400 Ethiopians Set to Rejoin Families in Israel

Ethiopians representing 60 families hope to be brought to Israel before 2 March 2020. The groups are part of the Falash Mura community, who claim links to descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity generations ago under duress but now seek a return to Judaism. Some 8,000 Falash Mura in Ethiopia are awaiting permission to immigrate to the Jewish state, most of whom have relatives in Israel. A Cabinet resolution in 2015 committed to bringing all 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel by 2020, but not enough funds have been allocated in successive budgets to obtain that goal. In October 2018, the Cabinet approved a plan for the immigration of 1,000 candidates in the following year who met the criterion of having first-degree relatives in Israel, but in 2019 only about 600 arrived. Approximately 140,000 Ethiopians live in Israel. (VFI News)

Intercede according to scripture for the Falash Mura community members still awaiting inclusion in Israel. "In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth." (Isa. 11:11-12)