By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

In 1991, Israel brought 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to the Jewish state in 36 hours on 34 airplanes. One of the key architects of this covert military operation — Operation Solomon — was the Jewish Agency For Israel’s Micha Feldmann.

Now the director of the Ethiopian department of Selah — Israel Crisis Management Center, Feldmann will be the keynote speaker for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s 104th Annual Meeting, on May 21.

For this year’s annual meeting, the Federation will focus on its history of overseas giving through its annual campaign. Currently, 25 percent of funds the Federation raises through its annual campaign is directed toward Jewish Federations of North America’s global partners, primarily the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

JDC is active in more than 70 countries, providing aid to the world’s poorest Jews including food, medicine and social services for the elderly, Jewish education for children, financial assistance and Jewish identity and renewal programs. This year marks the JDC’s centennial.

JAFI — chaired by former Soviet dissident and former Israeli Member of Knesset Natan Sharansky — funds training and educational programs in Israel to help break the cycle of poverty, provides mentoring and enrichment programs for children at risk, and offers services to help new immigrants integrate successfully in Israel.

Feldmann worked for JAFI from 1970 to 1994. In 1990, when Israel was permitted to open an embassy in Ethiopia, Feldmann served as JAFI’s representative there and as Israel’s consul.

Known to Ethiopians in Israel as Abba Micha (Father Micha), Feldmann is the author of the 2012 book On Wings of Eagles: The Secret Operation of the Ethiopian Exodus and was featured in the locally-made documentary about Ethiopian aliyah (immigration to Israel), Take Us Home.

The Israeli government formally ended mass Ethiopian aliyah in 2013, which began with a trickle in the early ‘80s. Last year, Sharansky said JAFI would continue to assist olim (émigrés with Jewish lineage) from Ethiopia according to their eligibility as established by the Ministry of Interior. More than 125,000 Ethiopians have arrived in Israel over three decades.

“As of now, we anticipate that by the end of this year, about 1,000 olim will have come,” Feldmann wrote in an email interview with The Observer from Ethiopia.

“Several thousands will have to remain in Ethiopia…most of the Falash Mura who came to Israel in the last 20 years did not come under the Law of Return, because they are descendants of Jews who have converted to Christianity about 100 years ago. Those families where at least one family member could show a maternal lineage to a Jewish woman that had converted to Christianity were allowed to come to Israel according to a special decision of the Israeli government. If there will be no change in the government’s decision, the numbers of olim from Ethiopia will be very small in the coming years.”

During the annual meeting, the Federation will also honor volunteers and staff, and will install incoming officers and board members of the Federation, Jewish Community Center, and Jewish Family Services.

Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s 104th Annual Meeting, Wednesday, May 21, 7 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. For more information, call Jodi Phares at 610-1555. 

To read the complete May 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.