Survey: 90% of Ethiopian Israelis resist interracial marriage
Most Israeli respondents uncomfortable with idea of their own children marrying an Ethiopian.
By Ofri Ilani Tags: Israel newsIntermarriage between between Jews from different ethnic backgrounds has increased steadily over the past several decades, and people say that this is solving the socioeconomic gaps that existed between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Israeli society.
However, Ethiopian Israelis seem to be exempt from the trend, so far. According to a Central Bureau of Statistics report published on, about 90 percent of Ethiopians - 93 percent of men and 85 percent of women - marry within their community.
The statistical portrait of Ethiopian Israelis was published to coincide with the community's Sigd holiday, which is celebrated every year on the 29th of Heshvan on the Hebrew calendar, which is today.
At the end of 2008, there were 119,300 people of Ethiopian descent in Israel, including nearly 81,000 people born in Ethiopia and about 38,500 native Israelis (about 32 percent of the community) who had at least one parent who was born in Ethiopia.
The urban areas with the largest concentrations of Ethiopians include Netanya, where one in 10 residents is Ethiopian; and Kiryat Malakhi, where one in three residents, or 3,400 people, are Ethiopian.
The election of Barack Obama, whose father was black and whose mother was white, highlighted the subject of interracial marriage. Nonetheless, the rate of racial intermarriage in the United States is lower than it is in Israel.
According to a study published in the U.S. two years ago, 6 percent of black people who married, married a white person, as opposed to 10 percent in Israel.
The Center for Academic Studies found last year that most Israeli respondents were not comfortable with the prospect of one of their own children marrying an Ethiopian.
Fifty-seven percent said it would be entirely unacceptable for their daughters to marry an Ethiopian, and 39 percent said so regarding their sons.
Avi Masfin, the deputy director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, says the barriers to intermarriage come from both sides.
"I think from the standpoint of Israeli society generally and from the standpoint of those of Ethiopian origin, it will take time until there is readiness for intermarriage. Portions of the Ethiopian community itself are conservative and have concerns."
Masfin said the figures also reflect the community's relative isolation.
"People who have left that isolation, through the army, the university [or] mixed clubs, can see that even if there are differences in culture, they can be bridged," he said.
Masfin, who immigrated from Ethiopia in 1986, is married to a woman who is not Ethiopian, whom he met while the two were students at Bar-Ilan University.
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and thats the point... we humans are a family too no matter of ethnicity, religious beliefs or skin colour.. one planet,one race!
It need not be viewed as positive or negative if one sticks to their racial/ethnic or other background or not. Probably in the future all people will be a mixed golden-brown color, great, but no value judgement is in order. And like Samuel says, Jews are a people, not a race, though most Jews (European Jews too) are Semitic, as are most Arabs. In Israel you see all shades from very light-skinned Arabs to very dark-skinned Jews and vice versa. But since most of both peoples are Semitic, and since we also have very close languages, the screams of "racism" on either side of Arab/Jewish conflict are but vicious ignorant lies. Dark-skinned to light-skinned, Jews and Arabs pass as each other always, every day. That's something the Israel-haters just love to ignore, deny or forget. For whatever it's worth, interracial mixing does seem far more common in Israel than in most other nations. And Arabs and Jews also mix far more freely and casually here than the Maureen Anns would ever believe.
Ashkenazi Jewish women aren't savvy enough to marry within their own race. If they were, 100% would stay within the Ashkenazi community. It's a good thing the Ethiopians make the decision for them. This has minimized the stories of "look whose coming to dinner."
I'm ashkenazi, Am I? Not really, I'm a jew that is, and Daltonist,(color blind)regarding color of the skin, and disapointed with J-Date, they have not even one Ethiopian girl. I would't mind having a Ethipian son in law at all, still have a single doughter, as for myself, divivorced and looking for a bride myself, Ethipian, Shmetotnian, Who cares, as long as there is love and tolerance.
From what I can understand from history and having travelled to Ethiopia myself, the 'Ethiopian' jews' are indeed a christian sect that followed the old testament...
Even without factoring in Ethiopian Jews, a reasonably eyesighted person would've noticed the racial differences between the other remaining Jews (Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim, Yemenite Jews, Indian Jews, Kaifeng Jews, etc...) to realise that Jews are not a race. we are a people. A people who identify as one, on religious, historical, mythological, and less importantly, geneaological grounds. As for the genealogical issue, even being of the same genealogical descent doesnt mean necessarily mean we will be of the same race. No one of the various Jewish ethnic groups can claim an exact unchanged likeness to the original Israelites. Everywhere have we mixed with others as we welcomed previously non-Jews into the fold. I am my cousins' cousin by blood and genes, but she is black, he is brown, and i am white. Their and my mother are Ashkenazim, my father ashkenazi, their half-siblings (her father ethiopian, his father mizrahi). And no, we are not a race, but we are a family.
Mr. Matter, Actually, race is a scientific/taxonomic designate. It is applied in that sense to animals and plants throughout the biologic and anthropologic sciences. In proper diction, phenotype and genotype ARE the only metric of race. Other uses of the term are strictly colloquial. The term "ethnicity" is usually better suited to the instances where most people select the term "race." In fact, there are no "pure races" in the world in the colloquial sense. The actual historical races are neanderthal and cro-magnon. Most anthropologists believe that Neanderthal died out completely and that the current human is either entirely or at least predominantly Cro-magnon. Peace. Stephen
eventually they will, this is only the older generation concerned the kids born in Israel of Ethiopian parentage are bound to marry out over the generations. But that doesnt mean either communities will die out, I think its time Israelis put these issues aside, my Mothers parents were Ashkenazi(Grandfather) and my Grandmother(Sephardi/Mizrachi) as for my dad South African Ashkenazi these things will come to pass, as for me I would love to marry an Ethiopian or Yemenite woman :-)
Maybe race is more than just the color of skin? Phenotype does not have to be the sole metric of race.
Mr. Benmayor, It is very positive when "race," and in this context I use the word loosely because both genetically and anthropologically there is only one race of human beings, but when race is not a barrier to social intercourse then it is a very positive trend. Cultures that are open to absorbing and adopting strengths from outside contributors are stronger cultures. There was a Japanese professor at Wayne State U. in Detroit that stated that "assimilation is equivalent to cultural death." He was entirely wrong. In fact, cultural isolation is equivalent to cultural death. Peace Stephen
a gem in Israel!
King solomon had a son called Minilik an ethiopia. Mose was black. so what is if a few said no to Black or white. It is as we are still in 1940 where the Nazi see every Jew as they were unhuman and the German white people as GOD's only children. GOd does not discreminate.
My nephew's wife is the only one of her family to have married a non-ethiopian ethnic [of 8 sibblings, she also is the only one born in Israel - there may be a connection]
if jews are a race and ethiopians are from the black race but belong to the jewish race then how do we define jewish ethiopeans?? Are they bi-racial?? I am dating an ethiopean woman and i told her i only see one race- The Human Race!!
Mostly because of cultural differences, it took time for them to meld. The same will happen with our Ethiopian brothers and sisters: When they arrived in Israel not long ago, many had never even seen an elevator. Time will do its thing, and as they integrate more into Israeli society, they will also marry "out" more.
What's positive or negative about 10% marrying out and 90% marrying in?