Fellow Jews Freed, Group’s Job Is Done

Howard Lenhoff’s organization is about to dissolve.

And he couldn’t be happier.

Lenhoff, a member of Temple B’nai Israel in Tustin, is one of the founding members of the American Assn. for Ethiopian Jews.

“We were created to free Jews,” explained Lenhoff, a Costa Mesa resident. “Now that that has been done, we’re getting ready to close and move our resources to Israel.”

Lenhoff, a professor of biology at UC Irvine, met a young Jewish Ethiopian man when he was on sabbatical in Israel in 1973. The man asked Lenhoff for help in bringing his family to Israel.

That experience motivated Lenhoff to become involved in the plight of the Ethiopian Jews, he said, and in 1974, Lenhoff, along with five others, formed the American Assn. of Ethiopian Jews, designed to free the Jews of Ethiopia.

At the time, there were only 168 Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Today, the entire world population of Ethiopian Jews, about 50,000, Lenhoff said, is living in Israel.

“He’s a hero to many and a bit of an international figure,” said Rabbi Eli Spitz of Temple B’nai Israel.

Lenhoff’s work is particularly appropriate this time of year, during Hanukkah, Spitz said.

“The theme of Hanukkah is fighting for religious freedom,” he said. “This is a dramatic story of a man in our own time establishing freedom in the world. He’s a Maccabee, a freedom fighter.”

The last of Ethiopia’s Jews left for Israel in a massive airlift that took place in May, 1991, days before the country fell to rebel forces, and Lenhoff said he considers his organization’s job essentially complete. Some members, he said, will work to ensure that the Ethiopians are settled in their new land.

“They have typical assimilation problems,” Lenhoff said, referring to difficulties adapting to a new language and culture. “We want to make sure they have an infrastructure in Israel to help them adjust to a Western city.”

Unemployment is high in Israel, Lenhoff said, especially with the influx of Russian Jews. But, he said, many are adapting well.

Lenhoff attributed the success of his organization to massive grass-roots efforts. “We were non-organizational people--lawyers, stockbrokers, housewives, teachers, people who cared,” he said of those involved in the movement to resettle the Ethiopians.

“We developed an effective network to build up pressures on governments to save a group of impoverished, poor, largely illiterate, biblical practicing Jews. It was a modern miracle.”

Lenhoff is writing a book about the grass-roots politics of rescue, documenting a method to help those in need.

“People do count and they can make a difference,” he said. “With patience, almost anything is possible.”