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.
