.[5] A 2023 academic study from Ben-Gurion University describes Sigd — a traditional Ethiopian Jewish holiday observed on 29 Heshvan that marks devotion to Zion and renewal of the covenant — and the Memorial Day as two commemorative dates that support Beta Israel’s collective narrative and public recognition.[18]

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs interprets Hazkarah as part of a process of Israelization through the creation of a new, Israel-centered memorial holiday. It contrasts this with Sigd, which it characterizes as expressing re-Ethiopianization through the renewed observance of a traditional holiday in Israel.[2] The analysis also places the establishment of Hazkarah in the context of the Ethiopian-Israeli community’s sense of marginalization, treating state recognition of the memorial as part of a broader negotiation over identity and belonging.[2]

The memorial has also served as a setting where Israeli leaders have acknowledged failures in the state’s treatment of the Ethiopian community. At the 2015 ceremony, President Reuven Rivlin stated, “We didn’t see, we didn’t act correctly and we did not listen enough.”[19] At the 2022 ceremony, Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata described work with local authorities and community members on memorial rooms around the country and recommendations for assistance to families of the deceased.[15]

Several aspects of the memorial observance have attracted discussion within the Ethiopian-Israeli community and Israeli public life. The most substantive concerns the estimated death toll: while approximately 4,000 is the figure most widely cited by community representatives and Israeli officials at the ceremony, academic sources note that exact figures for those who died on the road or in Sudanese camps do not exist and give a range of 2,000–4,000.[10] The difference between the estimated toll and the approximately 1,700 names reported as engraved in 2022 illustrates the difficulty of documenting individual deaths.[15]

The date of the observance has also been debated. A 2023 opinion article in Maariv opposed efforts to separate the memorial from Jerusalem Day, arguing that the shared date expresses the religious and cultural identity of Ethiopian Jews and their historical longing for Jerusalem. The article discussed proposals to separate the dates, not a change that had already taken effect.[20]