>> Good afternoon, everybody.
So on behalf of the African
and Middle Eastern Division,
I would like to extend a very
warm welcome to everyone.
I'm An Chi Hoh, head of
the Near East Section here
in the African Middle
Eastern Division.
We are very pleased to
present this program
on the Ethiopian Jews of
Israel by Irene Fertik.
Before we start the program
and introduce our speaker,
I would like to give you a
brief overview of the division
and its resources in the
hopes that you will come back
to use our reading
room and our services.
AMED is comprised of three
sections, the African, Hebraic,
and Near East sections.
Two of our main responsibilities
are
to provide reader
reference services
and to develop a collection of
more than 600,000 items in more
than 14 languages from
78 countries and regions.
Our reading room is
located on the second floor
of this building in
the northeast pavilion.
So if you have time later,
make sure to come find us.
We're on the second floor.
The African section
covers countries
in all of Sub-Sahara Africa.
This section advises
and collaborates
in the library's
acquisition program
through the library's
Nairobi field office.
The Near East Section covers
all the Arab countries,
including North Africa and
the Middle East, Turkey,
Turkic Central Asia, Iran,
Afghanistan, Armenia,
and Georgia.
The Hebraic section is
responsible for Judaica
and Hebraica worldwide.
And Fentahun Tirunah
will provide more details
about the Hebraic section
and introduce the
speaker in just a moment.
The African and Middle
Eastern Division is also
on social media.
We invite you to subscribe to
the 4 Corners of the World blog
and friend us
on the international
collections Facebook page.
You will learn more about
our division's collections,
services, and public programs
by following us on social media.
So make sure to pick
up a bookmark here.
I have some at the front.
So with this, you'll be able to
find information about our blog
and Facebook and
how to subscribe.
And I was also told a very
important piece of information.
Our Hebraic section staff have,
has put together a very nice
display from our collection.
So it's over there,
and that nice display
of collections is
related to today's topic.
So make sure to stop
by and take a look.
I bet you have never seen some
of these very precious items.
So, one last housekeeping.
So by, if you ask questions,
you are giving permission
to be recorded.
So I just want to make
sure you are aware of that.
Now I would like to
invite Fentahun Tiruneh,
Ethiopian Reference
Specialist, to the podium
to give us an overview
of the Hebraic section
and introduce the speaker.
Fentahun?
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you, An Chi.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank
you for coming to this program,
a wonderful program that
we have with Irene Fertik.
And I will be introducing
her in a minute.
I think she has already
mentioned
that this event is
being recorded
for a subsequent broadcast
and that you're encouraged
to ask questions and that by
doing so, that you're consenting
that the Library will reproduce
and transmit all the
remarks in the future.
And thank you for your
understanding for that.
It seems, now, it's
an established fact
that Ethiopia is the
cradle of mankind
and the source of civilization.
When we ask who, among the
present tribes comprising
Ethiopia approximate first
two months who formed Ethiopia
and the present civilization
in the world,
the Agaws of Ethiopia stand
out as the most ancient cited
in the Ethiopian history books
that have survived
the oppressive past.
Few of the Agaw tribe members
are cited to be the Qemant,
Beta Israel, and the
Bilenies, among others.
These very tribes introduced
the first belief in one God;
however, with the
advent of Christianity
and the other sovereigns of
Ethiopia's policy Christianity
as the state religion,
the original monotheists became
the targets of both the state
and the church, experiencing
untold sufferings
and displacement.
The Beta Israel community
prayed toward the east,
facing Jerusalem, for
centuries for a return
to their mental homeland.
This brief background
provides the history
of the Beta Israel's migration
and remigration in and out
of Ethiopia and Israel.
My guest, Ms. Irene Fertik,
has captured the latest history
of the Beta Israel for
25 years in her new book.
And Ms. Fertik will be
happy to autograph her book.
They're on sale at the front.
And this will be the place
where she will be signing books.
Her entire profession
life, over 50 years
as a documentary photographer,
Irene Fertik has had an emphasis
on civil rights, justice,
and ethnic cultures.
She came of age during
the 1960s,
graduating from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1965
with a degree of sociology.
Her publishing company
is named Light Catcher,
after the Native American
word dreamcatcher.
