Any project of this kind is bound.to meet many problems but ORT were surprised to discover that they had to overcome opposition from quite unexpected quarters. They soon came under fierce attack both from Falashas who had reached Israel and were desperately anxious to see further immigrants brought in and also from the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, led by Graenum Berger. The latter had long maintained that the only positive way to help the Falashas was by aliyah. All else, in his view, simply led to assimilation and, therefore, hastened the extinction of the community. This view was shared by Yona Bogale, whose long years of frustration and disappointment had led him to the same conclusion.

To his chagrin, Braude found his operation denounced by the very people whom he was aiming to help. This was all the more astonishing because ORT enjoyed an unequalled reputation in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles and had been engaged by the governments of many countries in Africa and elsewhere to provide technical education. Such a situation had never occurred before and for a time it threw the organisation off balance, while some members even advocated closing down the Ethiopian programme.

Sensational and ill informed articles appeared in the American and Israeli press during the first half of 1979. Vicious attacks were made on ORT personnel and, in an apparent attempt to force the Israeli Government to organise an immigration scheme similar to that which had been effective in bringing in Soviet Jews, vastly exaggerated accounts of Ethiopian atrocities were spread around under such titles as 'The Falashas: A Black Holocaust Looms'. More distressing were subversive reports which were addressed to international donor organisations and governments insinuating that their funds were being misused. The charges were disproved but they caused a temporary interruption of the programme.