As debate swirled around the numbers of Ethiopian Jews who will be permitted to make aliya, a delegation of 175 UJA Campaign chairs and directors from across North America traveled between Addis Ababa and Tel Aviv with a contingent of 90 Africans who are now adjusting to new lives in Israel.

The delegates included lay leaders and professionals from MetroWest, who flew from New Jersey to Israel and then to Ethiopia. There they split into two groups to visit villages where Jews had once lived, as well as the cities of Addis Ababa and Gondar, where some of those seeking aliya have been waiting for the moment they could leave for Tel Aviv.

"The purpose was to see where the Ethiopian Jewish population came from and see why their absorption and integration into Israeli life is different from any other absorption Israel has done," said Leslie Dannin Rosenthal, a South Orange resident who chairs the Israel and Overseas Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

"It was a privilege it be able to bear witness to where these people came from and the unbelievable hardships they went through to get to Israel," she said.

UJC MetroWest has several programs that deal directly with Ethiopian Jews. One of them, Project Ha'atzmaut, funds recent immigrants to act as caseworkers to assist those who are newly arrived in Israel. Another provides meals to hungry children in Gondar.

"What it confirmed for me was the need for the $30,000 we in MetroWest are giving to a feeding station where children are being fed," said Julie Rosenberg, UJC MetroWest NJ assistant campaign director. "It reassured me and the Israel and Overseas Committee and UJC that our dollars will be necessary. The Israeli government said the aliya will end in about a year. We'll see what happens in the future."

For Scott Krieger of Livingston, UJA Campaign vice chair, the trip to Ethiopia was especially poignant.

"I would not want to have missed the opportunity to have walked hand-in-hand with these Ethiopian folks on the night they were leaving, as we all got on the bus and took them to the airport. It was emotionally incredible experience," he said.

Jewish Agency of Israel officials told the Diaspora delegation that the 90 members of Beta Israel or Falash Mura — Ethiopians whose Jewish ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity — who traveled with them to Israel were some of the last Ethiopians still eligible to make aliya.

Officials said nearly all of the 4,000 members of Beta Israel were expected to receive permission to emigrate by the High Holy Days. Nevertheless, Ethiopian Jewry groups say that thousands more are eligible to make aliya as either Falash Mura or relatives of Israelis or Ethiopians already in Israel.