MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM
STORY 2: SHARON
“My Ethiopian name is Zaude Tesfay, and today I am known as Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zaude Shalom. I first heard of Eretz Yisrael when I was a small child in a village in Ethiopia, where I helped herd the sheep. When I asked where Jerusalem was, my grandfather pointed in the direction of the city for which we yearned. When I was only eight years old, I came to Israel by myself, with my aunt and uncle. I was certain that my parents were dead, and I went to live as an orphan in a children’s home in Afula… At one point, I received the bitter news that my parents were no longer alive.
“For two years, I lived with the knowledge that I would continue in this world without my family. The Emunah Children’s Center provided for all my needs, and my aunt and uncle, Btouli and Tedu Sisay, whom I did not know in Ethiopia, became my family. Then one day, the children’s center director, Baruch Vasen, called me to his office urgently…[and then] told me that the news I had received two years earlier about my parents’ death had been a mistake. My entire family was alive, and the night before they had made aliyah in a major IDF operation (Operation Moses)…
“[W]hen I arrived in Israel, there were very few Ethiopian Jews in the country, and I felt foreign and strange. I had the constant feeling that people were looking at me, thinking I was a character who had come out of a popular Israeli children’s book, The Little Black Boy Goes to Kindergarten. I felt different, foreign. I remembered that feeling of otherness from when I was still in Ethiopia, from the other side of the coin. When a representative of the Jewish Agency came to our village, we considered him a feregi – a foreigner. Still, we desperately wanted to meet him because he was a Jew who came from Jerusalem. In Israel, it was difficult for me to reconcile the difference between the dream of Jerusalem and the reality. But I know it was harder for the adults than it was for me, a child.
“My identity became a central question. Who was I? In Ethiopia I was identified as a Jew of Beta Israel. They called me ‘Israel.’ But ironically, here in Israel I was called ‘Ethiopian.’ To me, it was a jarring experience to discover I was an Ethiopian. Later, I discovered that my Ethiopian name, Zaude, had been changed to the Israeli name of Sharon. I was pleased to have this name, because people explained to me that this was a new name from Jerusalem. Wonderful, I thought, but that led me to ask: Who am I, an Israeli or an Ethiopian? What does it mean to change your name to an Israeli one? Or on the contrary, to keep your Ethiopian name? Was society a factor that pulled me down and kept me back, or was it a motivating factor that pushed me forward? I also asked, why am I different? Is difference a blessing or a handicap? Is this society racist or not? I had to reformulate my identity – how should I go about it? I was confused. Furthermore, I constantly heard conflicting voices. Some said that Israeli society was racist, while others said it wasn’t. Some said we had to throw our Ethiopian identity out the window, but some said we should preserve our traditions. I heard these two voices even within my own family…
“Today I have a PhD in Jewish philosophy… [and I head the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry at Ono Academic College]. I also serve as rabbi of Kedoshei Yisrael, a community in Kiryat Gat that was established by Holocaust survivors. I am married to Avital, a highly educated woman (she has a degree in social work from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a master’s degree in art therapy from Lesley University) who made aliyah from Switzerland as a young girl. We are parents to Roi, Nadav, Ziv, Gil, and Tohar. After over two thousand years of exile and wanderings, we are proud to live in Kiryat Gat in the Holy Land. It is truly a miracle, a miracle of the revival of the Jewish people, and a sign that the redemption will soon be coming.”159
159 “My Story – Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom,” Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University: https://www.brandeis.edu/israel-center/ about/visitors/dr-shalom-story.html.
