Images from SIGD - Ethyopian Jewish holiday in Jerusalem.
On November 11th, 2004, Ethiopian Jews from across Israel gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Sigd festival. Sigd is a holiday unique to the Ethiopian Jewish community, commemorating both the giving of the Torah and the communal gatherings held in Jerusalem in the days of the first temple. In Ethiopia, the day was marked with a half-day fast and a pilgrimage to the top of the nearest mountain. There, the community's religious leaders (Keis) would chant from the Torah and lead the community in prayer. With the mass migration of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the 1990's to the holyland, celebration of the Sigd festival shifted to Jerusalem, mostly at the Sherover Promenade in Talpiot, which overlooks the Old City, and there I took the photos in this gallery.
For more reading on SIGD, have a look at:
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/festivls/sigd.html and
http://www.uejo.org.il/Dev2Go.web?id=206960&rnd=28350