Ms. Fertik was lucky,
after having been
in New York City straight
from college, shooting
and celebrating the black
experience in photos
for non-profits and
the performing arts,
as well as [inaudible] and
the grass roots organization
within the black community.
She left to take a job
as a photojournalist
for the largest newspaper
in Vermont,
the Burlington Free Press,
honing her skills there
from 1979 to 1985.
Moving to Los Angeles
afterwards, again,
she was lucky enough to
be at the right place
at the right time, as she
soon became the full-time
photographer for the University
of Southern California.
In 1984 the news broke
out around the world
that the Old Testament Ethiopian
Jews were being brought
out of Africa to Israel.
The rest is her history
and their history
in her photographs.
This 25-year project of
passion is a formative years
of this fascinating and
vibrant Beta Israel community
as they continue
to grow from tesfa
to tikva, from hope to hope.
Please welcome Ms. Fertik.
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you, everyone.
I'm so happy that so many
people came out here today.
That was a great introduction.
Thank you.
And so I'll get right
to the book.
I started photographing
the Beta Israel in '92
because I needed a project that
I could sink my passion into.
And I had heard of these people.
You know, at that time I got
letters asking for donations.
So I'd send a little money.
But you know what happens
when you send a little money,
you get more information
and they want more money.
So I learned about them and
I said, wow, this is a group,
this is a great photo
documentary
that I can really
sink my teeth into.
So I wanted to show
you this picture.
It's an illustration, but
within the Beta Israel community
in Ethiopia, they talk about
a shimla, which is a stork.
They literally look up
and see the stork flying
over Ethiopia towards
Jerusalem, and they knew that's
where they wanted to go.
And, you know, they were
jealous of the stork
for going there without them.
And I thought that was
a very human emotion.
And I love the fact that they,
I became very intimate
with the community.
And that's the kind of
work that I wanted to do,
to shoot from inside,
not from the outside.
So I've been back to Israel.
This started in Israel.
I missed their experience
coming over,
but these are the young
people that I shot
in an absorption
center the first year.
By the way, I had
someone taking me
around who was a young
Ethiopian Israeli.
I didn't know enough
Amharic Tigrinya,
and they don't know any English,
and they certainly had
no Hebrew at that time.
So I was there for a month.
And I said, yes, this is
going to be a great story.
And I came back many times,
made lots of family
relationships with people.
Stayed, basically, with
Ethiopians, and that was a key
because I got to know
them, they got to know me,
I got to know their culture
and their hopes for the future.
To this day -- and the last
time I did shooting was in 2015,
I'd say -- they are still,
they came, by the way,
95 percent of Ethiopians who
came to Israel could not read
or write English or,
sorry, they couldn't read
or write their own language.
It was an oral culture,
and so their parents
couldn't help them.
They needed support
from the outside.
And it's been a long
struggle to level,
both level the playing field
and compete with other Israelis.
As you know, Israel is an
immigrant country started
in 1948.
The Ethiopians got there,
the first wave came
in the early '80s.
But most people who came
before them, at least,
had an education, and they
were, by and large, illiterate.
So it's taken a long time
for their skills to catch up.
And to this day,
there is a lot of,
there is a glass
ceiling, I must say.
But they went, men and women,
they went into the Army.
By the way, when I shot this
picture, it was in 1992,
only 10 percent of
Ethiopian Israeli women went
into the Army.
Now it's as many as the men
because they know
it's the way up.
It's definitely how to, at
least, get a foothold in Israel,
which is a very difficult
and very competitive society.
These are, there are two
Ethiopians Jewish tribes.
Most people didn't know
that, don't know that.
How many here know
that there are?
They came from Gondar
and from Tigray.
They spoke different languages,
had different cultural
singing and dancing.
This is a Tigrayan
wedding that I shot.
And the Tigrayans came
there a little bit
like a few years earlier
than the Amharics.
So some of them are doing,
to this day, a lot better
because some of them were
educated when they got there.
I mean, before they got there,
they had some education, so.
This picture is other Ethiopian
Jews who are in Israel,
the second or third wave,
trying to, they're demonstrating
at the Knesset, trying to get
attention to their relatives
who were still in Ethiopia.
