The doors to the SAJM’s latest exhibition opened at 5pm on Thursday 7 March, earlier than usual so that first-comers could have a look around before hearing the speakers.
Operation Moses: 30 Years Later is presented in collaboration with the South African Zionist Federation and Israel’s Beit Hatfutsot — the Museum of the Jewish People. The exhibition tells the story of the Israeli government’s rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews from war and famine in the 1980s, and the relocation of these Jews to Israel. Ten families reflect on their lives in Israel over the past 30 years. Each story is accompanied by photographs and a short film which examines the struggles they faced with displacement, emigration and absorption, as well as their reception by Israeli society.
By 6.30pm the museum was packed with people ready to listen to Danny Adeno Abebe in relaxed conversation with Michal Ilan of the Israel Centre. Danny is an Ethiopian/Israeli Jew who was a child when Operation Moses brought him from rural Ethiopia to a very different life in Israel.
Danny’s words were in turn humorous and moving as he spoke of his family’s ordeal getting to Israel via Sudan, the challenges, joys and disappointments they experienced and how far away it all seems to his own Israeli-born children.
The emotions of his story are echoed in the films and photographs of the exhibition, which will be showing until the end of May.
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