Rabbi Hailu Paris
By
Rabbi Sholomo B. Levy
On April 13, 2010 Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Brooklyn Jewish Heritage Committee
presented Rabbi Hailu Paris with their esteemed Kiruv Award for “Bringing the Jewish community closer to
their heritage.” The ceremony took place in the courtroom at Brooklyn Borough
Hall. The keynote speaker was Rabbi
Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President of the New
York Board of Rabbis. The Israelite community was there en mass to witness this
historic occasion. (Article and Video)
Rabbi Hailu Paris was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 17, 1933.
Eudora Paris adopted him when she migrated to Ethiopia with Rabbi Arnold Josiah
Ford in 1935. When Mussolini and the fascists invaded Ethiopia in the prelude to World War II, many of the
Israelites who were attempting to settle there were forced to return to the United States.
On the return voyage in September of 1936, their ship was stop in Germany by
Nazis looking for Jewish passengers. The
Nazis did no suspect that the Black passengers with the Ethiopian child and a
tightly wrapped bundle containing a Torah scroll were, in fact, Jews. Years
later when Rabbi Paris related this story to me he joked, “This was one time
when we didn’t complain when people assumed we could not be Jewish because of
the color of our skin.”
Rabbi Paris was raised in Harlem, New York.
Eudora Paris, who had been active in the Universal Negro Improvement
Association led by Marcus Garvey, became the leader of the Ethiopian World
Federation. They worshipped at Commandment Keepers E.H. Congregation with Chief
Rabbi W.A. Matthew (1892-1973). In 1947 he received his Bar Mitzvah by Rabbi Yirmeyahu Yisrael, the founder of Bnai Adath. After graduating from Dewitt
Clinton High
School, he enrolled at Yeshiva University
where in 1963 he received a B.A. degree in Hebrew Literature and in 1970 a M.
Ed in Jewish Studies. While working as a
teacher for the New York City Board of
Education, Rabbi Paris also served as the Spiritual Leader of Mount Horeb congregation in the Bronx, New
York, and taught Talmud at the Israelite Academy,
where he was one of the founding members and remains a professor emeritus.
Although he never married, Rabbi Paris has always considered
the Israelite community to be his family. As a child they raised him; as an
adult he raised us up to love the study of Torah. He remains a vital link to
Beta Israel
and one of our most important goodwill ambassadors to the rest of the Jewish
world. His prodigious knowledge was only surpassed by his compassion, his
dedication, and his endless love. Youtube
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