Yacob Keftie

Father's name: Kebata Gesesa Abato

Mother's name: Petigaya Alemo Mekonen Liftan

Year of birth: 1947

Place of birth: Tsaru, Semien Man-Ata, Semien

Region in Ethiopia: Simien

Main occupation in Ethiopia: Farmer and soldier

The language of the interview: Amharic

Yacob Keftie, farmer, agriculture, soldier, immigration to Israel, synagogue, Nazirites, Kesim, shepherd, rain, hunter, wild animals, irrigation ditches, holy spring, wedding, virginity, famine, illnesses, epidemics, death, funeral, mourning, inheritance, community, war, assassinations, gunfire, executions, Derg, Emperor Haile Selassie, EHAPA, Tsaru, Semien Man-Ata, Semien, Sudan, Israel, Jerusalem, Westa Tsagi, Belessa, Gondar.

Summary of the testimony:

Yacob describes his family tree and his village. He talks at length about the synagogues, the Nazirites, and the Kesim who lived and taught there. He also discusses the local history. During the anti-Jewish persecution under the reign of Emperor Yeshaq, 75 Jews who refused to convert were murdered. A spring named Westa Tsagi began to flow from the site of their murder. It became a holy site and Jews from all provinces used to travel there on pilgrimages to be cured and purified. Yacob describes the various customs connected to entering and staying in the spring.

He herded sheep and cattle from a young age. During the winter months, he used to lead his flock to distant places, where he and other shepherds would set up camp and stay for several months, until the rainy season ended. He describes the wild animals in the area and how they used to hunt them by laying traps.

When he reached the age of 12, he began to work with his father and older brother farming the family lands. Yacob lists the various types of crops they grew and the system of irrigation ditches that enabled them to work in the fields year-round. When Yacob was 17, his father died. He and his older brother continued to work and support their family.

Yacob describes his father’s illness and funeral. He explains the mourning customs, such as the ceremony of purification of the body, the songs of eulogy, and the week of mourning. Yacob describes how the inheritance was customarily distributed among the family members and the way the elders of the community mediated its distribution.

Yacob married when he was 24. He describes the wedding customs. He emphasizes the importance of both members of the couple keeping their virginity until marriage and lists the punishments and the community’s harsh reaction when this taboo was broken.

In 1965, his family and the entire regional community suffered extensively from food poisoning. The spoiled food had been distributed by the government to alleviate the great famine in the area. There were no clinics in the area and the medical treatment was based solely on traditional medicine and prayers.

Yacob describes the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime and the Derg party’s rise to power in 1973. He compares the regimes and the impact each had on his life and on the Jewish community. Yacob talks about the political dilemma every Ethiopian citizen faced: they could support the Derg regime, which allocated land and promoted mandatory education, but also interrogated, tortured, and executed people without trial, or they could support the EHAPA organization that rebelled against the regime, but also pursued and executed its opponents.

Yacob initially joined the EHAPA rebel organization and fought against the regime. After several successful operations against senior members of the Derg regime, Yacob and his comrades asked for a pardon through his relative, Yeshe-Aleka (in Amharic: a colonel in the army) Marsha Negedo and joined the Derg army. They were stationed in Belessa and managed to eradicate pockets of resistance of EHAPA rebels. When the rebels captured his village, Yacob and his company were sent to recapture it. They succeeded in their mission after harsh fighting and many losses. The Derg forces held onto the village for several months, during which they watched the regime’s army gradually retreat. When they found themselves alone, Yacob and his company agreed that the best way to protect their families was to desert the Derg and rejoin the rebels. They turned over their weapons, asked for pardon, and began to fight on the side of the rebels once again. Yacob describes the deep-seated political disagreements within the community, which led to gunfights between neighbors. As he was requesting more weapons and military equipment, the Jewish community began to leave for Addis Ababa, to immigrate from there to Israel. Yacob gathered his family, sold his possessions, and joined his community in their journey from the province of Semien to Addis Ababa via the city of Gondar. Eventually, after putting his documents in order in Addis Ababa, he immigrated to Israel with his family.