News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor Eli Yishai (Shas) plans to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday night to discuss aliyah (immigration) from Ethiopia.  Yishai will ask Olmert to work to bring 800 members of the Falashmura community who have received permits to make aliyah to Israel.  An additional 15,000 Falashmura Ethiopians have asked to make aliyah but have not yet received permits.

Yishai has frequently discussed the matter of the Falashmura community with Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar.  Rabbi Amar visited Ethiopia several years ago and ruled that the Falashmura are descendents of Jews, who may make aliyah but should go through a conversion process.  Yishai and Rabbi Amar plan to visit Ethiopia after Passover to gather facts on the Ethiopian aliyah process.