And to this day, there
is still, trickling in,
some Ethiopian Jews who, at
this point, they either married
out in Ethiopia, they converted,
but now they want to be
with their relatives in Israel,
and they want to get back
to their, that Israel past.
This woman owns a --
I'm not even using this,
but you can hear me.
I'm going to get
a little closer.
She owns a hair dressing
establishment.
By the way, with my
pictures, I like to show a lot
of what is happening today.
So she's taking out the twists
and the strands of hair.
And this woman, her
customer, is an Arab woman.
This is outside of Haifa,
and she's being helped,
as a friend, by a Russian woman.
So this is, her friend is
Russian, she's Ethiopian,
and this woman is Arab
Palestinian Muslim.
To get that kind of picture,
you need to really know what's
happening and who to go with.
And so it's been that way
for me in the 17 visits.
This was a funeral.
And if you know of Jewish law,
you have to bury the person
within a day, if you can.
I happen to be in Be'er Sheva,
heard about it, and ran that day
to the cemetery to
photograph the funeral.
And I felt, back here
is where the coffin is
and the procession, but I knew
I shouldn't, out of respect,
get close; however, this looks
like a Roman, to me it looks
like a Roman picture,
Roman days, with the togas
and the oedipus,
the small oedipus.
In Ethiopia, they
didn't have Hanukkah
because Ethiopian Jews
were Old Testament.
All they knew was the Old
Testament from their kes,
which means priest or rabbi
in their language, kes.
So when their kids came, they
were so thrilled to learn
about Hanukkah and to celebrate
that eight days of gift giving.
The other Jewish holiday
that they didn't know
about was Purim, which had to
be beyond the Old Testament.
So they also loved that, too,
dressing in costume
and partying.
And this I photographed
of a group of kids
in Be'er Sheva who, after
they had their party,
went to a petting zoo.
And I just happened to
catch that wonderful shot
of a meeting of horns.
These are figurines.
In Ethiopia, the Beta
Israel were considered
by the other tribes to be a
very harsh word called buda.
If you said buda to
an Ethiopian Jew,
it meant in the league
with the devil.
And because the two didn't own
their own land, they had to work
for either other people,
but they also did metal work
and ceramics, which both
have to do with a fire.
So most Ethiopian tribes did
not want to do metal work
or ceramics because
of the fire involved.
But they did it, and
this is an original
from the village, symbol.
I like to say it's hot cakes,
that sold like hot
cakes to tourists.
Inside is the line
of Judah and Solomon
and Sheba sleeping together.
Now, they sell these to
tourists and say, we have this
at the woman's bedside, and
if she wants sex at night,
she keeps it open like this.
And if she doesn't,
she closes it
so the man doesn't have to ask.
We all know that's
mythology in Africa.
The woman has no
say in anything.
So this was just
for the tourists.
And then a woman in Israel, a
Beta Israel, does figurines,
and that picture is for a lot
of women are doing that there
because they're very good at
it and they can make money.
This, as you can see,
is a takeoff on that.
It has the Jewish star.
And inside is a little
baby Moses.
I am passing this around,
and it's a black baby Moses.
So you can see, I'll start
with you, a fax that I brought.
But in my home I
have a lot of things
from the old country
and the new.
I made it my business
to photograph a lot
of children in Israel.
And this is an Ethiopian
Israeli dance company
that was doing very well.
I started shooting them
in '96 to about 2016.
And this man here, his
name is faraday Acklam.
Sorry about that.
He was the first Ethiopian Jew.
He was a school teacher
in Addis Ababa,
and during Mangetsu's
time, around 19 --
in the early '80s or late '70s,
he was jailed because Mangetsu,
who would, who was a rule
in Ethiopia at that time,
was really a dictator and very
violate and he killed a lot
of people He did not like
people who were educated
and who had money because they
threatened him for his regime.
So he jailed this Ethiopian
Jew for being a school teacher.
Finally got out, went to
his village, the Mossad,
talked to him, and told
him you will be the leader
to get people to Israel.
So they told him how to do it.
This was in, around 1981, '82.
He took a journey
to the Sudan camps,
which was close to
the Sudan border.
At that time he, in '82 to '84,
there was a famine in a lot
of Africa, not in, where
the Beta Israeli left,
but they saw it as the best
opportunity for them to leave
as well, pretending that they
were Muslim or Christian.
