Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Dinner with Barbara Ribakove Gordon



EVERYONE IS INVITED!
 BARBARA RIBAKOVE GORDON,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
THE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON ETHIOPIAN JEWRY
 will speak about her 40 years of activism on behalf of Ethiopian Jews 


The Talk is on Wednesday, February 6th, 6:30-8:00 at
Temple Beth Hatfiloh

Join the speaker for dinner at Kitzel's before the talk. 
5pm buy-your-own Jewish Community Dinner at Kitzel’s Delicatessen.  
Kosher meals available IF ORDERED IN ADVANCE.  

Contact Nancy Koppelman at koppelmn@evergreen.edu
 

 Barbara Ribakove Gordon, who is now 80 years old, went to Ethiopia in 1981 with the first American mission to Ethiopian Jewish villages. The group trekked through the rugged Semien Mountains in northern Ethiopia to reach an isolated Jewish village. From there they went to Israel to report what they had seen: appalling poverty and illness – and awe-inspiring dignity and Jewish commitment. In 1982, a handful of dedicated men and women met in Barbara Ribakove Gordon’s New York apartment to organize the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ). As Executive Director, Barbara was summoned to Ethiopia in May, 1991, to participate in Operation Solomon. With opposing Ethiopian armies holding fire in a temporary armistice, she and two other volunteers helped the Israelis process over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews at the Israeli embassy in Addis Ababa for the historic 36-hour airlift to Israel. The NACOEJ group flew out on the last plane. Today under Barbara’s leadership, NACOEJ has over 50,000 supporters and a record of rescuing thousands of Ethiopian Jews from famine, civil war, and persecution. Barbara Ribakove Gordon was named “Unsung Hero of the Year” in 1986 by the New York Jewish Week, was honored by the City Council of New York in 2004, and received the Rabbi Samuel S. and Irma Cohon Foundation Award for 2010.

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