Shlomo Hillel Attends Rally For Unification Of Ethiopian Families Editorial Photo

Israeli diplomat, politician, author, patriot and humanitarian, Shlomo Hillel attends a rally for unification of Ethiopian Jewish families. Israel was hard at work to bring the families already living in Israel together with those family members who had not yet been able to leave Ethiopia. The venue was Binyenei Ha`ouma in Jerusalem on November 10, 1987. Hillel, a patriotic Zionist, was born in Baghdad in 1923, as a member of a sizable and historic Jewish community stretching back several millenia. In the 1930s his family fled to Palestine as conditions became ominous for the Jews of Iraq. In the 1940s he undertook a huge mission to bring the Jews to British-mandated Palestine, and the mission was completed through daring, guile, and sheer heroism by the early 1950s as over 120,000 Jews were successfully spirited to Israel. This often harrowing endeavor was known as `Operation Babylon` and also, as `Operation Ezra and Nehemia.` He was a parliamentarian for 2 decades representing the left-wing Mapai, Alignment, and Labor Parties, and became Speaker of the Knesset in 1984. He served his country as a cabinet minister and diplomat. Hillel set in motion what became known as `Operation Moses,` which eventually brought nearly all of Ethiopia`s over 100,000 Jews to Israel by the early 1990s. In 1988 Hillel was given Israel`s highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize. He died in Israel on February 8, 2021, at the age of 97.