Thousands of Ethiopian Israelis gathered at Jerusalem’s Tayelet Haas Promenade for Sigd, a day of celebration and remembrance, on Monday.
Dressed in white, families made their way toward the Old City, where the community’s spiritual leaders, the kessim, led prayers overlooking the Jerusalem their ancestors had dreamed of seeing.
There is something especially moving about Sigd being celebrated in Jerusalem. For centuries, Ethiopian Jews marked the holiday by fasting, gathering on hilltops, and praying for their return to Zion. Today, their children and grandchildren can look out across the city that once existed for many of their families only in scripture, stories, and prayer alone.
Sigd, observed 50 days after Yom Kippur, marks the Ethiopian renewal of the covenant between the Jewish people and God. It also celebrates one of the most remarkable chapters in modern Jewish history: the determination of Ethiopian Jews to preserve their faith and identity, and the journeys that ultimately brought so many of them to Israel.
Sigd must be accepted as significant national Israeli celebration
That history should hold a much greater place in Israel’s national story. The courage of those who crossed dangerous terrain to reach the country, the sacrifices of families separated along the way, and the traditions they carried with them should be familiar to every Israeli schoolchild.
Sigd has been recognized as a national holiday since 2008, yet many Israelis still encounter it largely through photographs and television reports. Schools could do more to explain its traditions, while municipalities and cultural institutions could make the celebrations accessible to families beyond the Ethiopian community.
Learning about another Jewish tradition need not come at the expense of one’s own. It is part of understanding the country the nation shares and the many histories that shaped it.
Those attending the celebrations spoke warmly about family, tradition, and their desire to share the holiday with other Israelis. It is an invitation worth accepting. The heritage of Ethiopian Jewry belongs within the broader history of the Jewish people, and Israel is richer for it.
Yet amid the prayers and festive clothing was another familiar sight – the photograph of Haymanot Kasau, the young Ethiopian Israeli girl who disappeared in Safed in February 2024.
Kasau was nine when she vanished near the absorption center where her family lived after immigrating from Ethiopia. More than two and a half years later, her family still has no answer to the question that has governed their lives since that day: Where is their daughter?
Posters of Haymanot Kasau stand at ceremony, stickers worn with her photograph
At Monday’s ceremony, posters bearing the girl’s face stood near the entrance, while children and teenagers wore stickers with her photograph. The kessim themselves held up a large poster from the prayer platform. For those who had come together to celebrate the community’s journey home, it was a painful reminder of a child who has not returned to hers.
Her parents have repeatedly expressed frustration with the authorities and said that too little has been done to find her. The police investigation and the family’s concerns deserve careful attention, and any assessment of the work undertaken should be based on the facts. But one fact is beyond dispute: Kasau remains missing.
Her parents deserve regular, clear updates on the investigation, a serious examination of any credible new information, and the assurance that every reasonable avenue is being pursued. They also deserve the concern of the wider Israeli public. A child’s disappearance should not become a story followed chiefly by the community to which her family belongs.
That was perhaps the most important message Haymanot’s photograph carried on Monday. The Ethiopian Jewish community has kept her name visible, even as public attention has moved elsewhere. Other Israelis should stand alongside the family, listen to its concerns, and refuse to allow the passing years to make this child’s absence seem ordinary.
Sigd is a day that speaks of longing, faith, and the joy of coming home. This year, alongside the celebration, a family’s own longing continues.
Israel should celebrate the heritage of Ethiopian Jewry with pride, and remember Haymanot Kasau with the same commitment to belonging that gives the holiday its meaning.