PARIS, HAILU

PARIS, HAILU (1933– ), U.S. Orthodox rabbi, Beta Israel. Paris was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to the United States with his widowed mother in 1936. He graduated from the Erna Michael College of Hebraic Studies of Yeshiva University and obtained his master's degree in Jewish education from the Ferkauf Graduate School. In 1965 he was appointed assistant rabbi and subsequently rabbi to Mt. Horeb Congregation in the Bronx, a congregation of black Jews. He also studied at Yeshivat ha-Darom in Israel in 1957–58. Rabbi Paris was active in the Ha-Ẓa'ad ha-Rishon, an organization set up for the integration of black Jewish youth into the Jewish community, and a member of the Pro-Beta Israel Committee of New York. He spent nearly a year with the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia in 1965–66.