By Brian Lewis
Staff Writer
For Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel over the past 20 years, it is their ancestral spiritual home. Life in Israel, though, is much different than it is in Africa.

Since moving to the country, many Ethiopians have developed diabetes, a disease unheard of in the Third World.

A group of 11 Israeli nurses and health-care workers, most of them of Ethiopian descent, have been in Nashville for two weeks to learn more about the disease and how to educate communities about it. The group has been to many clinics here, worked with the Vanderbilt School of Nursing and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and traveled to a diabetes clinic in Clarksdale, Miss.

''In Israel, we are unique,'' said Anat Jaffe, the doctor who organized the group called Tene-Briut, which means health in Amharic and Hebrew. ''We have no one to learn from.''

The trip came about partly because Nashville, along with other Southeastern cities, is among the sister cities of Hadera, where the Israeli nurses are from. When the director of Jaffe's hospital spoke at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville earlier this year and mentioned the Tene-Briut group, it sparked the interest of Alan Graber, a diabetes specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He contacted Jaffe and the two began planning this trip.

Diabetes is a disease of the developed world. When the Ethiopian Jews lived in Africa, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attacks were nonexistent, Jaffe said. They had never encountered chronic diseases that doctors couldn't cure, she said. But now, 17% of the estimated 75,000 Ethiopian Israelis have diabetes.

A large part of that is because they moved from a mostly primitive farming lifestyle to living in Israel and eating foods that are much more fatty. In addition, many are unemployed. They have had to learn a new language, Hebrew, and they are living in a completely different culture.

While life is hard, they said they'd never go back to Ethiopia. Fredda Yitzchak said they wanted to live in the ''promised land'' of Israel. ''It's only because of the belief,'' he said.

The group has been exposed to Jewish life in Nashville, visiting four city synagogues and participating in Hanukkah parties and Hebrew school classes.

''It's nice to see that there is a connection between the Jews all over the world,'' Yitzchak said.

Sara Hanai, a staff associate of the Jewish Federation, said that had been felt strongly by the local community and the 15 Jewish families who helped host the group.

''There's a common ground automatically when you meet somebody and they're Jewish. You automatically have something in common with them.''

That common ground was stronger on a professional level than on a spiritual one for Graber, the diabetes specialist. The health problems the Ethiopians have faced are universally seen by immigrants, he said.

''I'm interested in this problem of diabetes all over the world, regardless of religion or race,'' he said. ''The problem of diabetes that occurs in immigrant communities is a worldwide problem.'' 

Source: The Tennessean.

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