Yefet Alemu's boyhood dreams of being a kes, a spiritual leader among Ethiopia's Jews, were realized in slightly different fashion on December 11, when he was officially ordained a Conservative rabbi at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Yefet Alemu celebrating with family

Alemu, 42, endured a long, arduous journey to become Israel's first non-Orthodox Ethiopian rabbi: first the physical journey from his native village of Ambober to the Sudan to be airlifted to Israel in 1983, and then the spiritual journey through disillusionment with Orthodox Judaism in his new home.

Empowered as a rabbi, he says, "he will now fight for the religious rights of my Ethiopian community."

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