Save All Ethiopian Jews (SAEJ) was established in Mercer Island, Washington, in 1983 to assist in the immigration and resettlement of Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. The organization was the brainchild of Sidney Weiner, a former Boeing engineer, and his nephew-in-law Eli Halpern, an attorney in Olympia, Washington. Eli Halpern's brother, Bill Halpern, had died in Kenya under mysterious circumstances in 1982 while working to help Ethiopian Jews. Sidney Weiner and Eli Halpern decided to memorialize Bill Halpern's efforts by forming a local organization dedicated to the rescue and resettlement of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and several other Jewish service organizations, SAEJ was run completely by volunteers. Along with Sidney Weiner, his wife Margaret, and Eli Halpern, the founding members of SAEJ included Sol Goldberg and Samantha Ripley, who were working independently to raise awareness of and funding for Ethiopian Jews in local Jewish congregations.
At the time that SAEJ was founded, there were an estimated 30,000 Jews in Ethiopia, most of them living in the rural province of Gondar. Scorned as "falashas" (a pejorative term that means "strangers" in Amharic), Ethiopian Jews faced discrimination, poverty, religious oppression, and starvation. These conditions were exacerbated by widespread famine in Ethiopia throughout the 1980s, the repressive policies of the Mengistu regime, and the ongoing war with Eritrea. To escape such conditions, many Ethiopian Jews traveled by foot to refugee camps on the Sudanese border. In late 1985, the Israeli government, which had no official diplomatic relations with Ethiopia at the time, airlifted 9,500 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan in a rescue dubbed Operation Moses. The rescue was suspended after news of the secret evacuation effort broke in the international media, and Israel did not actively pursue further large-scale evacuations of Ethiopian Jews until the Operation Solomon airlift of 1991.
Along with several other North American organizations, such as the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ), the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), and the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews (CAEJ), SAEJ worked to fill the void left by Israel's official non-participation in repatriating Ethiopian Jews. The group first attempted to secure passports for Ethiopian Jews by "adopting" Jewish children in Ethiopia. When this strategy became unfeasible, Halpern and Weiner devised a covert program in which Ethiopian adults received "work contracts" from Washington employers, and children and teenagers received "scholarships" to Washington grade schools and colleges. Most of the schools were fictitious, and the supposed employers participating in the "contract" arrangements had only the vaguest notion of their role in assisting SAEJ's efforts. The falsified documents enabled Ethiopians to receive passports and leave the country. Once they reached the United States, they were immediately flown to Israel and entered absorption centers before resettling in their new country. Until late 1988, most of the documents were prepared by Eli Halpern and the employees of his law firm in Olympia. From 1985 to 1990, SAEJ worked in quiet cooperation with Israeli officials through the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which reimbursed SAEJ members for travel and operating expenses.
SAEJ's model for rescuing Ethiopian Jews proved so successful that it was later adopted by the other North American organizations working on behalf of Ethiopian Jews. In 1989, SAEJ moved into an office in the Jewish Federation building in downtown Seattle, where its members continued to prepare, process, and track immigration documents not only for SAEJ but also for AAEJ, NACOEJ, and CAEJ for the next two and a half years. Because of the covert nature of their programs, SAEJ did not publicize its efforts, nor did it actively solicit donations outside local Jewish congregations.
In May 1991, the Israeli government airlifted approximately 14,325 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel in Operation Solomon, bringing the vast majority of the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel. After this monumental event, SAEJ members felt that their assistance with immigration efforts was no longer necessary and officially dissolved the organization on March 23,1992. The remaining SAEJ funds were used to establish the SAEJ/Bill Halpern Ethiopian Scholarship Endowment Fund, which awards college grants to Ethiopian youths now resettled in Israel. The fund is jointly managed at present by the Jewish Federation of Seattle and the Ethiopian Scholarship Fund Committee, which includes Sidney Weiner, Eli Halpern, and other original SAEJ members.
