For nearly three thousand years, the black Jews of Ethiopia–known as the Falashas–maintained their faith and their identity in the face of drought, famine, and tribal war. They were indeed the lost tribe, tracing their ancestry to King Solomon and the queen of Sheba. Then in May 1991, these Ethiopian Jews staged a miraculous exodus. With Ethiopia exploding around them in brutal civil war, some fourteen thousand Falashas were safely airlifted to Jerusalem by the Israeli air force over the course of twenty-five harrowing hours. Told by the Israeli ambassador Asher Naim who made it happen, “Saving the Lost Tribe”, is the story of that incredible rescue–as well as an extraordinary history of the Falashas, the remarkable people whose faith never waivered, even when confronted with enormous atrocities.
I met Asher Naim in 2001 and he asked if I could tell his story for children. In 2016, Yosef’s Dream was published. One reviewer wrote that “Yosef’s Dream” is based on “the 1991 exodus of nearly 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over a 36-hour period of time. As Yosef tells his story, we experience the enchanting culture of his village…Then one day Yosef falls into a deep hole. While there, he has a wild dream. Gazelle, Hyena and Eagle are there to help him escape the hole and Yosef must decide with which to go. Later, a stranger visits Yosef’s school and tells of a wonderful journey they can all take, a journey to a far off land called Israel, a land filled with Jewish people. And the best part is — they will fly there, just like the eagle in Yosef’s dream!…It is a story of hope and bravery and is an excellent book to share with the slightly older picture book audience… a captivating tale, beautifully illustrated” Today, this children’s book is part of the PJ Library collection.
“Exodus 91” tells the story of Asher Naim, an Israeli diplomat caught between worlds and facing a crisis of faith in himself and his country. Asher, a North-African Jew himself, is sent to Ethiopia to negotiate the escape of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews from a country collapsing under famine and civil war. Working with his Ethiopian-Israeli colleagues who, themselves, immigrated to Israel a decade earlier, Asher and his partners begin to question if the Israeli government is serious or using the operation as part of an elaborate publicity stunt against claims that “Zionism is Racism.” With rebel forces closing in on the capital, Asher’s faith in his mission is put to the test as he navigates the treacherous world of bureaucracy and politics in Ethiopia, Israel, and the US. Exodus 91 takes viewers behind the scenes – and behind the spin – of Operation Solomon, the diplomatic and military mission to bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the midst of Ethiopia’s brutal civil war. The feature-length film explores challenging questions of racism, white saviour-ism, homeland, cultural identity, the politics of immigration, and the hardships of these immigrants, and those that followed them, to this day.