Sometimes a request comes to us that is at once so simple and yet profound, with numerous implications.

A morning email from one of our Israeli contacts requested some help for two young Ethiopian women from the Falash Mura community. The young women are part of a program that fosters volunteer work, education and leadership training.

The request?

While still in Ethiopia custom dictated that the Falash Mura were tattooed with the mark of a cross on the forehead and hand. Whether this was to avoid persecution by Christians is up for debate, but several years ago the Chief Rabbi in Israel did accept the aliyah of this group. These two young women have these markings and as a result are ostracized not only by their peers but also by the children in the schools where they volunteer.

Ethiopian absorption in Israel has been a difficult process. Despite the passing of years, the group, for the most part, remains economically challenged and often hold the most menial of jobs.

How much more difficult successful absorption is for these two young women, marked with the sign of the cross? How modest a cost it would be to perhaps change their lives forever by undergoing a relatively simple, though painful process that removes the tattoos?

How could we not?