“I remember that every year, during the white storks’ migration period, my father would raise his hands to the sky and ask the birds: ‘Is Jerusalem doing well?’ Shalev Wobo, one of the graduates of the Bnei David yeshiva I run, told us recently. He immigrated from Ethiopia with his family at the age of seven, explaining that ‘We longed for Jerusalem. It was a dream that we thought of every day.’
This is the first time we are telling the story of Ethiopian Jews to our students. This year, I realized that the Israeli story they currently have is an incomplete part of the greater Israeli mosaic, and we are starting to try to complete it.
I’m the CEO of the Bnei David Institutes. I have hundreds of students and thousands of alumni who currently hold key positions in Israeli society.
As a MAOZ Network member, I have participated in all the trips MAOZ has offered. My first trip was to Poland. It was a special experience, but one of the things I remember most is that even Network members whose ancestors were not from Europe experienced the journey as part of their own personal stories.
That’s why I decided to join the trip to Ethiopia – to get to know a story which I had felt was not my own.
I admit that before the trip, I thought I knew the story of Ethiopian immigrants. I thought that the State of Israel played the part of the hero by bringing the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel.
From the moment I arrived in Ethiopia, I realized that everything I thought I knew was simply untrue. For example, while I imagined the country as a dry desert, I found it to be amazing in its beauty. I thought I’d hear stories of heroism about the “rescue” of Ethiopian Jews – but I learned how for years, they had prayed to get to Jerusalem, and all about the long journey they took to get there. I thought that Mount Sigd was one mountain, but I discovered that each community simply climbed the highest mountain closest to it.
When I reached the summit of Mount Sigd myself, I felt something new. I felt a special experience, and at that moment I realized that there’s an untold story here. And so since returning to Israel, I have decided to start telling this story.
For years, there was hardly any mention in Israel of the holiday of Sigd. At most, we wished Ethiopian-Israeli students a happy holiday. But this year, we’re turning a new leaf. I want the students in our institutions to know the story of Ethiopian Jewry not as the story of another community, but as their Israeli story. And it was important to me not only that we celebrate the holiday of Sigd, but that we understand the meaning behind it.
A few months ago, we decided to set up a Bnei David podcast program, hosted by Netanel Elyashiv, an educator at the yeshiva (and a MAOZ Network member). This year, leading up to the Sigd holiday, I told my team that ‘there’s a story we have to tell.’
Shalev Wobo, our graduate, who immigrated from Ethiopia at the age of seven, agreed to share his fascinating story with us. He told us that Sigd is an opportunity for reflection. So this year, we’re also reflecting a bit on how we’ve told the story to date, and how we will tell it moving forward.
Unfortunately, our students will not climb Mount Sigd this year. They won’t experience it on foot like I did. But hundreds of students and alumni who have heard the podcast have heard a new story. They’ll continue learning about the Ethiopian-Israeli identity, as well as learning that these people are our heroes.”