Arranged into 3 series:
The Save All Ethiopian Jews (SAEJ) records document the organization's activities on behalf of Ethiopian Jews before, during, and after their covert immigration to Israel. The materials offer insight into SAEJ's administrative structure and organizational history as well as the development and maintenance of the group's programs to assist Ethiopian Jews, particularly the "work contract" and "scholarship" programs.
The records include the organization's articles of incorporation and by-laws, financial records, fundraising materials, membership rosters, notes of individual SAEJ members, photographic prints and negatives of Ethiopian Jews, client files, and document preparation files. Minutes of SAEJ meetings and other administrative records are spotty and incomplete. In order to educate themselves about the history, culture, and socioeconomic status of Ethiopian Jews, SAEJ members collected a substantial body of clippings, pamphlets, reports, and other materials on Ethiopian Jews in Ethiopia and Israel. There is also material, mainly correspondence, documenting SAEJ's collaborations and communications with other organizations dedicated to assisting Ethiopian Jews. Major correspondents include: Sidney Weiner, Eli Halpern, Zimna Berhani, Charles Kaplan, Margaret Weiner, HIAS, NACOEJ, AAEJ, CAEJ, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council.
Forms part of the Washington State Jewish Archives.
Access to portions of the collection is restricted. Contact University of Washington Libraries Special Collections for details.
Literary rights have been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
[Title of item], [date of item if known], [box/folder number], Save All Ethiopian Jews Records, Accession No. 4532-001, University of Washington Libraries.
Gift of Sidney Weiner, 1995, 2005, 2011, and 2015.
Processed by Abigail Bass in 2006. Additional material (ICDB12186) added to the collection in 2016.
SAEJ promotional button digitized for Web-accessible finding aid housed in Box 1/Folder 2. A. Bass, 8/23/2006
Arranged alphabetically.
The Administrative files document the management and administration of Save All Ethiopian Jews (SAEJ) from its establishment in 1983 to its dissolution in 1992. Materials include by-laws, articles of incorporation, fundraising files, minutes, member notes, financial records, and an extensive history of SAEJ.
Arranged alphabetically.
Program files document the two major programs of Save All Ethiopian Jews (SAEJ): its immigration assistance efforts and the SAEJ/Bill Halpern Ethiopian Scholarship Fund. The Immigration files detail the "adoption" strategy SAEJ first employed in 1984 and 1985 and the "scholarship" and "employment contract" strategies they later used to secure passports for Ethiopian Jews from 1985 to 1990. Materials include correspondence, individual client files, client rosters, notes, and document preparation files. The Immigration files contain the bulk of SAEJ's correspondence, which includes documentation of the organization's relationships with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and other North American agencies involved in rescuing Ethiopian Jews.
Includes a photograph of a client of Save All Ethiopian Jews.
Files are organized alphabetically by name of school or business. School files precede business files.
These files contain school and business letterhead and sample letters used by Save All Ethiopian Jews to obtain passports for Ethiopian Jews.
Includes Kaplan's personal notes on preparing employment contract and scholarship documents, meeting minutes, correspondence, and other documents.
The Save All Ethiopian Jews (SAEJ) phone log is a series of notebooks containing detailed, handwritten notes on SAEJ's telephone conversations with officials at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, and other organizations and individuals working on the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The log is almost entirely written by Sidney Weiner.
Individual client files contain copies of paperwork on Ethiopians rescued by Save All Ethiopian Jews, the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, and the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews. Each file contains letters to the Ethiopian embassy and the individual client from a school or employer, completed work contracts or scholarship forms, affidavits of support, invitations from the U.S. State Department, and dated documentation of the entire process. The organization responsible for each client is noted on the folder.
These materials have been minimally processed.
Correspondents include the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Micha Feldman, and Zimna and Sioux Berhani.
Arranged alphabetically by document type.
Background information files contain documents collected by Save All Ethiopian Jews members on various topics relating to Ethiopian Jews in Ethiopia and Israel. Materials include reports, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine clippings, notes, and the newsletters and mailings of other organizations focused on the plight of Ethiopian Jewry.