{"id":281636,"date":"2019-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiS2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRhYmxldG1hZy5jb20vamV3aXNoLWxpZmUtYW5kLXJlbGlnaW9uLzI4NjUyMS9ldGhpb3BpYW4tY2hhbGxhaNIBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:57:35","slug":"for-the-sabbath-ethiopian-jews-bake-defo-dabo-a-wheat-loaf-often-studded-with-nigella-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/281636","title":{"rendered":"For the Sabbath, Ethiopian Jews bake defo dabo, a wheat loaf often studded with nigella seeds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopian Jews mark the Sabbath with defo dabo, a festive wheat bread often studded with nigella seeds, which Tablet Magazine described as their unbraided challah.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"size-large wp-image-837603\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dabo-bread-mesob-2017.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A round loaf of dabo bread in a mesob basket, January 2017\" \/><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>A round loaf of dabo bread in a mesob basket, January 2017 (Betselot Yergalem, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The everyday bread of Ethiopia is injera, the spongy flatbread made from teff, an ancient grain that contains no gluten. For the Sabbath and other celebrations, Beta Israel families bake defo dabo instead, Tablet Magazine reported in July 2019 after a visit to Gondar. The recipe changes from village to village and from family to family, depending on taste and on what is available.<\/p>\n<p>Gondar was then home to many of the perhaps 7,000 Jews still living in Ethiopia, many of them waiting to immigrate to Israel, according to the Tablet report.<\/p>\n<p>The community\u2019s official history dates to about 500 CE, and at one time almost a million Jews lived in more than 500 villages in northern Ethiopia, the magazine said. Tradition links Ethiopia to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, whose son Menelik is said to have brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the community left for Israel in two airlifts. Operation Moses moved about 6,500 people between November 1984 and January 1985, after many had walked to refugee camps in Sudan. Operation Solomon flew 14,325 people from Addis Ababa in 36 hours in May 1991.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/jewish-life-and-religion\/286521\/ethiopian-challah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tablet Magazine<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ethiopian_Jews_in_Israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia \u2013 Ethiopian Jews in Israel<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopian Jews mark the Sabbath with defo dabo, a festive wheat bread often studded with nigella seeds, which Tablet Magazine described as their unbraided challah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dabo-bread-mesob-2017.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bgw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281636"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837639,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281636\/revisions\/837639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}