Ethiopian Sigd Made Official Israeli Holiday

From Ethiopian Sigd Made Official Israeli Holiday:

The Knesset decided to formally add the Ethiopian Sigd holiday to the list of state holidays, and will be holding an annual state ceremony for it during the Hebrew month of Heshvan, which usually falls in October or November. Sigd is a traditional Ethiopian day of fasting, dedicated to prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple and giving thanks for the right to return to the Holy Land.

Ethiopians want Sigd to be recognized as Jewish holiday

I would most definitely be for this holiday to be added to the Jewish calendar. A Jew should grab at any opportunity that would enable him to repent and become closer to HaShem. From JPost:

Hundreds of members of the Ethiopian community signed their names to a petition Thursday calling for Israel's religious leaders to incorporate the annual Sigd festival in the calendar of religious Jewish holidays.

As in previous years, Ethiopian Israelis young and old, Israel-born and new and veteran immigrants were bused from around the country on Thursday to Jerusalem's Haas Promenade to mark the ancient holiday, whose name means "to prostate oneself in worship" and is meant to renew the covenant between God and the people of Israel. It is normally celebrated 50 days after Yom Kippur, on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, but was held two days early this year because the date fell on Shabbat. The community's spiritual leaders, or Kessim, recite prayers in the Ethiopian Jewish language of Gez calling for the return of all Jews to Jerusalem.

The drive to have the holiday made part of the Jewish calendar was initiated earlier this week by the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews, which sent its request to Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger.

"There have been many festivals over the years that were started in the Diaspora but were eventually incorporated into the cycle of Jewish holidays by the rabbis of the time," said association spokesman Avi Masfin. He cited Hanukka and Purim as holidays that were established by particular communities and later adopted by all of world Jewry.

Spy Recalls Secret Mission Saving Ethiopian Jews

From Spy Recalls Secret Mission Saving Ethiopian Jews:

In the early 1980s, Gad Shimron, then a young Mossad operative, was sent to Africa to find a way of spiriting away to Israel the thousands of Ethiopian Jewish refugees in Sudan who had fled the Eritrean conflict. Shimron, now 57, said in an interview promoting the English edition of his book Mossad Exodus, "We're the only Westernized country to have brought out Africans in order to liberate, rather than enslave them." Tens of thousands moved to Israel, where their community now numbers 100,000. Shimron and a small Mossad team flew to Khartoum in 1981, posing as entrepreneurs from a Swiss travel firm. The Mossad bought a defunct resort up the coast from Port Sudan, which Shimron and his comrades renovated and staffed with locals. It was a front, yet proved to be surprisingly successful, drawing foreign scuba divers and sport fishermen. "Most Mossad operations lose money, but we found ourselves making a small profit," Shimron said. From 1982 to 1984 the Israelis shuttled between the resort and inland areas where they had located 8,000 Ethiopian Jews. Traveling by night and ever conscious of the fact that they were in a country deeply hostile to the Jewish state, the Mossad men took hundreds of refugees to a beach rendezvous where they were collected by Israeli naval commandos and ferried to their new home.

Now, please tell the above story to Afrofascists who wrongly blame Jews for slavery, and see what kind of a response you will get.

Muslims in Nigeria club Christian teacher to death and Muslims in Ethiopia murder a Christian evangelist

I'm tired of having to endure the deceit when Muslims and other arabists claim Islam is peaceful. I don't know why the world was cursed by having its main energy source located under the feet of savages.

Received the following by email:
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FaithTree.com has the very sobering story of "Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin, a teacher at Government Secondary School of Gandu in this northern Nigerian town, [who] was in high spirits last Wednesday (March 21) as she made her way to school where she teaches government… Soon her happiness would be cut short. Muslim students at the school, along with outside Islamic extremists, murdered Oluwasesin on March 21 over claims that she desecrated the Quran."

The following story comes from Ethiopia where a Christian street evangelist was dragged into a local mosque and beaten to death:

WASHINGTON, Mar. 29 /Christian Newswire/ — The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) has just learned that an Ethiopian evangelist named Tedase was beaten to death by militant Muslims on Monday, March 26th, as he and two young women were on a street evangelism assignment in Jimma, Ethiopia. This marks the second time in six months that Christians residing in Southeast Ethiopia have been attacked and killed by extremist (Wahabbi) Muslims. On Monday afternoon Tedase and two female coworkers were conducting street evangelism on Merkato Street in Jimma, Southern Ethiopia. Merkato Street runs by a Wahabbi Mosque. As the team was walking by the Mosque, a group of Muslims exited the Mosque and began to run after them to confront them. Tedase's female coworkers ran away from the mob but Tedase continued on. The Muslims caught up with Tedase, pulled him into the mosque, and savagely beat him to death. Sources from Jimma reported that Tedase was beaten with a calculated intention to kill him. This was no accident or case of mob frenzy getting out of control. His body was later taken to the hospital for an
autopsy and he was buried Tuesday, March 27.Our sources also reveal that Jimma Christians were conducting an evangelism campaign, and news of the outreach was spreading among Jimma residents as well as militant Muslim groups in the area. The Muslims that belonged to the Wahabbi sect purposefully beat Tedase to death as a message to Christians that they are ready to combat evangelism.

This most recent incident in Ethiopia confirms ICC's decision to include this country in its Hall of Shame list, which highlights nations where Christians are enduring the most severe persecution. It is important to note that the Muslims who attacked Tedase belonged to the Wahabbi brand of Islam, an extremist sect imported from Saudi Arabia. It is clear that the Christians in Ethiopia are feeling Saudi Arabia's influence, particularly in Jimma, a Muslim dominated area where local authorities are almost exclusively Muslim. It was only six months ago, in September of 2006, that Muslim extremists burned down a number of churches and parishes, as well as Christian homes. As many as 2,000 Christians were displaced by the attack, an attempt to intimidate Christians with the hopes of converting them to Islam.

Evangelical church leaders are fearful that if police ignore Tedase's death, it will be a green light for Muslim groups in the area to attack their Christian neighbors at will and without retribution.

The courage of Ethiopia

Ethiopian and Somali troops have captured a key border town early Monday, a day after Ethiopia sent fighter jets into neighboring Somalia and bombed several towns in a dramatic attack on a powerful Islamic movement. Ethiopia's prime minister announced Sunday night that his country was "forced to enter a war" with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts after the Muslim group declared holy war on Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation.

Residents said Islamic fighters left the town of Belet Weyne on the Somali-Ethiopian border overnight after Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Islamic positions on Sunday.

Col. Abdi Yusuf Ahmed, a Somali government army commander, told The Associated Press that his forces entered Belet Weyne early Monday without a shot fired. He held up his telephone and a reporter could hear street celebrations.

For more on the escalating violence between Ethiopia and Somalia's Islamic militia, click here.

May the United States and Israel find the courage to defend their own citizens against Islamic barbarity in the same way that Ethiopia has demonstrated her courage against her enemies.

For more on the rise of the Islamic militia in Somalia, click here.