Village by village, at night,
they left, and most got
to the border not all there.
Out of the 11,000 who left,
maybe 8,000, 9,000 made it.
It was a very, actually, hard
journey because they went
to hide from bandits, from wild
animals, and from the soldiers
who just wanted to
rob you and worse.
Anyway, he led the way.
He went back to his village.
And they followed
him to the camps
and then sent back a
letter saying, yes,
we made it; it's time to go.
So that's when the villages
emptied of the Beta Israel,
the first time, which
was from '82 to "8'4,
and now we say way
back to Israel.
This is a group of
hesach [phonetic] rabbis
and religious authority
people, most, all Orthodox.
Hesach is Amharic
for priest or rabbi.
If you have any questions,
I'd like you to ask
so that you don't forget by the
end, and it's easier to deal
with it in the present.
So if I stimulate that
question, raise your hand.
[Inaudible] yes.
>> So [inaudible] completed
in Hebrew or [inaudible]
or any others, what the
priests come out [inaudible].
>> In that, it was Amharic,
which was the universal
language, but there were plenty
of Tigrayans there, too;
however, they knew Amharic
because [inaudible] codified
Amharics and [inaudible]
as the universal
language in Ethiopia.
>> I have a question.
>> Yes.
>> Did the Ethiopian
village's leaders have trouble
with the requirements of
the rabbi, the orthodox --
>> Yes, you know it.
They did. They got to Israel,
and the Orthodox
had a stranglehold
on everything they would do.
And ultra-Orthodox,
I should say.
And it, many of the men
were forced into a --
what's the word --
re-circumcision, which they,
it was totally, you
know, reprehensible.
They hated it, and a lot
didn't go through with it.
And finally, they stopped that.
But it was, it was the
ultra-Orthodox who demanded it.
And now they're not
doing it anymore
with any group that comes.
There is a period
where they all,
the new arrivals were
given lots of education
in their absorption camps.
Some had to stay two
or three years there.
And they learned Hebrew,
especially the young people.
They learned to read
and write it.
Many had to teach their
parents, of course,
but the young ones are
really a lot quicker
at picking up language.
This is a traditional carriage,
carry-all for the baby.
And this, she is a social worker
who visited the family
once a week
to make sure they
were doing well.
This is in Be'er Sheva.
Be'er Sheva had the most
Ethiopians come and live there.
Why? Because it was the least
expensive place to buy property.
A lot of Russians, too,
went there, as well.
I love this picture.
It is of a soldier, an Ethiopian
Israeli soldier teaching Hebrew
and other kinds of things,
information that the new
arrivals had to know,
teaching to a class
of Russian Jews.
Now, in Russia, there's
prejudice against all blacks.
And so when they got to
Israel, for them to see leaders
and teachers who were
Ethiopian was gobez,
which means excellent
for everybody.
And one hopes that they
maintain that openness
to the other once they settled.
This, now, as I mentioned,
there were two Ethiopian
tribes, Jewish tribes.
One is from Gondar and
one is from Tigray.
The Tigrayans got there a little
bit first, and they went right
into the Western Wall.
You know it's not called
the Wailing Wall anymore.
It's called the Western Wall
because people aren't wailing.
Anyway, they have a ceremony
there called Sigd, Sigd,
which they brought with them.
It's the only holiday that
came with Ethiopians to Israel.
And it's a genuflexion
like that,
Sigd and praying to return.
Well, now they're not praying to
return anymore, they're praying
for how grateful and with
a hope towards the future.
But they still do Sigd.
And so the Tigrayans are there,
and then I have another picture.
>> Did you say that Sigd is now
an official Israeli holiday?
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> So they've adopted
the Ethiopian holiday
as an Israeli holiday.
>> Thank you.
I forgot that.
And there are a lot of young
Israelis who participate,
at least convene there.
There are bus loads, maybe 5,000
Ethiopian Israelis come to Sigd.
Now I start a little
section with the problems,
the pain, the difficulties.
As a journalist, you know, it's
about celebrating, but it's also
about showing reality.
And this is true.
Outside is dangerous, stay home.
You know, a lot of the young
boys would get into mischief
and take a wrong route.
And this was one of them.
I found him in the bus terminal.
