From Naomi Leavitt's Memoirs: Senay (Part I)

My mother Naomi Berenberg Leavitt sent me a story about a visitor from Ethiopia, whom I remember well. This visit would have taken place some time between 1959 and 1963 when I was in college.—JDL

My son Jon planned to visit us that weekend. He was away at Swarthmore College and as Erev Rosh Hashona fell on that Friday night he thought it would be nice to come home. He had friends at Lafayette college and wanted to see a few of them. So he invited Senay Likkey, a fellow from Ethiopia, to stay over at our house that night . I was tickled. For I had never met anyone from Ethiopia, and thought it would be fun.

Just as I was getting ready to serve dinner Senay excused himself. He said he wanted to change his clothes before he sat down to eat! He did, and came down the stairs clothed in a white gabilla."Please excuse my dress this evening" he said,"but it is a special holiday for me tonight" We always wear a white gown like this to celebrate. Yes, it was a special holiday for us too. It was the night before the Jewish New Year,. How come it was such a special holiday for him? He was a Christian. I was confused about the development of Christianity in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was a much larger country in biblical times and served as an important trading link between Palestine and Africa . After all the Queen of Sheba made that long trek to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon. Was it to cement trade relations? It was said that she stayed long enough to have had a son by him.With such an ancient connection it would not be surprising that Christianity also had an early blossoming there. And in the beginning I'm sure many Jewish customs and holidays were included in the new religion's ritual.

Being curious, I asked Senay if he ate any shell fish which of course would have been forbidden by the kosher laws. Senay did me one better. He said "his mother told him he was never to eat any fish at all. "There's always plenty of lamb," she said, "eat it". I noticed that he didn't mentioned that he could also eat pork. Arabs don't. Maybe it was proscribed in Ethiopia as well.

There were many jews in Ethiopia. They were called Falasha, which meant alien. They had been there for centuries. Many now, perhaps most of them, migrated to Israel during the late twentieth century. The remaining ones are trying desperately to get there.

Ethiopia also boasts of having the Arc of the Covenant. It was said to have been taken there when Herod's Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Is there really such a relic? Do they actually have it? If so where are they hiding it? No westerner has ever seen it to compare it to the description of it in the Bible. Well you can imagine that I wished I could have questioned Senay all night.

To be continued—JDL