I’m writing this early on Dec. 24 — the day marking the 22nd anniversary of Operation Solomon, the covert airlift that took 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

If you don’t believe that everything happens for a reason, try this: I apparently fell asleep last night with the TV on, and was awakened to (or maybe by?) a broadcast about Ethiopian Jews. But not those rescued Jews — about purported Jews still there today…

I am concerned. Is there really a great number of Jews of color still left in Ethiopia? And if so — I’m doubly concerned, as we all should be, because they are at the religious mercy of an organization billing itself as “The Jewish Voice.” But its subtitle is the giveaway: The Messianic Jewish Ministry. Its self-defined purpose: “Sharing the Gospel of Yeshua (Jesus) to the Jew first and also to Gentiles…” It’s headed by Rabbi (?) Jonathan Bernis. You can google him and see him as I did: wearing both a kippah and a tallit. You will not, of course, hear him blowing a shofar, as I did. That was my strange wake-up call…

Jewish Voice Ministries International is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Its stated purpose, found on the official website, is “…to transform lives and see all Israel saved.” Its three-part mission statement: “…to Proclaim the Gospel to the Jew first; to Grow the Messianic Jewish community; to Engage the Church concerning Israel and the Jewish people.” To do this, it begins with medical outreach, then continues with such activities as “festivals, congregation planting and leadership training.”

Should we, as the “real” Jews we are, be concerned about this? Or is it just another problematic blip on a radar already full of them? Our worry basket already seems totally loaded with antisemitism these days; do we need another one?

My very personal concern: I have a decorative pillow that’s been sitting on a chair in my living room for years. I don’t remember when or where I got it, but I know it wasn’t in Ethiopia, because I’ve never been there. However, a faint memory tells me I may have bought it in the gift shop of New York’s Jewish Museum. It’s a picture on cloth of what Mr. (I cannot bring myself to call him “Rabbi”) Bernis himself illustrates with both words and photographs. It’s a primitive “painting”: A bearded man, front and center, holds an open book. To his right, a woman; to his left, a man, both with heads tilted toward him, looking adoringly. Further on each side, seven children, with eyes right or left, depending on their position in relationship to this unmistakable leader. Above, one on each side, float two seven-branched menorahs, all in front of a mountain from which a ladder leads upward. And above this: there is a Star of David, flanked by several winged angels — black, of course. Are any of these really black Jews? Really in Ethiopia? Now I wonder if my pillow is really Ethiopian Jewish art, or just a clever ploy…

I don’t know this about any of you who are now reading what I’ve written, but I myself believe — rather devoutly, actually — that things happen when and because they are supposed to. I fell asleep with the TV on for a reason, and was awakened by it at that particular moment for the reason that I was meant to see it. And so, I am concerned. Maybe I was “just” supposed to alert all of you, as I’m doing now. Or maybe I’m supposed to be doing something more. Something to consider in the new year…