Still Missing: Where Is Haymanut?

Subtitle:
Israel once moved heaven and earth to bring her community home. Now one little girl from that same community has been missing for nearly two years—and too few are counting the days.

It’s been 600 days since ten-year-old Haimanot Kassou was kidnapped from the absorption center in Tzfat. Despite video showing her being taken, she remains officially listed as “missing.” Her family and neighbors continue to plead with the Jewish Agency, the police, and committees in the Knesset for answers that never come.

Israel is celebrating the return of hostages—and well we should. We have done everything humanly possible to bring our people home, because that’s who we are. Every Jew is precious. And when much of the world calls us murderers, the truth tells another story: we take care of our own. But we must do the same for Haimanot.

The families of the hostages marked each day with a piece of tape showing the number of days their loved ones were gone. Today, that same count could mark the days Haimanot has been missing. Her mother and grandmother have not stopped crying for nearly two years.

This country once moved heaven and earth to rescue 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in a day and a half under tight air security. It was Shabbat, not Friday, when Operation Solomon took place—one of the rare times in history when an entire population was lifted from despair and slavery to freedom. I was here then, working for ABC Television, and witnessed the moment Israel’s heart opened wide enough to welcome home her lost children.

Yehoshua Sivan, an oleh from England who came in the 1970s, helped found the Committee for Ethiopian Jewry. My parents knew him long before I did. When I finally met him years later, he was humble, still teaching chemistry, still doing good. He collected and recycled plastic bottles—100,000 shekels’ worth a year—to help his Ethiopian students learn Hebrew, get dental care, and find their footing. He embodied what it means to bring people home.

Now, nearly two years after Haimanot disappeared, her family waits. Her community waits. And all of us should be waiting, too. Until she comes home, the story of who we are is not complete.

Susan Cohen is a journalist, immigrant, and still counting the days.