Just, he dropped out of school,
he dropped out of his family,
he's just on the streets.
There was a big problem with
young boys, teenage boys,
doing that, rebelling.
And there were a lot of
Ethiopian Israeli social workers
at the bus terminal
trying to help.
But some of them
got into hard drugs,
and it was very difficult.
It's the same with immigrants
throughout the world.
A lot of young boys and also
young Russian immigrants
who were educated, who had
much more going for them
than the Ethiopian Jews, they
had a lot of dropouts, too.
This is girls in the ladies'
room, they were smoking
when I went into
the ladies' room.
They put their cigarettes
away right away, put them out,
and allowed me to
photograph them.
And this was a problem.
These people had bought
a, they had bought
into an apartment
building in Haifa,
but the landlord
was unscrupulous,
and a young Ethiopian Israeli
activist found out about it,
and they went to court.
The problem was, it was
too close to a new freeway,
and the off-ramp of their home
went right into their backyard.
Yeah. So they, so I
think they managed
to find another place for them.
But, you know, and that was what
a lot of people encountered.
This was the funeral
of an 18-year-old
girl who hung herself.
There was an epidemic
in the 2006, 2007,
2008 of young people
committing suicide
in the Ethiopian
Israeli community.
They couldn't go home, meaning
Ethiopia, they couldn't,
a lot of them, they felt they
couldn't talk to their parents
about their fears, their
anxieties, their pain,
because it didn't work
that way in Ethiopia.
They had, they had a wise person
in the village, believe it
or not, known as a
schmagalech [phonetic],
which sounds Yiddish.
It's schmagalech, s-c-h,
but there weren't any
schmagalechs in Israel.
So a lot of young people
were very suicidal.
And, you know, when one does it,
another does it, and a friend
of mine had a 12-year-old cousin
who hung herself in her home.
So that period, unfortunately,
there's still a lot
of these suicides, but
not at the epidemic rates.
>> What is thought to be the
genesis of this [inaudible].
>> Genesis?
>> What caused them
to such despair?
>> They had no one to turn to.
They didn't want to disappoint
their parents, you know.
Families are so tight and so
bonded, but they couldn't speak
to their mother about
their pain.
A lot of it had to do with
boyfriend, girlfriend things.
And they had no one, really.
So they felt they just
couldn't live with it.
>> Were there sexual
[inaudible].
>> That wouldn't
be a suicide thing.
No, not at that age,
because they were
so protected by their parents.
That would never happen.
And in the Army, when they'd
go to the Army at 18, 19, 20,
I think there's a lot
of protection there.
And they're really mature adults
by that time, you know Israelis.
Once they get into the Army,
they're really, really mature.
They have to grow up fast.
This is -- I morphed
from sepia to color
because I saw this image.
I was also shooting
digital by this time,
and I turned it first to sepia.
I said, no, it would look
much better in vivid color.
And I said yes, like
the community.
They're more vibrant,
they're more Western,
they're more excited.
And this is Sigd from,
these, this is on the top
of the mountain in Jerusalem
where the Amhara still gather.
As I said, the Western Wall,
is where the Tigrayans
traditionally have their Sigd.
But up here was the Amhara.
Now they're more mixing.
This is a demonstration
in Petah Tikva.
By the way, I didn't,
this sign, this sign,
does anyone read Hebrew here?
>> Students against apartheid?
Students against apartheid?
>> Gobez. Students
against apartheid.
Student teachers,
basically, demonstrated
in Petah Tikva because,
especially in Petah Tikva
but other places, they were
separating Ethiopian young kids
from others, saying they
couldn't learn as fast.
So it was, you know,
their apartheid.
They were being separated
in schools.
I believe it's still going on.
Some religious schools
especially are that way.
And it's all a prejudice,
total prejudice.
Questions anyone?
>> Is that the same
sign, that one?
>> Yeah. I think it
is the same sign.
Same demonstration, by the way.
This is an earlier, these are
both from that demonstration.
I heard about it.
I got there by bus, and
it was really a show
of strength by the young people.
>> When was it?
>> 2008. In your
book is said 2008.
>> 2008, 2008, yup, ten years
ago, and still they haven't,
most, mostly it is integrated,
but with the ultra-Orthodox
and the Orthodox
they have, you know,
they govern their own
schools [inaudible].
I can't say what the
percentage is at all.
>> It also has to do with that
there were still Ethiopian Jews
in Gondar, and the
2008 protest was also
because the Israeli government,
while they take any Russian in,
they were not, they
said that, you know,
there was not enough
money to absorb you.
>> Thank you, thank you.
Yeah. Any excuse, right.
>> And the suicide was, in part,
also because they would take,
just like in the United States,
they would take native Americans
out into their tribal schools,
they'd do that all the
time with Ethiopians.
So they'd come here and they'd
take them into these schools
that were Orthodox schools,
away from their family,
and that was another
part of those issues.
I mean --
>> Well, some of them
were in Orthodox schools.
I'm not sure how many.
>> But they were taken
away from their family --
>> Initially.
>> -- because that was
the way to get them away
from the old habits of
the Kasim and stuff.
>> So this is the, the Kes,
who are the religious leaders
in the community, wanted
their own synagogues.
But the Israeli government and
the Orthodox would not fund them
because they said they
weren't Orthodox enough.
That was initially.
At this point in time, there are
much more, there were all kinds
of synagogues, reform,
conservative, and the Orthodox,
and many of the Ethiopian
Kesim or Pesach.
Pesach is the way the
Amhara would say it.
Kesim was where Jews,
Israelis would say Kesim.
That's their ending.
American Jews were funding a
lot of synagogues in Israel
for the Ethiopians
and also British.
There were monies coming from
Jews all around the world
to fund their own synagogues.
And this is a young Ethiopian
Israeli with his son.
What I like to say, he
is totally Ethiopian.
He married a woman who's
British and American,
and that's their baby.
So it's a little
cocktail, I say.
And I stayed with this family,
and this was just a dear moment
between mother and
daughter in the home.
And this was a mother and
daughter, I think, maybe a son.
In an absorption center in
Be'er Sheva a new arrival,
a late arrival, and
this was taken in 2012.
As I said, there
are still a trickle
of Ethiopian Jews coming in.
>> Is she farming, or is she --
>> No, she's just, yes,
they have their own gardens.
And she was just
picking a few vegetables.
This is, he was born
in Ethiopia.
He's playing basketball
in Tel Aviv.
So they are modernizing
a great deal.
He happens to be a very
prominent actor in Israel.
Did anyone see the movie,
"Go and Become,"
something like that?
He had a minor part in it.
He was asked to do the major
role, but he was too busy
with other things,
including acting school.
This is the first boy
who was born in Israel
from Ethiopian parents.
This family got there in the
late '70s, and he is Tigrayan.
I think they had
education and money,
and so he started
networking real fast,
and he has this technology
school
for other young Ethiopians.
There is opportunity if
you know how to do it
like the Israeli way, but most
do not have uncles or, you know,
friends that give
them, or pull them up.
And it's going to take longer.
Israelis, by culture,
are very aggressive,
and they're really
difficult [laughter].
And Ethiopians are
gentle, reserved.
And when I first got
there, my first show,
I said, will Israeli learn?
Have they learned from their
Ethiopian Israeli brothers?
No, it's a fantasy of mine.
Yeah. So at this point,
believe it or not,
there are two 2,000
Ethiopian Israelis living
in the United States.
They are, by far,
the most aggressive,
the most entrepreneurial.
Every time I go to Israel
during this time, I kept saying,
you know, you'd be better off if
you came to the United States.
No one believed me.
They still don't
believe me, by and large.
Why? They're very
attached to Israel.
They are, you know, for
centuries, and they believe
that they have come home, and
this is where they want to stay.
They love Netanyahu.
And they feel that,
you know, his strength,
his security, will
keep them safe.
This is the first
woman bus driver.
Talk about a woman with
chutzpah and assertiveness.
I noticed, I just got on
a bus to go to Netanya.
So I sat up front, and she
came on, and I saw she had,
called citoline [phonetic],
she had hair that was braided.
She had red nails, long
red nails, and she drove
like a maniac through
the streets.
She was able to compete with
any by stride in Tel Aviv.
I couldn't believe it.
So I shot that without
her knowing.
I was going like this
and this, and then I.
This is an Ethiopian discotech.
Every Thursday night, which was
the only night they could really
party because Friday was Shabbat
and Saturday was already the day
of rest and Sunday
they started work.
So Thursday night in Israel,
if anyone knows,
is the party night.
These are a modern Ethiopian
Israeli dance company
and a traditional one.
The arts -- yes.
>> You say that Israel
is not [inaudible].
I'd like to check that.
Every group, every [inaudible]
group goes through apartheid.
>> It's true.
>> My own family came
from Iran to Israel.
There are thousands of
Iranians, and it wasn't easy.
It's not because
Israel is tough,
it's just difficult to adjust.
It's not easy to come to
this country [inaudible].
>> It's true.
>> It's just, it's a different
culture, different people.
>> That's very true.
I don't want to make
anyone struggle.
But they struggled more.
The Ethiopian.
>> You know, when I
go back to Israel,
I see the Ethiopian community.
I mean, [inaudible]
soldiers, I see the --
>> That's the only way.
>> They're just very
much have come to be part
of the society [inaudible].
>> Unfortunately, after the
Army, they can't find work.
I knew people, they had
friendships in the Army,
but as soon as they
left, that was it.
The friendships disappeared
with the other Israeli -- yes.
>> How would they come here?
How would they be
able to come here?
>> In the United States?
>> Yes.
>> Second or third generation,
they come on visas
for, to just tour.
>> And they stay?
>> A lot. It's not going
to happen during our dear
President now, but historically,
I met many, especially in
New York, yes, and they went
through the process of going
home, getting, you know,
when they got established
here, going home and.
>> What kind of things
can they do here
that they could not
do in Israel?
>> Make a living.
Those that come here are
really entrepreneurial and good
at learning the system.
Some went back to Ethiopia
where they had family
who were doing well.
Some Ethiopian Jewish
families didn't immigrate,
so their relatives
would go back and forth,
make money doing
the family business,
and then going back and forth.
But the majority here in the
United States were on their own.
Mostly young men,
very entrepreneurial,
up and down the eastern
sea coast.
You don't see them, as yet,
in LA because it's not
close at all to Israel.
They married in, you know, some.
This was a young Ethiopian
who had a scholarship to go
to hassadna, which is a
classical music school
in the German colony
in Jerusalem.
Yes.
>> So my question is, the bus
driver who you said you had
to take her picture
while she wasn't looking,
does she know she's in a book?
>> Absolutely.
I got her name, and
she made the cut.
She knows she made the cut.
She can't speak English.
And I emailed her when I went
back to Israel, but she never --
you know, it's so
hard to keep in touch.
Phone numbers might not
change, but lose it.
I sent her the picture,
though, because it was digital.
And I was able, once I
went digital, to do that.
>> So at one point,
when Ethiopian Jews were
donating blood to blood drives,
they were discarding it.
>> I know.
That was the biggest,
shameful thing that happened.
There's, you know,
complex reasons,
but do you remember the year?
>> No, I don't remember
the exact year,
but I remember it
was a huge scandal
because they had
a blood shortage.
>> It was probably
in the late '80s,
after HIV reared its ugly head.
Well, it turns out one
of the big countries
that had HIV was Ethiopia.
So when the new refugees from
the villages went to Addis Ababa
to wait to be airlifted, a
lot of the young men strayed.
And no one knew anything
about it at that time.
But they get to Israel,
and low and behold,
there is a little epidemic
of HIV amongst Ethiopians.
So they decided, the
Israeli priests, rabbis,
decided they would
collect the blood --
by the way, they were collecting
blood from new arrivals, period,
because of, for future
use or to test it.
I don't remember, but
they, instead, yeah,
threw it out secretively.
And they did that for years, but
some journalists got ahold of it
and brought about,
out in the open.
And the Ethiopian
community was appalled
because their blood
was sacred to them.
It was their lives.
And they felt that they were
being discarded, period.
So there was a big,
shameful period in Israel
where they stopped doing that,
but they were caught red-handed
in throwing the blood away.
Yes.
>> We have to stop.
>> We have to stop.
If anyone has questions.
>> We were discussing
[inaudible].
>> So if you have any
questions, please see me.
Again, I mostly concentrated
on celebrating the best
of what they're going through.
And so if you want to read more,
it's right here in the book.
[ Applause ]